Hoy was 'right' on!

Claire Hoy's Feb. 7 article on Dion's environmental ride hit the nail right on the head. Unfortunately, it got bent severely to the right.

While some of your natural history is very correct about long-term warming and cooling trends for the planet, you missed the nail completely with your current analogies. Legitimate climate change scientists would only add that the current warming trend is an accelerated blip in the system and will produce chaotic weather patterns. They could legitimately contribute this acceleration to 10,000 years of human deforestation and agricultural practices along with our current use of fossil fuels. In other words, this deliberately caused phenomenon has never before been seen in the natural history of the planet.

Politically, your story has no plot. It was the Liberal government who fully acknowledged Kyoto commitments, introduced the Climate Change Action Fund in 1998 and then Project Green which contained 13 initiatives for clean air and water, energy conservation, climate change, and the protection of natural resource capital. The Climate Change Plan for Canada in 2002 was the first educational initiative of its kind.

In February of 2004, Ralph Goodale introduced the greenest budget in Canadian history, and in March 2004, the One Tonne Challenge for Canadian citizens was launched. I believe that was about when Stephane Dion moved from Inter- governmental Affairs to Environment.

And who shut down the Challenge, and every other environmental initiative created by the previous Liberal government and new Minister Dion? A new minority "Conservative" government. The day after returning from his Cancun vacation with G.W. Bush in April 2006, Harper cut the One Tonne Challenge and shut down the Environment Canada Climate Change Web site. And Rona Ambrose boldly announced: "Kyoto is flawed, unrealistic, and unattainable." The ride is just starting, Claire. You might want to try a new story line.

H.E. Skid Crease

Bolton