Spirit in the Village

Creating Work Life Balance - Part 1 - Global Balance

Posted by Kevin Boon. Follow me on Twitter.

There are a growing number of thinkers, leaders and visionaries who are looking for ways to improve the quality of life for people around the world. As the first in a series of articles on work life balance one might wonder why I put global balance at the beginning. My reason is simple; creating balance at a global level lets us see the bigger picture. If we see the bigger picture then our ability to create balance in other areas becomes easier.

Global Balance looks at issues that affect us on a planetary level from the environment, population growth, prosperity, trade & financial systems, poverty, education, healthcare as well as peace and security.

There are three main factors that make global balance a real possibility in the 21st century:

1. Leadership, Vision and People with a Desire to make a Difference

Without leadership and vision creating global balance is impossible.

Let me give you an example.

America: The Global Leader

American leadership over the last 50+ years has created the foundation for the worlds prosperity through open markets, technology and healthcare innovations, education, global communications as well as democracy and freedom. America’s leaders going as far back as Eisenhower and Roosevelt (Video) have historically held in high regard their responsibility to provide global leadership.

America: The Lost Years 2001-2008

George W. Bush broke that rule because after 9-11 he built an America that closed its doors and turned its back on the rest of world. America began a policy of bluntly putting American interests first and politely (or impolitely) told other nations that global cooperation was not important.

Many Americans soon realized George W. did not have their best interests in mind either and was not a leader (video). He treated wounded soldiers poorly, let social systems suffer, taxed everybody but the rich and deregulated business to a point where the system eventually collapsed. His focus was to improve the lives of the wealthy and use his political and military power to beat the world into submission.

George Bush lost sight of America’s role as a global leader and made America the enemy of progress and change.

George W. Bush: The Catalist of Change

In hindsight George W. Bush was the best thing for the world because other countries had become too negligent and reliant and expected America to do all the heavy lifting. More countries today want to be part of that larger global discussion and are more willing to step up to the plate with action.

With a new American administration many are relieved that Barack Obama not only has an American vision but a global vision to build and create more cooperation within the world.

2. Technology, Communication & Communities

Technology in the 21st century enables us to educate, organize, build awareness and find the financial and non-financial resources necessary to make changes at fundamental levels. There are tens of thousands of websites committed to making changes on major global issues like the environment, social justice, alleviating poverty and disease, creating peace, promoting religious understanding, improving trade, education and creating opportunities for people around the world.

Technology provides the infrastructure that allows us to create global balance.

3. Organization, Resources & Action

Leadership and technology enable us to communicate, educate, create the political will and come up with solutions necessary to improve lives. The next step is action. This is where nations, states, local governments, communities, organizations, NGOs and individuals provide boots on the ground and make the changes necessary to improve lives. I'll talk about how this being done in future posts.

I'll leave you with a video from Ted.com from Bjorn Lomborg on setting global priorities.

Turning Up the Light!!

Posted by Kevin Boon. Follow me on Twitter.

Alright I have a confession to make. I’ve been spending a lot of time writing and blogging lately. There’s good reason for that. Back at the end of January I was downsized from my job. In fact it was January 22nd the day I did my first complete post on the Meditation Project.

Coincidence? I’m not so sure.

I’m always a believer there is reason for everything that happens and this was no exception. I wasn’t the only one. There were others downsized and the reasons given were due to the economy. Millions of people in the past year have either lost jobs, had work cut back, are in fear of losing their job or know of someone who has. These are uncertain times for business and people as our society navigates our way out of this. What’s interesting about this economic slowdown is there are sectors that are performing well while others have suffered. Time will tell how it all unfolds.

Losing my job has been a blessing because it’s given me time to write, blog and learn about social media and networking tools like Twitter and Linkedin. The last 1-1/2 months has allowed me to lose weight (about 15 lbs), re-start my stalled exercise program, and focus on the Meditation Project. This time has also helped me gain clarity on the important question, what is it I want from life? This is exactly what the doctor ordered.

The time is right for me to find a new career, this time a little wiser and more aware of what I want.

