Does Earth Hour actually help the environment? Fri, March 25, 2011
Do you plan on sitting in the dark this Saturday night?
Around the world, people will make the symbolic gesture of showing they support a cleaner world and lower-carbon lifestyle by raising their carbon output.
Earth Hour, started in 2007, encourages people to show their support for the planet by turning their lights off and enjoying the world by candlelight. The problem, of course, is for most Canadians that means turning off a low-carbon energy source and burning pure fossil fuels.
The absurdity is likely lost on most professional environmentalists.
Just because Suzukis annual trips to Australia have polluted more than you will in your entire life is no reason to call him names.
He's a celebrity environmental activist, he's allowed to waste and pollute as much as he wants! Don't you understand how difficult it is to be a hypocrite with a straight face?
Matt, 2008-02-19 19:09:03
Berton's supreme arrogance and lack of concern for working people is typical of the enviro-elitists like Gore and Suzuki. Not so long ago these types were calling for urgent action to preclude a new ice age and now we are supposed to throw our lives into total upheaval and retreat to cart and buggy because they have another pea-brained unproven theory about climate. This is clearly more of a socialist master plan to command and control more and more of the private sector and taxpayers' resources than any real concern about the environment.
You can't help but note that Berton's entire argument is entirely emotional and deviod of empiricial or scientific evidence because all the modelling that Kyoto was predicated on has been hugely inaccurate since they were presented in 1997.
I believe we should be cutting all taxes including gas tax to place money in the hands of individuals to spur economic growth and investment in new technologies. Government, as ever, is the problem here and not the solution. Check your history and you find government dominated socialist countries like Russia and China have the worst legacy of environmental disregard.
Mark, 2008-02-19 17:54:13
Charon we all breath the same air, your just another dead-head =>wrong/rightwing moron that is full of anti-socialist Bull-Crap !!
Ontario, 2008-02-19 17:16:19
Just read the whole story.
The guy against the Tax uses lame excuses like most people do and contradicts himself.
Guy against says its a waste of time if the US doesn't do it.
Guy for says Norway did it, why can't we be the leader. Guy against says I don't care what other countries do. (YA only cares about countries that don't do it)
wayne, 2008-02-19 14:54:12
Not_the_Daddy,says..
"STFU"
??
Please clarify
EH?
tweetypie, 2008-02-19 13:40:26
I gave up my car years ago, and, I live in an American city, bus and hoof to get about, if I can pull it off certainly you folks in your acrylic safe suburban looking country up there could pull it off.
Oneida, 2008-02-19 12:49:56
wayne said something that made sense!
I am in shock.Good for you wayne
Now.One more time.
Tax or no tax.
The FACT still remains that Right wingers could care less about the environment and the harm being done to it.
They dont care about future generations will be stuck with paying to fix the problems related to the environment.And because right wingers believe in cruelty to animals, they dont care about the harm being done to wildlife
As for you Matt.Did I say I was in favour of a carbon tax?
Nope.Didnt think so.
But it appears the only way to get people to stop wasting a non renewable resource is to make it more expensive.
Micheal refers to people who care about the environment as Globalwarmongers
Better to be a warmonger and enjoy seeing Canadians die for America as right wingers are and do.
As for Larrys, towing the party line rant.
Whatever
EH?
tweetypie, 2008-02-19 12:19:13
How is putting more money in the hands of politicians going to improve the enviroment. Ever hear the phrase "catch more flies with honey"? Why not REDUCE taxes for companies that clean up their emmissions, and for people that consume and live enviromentily conscious. That would actually help the enviroment. Unfortunatly all those poor government funded enviroment agencies and special interest groups would become redundant and besides there wouldn't be the money available to them (decreased tax base and all). They would have to go and look for other jobs their economic future wouldn't be gauranteed. Better to raise another tax and keep all these poor souls employed doing studies and attending meetings and generally keeping the rest of us under control, god knows we would self destruct on our own.
Grant, 2008-02-19 11:36:28
why does everyone now focus on global warming and polution. Hot gas is not the only polution and we produce tons of polution. Everyone here seems to want to blame everyone else for it.
Canadians are per capita one of the highest, if not the highest producers of all polutants. Our air, our water, our earth are polluted higher than ever, IN CANADA. We do it more than ever on CHEAP PRODUCTS IMPORTED FROM OTHER COUNTRIES.
The only thing that people listen to is higher prices. You want to pollute, it will cost to clean it up so you pay someone else to do it. Not through taxes, for higher costs of the things that polute. Everyone gets hit. Got news for you people poor people polute just as much as rich and there are a lot more poor people.
