Musings of the Technical Bard

A place for me to expound on the issues of the day, including my proposals for how to FIX CANADA.

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Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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23 May 2006

I want Mr. Layton to answer this question:

If you were Prime Minister, what would you have Canada do to meet the Kyoto target of 6% below 1990 CO2 emission levels?

The reason I want him to answer this question is so we can see that he doesn't have an answer. And why doesn't he have an answer? Because it is impossible without crippling the economy. Currently, Canada's CO2 emissions are 35% beyond the target point. This means that we would need to reduce CO2 emission by one-third between now and 2012 to meet the Kyoto commitments Jean Chretien made.

One third. If we assumed we could improve the efficiency of power plants and houses and cars by 10% , we could reduce CO2 emissions by about 1%.

Therefore, the only way to meet the target is to shut down CO2 emitting sources. Such as mines, factories, coal and natural gas fired power plants, and cars.
  • We would need to replace 1/3 of the coal fired power plants with something else. The only available technology is nuclear and we don't have enough time left to build them.
  • We would need to remove 1/3 of the cars on the road. Let's assume we improve overall fuel efficiency so we only need to take 1/4 of the cars off the road. Assuming each household in Canada has two cars, ask your neighbour tonight which of you would get rid of a car and drive less?
  • We would need every household to reduce heating demand by 1/3. So turn your heat down to 15°C in the winter (put on a sweater) and set A/C only to cool the house/office to 27°C if necessary.
Would you propose something different Jack? Or do you have some magic technology up your sleeves?

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I commend you for asking Mr. Layton the question, but have you emailed it to him? It is all well and good to blog about it, but I doubt the principals involved visit the blogs. Politicians have to be made aware that people are ready to call them on their pronouncements.

When Mr. Layton is able to say on CTV's Question Period that "Rona Ambrose is not telling the truth" about many European countries not being able to meet Kyoto targets, and Craig Oliver lets that statement go unchallenged, then viewers should do more than just comment on it in blogs.

23 May, 2006 12:50  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kyoto was doomed from the start because its advocates (including the media) cannot explain how we will hit the targets.

23 May, 2006 16:36  

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