MP and Green Party leader Elizabeth May

Stephen Hargreaves
NEWS EDITOR

ne of Canada’s most respected environmentalists, Green Party leader and MP Elizabeth May is bringing some green to a snow covered Windsor this Saturday.

May, who made history in 2011 as the first Green Party candidate to be elected to the House of Commons, will speak to Canada’s role in addressing the climate crisis and why Kyoto matters at the Dr. David Suzuki Public School on Jan. 28 at 10:30 a.m. The engagement is the first in the Windsor Essex County Environment Committee’s Green Speaker Series.

May will also speak about law and advocacy when she addresses the Environmental Law Society on Saturday at the University of Windsor’s Ianni Law Building. The talk starts at 12:30 p.m. and is free to attend.

“I’ll be bringing to the audience a sense of the importance and the immediacy, following what just happened in Germany in Durban at COP17,” said May who attended the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change last December.

May also attended the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. Days after the closing of COP17, on Dec. 12, the Canadian government invoked Canada’s legal right to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, abandoning a commitment to cut greenhouse emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels by 2012, despite a posted 17 per cent increase in 2009 over 1990 emissions.

May was not impressed.

“Even before the disastrous decision of the Canadian government to withdraw from Kyoto, we had determined that I would talk on climate change,” said May who plans to explain what happened in
Durban, what the Canadian government withdrawal of Kyoto means and “why it really matters that
Canada stay in Kyoto.”

“It’s still concerning,” said May about the state of public perception of the Green Party in
Canada. “In most countries around the world where ‘greens’ are in parliament and hold power, there is not the perception that the Green Party is hippy or fringe. It’s understood that we are an important part of a political landscape.”

There is still hope, but with each year’s delay, we have less time. The atmosphere is not negotiating with humanity. And time is not our friend. – Elizabeth May, Green Party leader

Living in the age of growing environmental concern and rampant corporate ‘grenwashing,’ the party is gaining more national attention than ever before. Though like the ubiquitous; green, eco, enviro, organic, free-run marketing trend, May warns that not all that glitters is green.

“Consumers need to be aware that there is no trademark on the word ‘green,’ the Green Party doesn’t even control the name ‘Green Party,’” admitted May. “There are a lot of companies that will try and put forward the idea that their product is more environmental friendly and in some ways that’s good news … the important thing is that they must show that they are doing something that justifies that kind of branding and that is not always the case. It’s important to be educated and aware about the issues.”

Perhaps the greatest environmental spinning occurs between the blades of southern Ontario’s wind turbines, where May sees ‘climate denier’ manipulating rural Ontarians against fossil fuel dependency.

“As a party we do sympathise and support people who find a wind turbine to close to their residence, but over all we support wind energy,” said May.

“I’ve been dismayed to see the ‘climate denier’ faction court the concerned Ontario rural residence with misinformation. It’s very, very disturbing to have people like (Canadian environmental economist) Ross McKitrick, who spin a line of irresponsible and incorrect information about coal being safer than wind. I find this very offensive because the health risks and increased deaths to Ontario residents have been well documented.”

Though barely one month into the International Year of Promotion of Renewable Energy, May is well aware of the political and educational headwinds she faces.

“Extending a legitimate concern of residents in terms of wind turbines into a general campaign against wind power with the absolutely bogus and irresponsible notion that coal is okay and wind isn’t, it very dangerous.”

The strongest headwind May faces is the subject of her talk in Windsor.

“For Canadians to help the global process, we need to reverse the letter of intent to withdraw from Kyoto,” said May, as the withdrawal will not take effect until Dec. 31, 2012.

“Somehow, we need to mobilize a global public to take on the fossil fuel industry. There is still hope, but with each year’s delay, we have less time. The atmosphere is not negotiating with humanity. And time is not our friend.”