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Government youth project aimed at environmental awareness
News Articles | The Vancouver Sun | Mike De Souza | April 21, 2010
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OTTAWA — Nearly 400,000 young teens across the country are about to get an Earth Day gift, courtesy of Environment Minister Jim Prentice, encouraging them to explore the Canadian wilderness.
Prentice will announce Thursday that Parks Canada will be distributing special passes next month to Grade 8 students that offer free access for a 12-month period to the agency’s 27 national parks and 68 national historic sites. He described it as a fabulous initiative to get a new generation inspired about conservation.
“I’ve long had the view that the environment and the outdoors are essential to who we are as a country and to our self-consciousness as a country and I know that when I was a youth, everyone from my generation can remember their first camping trip with their parents,” Prentice said in an interview.
But he said the tradition of exploring and appreciating the Canadian wilderness is no longer a common experience.
“Fewer and fewer of our young people have a chance to get out into the outdoors in that same way, in part because lifestyles have changed a lot,” he said. “So this initiative is intended to grab a hold of Grade 8 youngsters and inspire them with a love for the outdoors for our national parks and for our country’s history.”
The initiative, in partnership with Nature Canada and the Historica-Dominion Institute, came as the oilsands sector in Prentice’s home province of Alberta faced a new barrage of criticism from a group of 17 members of the European Parliament representing four different political parties. In a letter sent on Tuesday to the European Commission, the politicians urged the European Union to place restrictions on imports of oil from the oilsands sector in a proposed Fuel Quality Directive, arguing it should instead favour cleaner fuel sources.
“Let us remind you that the production of tarsands has massive environmental and health impacts,” the politicians said in the letter. “The extraction and refining of tar sand oil is around three times more carbon intensive (resulting in more greenhouse gas emissions) than conventional oil. Moreover, tarsands extraction causes severe air and water pollution, land use change from destroying natural boreal forests and peatlands, loss of biodiversity and destruction of livelihoods of local communities.”
An industry spokeswoman suggested the letter was misleading, noting that fuel from the oilsands — over its entire life cycle — only produces five to 15 per cent more emissions than the average barrel of oil imported into the United States.
“Until we have significant sustainable alternatives, creating non-scientific trade barriers to oilsands products just means consumers will import crude oil from other countries at no environmental advantage,” said Janet Annesley, vice-president of communications at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. “For example, Nigerian crude, common in Europe, actually has a larger carbon footprint than Canadian oilsands.”
NDP natural resources critic Nathan Cullen said the letter demonstrates that Canada is falling behind other countries when it comes to cleaning up pollution from industrial facilities, putting the entire economy in jeopardy since it is losing ground to more efficient competitors abroad.
“For the sake of one part of one industry, that is the oilsands component of the oil sector, all other Canadian industries — manufacturing, energy — will be sacrificed and put at a great disadvantage and that makes no sense at all,” Cullen said.
Graham Saul, executive director for Climate Action Network Canada, a coalition of environmental groups, said the letter also answers recent lobbying efforts by the Harper government in Europe and the U.S. to stop stringent environmental regulations that could harm the oilsands sector.
“It is also a signal to the government of Canada that their lobbying isn’t welcome,” Saul said.
Prentice said critics of the government’s environmental policies should remember that it is moving forward on specific regulations to clean up the environment, such as proposed standards to reduce water pollution from raw sewage as well as tackling pollution from new passenger vehicles.
He added that the new passes, to be distributed in schools during the week of May 17, won’t have enormous costs for the government, but can also engage young Canadians and their families to get involved and interested in doing their part for the environment.
“Obviously, they can’t get to every single park, but we have a tapestry of parks across the country and this will inspire our young people to appreciate that and enjoy them and see them where they can,” Prentice said. “As Canadians, we are a people who like to leave the camp site cleaner than we found it, and this is part of inspiring that kind of ethic among young people.”
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Tagged with: canada, tar sands, environmental awareness, youth
