90 Environmental Experts Warn Harper To Act Now, Effectively On Climate

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Unless Canada's new government moves quickly to tackle global warming the country's economy and quality of life will increasingly suffer in decades to come, 90 top environmental experts told Prime Minister Stephen Harper in an open letter. Harper, whose Conservatives won the January 23 election, is openly unenthusiastic about the Kyoto accord on climate change and says there is no way Canada can meet its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

"We urge you and your government to develop an effective national strategy to deal with the many important aspects of climate that will affect both Canada and the rest of the world in the near future," said the letter, which was delivered to Harper's office late on Tuesday. "There will be increasing impacts of climate change on Canada's natural ecosystems and on our socioeconomic activities," it added, saying side effects could include more extreme events such as floods and droughts.

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Harper is from Alberta, which is also a Conservative power base. The government says it wants a made-in-Canada approach to tackling climate change and last week scrapped 15 research programs related to the Kyoto protocol.

Harper said Canada would work with its trading partners over the next year to create a national climate strategy. "We're in the process of reviewing existing programs to try to sort out the funds and better use them on programs that will actually cause some reductions in emissions," he told reporters in the central Canadian city of Winnipeg on Wednesday.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1861375

Yes, when in doubt, study it some MORE.

Till when? When sadly it's too late. Many say we're already near the tipping point. And Canada will suffer due to our own neglect of this issue.

Good post, hatrack