Blogging and Finding My Authentic Voice

During my time as a blogger (2-1/2 years) I’ve been trying to find my authentic voice. What is it I really want to say? This blog started as a travel blog telling of my wife Karen and our honeymoon to France, Italy and Switzerland. As much as I love traveling we haven’t done much since and blogging about my recent trip to the grocery store would probably be a little boring.

Other topics I have written about include the environment, current events, and talks and while I find all these topics important too many people take sides and because we’re either left or right, green or oil, conspiracy or non-conspiracy. I’m not interested in discussions of who’s right or wrong. Personally I think these debates are pointless and do nothing constructive for our society.

Obama came along with a new message about unity. He impressed me so much with his message that like millions of others I became a fan and wrote about him.

Whether we make our home on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, our blog or wherever I’ve discovered, all anyone really wants to do is tell their story.

Blogging for me is like a painting, you create a sketch, throw in some colors and before you know it begins to look like something. My blog is my painting and it’s my opportunity to tell my story.

The light of authenticity is now fully turned on and I'm looking forward to sharing a lot more.

2008 Year in Review - My Top 5 Lists

With the election of the first African-American President and the Global Economic Collapse this has been one of the most interesting years since 9-11 and even 1987 when the Berlin wall fell. Here is my Top 5 List for 2008:

My Top 5

1. The American Election

The election of Barack Obama was significant because it represents a new course for not only America but the world. Although there is still a long way to go with respect to racial or gender equality the world can finally breathe a sigh of relief and say all of us have an opportunity to achieve our dreams.

2. The Global Financial Meltdown

Unlike other economic slowdowns we have seen some of the most powerful Financial Institutions simply collapse and our traditional way of doing business seems at risk. Personally I’m optimistic about the future since many times it takes a real kick in the pants to get us off our complacency. For years we have dragged our feet by not creating fuel efficient cars, letting go of our dependency on oil and executives have just lined up at the money trough, looking at their own pocket books and sending jobs to China.

I’m hopeful that governments & corporations will become more responsible, more responsive to demands in the market place (especially car companies) and that executives will align bonuses with the success of a company.

Little baby steps will be required moving forward but I think it will be important for the voices within the global community to keep everybody honest.

3. The Shoe Throwing Incident

If you listen to the words of the shoe thrower, Muntadar al-Zaidi, the shoes thrown at George Bush where a farewell kiss from those who had been killed, orphaned or widowed in Iraq. This event symbolizes for me all the conflicts that are going on in the world from the Middle East to Somalia, to Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan to Russia & Georgia.

George Bush as a leader has never acknowledged or taken responsibility for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have died and millions impacted as a result of his decisions. Whether the conflict is right or wrong today most conflict shows a lack of leadership & moral responsibility.

Only when leaders become conscious of their actions, accountable to their people and use war as the last option will you see a reduction in conflict. I’m hopeful there will be less conflict in 2009.

4. The Beijing Olympics

The Olympics became China’s shining moment and were fantastic. Like other countries China is gradually being forced to look at their human rights records, their laws for workers as well as their own environmental challenges. However 2008 was the year where China officially came onto the world stage.

5. The Rising Awareness of Social Media, Stem Cell Research & the Environment

I’ve put the 3 of these together, partly because I didn’t want to make a top 10 list but secondly I feel these 3 areas are still fairly new but primed for growth in the next few years. Barack Obama’s fundraising and campaigning success in the American election showed the real power of social media. Some of the innovations in stem cell research (without embryos) where very promising. As we move into 2009 the environment just keeps knocking on our door.

Top 5 Personal Events for 2008

1. Personal & Spiritual Growth

This has been an important year for me to develop greater clarity with respect my purpose and discovering the real creative side to who I am.

2. Social Media & Networking – Facebook, Twitter, Soundclick

The whole realm of social media has been a learning process for me and most of this year has been about reading, learning and connecting… I’ve learned so much this year.

