well after undergrad and before law school I had a job as a junior/assistant/in-training/slave for a firm doing economic modelling of the costs of implementing Kyoto. This was in 2000. It was too expensive to do then so no one did anything about it.
To do it now, under this time frame? From my experience Baird is bang on.
The Liberals will be all over him about this because Alberta is seen to be the biggest polluter. The response though is this: What if we put similar Kyoto emission requirements on those industries or processes that pollute water. What would the response be to that?
Kyoto isn't the end all and be all of our environmental problems. It is a short term solution to a long term problem. Whether you are an environmentalist or a denier, the middle ground is that we should all demand from our governments and business we support or invest in, that they all strive to be more efficient.
Efficiency means less waste and a better use of the resources invested into the process. That means less input costs (you use less to get the same outcome) and less waste (whatever that is - CO2, Smog, landfill, water, noise, etc).
Interestingly, that idea came from a session I watch Dr. David Suzuki speak at. He's bang on that point. It makes sense for everyone.
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"OOOOOOHHHHHHH those Russians" - Boney M
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