The art of politically expedient planning in an age of climate ague – by Rex Murphy (National Post – October 27, 2018)

https://nationalpost.com/

In the fantastical ambition to change the Earth’s climate, Canada is not even a player. It is at best a ball boy on the court, scampering after fouls

Let us assume you are in St. John’s, N.L., and devise a plan to go to Port aux Basques on the far side of the Island. Your vehicle is an 18-year-old beater, and gets, on a good day, 15 miles to the gallon (unleaded). Your plan calls for taxing — er borrowing a few bucks from your credulous neighbours and buying the gas for the trip from that subscription.

You get 12 bucks, enough for two gallons, and that might, with a wind at your back, get you to Whitbourne, 50 miles from St. John’s, a fine place — great pea soup, with dumplings at Monty’s restaurant and worth the drive. But it’s roughly 500 miles short of Port aux Basques.

And that’s it. That’s your plan. You offer it as a blueprint for other trans-island travellers. Well, it is, technically, a plan. But you’re never going to see Port aux Basque under this plan. Your plan is gallons short of a full tank. You’ve promised a marathon and delivered a sprint.

The Trudeau-McKenna church of latter-day environmentalists have a plan for reducing Canada’s “carbon emissions,” as they call them, to meet their promises from the Paris Agreement. It’s an energy tax. (They call it a “price on pollution,” which is an absolute and devious deception.)

They are not putting a price on pollution; they are putting a tax on all energy fuels. CO2 is not a pollutant — ask a plant. Ask a tree. Ask a human being during exhale. Sewage is a pollutant. It causes diseases. CO2 is a nature-produced life-giving and life-enhancing part of our planet’s atmosphere.

For the rest of this article: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-the-art-of-politically-expedient-planning-in-an-age-of-climate-ague