3. Music – Songwriting, Recording & Networking

Although I’m definitely an amateur musician I find great satisfaction in creating music. Recently I recorded my first song “Love is Free” and posted on SoundClick. On the acoustic rock chart it went to #66 out of about 17,000 songs which is pretty cool. There are two more songs in the works, “Who Ever Thought” & “Broken Ego” that I hope to release early in 2009. The whole process is exciting.

4. Writing & Blog Development

My blog has been a great forum for me to share ideas and interact with others. I enjoy the writing part although the main issue for me has been time. With the advent of Twitter (and mini blogging) I’m looking forward to continuing on writing with some new ideas for 2009.

5. New Baby on the Way

My wife’s son and his girlfriend are expecting a baby in January, so effectively I’m going to be a Grandfather. :) Now besides being too young and too good looking I’m looking forward to the baby arriving…

Here are some other Top 5 lists:

Top 5 Books:
1. A New Earth – Eckhart Tolle plus 10 week class with Oprah
2. Money & the Law of Attraction – Jerry & Ester Hicks
3. The Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama
4. Influencers: The Power to Change Anything – Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, Switzler
5. The New Rules of Marketing & PR – David Meerman Scott

Top 5 Albums:
1. Neil Young – Live at Massey Hall.
2. Johnny Cash – Live at Folsom Prison – (new to me)
3. Bob Dylan Tell Tale Signs – The Bootleg Series – Volume 8
4. Sheryl Crow – Detours
5. Travelling Wilburys – Volume 1 & 3

Top 5 Web Blogs:
1. Webinknow
2. Problogger
3. How to Change the World
4. Intent Blog
5. The News I Read Today – Beatles Blog (my wife calls me a Beatles groupie)

Top 5 News Sources:
1. BBC News
2. CBC News
3. CNN
4. Huffington Post
5. PopURLs

Top 5 TV Shows:
1. The Hour
2. Larry King Live
3. Gene Simmons Family Jewels
4. Oprah
5. Biography

I’d love to hear your thoughts on events that impacted you in 2008. Coming in January there will be some great new changes to this site. Stay tuned…

Wishing you a Happy, Healthy & Prosperous 2009…

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the Environment, George W. Bush & Change

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at a recent conference in Waterloo sponsored by ReThink. Without really knowing much about this man (except for his famous father and uncle) I had no pre-conceived opinions and was simply interested in listening to his message.

Kennedy’s message was about the challenges of environmental politics, corporate & government corruption, education and the decline of the US media to provide an unbiased voice in guiding people to make informed decisions. While he presented these challenges he also proposed solutions and ideas that could revolutionize our ability to create energy from alternative sources and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

American Democracy in Jeopardy
He said American Democracy is actually in jeopardy due to the actions of the past 8 years. He talked of the Bush Administration’s $100 million dollar PR campaign designed to create phony think tanks, suppress environmental initiatives, promote big oil and influence media to the extent that today most Americans believe the environment is really a "fringe" issue and those supporting the cause are alarmist or radical. The same PR campaign was used to convince people that Sadaam Hussein was somehow responsible for the 9-11 attacks. He said much effort has been put into this PR effort to creating doubt around global warming and that if we move too fast we will disrupt the economy or peoples livelihoods. (Note: For anyone not living under a rock I think we could agree that the current financial crisis has showed that the economy is a little disrupted. Maybe we have nothing to lose.)

Similarities between Global Warming and the Slave Trade
He compared today’s cautious approach to the global warming to that of the slave trade in Britain back in the 1800’s. Slavery back then accounted for 25% of the GNP and politicians and business leaders preached caution saying that if you stopped slavery the economy would suffer. The truth is that after years of debate, when slavery was eventually abolished there was an unprecidented economic boom that became the Modern Industrial Revolution. Kennedy says we would see the same type of boom today if we removed the government subsidization of oil companies and if politicians allowed the free market to foster development of environmental technologies. According to Kennedy the vested interests and government policy are holding us back from making real change with the environment.

