ONTARIO RETREATS ON CLIMATE CHANGE FIGHT

Last week I received an e-mail from the Environmental Commissioner titled "Ontario Government retreats on Climate Change". Our EC, Gord Miller, released his 2012 edition of his annual review of the Ontario government's Climate Change Action Plan. The title of Mr. Miller's 2012 edition is "A Question of Commitment".

Apparently "the Ontario government is ending or scaling back programs to fight GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and will fall far short of meeting it's 2020 and 2050 targets.". Commissioner Miller recognizes the fiscal difficulty the provincial government is currently in but nevertheless the reality is that "...delays now will cripple efforts later to fight climate change.". Furthermore "With each passing year, it becomes clearer that without new policies and a drastic change in the current upward trajectory of GHG emissions, our planet is headed for a frightening future.".

Although here at the Elmira Advocate I generally try to focus on local environmental issues I think we can all understand that when it comes to climate change and its' results no one anywhere on the planet will be immune. Perhaps coastal areas will suffer first and perhaps areas with already extreme temperatures and weather patterns will be more suceptible to the greatest damage. Nevertheless all of us on this planet can not escape what is coming and quite frankly our politicians are failing us. Perhaps we are also failing us with our reliance on our politicians to fix this.