Hobbling industry not the environmental answer

It isn't a concern just here in Canada.

Australian environmentalist Tim Flannery has called for his country to stop its lucrative export of coal - that country's largest export. He said the product would become outdated, like asbestos.

National Party Prime Minister John Howard says exports will continue, and the Opposition Labor Party has pretty well agreed - except it wants Australia to take part in the Kyoto agreement.

Australia, like the United States, has not signed the Kyoto agreement. Both countries see it as too dangerous to their economies.

I tend to be leery of the opinions - however learned - of those, for whatever reason, far removed from the needs and realities of the factory floor, farm, fishery, forest or pit face.

A report for none other than the UN has said with 90 per cent certainty humanity is responsible for global warming.

Obviously, they haven't considered a natural warming trend - as has happened before. Remember the move of economic power to Northern Europe during the latter centuries of the first millennium? The Vikings in Newfoundland?

That doesn't get us off the hook: the warming is taking place, with dire consequences. We have to more energetically find ways to reduce greenhouse gases.

What's also happening now, however - as shown recently by the political machinations in Ottawa - is political hysteria.

Leaders and the public have to stand back, see what's happening, look at our economic needs, and see how they and reductions can be melded. Stripping the country of already too-few industrial jobs won't do anybody any good. We all can't be tenured academics, artists, public employees or commentators.

Industry is of us and by us - tar ponds, foul air and all. It is a big part of all that is positive in our collective future. It's not “us” and “them” with industry.

As well, Canada is still a developing country, despite what some leaders have tried to get us to believe. Despite global warming, it gets damned cold here in the winter, too.

We need to harvest and use our petroleum and coal reserves; we have to find ways to do it cleaner and more efficiently. Our oil, gas and coal customers could well be the market for that very technology.

Properly done, we can't lose.

Being a developing country that's relatively technologically sophisticated gives us an advantage when it comes to cleaner manufacturing practices and more fuel-efficient products - such as motor vehicles and aircraft.

Industry is where these innovations will take life. It's in that sector it has to be encouraged - with positive and negative, if necessary, reinforcement.

Allowing some countries and economies to pollute and paying others not to industrialize isn't going to work. Hobbling our own industries while they seek these necessary new efficiencies isn't going to work, either.