There is so much snow I don’t know what to do.  At least that’s how I felt as I ventured out last Monday morning to clear several drive ways.  In my neighbourhood I’m responsible for clearing out two of my neighbours.  So when a big snow dump comes I venture out at 6:00a.m, start up a tractor and make war on the snow.

It’s a job I just hate.  I hate it because it’s always cold and snowy and I have to avoid traffic in the dark on slick snow laden roads.  With the last few years having mild winters, last week’s storm was a bit like getting slapped in the face.

However, this is Canada and it is normal to get this type of weather.  For some of us that’s a bit cruel after buying into the global warming argument, which made me think the hard Canadian winters, might be a thing of the past.  Think about it for a minute.  Two weeks ago I was in Grande Prairie Alberta where it was –30 degrees.  This week my own backyard resembled the North Pole.  So if there is any country which can use a little bit of “global warming” its Canada.

Who knows?  Our mild winters might be just around the corner.  Nonetheless, climate change is one of those things, which isn’t tangible; for the most part you can’t see it.  For most of us that means believing what you read in the media, most of who have bought into the argument that the earth is warming and catastrophic consequences are just around the corner. It’s one of those “feel good” issues everybody can be tricked into buying in.  However, “buying in” means costing you money, that’s where we find out who really believes in “global warming.”

That’s been the whole problem when it comes to the Canadian government’s attitude about “global warming”.   When former Prime Minister John Chretien announced that he intended to enact the Kyoto accord I recoiled.  I couldn’t see how the burgeoning Alberta “oil patch” could sustain itself while at the same time reducing green house gases. I also couldn’t see how big utilities and big manufacturing in Eastern Canada could ever fit within the Kyoto guidelines for green house gas reduction.

I wasn’t alone in that estimation.  Former Prime Minister Paul Martin governed with that reality and in his minority position he didn’t have much choice.  Prime Minister Stephen Harper took the position that there was no way Canada could enact the Kyoto position, so he didn’t pretend to.  The key to getting there might have been four years ago with Chretien.  At the time he almost had an agreement with the oil companies to enact Kyoto.  However, his time ran out and the rest as they say “is history.”

That was the backdrop to the recent Bali conference on climate change as environment minister John Baird refused to sign onto a deal where China and India had no green house gas limits and the hard targets suggested by many European countries.  At the end of the day though he completely changed Canada’s position by signing on to a new agreement to set a target of 25 to 40% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the next decade.  There is a two-year negotiation process to get that agreement in place.  With Canada’s tenuous minority government reality, there is a very good chance Mr. Baird and the Conservatives won’t be around when and if the agreement gets put in place.

Still, it’s a pig in a poke?  What you say?  In many ways “climate change” continues to be that feel good issue where almost everybody can be an authority.  In this country the Green party recently measured popular support at 13% in a nationally recognized poll.  So to some degree there is a large political groundswell of support for a greener Canadian “climate change” policy.  However, can the Green’s hold this support going into a federal election?  Or are Canadians just parking their vote between elections?  Will Canadians change their mind about climate change if their jobs are threatened by these new environmental agreements?

That’s what makes “climate change” such a chameleon of an issue.  For many people it’s a big issue until it costs them money.  In many ways that reality lurks beneath this current debate just like it did behind Kyoto.  How you solve it without great economic adjustment is beyond me.

We’ll see.  There will be much gnashing of political teeth ahead regarding climate change.  Me myself, I’m a believer.  The tipping point for me has been the changing Canadian Arctic.  To me what’s happening up there is tangible.  What’s happening “down here” is not so much.  Nonetheless going forward, what happened last week in Bali will affect all of us soon.