Harper Watch
BY Peter Trainor
Stephen Harper would have us believe that we will plunge ourselves into an economic disaster not seen since the 1930s if we meet the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. This is the same person who once said the international agreement is nothing more than “a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.” Funny how he doesn’t seem to consider the crises that global warming itself could bring on, economic and otherwise. Many experts are predicting natural disasters like we’ve never seen before. The costs will come from all angles: emergency response, infrastructure repair, relocation of affected populations, agricultural losses and the collapse of insurance providers. Sir Nicholas Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank, says the price of preventing such disasters will pale in comparison to the price of dealing with the results. But it shouldn’t take an economist to realize bank accounts don’t float.
