Week of Nov. 18-22, 2002: Kyoto and Immigration–One Step Forward and Four Steps Back
Ms. L. Haeber
Executive Producer
CBC Radio
Vancouver, B.C.
Ms. Haeber:
Here are a few comments about an item broadcast in the past week:
The Host of The Afternoon Show did an interview with David Anderson, Minister of the Environment, about the Kyoto Accord. One logical question she should have asked was the following: ” Are Canada’s high immigration levels at odds with the environmental goal of reducing greenhouse gases by one tonne per Canadian?”
According to federal government figures, each Canadian produces 5 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year. If we simultaneously reduce the emissions of each Canadian by one tonne but add to the number of Candians each year, we are adding four new tonnes of emissions for each new Canadian. It’s like taking one step forward and then four steps back!! At the rate of 1 million immigrant/refugee Canadians every 3 to 4 years, new emissions total 4 million new tonnes of emissions every 3 to 4 years. When the births from these new arrivals are added in, it takes just a short time
before the total reduction achieved in greenhouse gas emissions (around 33 million tonnes) is completely negated. In other words, any benefits from Canada’s Department of the Environment is negated by Canada’s Department ofImmigration.
Several years ago, UBC’s Dr. Michael Healey, who chaired “Prospects For Sustainability”, the major federally-sponsored environmental study of the Lower Fraser Basin, pointed out this very dramatic conflict between the objectives of different federal departments.
The Host of The Afternoon Show should have challenged David
Anderson on that issue, but, as usual, did not. Much the same can be said of the hosts of the other two local CBC radio programmes on the same topic.
Question: Did local CBC radio dogma and propaganda objectives again stand in the way of basic logic?
