Thursday, March 07, 2002
By David Suzuki

Critics have called me an alarmist, a fear-monger, and a doomsayer for expressing my concerns about environmental issues — even though my concerns come from interviewing scientists all over the world and reading peer-reviewed research.

So I couldn't help but shake my head at the kind of media coverage an industry report on the costs of the Kyoto Protocol received last week. Some of it bordered on hysterical.

One national Canadian newspaper, the National Post, ran a story with a banner headline across the top of the front page claiming that the cost of the Kyoto agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was "pegged" at 450,000 lost jobs. How do they figure?

They figure by playing with numbers to fit a predetermined agenda. The "study" that got so much coverage (front pages and big articles in newspapers across the country) was a document from the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, an industry association. The report listed no formal author and was not peer reviewed. But you certainly wouldn't know that from the coverage it received.

The article in the National Post was particularly comical in its alarmist tone, reminiscent of old television commercials funded by the Global Climate Coalition (an industry lobby group), where actors portraying "average" Americans complained that Kyoto would somehow cause old people to fall over in the dark and force everyone to drive tiny cars. After reading the Post article, one is left with the impression that the Kyoto agreement is some evil foreign scheme plotted by unwashed anarchists under the dim glow of candlelight, determined to push Canada back into the stone age.

The Kyoto Protocol actually came about only after thousands of scientists, researchers, and economists reviewed thousands of studies to come up with a reasonable course of action to start slowing global warming. Then politicians got involved and haggled over ways to make the transition easier for their countries. Canada pushed for many concessions to big industry and won most of them. Reaching agreement on the Kyoto Protocol was a long, comprehensive and consultative process. It won't stop global warming, but it's an important first step.

Under the agreement, Canada will have to reduce emissions 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters report says unequivocally that meeting this target will require "radical" changes in our lifestyles. It says, "We would all have to: Drive less, drive smaller cars ... Re-insulate our homes ... Pay up to 100 percent more for electricity; and Pay more taxes." Oh, and a half-million of us will lose our jobs.

If reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent does all these things, then people in Toronto must all be unemployed, living in tents, and eating grubs by now. That city has reduced municipal emissions by 67 percent and actually has made money in the process. Being energy efficient actually saves money because it reduces waste. Why would that be a bad thing?

According to the industry report, "The issue of climate change is about global warming — it is not about air quality or smog." Oh really? I suppose this strange statement allows the authors to free themselves from the fact that reducing greenhouse gases will also greatly reduce air pollution that kills 16,000 Canadians prematurely every year and costs millions in health care dollars. The report also completely ignores the enormous costs that a changing climate will have on Canada's economy. It ignores new business opportunities for efficient industries. And it ignores the savings to consumers who won't have to spend money on wasted energy.

The global warming discussion has entered an interesting new phase. Just five years ago, big industry groups were making headlines by saying that global warming didn't exist. After years of having their claims consistently proved false by scientists, they are now saying that global warming is a problem, but slowing it will be far too expensive. Five years from now, those claims too will be exposed for the fear-mongering that they are.