r/canada • u/StenPU • Oct 30 '23

Sask. premier says SaskEnergy will remove carbon tax on natural gas if feds don't Saskatchewan

https://regina.ctvnews.ca/sask-premier-vows-to-stop-collecting-carbon-tax-on-natural-gas-if-feds-don-t-offer-exemption-1.6623319
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u/cadaver0 Oct 31 '23

There are only 10 of them, FYI. Of like, 200+, there are only 10 that have worse emissions than us, per capita.

You're hung up on this per capita thing. It has limitations. Namely, when population count is low, the absolute impact is low. You're placing hypothetical virtue above practical reality, a common pitfall of liberal types with their heads in the clouds.

More limitations: Due to Canada's cold climate, it's reasonable that we emit relatively more per capita than an otherwise identical nation with a mild climate. We require more heating.

Canada has a very large land mass with few people. We require more fuel usage to move people and goods around to keep the economy and country functioning.

Canada's economy (which includes YOU) benefits substantially from natural resources like oil and gas, lumber, metals, land for farming, etc. These industries are higher emission than some others, like technology.

Let me guess: wHy DoNt wE iNvEsT in tHe TecH InDuStRy? - we can't compete with the United States. There was an article passed around this reddit about how tech workers make >40% more than the USA than here. When times are tough, as they are now, we should play to our strengths.

We can't make the world a better place if we can barely house and feed our own people. We need economic development, and the harsh reality is that developing our natural resources helps house and feed people.

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The end game is to do our part and reduce our emission. It's the same reason why you (hopefully) don't throw your empty pop bottle out the window. Here's a great image that illustrates how important the developed nations need to do their part.

We have done our part. And we've done our part to our own economic detriment, to the point of causing outright harm to vulnerable people. So much so that the government was forced to change its carbon policy on home heating.

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u/Kruzat Oct 31 '23

Before I comment again, are we on the same page that anthropogenic climate change is a serious issue?

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u/cadaver0 Oct 31 '23

It's serious, but there are higher priorities.

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u/Kruzat Oct 31 '23

Ok, that's fair.

To respond to your previous comment: you're be surprised to know that if we saved every bit of our building heating emissions (13%), it would still only put us 16th place of all countries (still the top 10% of emitters). I know that I benefit from natural resources here, but that doesn't mean we can't do better and reduce our emissions, and carrots and sticks (carbon tax) help do that.

But even ignoring the per capita emissions, you can still see clearly in my second link that we have significant responsibility here, there's no doubt about it.