Blog action and government inaction

Today is Blog Action Day, and the theme for this year is climate change. So it seems like a good day to congratulate David Suzuki on winning the Right Livelihood Award, an honour known in some circles as the alternative Nobel Prize.

Suzuki was selected due to “his massive contribution to raising awareness about the perils of climate change and building public policies to address it.” However, an article in the Star this week called the honour a bittersweet one for Suzuki, who says it’s “very, very embarrassing” that Canada is “going backwards in terms of addressing the issue of climate change.” He claims that Stephen Harper has failed to acknowledge the issue, and has turned down Suzuki’s repeated requests for a meeting.

Indeed, while Ignatieff and Layton have commended and sided with Suzuki, Harper and the Conservatives have yet to say a word. In fairness, the Conservative Party doesn’t speak for the government as a whole, so it’s not really… Okay, sometimes they do, but that’s beside the point.

The fact that Harper hasn’t yet acknowledged the achievements of Canada’s top environmental activist doesn’t exactly suggest a commitment to tackling climate change. What it does suggest is that Suzuki might be right in suggesting that Harper’s avoiding the issue.

What’s more, there’s a precedent for it; when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, and a reception was held for the panel’s Canadian scientists on Parliament Hill the following February, Harper refused to attend.

“And why?” Rick Mercer wondered aloud at the time. “Because these scientists, who – I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this or not – won the Nobel Peace Prize, had the gall to do it by formulating a plan to fight climate change. And my guess is it doesn’t call for an increase in oil sands production. So as a result, not a single cabinet minister would cross the hall and shake the scientists’ hands.”

With that, a cause for celebration became a cause for concern. And the same thing happened again this week, assuming Harper isn’t just running late on congratulating Suzuki. Obviously, it’s every Canadian’s duty to do what we can about climate change. But it’s growing more and more obvious that our government isn’t willing to rise to the challenge, and that one of the most significant things that we can do is tell them to get down to work.

By the way, if you’d like to learn more about taking action on climate change, you can visit the Blog Action Day website for a list of online resources. You can also sign a petition calling on Obama to take action on climate change.

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