Sunshine and the environment

Yesterday was the first real day of spring, after about 117 consecutive cloudy days. The sunshine looks different during the spring and summer months: the light is brighter, and all the colours are sharper. It's like living inside an Edward Hopper painting.

And the weekend is supposed to be sunny and warmer, with highs of 21C, 22C and 23C. I guess we're bypassing April completely this year: after two months of February, we're going straight into June.


On the national political scene, the latest fuss is over Environment Minister John Baird's claim that Bill C-288, which forces compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, would cause significant damage to the economy. According to the Globe and Mail, Baird stated that 275,000 Canadians would lose their jobs, gas prices would jump 60 percent, and natural gas prices would double.

However, Baird apparently has not provided any figures to support his claims, and his report has not factored in the positive benefits of employing green technology (which could save money and create new jobs).

I think it's obvious that compliance with Kyoto would cost money in the short term. And the benefits of green technologies would take some time to kick in. This probably does mean that the economy would be adversely affected. But, if the environmentalists are right, something has to be done now, or the effects of climate change would cause greater harm to the economy later. (What if, for example, coastal cities all over the world are flooded by rising ocean levels?)

This all reminds me of another quotation from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. He once suggested that the following message should be carved into the Grand Canyon, as a message to civilizations from other planets: "We probably could have saved ourselves, but we were too damned lazy to try very hard ... and too damn cheap."