GOLDSTEIN: Why China makes Trudeau’s carbon tax irrelevant
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GOLDSTEIN: Why China makes Trudeau’s carbon tax irrelevant In 2019, China for the first time generated more emissions than the entire developed world combined Photo by Jason Lee / Reuters
Article content Whenever human-induced climate change is discussed during Canada’s upcoming federal election, keep in mind the country that matters most on this issue is China and the fossil fuel that matters most in China is coal.
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Article content The reason is that whatever China does makes whatever Canada does irrelevant in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or GOLDSTEIN: Why China makes Trudeau’s carbon tax irrelevant Back to video That’s because coal — not oil — is the most carbon intensive fossil fuel and the main contributor to global emissions. In China, coal-fired electricity supplies 57% of its energy needs. In Canada it’s 7.4%. China consumes more coal than the rest of the world combined. In 2019, China was responsible for 27% of global emissions. The next largest emitter was the U.S. at 11%. Canada contributes 1.5%. We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or In 2019, China for the first time generated more emissions — 14.09 gigatonnes — than the entire developed world combined — 14.06 gigatonnes — including the 38 member nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the 27 members of the European Union.
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Article content According to the international research company Rhodium Group, China’s emissions in 2019 more than tripled compared to 1990 levels, with a 25% increase over the past decade alone. China is also building coal-fired power plants at a faster pace than the rest of the world combined. In March, energy journalist Michael Standaert, writing in YaleEnvironment360, published by the Yale School of the Environment, reported that in 2020, China “brought 38.4 gigawatts of new coal-fired power into operation, more than three times what was brought online everywhere else. More On This Topic GOLDSTEIN: Better to do nothing than try to reach UN climate target, says report GOLDSTEIN: Trudeau’s prohibitively expensive climate plan comes with imaginary climate targets GOLDSTEIN: UN to hold annual ‘private jets for climate change’ gabfest
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Article content “A total of 247 gigawatts of coal power is now in planning or development (in China), nearly six times Germany’s entire coal-fired capacity. China has also proposed additional new coal plants that, if built, would generate 73.5 gigawatts of power, more than five times the 13.9 gigawatts proposed in the rest of the world combined.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed Canada to reducing our emissions up to 45% below 2005 levels by 2030 and to net zero by 2050. (No federal government — Liberal or Conservative — has ever achieved a single target it has set in more than three decades.) China’s defenders argue that country’s reliance on coal has been decreasing over time (mainly because of public anger about air pollution), that China’s per capita emissions are much lower than Canada’s, that most emissions in today’s atmosphere were put there by developed countries and that China is a global leader in developing wind and solar power.
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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or That said, it’s also a major investor in coal plants around the world. A better argument, based on realpolitik, is that China’s focus is on having enough energy to feed its 1.4 billion people today, not global temperatures 80 years from now. Chinese President Xi Jinping says China’s emissions will peak before 2030 and achieve net zero by 2060. But given China’s record on COVID-19, Hong Kong, Uighurs, Tibet, Taiwan, and its appalling treatment of Canada’s two Michaels — Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig — it’s best to take what Xi says with a huge grain of sand. China’s reliance on coal makes everything Trudeau is doing in Canada irrelevant — including his national carbon tax/price — a policy the Americans have refused to implement to this day. That said, many Canadians agree with Trudeau that regardless of what China does, we have to do something, given rising global temperatures. Fair point. Just remember that what Canada does is irrelevant, other than as a symbolic gesture. lgoldstein@postmedia.com
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‘We’re losing control’: Ultra-potent, unpredictable street opioids are claiming more lives in Canada
EDMONTON – Canada’s street supply of opioids is becoming increasingly toxic, unpredictable and contaminated thanks to ultra-potent and deadly mixtures of fentanyl, prompting renewed calls for safe supply programs that could help regain control of the drug supply and save lives.
It’s believed pandemic border closures have played a role in disrupting the supply chain, prompting the creation of new, more lethal cocktails.
“We’re absolutely losing control of the drug supply, and it’s causing people to die,” Karen McDonald, lead of the Toronto drug-checking service operated by St. Michael’s Hospital, told CTV National News.
“Fentanyl can be used safely … but it can’t be used safely when you have no idea how much fentanyl is in it.”
Launched in 2019 in response to the growing opioid epidemic, Toronto’s anonymous drug-checking service offers drug users detailed information on the contents of their drugs in a bid to reduce overdoses.
McDonald says the lab has been detecting an increasing number of ultra-potent opioids – drug mixtures that are considered to be 80-100 times stronger than fentanyl alone – in recent months, as well as a spike in suspected overdose deaths.
