Harper’s Canada Rips
a Hole in the Global Ship of
State
George M. Woodwell[1]
Woods Hole,
Massachusetts
Sometimes
we have to ask just what the purpose of government is. In the nominally democratic nations we elect
our fellow citizens to public office to help define and defend the public
welfare. In the normal course that welfare starts with establishing and
defending rules under which we live with one another. Rules provide equity in human affairs,
including our dealings with each other, and in access to essential resources,
especially those resources that we take as a human birthright: air, water, land, food and a place to live in
peace. The rights are embraced in every
culture and commonly start with the golden rule: deal with others as you would have
them deal with you. Governments build
elaborate laws around that purpose. Courts amplify the laws over decades. And
the rules apply in a well-regulated world of thoughtful and responsible
nations.
As human
numbers increase and technology expands, so do the interactions and points of
friction. Corporate and national and personal interests compete. The frequency
of interactions rises much more rapidly than the numbers of people. It rises in
fact exponentially and the need for regulations protecting the interests of all
soars with it.. Simple arithmetic puts the lie to the common assertions of Tea Party conservatives in the US and of all
others, including Canadians, who claim
that growth in all aspects of human affairs is possible with fewer regulations.
Destruction of laws and regulations developed over decades is willful
destruction of a nation and puts the nation on a rapid slide toward chaos. Commerce
does not regulate itself. Worse, wise
regulation requires detailed insights from science as to how the world works, a
continuing flow of insights as to what will work in defending welfare of the
public.
So it is at the moment in Canada as
the Harper administration systematically destroys laws, regulations and
institutions developed over a century to protect public resources. Jim
MacNeill, a well known Canadian diplomat and former OECD officer in Paris
recently suggested to me that Canada is a model of what the Tea Party and the
rabid right are trying to bring to the U.S.:
“….(Harper) is
now …stripping the statute books of the environmental laws and regulations that
we have fought for since 1968. He is eliminating one environmental program
after another and reducing the environment department to a shadow of its former
self.
“At
first… he talked like a disciple of George W. Bush -- environmental protection
is a burden on the economy which reduces economic growth and kills jobs…..
“A
month ago his Natural Resources Minister, Joe Oliver, on the eve of the
environmental hearings into the Gateway pipeline to China, wrote condemning ‘environmental
and other radical groups’ …(who were later called) ‘terrorists’”.
Elizabeth May, a brilliant and fearless Member of the
Canadian Parliament and long-time conservation leader, wrote to me recently. She could have been writing about
our own House of Representatives which stripped our Science Advisor, John
Holdren, and his Office of Science and Technology Policy:of funds:
“…One of
his first decisions was to unburden himself of the Science Advisor to the Prime
Minister. Dr. Arthur Carty…... When his term ended, it was not continued,
and the position dissolved.”
The Harper administration also has
been cutting budgets for climate science for more than a year. March
ended funding for the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences.
A $110 million program over tend years for research on climate in Canada’s
major universities has been eliminated. The entire Adaptation to Climate Change
Research Group was disbanded along with the group within Natural Resources
Canada working on Arctic ice
cores. An 80,000 year climate record in ice cores is to be abandoned
The Canadians have a long and
distinguished and widely used record of research in the Arctic. The global
scientific community was stunned to learn that the Polar Environmental and
Atmospheric Research Laboratory on Ellesmere Island is to close. At 80
degrees north latitude, PEARL was the closest such lab to the North Pole
The Canadians also have a unique
background of experimental data on aquatic ecosystems largely through the
efforts of a single scientist, David Schindler, who had the vision as to what
should be done and led the way through his own distinguished career. Now a rich
resource, the Experimental Lakes Area in Ontario is to close. Fifty-eight
fresh water lakes 250 kilometres east of Winnipeg have been the testing ground
for freshwater research since the late 1960s. .In the House a week ago,
the Parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Fisheries announced that it will
be sold to private interests.
The list goes on. The Yukon Research Lab at Yukon College
in Whitehorse is to close. The $2.7 million facility only opened last
fall – October 2011- is to focus on research that is “business-led and
industry-relevant”.The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is ending its
national contaminants programme. 75 scientists, many with long careers invested studying
marine toxicology across Canada, are being laid off. According to Dr. Peter Ross “The entire
pollution file for the government of Canada, and marine environment in Canada’s
three oceans, will be overseen by five junior biologists…” These cuts are being
made as huge areas of the Beaufort Sea are being leased for oil drilling.
The common assumption of such libertarian
views is that the market system is adequate to protect essential resources and
ration them to all users. But the failures of the market to protect the public
welfare are legion and conspicuous around the world. The market system gave us
slavery and will again, given the chance.
Management of human affairs and essential resources lies at the very
core of governmental function. Harper’s minions and the US far right, including
the Tea Party, deny the core purpose of government.
>
G.M.
Woodwell is Founder and Director Emeritus of the Woods Hole Research Center in Woods Hole
Massachusetts, scientist, member of the
NAS , author and lecturer.
[1]
Woodwell is Founder and Director
Emeritus, The Woods Hole Research Center; Member, NAS; conservationist, author, lecturer.
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