Kennedy says there are over $1.3 trillion dollars in subsidies that go to the big oil companies and our reliance on foreign oil makes us the beggar to those nations that can and have been hostile to us. He says the Iraq war has cost $4.5 trillion dollars and he believes for the purpose it served the bill should be charged to big oil, not the US taxpayer.

He used examples of countries who have initiated clean environmental technologies making use of solar, geothermal, bio-fuels and other clean technologies. He referenced Iceland, Sweden, Brazil, and California which he said have created new prosperous economies and opportunities as a result of shifting to alternative energies. (Note: the speech was given before the global financial meltdown of which Iceland’s banking system has been devastated however the message demonstrates that many countries are putting effort into solving the problem).

Creating a Smart Power Grid
Kennedy says the Midwest of the US and Canada is the Saudia Arabia of wind power however to take full advantage of wind and other clean technologies the US will need to find a way to upgrade the power grid so that it is more centralized. Today the power grid in the US is decentralized (controled by each state) and is very difficult for new technologies like wind to connect to the grid and re-sell energy. Kennedy talks about re-building a smart grid where you could take your electric car, plug it in at night and then sell the excess power you generate to the grid. If you think of the possibilities a smart grid would give consumers the abilility to benefit and contribute to power creation.

By giving wind, solar, geothermal and other technologies the ability to evolve within a free market, Kennedy says innovation can evolve. Under George Bush oil subsidization has been the policy at the expense of free market innovation.

Media & Education
The press in the US has been “negligent” and have let down democracy, according to Kennedy. He says in America there is no such thing as a Liberal Media but it’s a label that has been applied to groups that don’t support the right wing message. He says Fox News is the major player dominating the right wing message and talk radio is 90% is controlled by Christian right. He says that ABC, NBC and CNN have no ideology except for their pocket book. He says the failure within the American media started around the time of Ronald Reagan when he abolished the “fairness doctrine” which said news had to be of public importance and if someone told an opinion they had to tell both sides. This is no longer the case. Rush Limbaugh came on the scene shortly after abolishment of the fairness doctrine. He said the fairness doctrine was important to create an independent press to avoid corporate consolidation which Kennedy said was a policy similar to what Hitler promoted in Nazi Germany. In the American media today (main stream) 5 guys control what you hear with the only obligation to their shareholders.

He says entertainment is now the cornerstone of American media and that Americans have become the “best entertained but least informed public”. He says Thomas Jefferson believed that a mandatory public education system would be the remedy to “not deprive the public of power” and that the only way to sustain the democracy was to have access to education “everywhere”. Unfortunately Americans are so poorly educated that polls (in 2004) said that 70% of the population believed that Sadaam Hussain bombed the world trade center.

Kennedy says “if you don’t have a functioning press you don’t have democracy”.

Kennedy says he is an advocate for the free market but there is no free market under the current administration. He says, “a true free market (for environmental technologies) would promote efficiency”. He says there is a huge difference between “free market capitalism” and what he calls, “Corporate Crony Capitalism” as is currently the reality under the current administration.

He says American respect in the world today has diminished. He told a story of when he travelled overseas with his father. People flocked to see Americans and wanted their values and freedoms. He said when Eisenhouer went to Kabul in the 1950’s over a million people came to see him. People are hungry for American freedoms. He said after 9-11 the French President said, “we’re all Americans now.” Much of that goodwill has been lost today.

Footnotes:
This presentation took place on October 6th and in those 3 weeks a lot has shifted. The Global Financial Crisis has impacted everybody and I think it has shocked the US and world into serious re-alignment of not only our financial systems but of our values. The US Presidential Election is getting closer and for the first time in decades offers a vision of hope for the future. Kennedy brought to light some of the challenges we face but he also outlined the opportunities that exist if we choose to change course.

Time will tell if we can put this together, however I think most of us agree we live in exciting times and there are massive changes ahead.
On the same day I finished this article the CBC ran an interview with Kennedy.
Here it is... The Hour

Humbled by Other Canadian Cities

When I posted about snowfall records being broken in Waterloo Region I was reminded by a friend of average snowfall and records in other Canadian Cities.  Here's what I found from the Toronto Star.

