A tale of two countries – to paraphrase the bard

KAMLOOPS — On a day when the Republicans in the U.S. led the way to repeal former President Obama’s Stream Protection rule, the federal government in Ottawa launched two new programs to address climate change in communities and strengthen infrastructure funding. Ironic, isn’t it, that while one seeks to view protection of the environment with a blind eye,  it’s close neighbor is going the other way. It’s not surprising, given that the GOP and its President seem to think that climate change just isn’t going to happen, and that allowing big industry to pollute the environment won’t result in a major catastrophe somewhere down the road. The Stream Protection rule prevented big mining companies from dumping their waste in local waterways. Can that rule be any more important for the protection of future generations? Can it make any more sense? Trump showed his ignorance of the issue last November, when he tweeted “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” So any moves in the U.S. to address climate change will likely be taken with that in mind.

In Canada, we’re taking a little different approach. I still find lots of ignorant people who don’t understand the seriousness of climate change, but generally, we seem to get the picture. The fact we have a Green Party which embraces a concept of protecting the environment shows that we believe climate change needs to be addressed. Not that other parties don’t think the same thing, the point is that we see that climate change just isn’t some cycle we’ve gone through in our world before. It is being escalated by industry and needs to be addressed. Lack of concern over pollution, greenhouse gasses, and a need for a clean growth economy seem to be prevalent south of the border. Fortunately, we seem to be a little more clued in.

With such a lack of concern for clean water in the States, President Trump shouldn’t be too upset when we refuse to provide some of our clean water to our neighbours because they’ve ruined their supply by repealing sound environmental laws like the Stream Protection Act. They’ll have to find a different way to solve their problems.