kyoto or bust!

Okay, I know that the government breaking their promises is pretty much the norm, but it still gets my ire up.  This morning I sat down at my computer to see the headline "Peter Kent pulls Canada out of Kyoto" and I felt that burst of fire in my belly.  My government's idiocy when it comes to the environment is just as frustrating for me as their indifference when it comes to the arts.  So, in the true spirit of this modern age, I wrote an email to Mr. Kent, CC'ing my MP, and am now posting it here for "the world" to read.

Dear Minister Kent,

I just read the unfortunate news that you have decided to pull Canada out of the Kyoto Agreement. I am very dismayed by this news.

It is my understanding that you never really tried to meet Canada's Kyoto targets (although, to be fair, your predecessors, the Liberals, never did either), and now you are walking away because it is too hard. That is the worst kind of defeatism I have ever heard and sends a horrible lesson to the citizens of our country that we should set goals, make promises, make no effort to keep them, and then abandon them.

It is also my understanding that you don't want to participate in an agreement to reduce greenhouse gases that doesn't include other nations that are major contributors to global pollution. The idea that it's only worth making an effort if other countries are doing the same tells me that I shouldn't bother trying to follow the laws because there are career criminals out there breaking more laws than I ever would. It also tells me that children shouldn't bother standing up to bullies because every other child on the playground isn't making an effort.

Your government speaks often of Canada being a world leader. You do realize that leaders do things FIRST - they don't wait for everyone else to agree to a course of action before they do it.

The message you are sending, not only to Canadians, but to the world is that you should only do the right thing if it's easy and if everyone else is doing it. Fighting climate change is not only the right thing to do, it is the necessary thing to do. It is possible that the Kyoto Protocol is not the best way to fight global warming. If you feel that is the case, then I trust you are ready to announce a new, improved plan that is both realistic and actionable, and I look forward to hearing it.