Global Leaders Call On Canada To Fight Climate Change In New Ad

WASHINGTON -- African leaders including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jay Naidoo of former President Nelson Mandela's cabinet, and Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, on Wednesday released an ad calling on Canada to step up the battle against global warming, rather than actively promote the use of its tar sands.

The ad comes just days after Canada signaled at climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa that it would likely pull out of Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty aimed at combating global warming. The treaty is scheduled to expire in 2012.

"By walking away from Kyoto, the Canadian government is also damaging our reputation as a country that keeps its word," said Gillian McEachern of Environmental Defence, one of the groups behind the ad. "The tar sands are not only turning us into a polluting nation, but also into one that will break its commitments in the service of dirty oil."

Canada has already angered many environmentalists with its efforts to push crude oil from its tar sands in Alberta to oil refineries along the Gulf Coast, a move that NASA scientist and leading climatolog­ist James Hansen has said would be "game over for our climate."

"We used to boast about how Americans sewed Canadian flags on their backpack when travelling abroad," said Keith Stewart of Greenpeace Canada in a statement. "Now we try to bully other nations into taking our dirty oil. If we want to be taken seriously in the fight to stop climate change, we have to draw the line at the tar sands."

The ad, slated to run Wednesday in the Globe and Mail , contrasts Canada as one of the first western countries to impose sanctions against South Africa's apartheid regime with its failure to pull its weight in the fight against global warming.

The ad text reads:

Canada, you were once considered a leader on global issues like human rights and environmental protection. Today you're home to polluting tar sands oil, speeding the dangerous effects of climate change. For us in Africa, climate change is a life and death issue. By dramatically increasing Canada's global warming pollution, tar sands mining and drilling makes the problem worse, and exposes millions of Africans to more devastating drought and famine today and in the years to come. It's time to draw the line. We call on Canada to change course and be a leader in clean energy and to support international action to reduce global warming pollution.

Africa is one of the places most vulnerable to climate change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with reductions in agricultural yield projected to be as high as 50 percent in some countries by 2020.

Environmental groups behind the ad -- including Environmental Defence Canada, Equiterre, Greenpeace Canada, Natural Resources Defense Council, Nobel Women's Initiative and Sierra Club U.S. -- will also be launching a new website with videos of several anti-apartheid activists describing effects of climate change on their home country and calling on Canada to step up in the battle against climate change.

Zodwa Rannyadi of the Concerned Residents Association in Soweto, is one such activist. Watch her call on Canada to do its part in the global fight against climate change and restore its reputation as a leader on global issues:

Comments

[internationalbozo]

04:17 PM on 12/04/2011

If you agree that Canada should not withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, please sign this petition at :
http://www.change.org/petitions/canada-do-not-pull-out-of-kyoto-protocol-agreement

We need to continue to be a leader and international citizen in environmental issues. Also, by withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol we leave the Harper Government open to continue their push forward in the Keystone XL pipeline and Enbridge Inc. is proposing to build a pipeline from the tar sands of northern Alberta to Kitimat, B.C. go to: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/fbeinecke/new_tar_sands_pipeline_in_brit.html

Lorrie

[joseelr]

12:29 AM on 12/02/2011

http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/indepthanalysis/rexmurphy/story/2011/12/01/thenational-rexmurphy-120111.html

[Language Learner]

05:09 PM on 12/01/2011

The oil companies have bought Harper and so we see these policies out of Canada.

[CHMB]

10:08 AM on 12/01/2011

Canada's stance on climate change is embarrassing. I'm ashamed that Stephen Harper claims to speak for me.

[MFM008]

08:39 PM on 12/01/2011

I sympathize. We were stuck with Bush now you guys got 'him'....

[CHMB]

08:50 PM on 12/01/2011

Thank you. I can tell you that Stephen Harper does not represent me and a majority of Canadians. He's scary, and his policies are an embarrassment to Canada.

[alteredstory]

08:57 AM on 12/01/2011

For all those who think that Climate Change is a hoax - what will you say when it turns out to be real?

What will you say, in ten years or so, when it becomes abundantly clear that you're wrong?

What will you say when millions are suffering from malaria who never did before, because it was too cold?

What will you say when the ocean's ecosystem collapses because calcium-ba­sed shells are dissolving from the increased acidity of the water?

What will you say to the millions effected by regular droughts and floods that get progressiv­ely worse than the ones we've seen in the last two years?

What will you say when food prices continue to climb as agriculture struggles under the burden of unpredictable rain, heat waves, and droughts?

What will you say when people have to leave their homes because there's no more drinkable water?

Hell, what COULD you say?

What could you POSSIBLY say to make up for your role in bringing that about?

[Hitchcockcameo]

03:46 PM on 12/01/2011

They're anonymous on the web, and will never be held accountable for their words. When the climate hits the fan, they'll simply disappear and never acknowledge their role in perpetuating the denier |ies.

