Communist Web Monday 17th April 2000 9.30pm gmt EARTH DAY 2000 - CORPORATE DOMINATION THREATENS OUR PLANET By Kimball Cariou THIRTY YEARS AFTER the first Earth Day, protection of the global ecology seems to have made "one step forward, two steps back." Some major successes have been achieved, and popular awareness of the issue is higher than in the past. But in many parts of the world, problems such as deforestation and the destruction of wildlife habitat are worse than ever. Even more critical, dangerous processes like global climate instability and the decline of the ozone layer remain unchecked. In particular, commitments made at the 1997 Kyoto Summit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are being ignored by governments under intense pressure from the corporate sector. A brief sampling of recent ecology issues covered in the Canadian mass media gives some idea of the scope of this problem. For the first time, residents of Arctic Canada are getting sunburn during their brief summers. While scientists predict that global average temperatures may rise between 1 and 3.5 degrees in the coming century, Arctic regions will be 5 to 7 degrees warmer, and it's started already. In Churchill, Manitoba, temperatures have been above freezing much of the time since an unheard-of rainfall in February. A new report by the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development shows that in 1997, nine of Canada's top fifteen corporate producers of greenhouse gases were actually pumping out more carbon dioxide than ever. The 15 companies all joined a voluntary reporting program after Canada made a commitment at the Rio de Janeiro environmental summit to stabilize emissions at 1990 levels. Instead, by 1997 their collective emissions rose 7%, to a total of 162 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and equivalent gases. The worst offender is Calgary-based Husky Oil, which increased its CO2 emissions by 76 percent, from 3.7 million tonnes in 1990 to 6.6 million in 1997. Some publicly-owned corporations were nearly as bad; SaskPower, for example, emitted 14.4 million tonnes in 1997, a 36 percent jump from 1990 levels. The total Canadian emissions of greenhouse gases is expected to hit 694 million tonnes this year, 15 percent above the 1990 level. To reach the year 2010 targets Canada agreed to at Kyoto, we would have to reduce total emissions by 26 percent, a sharp reversal of the last decade's trends. Governments and corporations are doing their best to bury this issue, arguing that the need for "economic growth" ties their hands. Once again, corporate greed is trumping the long-term needs of people and the environment. It's not quite that simple, of course. This winter's steep jump in fuel prices has hit hardest at working people, pushing truckers into bankruptcy and costing homeowners and renters a fortune in higher heating costs. The big energy corporations, naturally, will make an even bigger fortune from the rapid shifts in oil and gas prices. Putting strict controls on the corporations which dictate energy prices might reduce some immediate problems caused by the anarchy of the capitalist market. But a real solution to our society's... http://www.billkath.demon.co.uk/cw/earthday/earthday.html