But we all know the rich should pay for everything and the definition of rich is someone with more money than me.
wayne, 2008-02-19 11:32:10
I'd love to respond to a couple of the recent posts I've seen here, but I've just finished a 13.5 hour night shift, and I'm wiped. I'll get to those after some sleep. But in the meantime,
... what is it that people do not get about "revenue neutral"? What would be so bad about seeing your income tax cut in half, while having incentive to further lower your tax burden by making choices to upgrade a furnace or refrigerator, to walk your kids to school instead of drive them, to install solar hot water heaters on your south facing roof, or for my co-workers to turn off their computers and speakers on Friday afternoon before leaving work for the long weekend? I get the impression that many of our contributors to this debate are making knee jerk reactions based on the well-entrenched belief that ALL TAXES ARE EVIL.
As for China and India.... well, if my cousin is wrecking his life by smoking crack, do I serve man or beast or God by pointing the finger at him, while I have my own crack pipe in my other hand? Can any of our naysayers suggest a better strategy than a carbon tax for taking responsibility for the consequences of our use of fossil fuels?
Roger Gagne, 2008-02-19 11:26:51
Does Earth Hour actually help the environment? 
Just because Suzukis annual trips to Australia have polluted more than you will in your entire life is no reason to call him names.
He's a celebrity environmental activist, he's allowed to waste and pollute as much as he wants! Don't you understand how difficult it is to be a hypocrite with a straight face?
Matt, 2008-02-19 19:09:03
You can't help but note that Berton's entire argument is entirely emotional and deviod of empiricial or scientific evidence because all the modelling that Kyoto was predicated on has been hugely inaccurate since they were presented in 1997.
I believe we should be cutting all taxes including gas tax to place money in the hands of individuals to spur economic growth and investment in new technologies. Government, as ever, is the problem here and not the solution. Check your history and you find government dominated socialist countries like Russia and China have the worst legacy of environmental disregard.
Mark, 2008-02-19 17:54:13
Ontario, 2008-02-19 17:16:19
The guy against the Tax uses lame excuses like most people do and contradicts himself.
Guy against says its a waste of time if the US doesn't do it.
Guy for says Norway did it, why can't we be the leader. Guy against says I don't care what other countries do. (YA only cares about countries that don't do it)
wayne, 2008-02-19 14:54:12
"STFU"
??
Please clarify
EH?
tweetypie, 2008-02-19 13:40:26
Oneida, 2008-02-19 12:49:56
wayne said something that made sense!
I am in shock.Good for you wayne
Now.One more time.
Tax or no tax.
The FACT still remains that Right wingers could care less about the environment and the harm being done to it.
They dont care about future generations will be stuck with paying to fix the problems related to the environment.And because right wingers believe in cruelty to animals, they dont care about the harm being done to wildlife
As for you Matt.Did I say I was in favour of a carbon tax?
Nope.Didnt think so.
But it appears the only way to get people to stop wasting a non renewable resource is to make it more expensive.
Micheal refers to people who care about the environment as Globalwarmongers
Better to be a warmonger and enjoy seeing Canadians die for America as right wingers are and do.
As for Larrys, towing the party line rant.
Whatever
EH?
tweetypie, 2008-02-19 12:19:13
Grant, 2008-02-19 11:36:28
Canadians are per capita one of the highest, if not the highest producers of all polutants. Our air, our water, our earth are polluted higher than ever, IN CANADA. We do it more than ever on CHEAP PRODUCTS IMPORTED FROM OTHER COUNTRIES.
The only thing that people listen to is higher prices. You want to pollute, it will cost to clean it up so you pay someone else to do it. Not through taxes, for higher costs of the things that polute. Everyone gets hit. Got news for you people poor people polute just as much as rich and there are a lot more poor people.
But we all know the rich should pay for everything and the definition of rich is someone with more money than me.
wayne, 2008-02-19 11:32:10
... what is it that people do not get about "revenue neutral"? What would be so bad about seeing your income tax cut in half, while having incentive to further lower your tax burden by making choices to upgrade a furnace or refrigerator, to walk your kids to school instead of drive them, to install solar hot water heaters on your south facing roof, or for my co-workers to turn off their computers and speakers on Friday afternoon before leaving work for the long weekend? I get the impression that many of our contributors to this debate are making knee jerk reactions based on the well-entrenched belief that ALL TAXES ARE EVIL.
As for China and India.... well, if my cousin is wrecking his life by smoking crack, do I serve man or beast or God by pointing the finger at him, while I have my own crack pipe in my other hand? Can any of our naysayers suggest a better strategy than a carbon tax for taking responsibility for the consequences of our use of fossil fuels?
Roger Gagne, 2008-02-19 11:26:51