So 246cm is nothing compared to some of these number. 

RECORDS

After Saturday's storm, Toronto is still 17.8 cms short of its all-time annual snowfall record. Other records at major city airports:

St. John's
648.4 cm
2000-01

Charlottetown
539 cm
1971-72

Moncton
533.1 cm
1974-75

Halifax
475.1 cm
1970-71

Ottawa
444.6 cm
1970-71

Montreal
383.3 cm
1970-71

Winnipeg
253.8 cm
1955-56

Edmonton
228 cm
1964-65

Toronto
207.4 cm
1938-39

Victoria
196 cm
1915-16

Regina
194.8 cm
1955-56

Vancouver
186.9 cm
1970-71

Environment Canada

Wow!

March 8 2008 - 38 centimeters of snow

Before:
After:

2008 - a record year for snowfall

246cm (over 8 feet)

Enough already!

The State of Priorities in 2008 - The US Federal Budget

Guy Kawasaki has an excellent post this morning entitled, Visual Representation of the US Federal Budget.  His source is The Budget Graph website.  On their site you can actually view the poster below and zoom in on certain areas to find the exact dollar amounts allocated for various departments.

The main statistic that jumps out for me is the US has a total federal budget of $1.075 Trillion Dollars of which $717 Billion Dollars (67%) is allocated for the Military.  Only $358 Billion Dollars (33%) is allocated for Civilian purposes. 

There's one more: $1.236 Billion (about 0.1%) is being allocated for the development of renewable energy resources.  This is the US Government's attempt to tackle the environment.   

If you are a person with decent moral character and a half decent IQ a statistic like this should bother you. 

The author of the budget graph is Jess Bachman from Burlington Vermont.  There is an excellent post from his blog called How to Blow $145 Billion ... a Year  that I strongly encourage you to read.  Here I'll summarize some of the details for you.

$145 Billion is the Amount Allocated for 2008 by the Bush Administration for the War on Terror (or the war in Iraq) and is about one fifth of the overall Military budget.  Mr. Bachman's post shows what could be accomplished if that money were allocated in other areas:

• The War on Terror - $145 Billion
• Free Health Insurance for Every Uninsured Family in America - $124 Billion
• Free Gasoline Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday all Year Long - $116 Billion
• Free tuition, room and board for every student enrolled in a public university or college - $115 Billion
• Convert every registered car to run on ethanol - $68 Billion
• Primary Education for Every Child on Earth - $30 Billion
• Universal Access to Water and Sanitation for Everyone on Earth - $21 Billion
• End Hunger in America - $7 Billion

Source: Death and Taxes: A Visual Guide to Where Your Federal Tax Dollars Go

What blows me away about these statistics is understanding how the US could solve most of it's internal problems (Education, Poverty, the Environment, Health care) with a lot less than $145 Billion a year.  Even once America solves their own problems they would have enough money to help with many global issues. 

At the recent G8 Summit leaders pledged $60Billion over 5 years to treat the common diseases of Aids, TB & Malaria.  As this post says about $3 Billion of the $60 Billion is new money over and above the promises made in 2005. This is peanuts. You can understand why most critics of the G8 feel Africa and the developing world are being served the crumbs.  The G8 is still an exclusive club that wants to keep the rest of the world at arms length. 

Note: These G8 commitments did not include Trade or Education Relief.  No targets where set for those. 

Keep in mind the issue is not about money.  There is plenty of money.  This issue is how we choose to spend it.  Will America keep supporting their Military Industrial Complex and will the rest of the world just sit by idly twiddling their thumbs?  I hope not.   

The G8 Summit - Why the world will have to wait until Bush leaves office

How will the G8 Summit end this time around?  Will their be real progress or will we see a lot of spin, photo opps and non-action?  Here is my take on some the key issues including the Environment, Africa, Poverty, Debt Relief and Global Trade & Security.

