What Happened to Canada?

[velik_m]

The left has long admired Canada as an enclave of social democracy in North America: for its openly socialist electoral parties, its robust welfare state, and its more moderate policy profile. Recent developments, however, have thrown that reputation into question. The country is helmed by a prime minister, Stephen Harper, known for his brazenly right-wing views and executive unilateralism. Both federal and provincial governments have embraced austerity and eroded public services. And Canada’s newly aggressive exploitation of its natural resources has it trampling on civil liberties and reneging on its international obligations like, as Foreign Policy put it, a “rogue, reckless petrostate.”

More... (http://nplusonemag.com/what-happened-to-canada)

http://nplusonemag.com/what-happened-to-canada

[boutons_deux]

Canada thought it would elect a conservative, and as is always the case, Canada got fucked.

Same in Australia with Tony Abbot, killing solar while pimping coal, including digging a new deep water port for coal export and dumping the dredging tailings on the Great Barrier Reef.

Wanna get yourself and the environment fucked over? elect conservatives.

[boutons_deux]

Conservatives in AU pimping BigCarbon, killing reneweables

Wind energy to fall 40%, coal to grow with Abbott policy changes (http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/wind-generation-fall-40-abbott-policy-changes-35230)http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/wind-generation-fall-40-abbott-policy-changes-35230

[boutons_deux]

Tony Abbott’s renewable czar: Nuclear only alternative to coal (http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/tony-abbotts-renewable-czar-nuclear-only-alternative-to-coal-65816)


Tony Abbott’s handpicked head of the panel reviewing Australia’s renewable energy target, the self-avowed climate “sceptic” (http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/australia-chooses-climate-change-denier-to-head-renewables-review-65883) Dick Warburton, is no fan of renewable energy. In an article co-authored for Quadrant in 2011, Warburton insisted that nuclear energy was the only alternative to fossil fuel generation.

The two-part series for the conservative magazine – co-authored by Warburton along with poet and accountant Geoffrey Lehmann and Resmed founder Peter Farrell – is an eye-opening compendium of the major arguments that climate science deniers and fossil fuel lobbyists have ever thrown at climate science, against carbon pricing and against renewable energy.

The title of the two-part series was “An intelligent voter’s guide to global warming” (you can find Part 1 here (http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2011/3/the-intelligent-voter-s-guide-to-global-warming/)and Part II here (http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2011/4/the-intelligent-voter-s-guide-to-global-warming-part-ii/)), and the authors pretended to “provide basic information often missing from the debate.” In fact, it is a collection of scientific howlers normally only found in right-wing blogs.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/tony-abbotts-renewable-czar-nuclear-only-alternative-to-coal-65816

[boutons_deux]

Scientists say Australia’s Tony Abbott is engineering an ‘environmental train wreck’

That’s what leading environmental scientists say that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has engineered, in less than one year in office. They say the changes he’s implementing could result in irreversible damage to some of the world’s most fragile ecosystems.

And they say they are “screaming in the dark” to get the country’s ultra conservative government to take a more sustainable course, so far with little luck.

Of course, not everyone agrees with the scientists, or at least with their priorities.

Abbott came to power (http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130906/australia-politics-tony-abbott-next-prime-minister) last September promising to abolish the country’s landmark carbon (http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/131121/repeal-australias-carbon-tax-moves-closer) and mining (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/senate-blocks-repeal-of-mining-tax/story-fn59niix-1226864387314) taxes, and cut “green tape” that he said hindered development.

Brendan Pearson, CEO of the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), said the abolition of these two industry taxes would secure future investment and jobs, help regional communities, increase tax revenues, reduce energy prices, and boost Australia’s international competitiveness.

But Professor Bill Laurance — recipient of the Australian Laureate Fellowship, one of Australia’s highest research honors — is astounded by the pace and scope of the environmental rollbacks. He said the proposal to abolish the carbon tax and replace it with a “direct action plan (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-20/coalition-climate-change-direct-action-policy-explained/5067188)” was just one of a “whole avalanche” of issues that worry Australia’s leading environmental scientists.

The list of issues includes:


culling sharks (http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140131/thousands-rally-against-shark-cull-australia) off the coast of Western Australia,
approving cattle grazing in highland National Parks (http://vnpa.org.au/page/nature-conservation/parks-protection/alpine-cattle-grazing-%E2%80%93-it%E2%80%99s-a-park,-not-a-paddock),
wholesale cutting of green energy initiatives (http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-government-to-cut-435m-from-renewable-energy-agency-20131113-2xg1g.html), and
appointing a climate change skeptic to review renewable energy targets (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/10643280/Tony-Abbott-appoints-climate-change-sceptic-to-review-energy-target.html).


Even more controversially, Abbott’s government has permitted a coal port to dredge up and dump (http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/140226/green-group-challenges-sand-dump-permit-near-great-barrier-reef) millions of cubic feet of sand into the iconic Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, a decision that the Chairman of the Marine Park Authority has rigorously defended (http://theconversation.com/lets-dump-great-barrier-reef-dredging-myths-authority-chief-22991).

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/08/scientists-say-australias-tony-abbott-is-engineering-an-environmental-train-wreck/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

:lol conservatives = enrich/protect/enable BigCarbon/BigBusiness, fuck people, fuck the environment.

[Th'Pusher]

Not sure what happened to Canada, but now I'm pretty up to speed on whats going on in Australia. :tu

[TeyshaBlue]

Word. :tu

[boutons_deux]

same conservative shit is happening to both countries, and in USA

Thanks to the Great Boutons you assholes are better informed.

[TeyshaBlue]

Not likely.

lol great.