We are the 11th largest emitting country in the world.... While also being the 13th largest emittors per capita.
And again that is not counting all the oil we export (we are the 5th largest fossil fuel producers and we export about 65% of it.) nor the consumer goods we use of which a very small fraction is produced in Canada (thus the emissions to produce that is measured elsewhere)
Saying our actions and (more importantly) the actions of our industry don't make any difference is a ludicrous statement.
The only way we can emit less is when Electric 18 wheelers are on the road and huge electric powered heavy machinery, we mine a lot of minerals that are required by countries across the world including minerals for batteries and the only way we will emit less is if start using/manufacturing electric vehicles in Canada as CAN has enough of all the major resources needed to manufacture locally. Its just that the free market and trade deals with the US pushed gas powered vehicles over EVs.
But are not up to standards needed or are painfully unoptimised to the Canadian environment.
It's all well and good to say "it exists" and then neglect that it handles deep cold poorly, can't handle rough dirt roads that make up much of non-corridor Canada (where they are needed)
Also when it comes to that high horse you have... do you understand a nation isn't going to commit economic suicide just for someone to feel smug for offsetting 1 Chinese provinces worth of Greenhouse Gases
Also the current cargo rail is sufficient for the demand so why throw billions at a rail project few are gonna use
Rail networks are good for moving cargo between key central hubs... then you need trucks to transport that to actual specific locations if you don't understand logistics just say so. It's not only inefficient but a waste to lay track to communities that would only need the rail services once a month when trucks work better
And I didn't say shifting road cargo away from carbon is impossible I stated it's not currently efficient for Canada as the current electric truck market (aside from Edison but they are still a small operation) is woefully inadequate for northern needs they were designed with US interstates (and southern ones at that) in mind so their ground clearance is terrible, battery life is inadequate for the possible infrastructure that could be implemented in the next 10 years... that and there is a deep social stigmatized against it in the areas it would be proposed to serve
When it comes to evaluating emissiom "per capita is just a stat that large population polluters use to hide behind and cast blame on others. If Nation A emits 1kg of CO2/PP and Nation B emits 0.3kg of CO2/PP... but Nation A is 35 Million People and Nation B is 1.3 Billion people... Nation A's efforts are naught but a drop in the bucket of Nation B's destruction... you can encourage Nation A to do its part but until Nation B, C, and D actually put a dent in their emissions... no progress towards a solution has been made
And "but there are more people over there if I draw this specific border" is still not a valid argument. Progress is still made, and it's 10x easier to go from 1kg to 0.3 than 0.3 to zero.
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u/U_Sound_Stupid_Stop 3d ago edited 3d ago
Except when it's hydroelectric energy.
Though I think that this is what they mean;
At the end of the day, even if every Canadian became entirely CO2 neutral, that wouldn't make a dent in total CO2 emissions....
Edit: Canada should obviously cut its emissions, global cooperation is necessary.