Critical Issues in Canadian Democracy

Introduction

According to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and by the researchers under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, most of the observed environmental warnings over the last 50 years have concluded that the warming of the earth is due to the increase concentrations of greenhouse gases [1]. Scientific reports have shown that ice is disappearing from the Arctic Ocean and Greenland at a fairly rapid pace. The Qori Kalis glacier, just off of Peru, is shrinking at a rate of 200 meters per year. This is 40 times faster than in 1978. Furthermore, hundreds of species of animals have been spotted moving to cooler regions, and spring has been starting sooner for more than two hundred countries. This phenomenon continues with the rising sea levels and the changing of rain patterns. As reported in Alberta, the water flow of the Peace River is apparently down by 35 percent from its long-term average. Also within the same report, the South Saskatchewan River was down 53 percent while the North Saskatchewan River was recorded at an astounding 62 percent below average measurements.

As this chain of events occurs, the change in climate is definitely to be blame. Climate change can be driven by an imbalance between the energy the earth receives from the sun, largely in the form of visible light, and the energy it radiates back to space as invisible infrared light. The ‘greenhouse effect’ is caused by the presence in the air of gases and clouds that absorb some of the infrared light flowing upward and radiate it back downwards. This process warms the earth’s surface causing the planet’s temperature to rise above its normal 14 degrees Celsius.

The problem of climate change had New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to react by quoting, “Global warming threatens our health, our economy, our natural resources, and our children’s future. It is clear we must act [19].” This has led to an international response to the issue of global warming. Initially instigated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, but later, the issue of global warming was replaced by the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 [1]. Within the meeting in Kyoto, Japan, all members agreed that the main way to cut greenhouse gas emissions is simply to burn less fossil fuel [19]. This includes energy conservation,