In-House Memo Shows Stark Warning To Harper From Govt. Sciensts Before Climate Summit

[hatrack]

The Harper government was warned last year by its own experts on the environment that Canada would have to join an aggressive international campaign to fight global warming to avoid "substantial global and Canadian" effects or risk irreversible damage to the planet.

The warning is contained in newly released memorandums sent in June 2007 by Brian Gray, head of Environment Canada's Science and Technology branch, to the department's deputy minister.

The documents, obtained by Canwest News Service, were delivered days before Prime Minister Stephen Harper attended a summit of major industrialized countries hosted by Germany.

The summit sought consensus for an international agreement to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Harper recognized the threat of climate change at the meeting, but his government has never taken a stance on Gray's warnings that allowing average temperatures to rise over a sustained period by two degrees could drastically affect the world.

EDIT

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=7754b4e4-d482-477a-9b0a-6ea43b114fb7&k=57479

[applegrove]

1. Typical.