As I write this letter, the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is about to come to an end. It has been two weeks of bickering and over the top demonstrations. I see very little positive coming out of this conference. Any decisions to deal with emissions and assistance for poor countries will cost the developed nations like Canada and the US a lot of money. It has the potential to become an economic disaster as the costs associated with attempting to fix a perceived environmental problem will come at the expense of taxpayers.
At greatest risk is our energy sector. We are all now witnessing what depressed potash sales are doing to our province’s economy as it falls deeper in debt. If any emission control targets coming out of the Copenhagen conference affect the oil and gas sector then you can just imagine how quickly Saskatchewan will fall back into being a have not province.
Climate change has been happening for billions of years and I am not convinced that the activities of humankind are the cause of climate change or global warming. Further, I am not convinced there is anything we can do that will have any meaningful effective on climate change. I am convinced it will harm our economy and our way of life.
People talk a lot about supporting measures to keep our environment clean, as they fear the notion of climate change or global warming. The problem is that people talk about it, but are not prepared to give up anything toward resolving environment issues. Either way, prepare to give up your money over environmental related costs in the future.