Squandrous

I’m a proud Canadian — anyone that has ever spoken to me for more than five minutes can pick up on the fact that I love my country. While I’d hardly argue that Canada is perfect, there’s a lot that the country does right, and a lot that it can teach the world.

That’s why the infographic above, coupled with Brendan’s post on Canadian Environmentalism and the Erosion of Responsibility, was such a shock to me.

Now, I’ll be honest, I didn’t know much about climate change a year ago other than what I had learned from Al Gore’s work and heard from David Suzuki’s speeches. And while that was a good basic education in the issues, I only really started getting well-versed on the issue after working with the people behind the World Bank’s Climate Change beta site and the Development in a Changing Climate blog. Since then, I’ve been looped into conversations about the Kyoto Protocol and the upcoming COP15 and all sorts of other global discussions on climate change that are taking place on a regular basis.

All that to say, it horrifies me that Canada, a country that prides itself on its leadership on issues like the environment, has been so maligned in the international community because of a failing track record of results.

I’m sure there’s more context to this story, and that infographics don’t always tell the whole truth, but there is enough in Brendan’s blog post to make any Canadian concerned — concerned enough to take a good look at what our leadership is doing to fulfill the commitments it makes to the international community, and take a good look at what we, as Canadians, are doing to live the ethos of global awareness and care that we convey.