STIRLING: No cars here, get out and walk

As reported recently in the Western Standard, Minister Stephen Guilbeault told a public transit advocacy group that the feds would no longer fund major road infrastructure. Subsequently, he appeared to backtrack. Now he’s being called to account for his remarks. But, in truth, the eco-radicals and the feds have created their own carbon prison. People have forgotten that back in Nov. 2020, then Minister of Environment, Jonathan Wilkinson, introduced Bill C-12 “an Act respecting transparency and accountability in Canada’s efforts to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.”As Robert Lyman pointed out about the Paris Agreement: “…there is no binding international commitment requiring Canada to impose on its citizens legal obligations for any level of GHG emissions reduction. However, the government went ahead with ‘Legislating the Impossible Dream.’”Bill C-12 is now law.Guilbeault and other climate activists undoubtedly thought that previous governments had not met climate targets because they were ‘laggards.’Like many climate activists, Guilbeault is a fan of cycling — not something Granny can do in minus 40 C/F in a snowy Canadian winter.The fact is that previous targets were not met for similar reasons as at present. Immigration and no suitable alternative to conventional fuels means emissions will rise. As energy expert Vaclav Smil puts it, “We are a fossil-fueled society, and will be for a very long time.”From 1990 to 2020, Canada’s population grew about 37% though emissions more or less flatlined. The Century Initiative intends to up the population of Canada to 100 million by 2100. Immigration has skyrocketed, and with that, emissions. Of course.Every person who immigrates to our big, cold country of Canada increases their carbon footprint to ~ 18.72 t/CO2e – especially if they come from a warmer place like India (1.89 t/CO2e), China (7.44 t/CO2e) or the Philippines (1.21 t/CO2e).The feds believed a bevy of academics and economists that a carbon tax would be the most effective way of lowering emissions, and that a carbon rebate would make it fair for all. As noted by The Atlantic Magazine, Jan 26, 2022 “Not Even Free Money Can Fix The Carbon Tax.” The rebate is hardly ‘free’ — it’s just an example of tax ‘em and bribe ‘em with their own money.And in Canada, as Saskatchewan’s experiment showed, dropping the carbon tax caused a drop of 1% in inflation. But the carbon tax has not caused a drop in emissions because fuel expenditures are inelastic. Unlike a ‘sin tax’ on liquor or cigarettes, the carbon tax imposes a burden on essential purchases of fuel and home heating.But Bill C-12 requires the government to meet unattainable targets. Thus, people like Guilbeault are increasingly desperate.Have a look at the Exponential Roadmap 2030, issued in the fall of September 2019. In it, this notion was fielded: “A strong move to a usership instead of ownership model for cars can untap more value from cars, which are unused 95% of the time. Such a car fleet could be just 3% of the size of today’s fleet of individually owned vehicles.”Is that how Guilbeault sees the world? Car sharing 3%, everyone else on bikes or public transit?Curiously, many of the objectives of Exponential Roadmap 2030 were accomplished by the COVID lockdowns that followed months later. Shortly after Exponential Roadmap 2030 came out, the UNEP claimed we’d have to cut emissions 7.6% every year to 2030 to avoid exceeding the (political) target of 1.5 °C. Modern Monetary Theorist, Marianna Mazzucato issued a commentary a year after the COVID lockdown -“Avoiding a Climate Lockdown”“Under a “climate lockdown,” governments would limit private-vehicle use, ban consumption of red meat, and impose extreme energy-saving measures, while fossil-fuel companies would have to stop drilling...”Seems it is all focussed on trying to get every individual down to the 2.9 t/CO2e carbon footprint planned for you in “Deadline 2020” by 2030…zero by 2050. As in the Exponential Roadmap 2030, deleting personal transportation by car or truck is central to that. And to add to the hype, a recent study suggested that cars cause more harm than good.Light duty vehicles (i.e. cars, SUVs and pick-up trucks) account for only 13% of the total annual emissions. Meantime, world car sales have risen from 63.8 million in 2020 to 70.8 million in 2023, an 11% increase.Indeed, Canadian cities applying for infrastructure funding, have to apply the “climate lens” guide — which is based on the implausible scenario known as “RCP 8.5.” Thus, the likelihood of any project like a road that adds greenhouse gasses being approved is low. But mass immigration? Okay!Thanks to Bill C-12, “No New Roads” Guilbeault now risks being sued by his former climate activist friends for being a climate laggard. Climate lockdowns by desperate NetZero politicians is less of a conspiracy theory than you think.

STIRLING: No cars here, get out and walk

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