Many of these drugs are mixed with opioids that are that were synthesized in the 1950s to relieve pain but never actually made it to market.
“Fentanyl is already considered a high-potency opioid – it’s five to 10 times more potent than morphine. And now what we’re seeing is drugs that are even stronger than fentanyl presenting in fentanyl,” she said.
“It’s unexpected by the people that are going to be using them.”
The use of fentanyl, cannabis and methamphetamines spiked across cities in Canada during the early pandemic, according to Statistics Canada’s Canadian Wastewater Survey, which analyzed wastewater in major cities. Researchers say this may be a strong contributing factor to the spike in overdose-related deaths last year.
According to the study, the amount of fentanyl detected in Toronto’s wastewater supply tripled early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Per-capita loads of fentanyl in Vancouver were more than four times higher than in any other city, with detectable loads jumping 66 per cent between March and July 2020 compared to last year.
But the pandemic is not entirely to blame. Alberta reported an increase in ultra-potent opioids as early as 2019, putting programs like McDonald’s on high alert and prompting calls for regulated, government-supported safe drug programs.
“The supply is the issue,” McDonald said, noting that this is the nature of an unregulated drug supply; there are no recipes, no dosage recommendations for those addicted to opioids.
“There are some safer opioid programs that are starting to be introduced. This is like a form of regulation. A person with an opioid dependency would be transitioned off of the street [supply] and onto a pharmaceutical supply.”
Those living the realities of opioid dependency are also calling for increased education and overdose training within shelters and other areas users frequent.
Angie Austin watched her partner of 16 years, Oliver Smith, die of a suspected overdose in Toronto at a city-run shelter.
“I couldn’t feel no air coming out of his mouth, so i started to shake him and telling him to wake up,” Austin told CTV National News. “It took 26 minutes for the ambulance to arrive – I timed it.”
Austin says there was no oxygen available on-site – a factor some say could prevent deaths.
“If people just had some basic overdose response training and you were allowed to use oxygen, we would see far fewer fatalities,” Sarah Grieg, Moss Park consumption and treatment service program manager in Toronto, told CTV National News.
“We also need access to safer supply. Injectable heroin, fentanyl, pharmaceutical-grade recommended doses [of each] so that there’s not the adulterants that are polluting people and poisoning people.”
Toronto city shelters are not required to have oxygen on-site but are required to have Naloxone, a medication used to counteract the effects of opioids. Staff are trained in how to administer Naloxone; however, the City of Toronto would not say whether Naloxone was used in Smith’s case.
Send a message to Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig as they near 1,000 days in detention in China
This Sept. 4 marks 1,000 days that former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor have been jailed in China in apparent retaliation for the detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada.
To mark this grim milestone, The Globe and Mail is inviting readers to send us hard copy or digital letters that we will forward to the Chinese embassy in Ottawa. These messages may also be featured in our 1,000 days in detention coverage. Let’s show the two Michaels that Canadians have not forgotten about them.
Open this photo in gallery On the left, Michael Spavor, director of Paektu Cultural Exchange, talks during a Skype interview in Yangi, China. On the right is Michael Kovrig, a Canadian former diplomat who now advises the International Crisis Group, an independent nongovernmental organization that tries to defuse international conflict. The Globe is collecting letters from Canadians to mark the two Michaels' 1,000 days in detention. The Globe and Mail
Throughout their detention, Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor were interrogated in conditions similar to solitary confinement. Initially, guards even seized Mr. Kovrig’s glasses.
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Both men were arrested shortly after Canada detained Ms. Meng, daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, in December, 2018, on a U.S. Justice Department extradition request. Ms. Meng is wanted for alleged bank fraud related to violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have been in Chinese jails for 900 days and counting. The story so far
As tensions rise with China, we need to keep old Cold War lessons in mind
In December, 2020, Mr. Spavor wrote a wish list that offers a glimpse of his life in a Chinese detention centre. On the handwritten note, he asks for a new terry cloth headband and wristbands – “any color is good, surprise me :)” – and a new sleep mask. He adds that the latter should be durable because he uses it “2-3 times a day” – an indication that he is kept under 24-hour lighting.
Open this photo in gallery Mr. Spavor’s request list is heavy with books, specifying exact titles of Chinese study guides, “I need all the practice I can get”, he writes, as well as books on amazing stories and guidebooks to language, vocabulary and writing. Handout
Send your letter or message to:
The Globe and Mail – Attention: Two Michaels
351 King Street East, Suite 1600
Toronto, ON
M5A 0N1
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Or e-mail audience@globeandmail.com
For the two Michaels, the road out of China may go through Washington
With files from Robert Fife, Steven Chase and Nathan VanderKlippe
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