2006 Sep 25: Climate change: from inconvenient truth to political action

Elizabeth May will be on a panel organized as part of the popular St Lawrence Centre Forum series.

Monday, 2006 September 25, 7:30 to 9:30 pm.
St Lawrence Centre, 27 Front Street East
(2 blocks east of Union Station). Free.

Blurb follows:

Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth is an urgent call to action to address climate change. In Canada, innovative plans to reduce greenhouse gasses are being spearheaded by a handful of municipal and provincial governments. The Federal government has declared the Kyoto protocol unworkable, cancelled many existing programs to combat global warming, and is set to release a whole new ‘made in Canada’ plan.

Concerned citizens across Canada have embraced fluorescent light bulbs, recycling, energy retrofits, and higher fuel efficiency. The latest push is for people to assess their carbon production and buy off-sets – a trend made fashionable by rock groups and the World Cup. But are governments and businesses prepared to follow the example the public is setting?

What reductions can Canada hope to achieve and how? How do carbon offsets work and are they effective? With elections at all three levels of government on the horizon, what should Canadians expect from their elected representatives?

Panelists:

• Elizabeth May: Leader of the Green Party of Canada.
• Ralph Torrie: Energy and environmental consultant.
• Jose Etcheverry: Climate Change Program, David Suzuki Foundation

Invited:

• Rona Ambrose: Federal Minister of the Environment.
• Claude Béchard: Quebec Minister of the Environment.

Moderator:

• Lydia Dotto: science writer and author of Storm Warming: Gambling with the Climate of Our Planet.

I’ve seen one of these St Lawrence Centre Fora and heard of others. They are well put together.