Canada, The Yes Men, and what could be...

A wonderful thing happened yesterday, but only in make believe. The Yes Men, by way of a prank, made it appear as though Canada was going to completely reverse its climate change policy and set aggressive new carbon reduction targets. "Nobody benefits from a world in peril. Contributing to the development of other nations and taking full responsibilities for our emissions is simple Canadian good sense. We want to show the world that Canada is a leader on climate change." (Binding emission targets of 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and at least 80% by 2050; and funding made available to less developed countries based on a percentage of Canada’s GDP.) Instead…we find ourselves in the final week of the talks in Copenhagen and the real results that will come from this Climate Change Conference will fall short of what is necessary to address this global problem. The Group of 77 (Representing developing countries and large emerging countries like Brazil, India and China) walked out of negotiations on Monday due to inadequate aid offers from developed countries. China is refusing to accept any type of international monitoring of its emission levels. The U.S. says that without this verification, it cannot support any deal. With the effectiveness of these negotiations at stake and the consequences the world will face from our collective actions at this time in history, isn’t it critical that the global perspective be focused more on global health from a human perspective and respect for the health of our planet rather than a political one. The Yes Men gave us that chance to see what it could be like. The push to achieve aggressive carbon reduction targets must continue.