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Global warming poses security threat

Re: Gerry Labelle’s March 27 letter, “Why is Harper ignoring the climate change threat?” The facts are global warming is real, human caused, poses a threat to global security and the solution is to cut emissions.
Re: Gerry Labelle’s March 27 letter, “Why is Harper ignoring the climate change threat?”

The facts are global warming is real, human caused, poses a threat to global security and the solution is to cut emissions.

The Harper government’s disconnect between climate change and global security is an example of cognitive dissonance and evidence of a pattern of flouting international law.

It is well established that global warming poses a threat to global security.

In April 2008, Britain’s Royal United Service Institute warned that a failure to acknowledge the threats of climate change to global security is as dangerous as neglecting the risks of terrorism or nuclear weapons proliferation.

I personally sent this report to PM Harper in 2009 in a three-minute video produced by climate-concerned youth in Sudbury.

In 2011, in the United States, A New Strategic Narrative for the 21st Century was presented to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

It identified climate change as a key threat to global economic and political stability. In 2014, a chapter in the fifth report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change detailed threats of climate change to global security and possibilities of violent conflict.

The connection between climate change and terrorism is quite relevant to Syria.

On March 2, 2015, Scientific American published a paper “Climate Change hastened Syria’s Civil War.”

The Harper government is planning bombing missions in Syria.

This may contravene the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 and Helsinki Final Act of 1975 which reinforced inviolability of borders under international law.

The Harper government is also failing its international responsibility to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

Canada’s population account for 0.49 per cent of the global population, yet collectively we produce 1.48 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions.

Canada left the Kyoto Protocol. We are only seven per cent of the way towards meeting our Copenhagen commitments, and we do not have a co-ordinated national plan for mitigating our greenhouse gas emissions.

If this government is truly serious about terrorist threats and national security, doing our fair share internationally to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should be an integral part of long term plans.

A robust price on carbon pollution is critical piece of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, yet this government has failed to communicate to Canadians their plans.

Specifically, on March 23, 2015, Canada’s Environment Minister Aglukkaq and MP Rathgeber (Edmonton) debated carbon pricing in the House of Commons. Minister Aglukkaq ended the exchange with “Mr. Speaker, this side of the House has been very clear on carbon tax. We will not introduce the NDP or Liberal carbon tax,” but did not provide details.

Then on March 25, 2015, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May asked the government to share with the House of Commons its intended nationally-determined contribution to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions that must be tabled with the UN Secretariat March 31, 2015.

The Conservative response had few details.

Thus, currently we don’t know the plans of Conservatives to price carbon pollution and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

When a country as prosperous as Canada fails to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and flouts international law, we lose moral authority.

Cathy Orlando
national manager, Citizens’ Climate Lobby (Canada)