Funny that you should mention that canadians consider themselves more environmentally conscience ... because that is sort of true. It's kind of a part of our popular myth (wide open plains, forests, 10 000 lakes, etc).
But, in recent times (past 20 years or so) our government's track record's been slowly declining. Sure, we signed Kyoto but we failed to meet it (and our current government wants to back out of it). Canadians have the second largest per-capita ecological footprint in the world and in a society as highly legislated as canadian society ... our environmental legislation is actually pretty weak. Pathetically so.
But don't ask most canadians about that. Most canadians would tell you quite happily that we take good care of our resources (and probably let some barb slip about the US - no disrespect intended from me!)
Plus, there's more oil in the Alberta tar sands than the fields of Saudi Arabia, fyi.
Truthfully, canadians have a collective myth problem. We like to think that we have a good track record environmentally (especially in comparison to the US!) but that's pretty much a lie. Our only saving grace is that we're a lot smaller that you guys - 35 million canadians is still a pretty small number. We only contribute to about 5% of the world's green house gas emissions.
Personally, I get a private chuckle whenever it comes up in conversion. My country-men don't really think things through. I could rant for a while about problems with the collective identity of most english-canadians.
(And our problematic need to define ourselves as not!american - sad, but true. Every one of our collective myths tends to be constructed as a direct contrast to the stereotypes of american society. Too bad half of them are wrong. :p)
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Re: *couldn't keep quiet*
Date: 2008-03-13 10:50 pm (UTC)But, in recent times (past 20 years or so) our government's track record's been slowly declining. Sure, we signed Kyoto but we failed to meet it (and our current government wants to back out of it). Canadians have the second largest per-capita ecological footprint in the world and in a society as highly legislated as canadian society ... our environmental legislation is actually pretty weak. Pathetically so.
But don't ask most canadians about that. Most canadians would tell you quite happily that we take good care of our resources (and probably let some barb slip about the US - no disrespect intended from me!)
Plus, there's more oil in the Alberta tar sands than the fields of Saudi Arabia, fyi.
Truthfully, canadians have a collective myth problem. We like to think that we have a good track record environmentally (especially in comparison to the US!) but that's pretty much a lie. Our only saving grace is that we're a lot smaller that you guys - 35 million canadians is still a pretty small number. We only contribute to about 5% of the world's green house gas emissions.
Personally, I get a private chuckle whenever it comes up in conversion. My country-men don't really think things through. I could rant for a while about problems with the collective identity of most english-canadians.
(And our problematic need to define ourselves as not!american - sad, but true. Every one of our collective myths tends to be constructed as a direct contrast to the stereotypes of american society. Too bad half of them are wrong. :p)
Oh, Canada. You big hypocrite.
-T. pirate