by Sarah Laskow. Bill McKibben has it in for Canada . In a new article in The New Republic, he calls it “one of the earth's most irresponsible nations,” admonishes liberals that they need to find a new country to dream of emigrating to, and stops just short of calling Canadians (and Americans, but what else is new) giant hypocrites. What's pissing McKibben off? Tar sands, of course. Canada is pushing to become an “energy superpower,” in the words of one government official, by mining its tar sands for oil. And, as Grist readers know, oil extracted from Canadian tar sands would dump a disastrous amount of carbon into the atmosphere. (Clearly, exporting tar sands oil is part of Canada's evil plot to take over the world, or at least win out over the United States. They're not going to be screwed by global warming.) McKibben points out that if a country that wasn’t our bro tried this nonsense, we'd be on them like flies on honey. He rubs in Canada's face the example Brazil has set by conserving, rather than exploiting, the Amazon rainforest. “Shouldn't Canada feel the same kind of responsibility to keep carbon safely in the ground that Brazil feels to keep its trees rooted?” McKibben asks. Why, yes, Bill. Yes, it should.

Read the original here:
Bill McKibben: Blame Canada!

More on SKCEA.org:

• The Icelandic Cauldron
  At this point most people know that a volcano erupted in Iceland spewing forth tons of ash that have grounded countless flights. What is less known is the intense thermal emissions (at least 60 megawatts, or 60 million watts) emanating from the vent at the base of the massive plu...
• Is Reintroducing Wolves a Good Idea?
  The controversial conservation strategy touches on many issues....
• Tigers could reappear in Kazakhstan under new plan
  WWF-Russia, together with the government and experts of the Republic of Kazakhstan announced today a new programme to return tigers to the region. The plan seeks to relocate Amur tigers from the Russian Far East to suitable habitat in Kazakhstan near the delta of the Ili River, s...
• Five Beached whales to recover
  Five surviving pilot whales from a pod of 21 that became stranded in shallows in the Florida Keys last week will be transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Key Largo in the next few days, officials said on Monday. "At the rehab facility, they can get better food and better tr...
• One million people still without power after Northeast storm
  About 1 million people remained without power in the Northeast on Wednesday after an uncommonly robust and deadly fall snowstorm last weekend pounded a half-dozen states and sparked widespread outages. As the snow was steadily melting across the region, utility crews struggled to...