[Peter Gas]

12:04 AM on 12/01/2011

South Africa damages it's environment and burns lots of fuel to dig up diamonds whose only value is as a status symbol. At least Canada's oil has real value to improve people's life by providing them with transportation fuel.

[quiscut]

11:07 PM on 11/30/2011

Rev.Tutu's comments create confusion. He would do well to not bite the Canadian hands that support his country financially and socially. It is at this particular point where religion,politics,financial support and" finger-pointingism" all meet. I have no control over the Fed.Tory govt. that calls the shots in these matters. Yet I do feel somewhat resentful of Tuttu's remarks because my family has supported Africa in many ways in the last fifty or so years. Starting with my parents and continuing through to my nephew's family. We have all done our part to see to the financial need when it is expressed. This is a matter for greater minds than mine,that's for sure.

[fumes]

10:18 PM on 11/30/2011

SHOCK..

the a'sphere hasn't changed much since the getgo:

Setting the stage for life: Scientists make key discovery about the atmosphere of early Earth
November 30, 2011
Scientists in the New York Center for Astrobiology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have used the oldest minerals on Earth to reconstruct the atmospheric conditions present on Earth very soon after its birth. The findings, which appear in the Dec. 1 edition of the journal Nature, are the first direct evidence of what the ancient atmosphere of the planet was like soon after its formation and directly challenge years of research on the type of atmosphere out of which life arose on the planet.
The scientists show that the atmosphere of Earth just 500 million years after its creation was not a methane-filled wasteland as previously proposed, but instead was much closer to the conditions of our current atmosphere.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-stage-life-scientists-key-discovery.html

[chrisd3]

08:18 AM on 12/01/2011

And?

[Orkneygal]

09:48 PM on 11/30/2011

What Canada does will not matter at all. There are less than 10 years left until human caused Climate Change becomes irreversible. The UN's report is at the link below.

Link

http://tinyurl.com/6x8r9yc

[gallon]

11:13 PM on 11/30/2011

More shameless shilling of a third rate paperback by this trolling commenter. Orkney has had dozens of these advertisements removed recently. Moderators, can we all use HP as an advertising medium like Orkney does?

[FrankLuchan]

08:46 PM on 11/30/2011

I wonder where Man/Bear/Pig Gore is right now.

We demand a speech by Man/Bear/Pig Gore so that he can tell us the science is settled and we can get down to writing him billion dollar checks.

Ooops. Looks like Man/Bear/Pig is busy getting a massage.

[ILoveFiction]

09:25 PM on 11/30/2011

I don't think I've ever heard anything so ...

Hmmmm.

So ...

Hmmmm.

A little help please...

[chrisd3]

08:20 AM on 12/01/2011

"we can get down to writing him billion dollar checks."

Stop making stuff up, Frank.

"Ooops. Looks like Man/Bear/P­ig is busy getting a massage"

How very adult of you. I'd reconsider referring to other people as pigs, Frank, if I were you.

[gwinegarden]

07:48 PM on 11/30/2011

Sorry, Canada now has a Tory majority.

[Dodgers1]

07:18 PM on 11/30/2011

Most of my relatives are and were Canadian citizens. Canada's changing attitude about the Kyoto Accords may be enough for me to emigrate there. The USA economy is sinking fast and who wants to be stuck with a feckless Obama.

[CanadaStan]

05:16 PM on 11/30/2011

Which one of you greenies is going to explain how the Kytoto treaty would reduce C02 emissions and real pollution?

[CanadaStan]

05:12 PM on 11/30/2011

I've changed my mind on that whole climate reparations thing, maybe it is time the largest net C02 emitters were made to pay a penalty to the lower emitters:

http://co2insanity.com/2011/11/15/new-satellite-data-contradicts-carbon-dioxide-climate-theory/

[jlbissette13]

12:01 PM on 12/01/2011

Stan,

Why did the website you linked to only show the June 2009 graphic? Why didn't it show the October 2009, January 2010, and April 2010 graphics (all of which had the majority of the US in the pink/red)? Is it because those graphics don't agree with what the author was trying to say?

Here is a link to the JAXA news release. I suggest you start looking for information directly from the original source instead of from some guy's blog.

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2011/10/20111028_ibuki_e.html

Would you like to know the sentence I really like in the press release? It's this one:

"Seasonal trends seen in the fluxes of high latitudinal regions in the Northern Hemisphere are broadly consistent with past findings."

[Johnny LaRue]

05:07 PM on 11/30/2011

Zimbabwe. Hows that going Oh great African leaders. The whole continent is a disaster. If we send more aid money we are a great leader. If not?Name one stabile country in the entire place.I can't think of any. Tu Tu should be worried about his crime rate. Oh well with their bad attitude I won't be donating any goats for Christmas on behalf of anyone this year.