The Environment

(Image Source: G8 Summit Website)

Mr. Bush's adviser James Connaugton has been quoted as saying "the US did not believe the G8 should be the forum for setting targets."  "There is significant agreement that those should be established on a national basis, and the only area of disagreement is that the G8 should dictate the national policies of its members." (Source: BBC News)  This is a not a small disagreement.  This is a FUNDAMENTAL DISAGREEMENT.   What Mr. Bush is really saying, we don't make agreements with the rest of the world.  We will do as we please (unless it suits us).  This is not a policy that promotes diplomacy and action on the environment.  This policy promotes American isolationism and sends a message to other nations to do nothing.      

The Bush Administration has thrown a big wrench in the pot for those wanting to make real change for the environment.  Kudos to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the other members who supported her proposals to cut emissions by 50% by 2050 to improve fuel efficiency by 20%.  Unfortunately any agreements made will be toned down significantly to meet America's objectives. 

The Conscious Earth Blogger has several key insights on the G8 Summit including a good article labeling Canada and the US as the world's Achilles heal. 

Africa, Poverty & Debt Relief

Image Source: G8 Summit Website

At the G8 Summit in Scotland in 2005 a promise was made to Africa to solve the problems of HIV & extreme poverty.  The organization DATA (Debt Aids, Trade & Africa) Data.org led by U2's Bono recently filed a reporting stating that delivery on these promises has received a failing grade to date.  Here is a great article by Barry Mason from the Axis of Logic that gives more detail about the promises and roadblocks in support of Africa.

According to DATA most of the countries seem to have dropped the ball on their promises in 2005.   At the 2007 G8 Summit Africa seems to have gone down on the priority list.  In today's Globe and Mail Stephen Harper, Canada's Prime Minister has declined an invitation to meet with Bono while his counterparts in the US, Germany, Italy & France have already met with him.  I'd say that Bono is a leader of significance in the fight for Africa.  Sometimes I get the feeling Stephen Harper doesn't like to deal with tough issues or go beyond his script.   

Russia & the New Arms Race

Based on George Bush's track record, Vladimir Putin has no reason to trust the message that American weapons in Eastern Europe are not intended for Russia.  After years of an improving dialog between America and Russia, the American Missile Defense Shield is a slap in the face to their relationship.

Errors of judgment have been America's downfall in both Iraq and Afghanistan and it appears they are making another error of judgment about Russia's reaction to placing missiles in their backyard.  Do we really want to start a new Cold War?  Maybe Russia should approach Cuba and see if they would mind housing a few missiles.  Missile defense is becoming the primary topic of the G8 Summit and it's interesting that the media are spinning the message by combining Russia's democracy with missile defense.  These issues are not related. 

Mikhail Gorbachev has also made a statement asking the US not to create another cold war. 

The world does not need more missiles.  American's desire for missile defense will have unexpected consequences and will likely create more enemies than friends.    

Summary

This years G8 Summit will create agreements and good photo opps but we're likely to lose on substance.  The world might have to wait until at least 2008 for some new leadership to evolve in Washington.  Hopefully America will give the world a leader (in 2008) who wants to engage in dialog and be part of solving the major problems of the world. 

America's leadership is extremely important and generally sets the direction of world affairs.  When America uses a "my way or the highway" approach, then it tells other countries there will be no negotiation.  America's Isolationism takes the pressure off other countries like Iran and North Korea because they gain new allies who disagree with America's position.  On the environment America's position is likely a major relief to countries like China, India or Brazil who don't want to change their environmental policies.

On the optimistic side I would say the pressure is on for all the G8 countries and people around the world are watching.  America is learning some key lessons about diplomacy and even if the Bush Administration doesn't fully get it, I would say many within America do.  Bono, Geldof and others supporting Africa, HIV and Poverty issues are making sure that this topic remains high on the agenda. Europe has put the environment at the forefront and even if no agreement is made, Europe will likely keep setting the example for the rest of us. 

So life will go on.  Many who long for positive results will keep raising their voices.

Whoever said that changing the world would be easy.   

"Absolute" Emissions versus "Intensity" Emissions

Obviously there is tonne of stuff being written about the environment today.  This morning I picked up a copy of the Toronto Star and there are full pages talking about all the issues.  Sometimes it's too much to keep up with and I didn't have time this morning to read it all.  This week there were a couple of articles that caught my attention.

The first was by the Canadian Lung Association giving their input on the proposed Canadian government environmental plan.  Nora Sobolov is the President and CEO in Ottawa and Kenneth Maybee is the chair of environmental issues.  The full article can be found here - "Health of Canadians Demands Real Action on Clean Air"

From the article: Some statistics

• "Six million Canadians - one in every five - currently suffers from lung disease
• 2.5 million Canadians have asthma and the rate in children is four times higher than it was 20 years ago.
• COPD - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - is the fourth leading cause of death in Canada and the only one still rising.
• One Canadian dies every 20 minutes from lung disease.
• Lung illness costs Canada more than $15 billion each year."

The article then goes on to speak of the Conservative government's environmental plan. 

They say, "on the air pollution side, the proposal to introduce regulations that mandate hard caps and significant reductions for major pollutants is an important, groundbreaking step forward."

This is good.  These are "Intensity" based reductions.

On the other hand, "The Lung Association’s bottom line is quite simple: will these actions produce absolute reductions in air pollution and greenhouse gases."

The article goes on to detail how the current conservative environment plan only aims to reduce intensity emissions.  Absolute emissions will keep rising as long as we continue to have economic growth.  This is bad news for the Canadian Lung Association and any of us who breathe.  Under the conservative plan you can expect your the challenges with Asthma, Cancers and other lung ailments to keep rising.  This in a nutshell is why the plan is flawed.

Another article that nicely puts it all into perspective is from The Conscious Earth Blog, "Why Intensity Based Targets are Useless".  Odiyya gives an excellent outline of why we need to go further with our environmental strategies.       

Kyoto, the EU and Appeasement

Canadian Green Party candidate Elizabeth May's comments suggesting that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's environmental policy was "worse than Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of the Nazis", should be seen as an opportunity for us to look at history and understand the price of inaction. 

Neville Chamberlain was the Prime Minister of the UK in 1938 and signed the Munich Agreement which essentially gave the Germans free reign to invade Czechoslovakia.  Back then, as with today's debate on the environment, the world was split on what to do.  Hitler had built a big military machine and seemed destined to use it to take over Europe.  There was great doubt and fear about going to war.  What would war bring?  Aerial bombing was an unknown and people knew that planes would be used to attack civilians.  What would bombing be like?  Memories of World War I and the horrible trench warfare was still fresh in the people's minds.  Should we go to war or shouldn't we?

Well as history shows the world needed to confront Hitler and thanks to leaders like Winston Churchill who kept reminding his colleagues of the threat, eventually Britain with the help of it's allies did what was right.  In the end there were almost 80 million casualties around the world including 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 20 million Chinese and 850,000 Americans and British.  (Source: Wikipedia) There were 45,000 Canadians killed. 

The world paid a big price for both our inaction and allowing Hitler to arm. 

Ms. May's comments should be taken in a very different context.  They should remind us of how our inaction on the environment might result in similar catastrophic consequences as were experienced in World War II.  Can you do a direct analogy with World War II?  Obviously not.  But what you can ask is will people die as a result of our inaction on the environment?  There are organizations today who believe people are already dying because of pollution and green house gases.

What will the final tally be if we allow it to go on? 

Hitler's conquest of Europe and the resulting war had a "direct" impact on the lives of millions.  Our environmental inaction has an "indirect" effect.  It's very difficult to measure.  For example, is the increase in smog in our cities responsible for more people having asthma?  Scientists are finding there is a correlation.  Is Stephen Harper causing this?  No.  Can he do something about it for our future generation?  Yes.

No politician wants to be compared to Neville Chamberlain, however a leader has a responsibility to do what's best for it's citizens.  The article "EU on Track to Reach Kyoto Targets" shows with some work Canada could meet Kyoto obligations without hurting the economy.  Various countries within the European Union are showing us the way including the UK.  Canada should take note and learn from Europe's example.