Image
File
the other press
Op-Ed
Editorial
‘Cartoon
J.J. McCullough
- OP Cartoonist
Klizabeth and Philip
October 2, 2002
visit Iqaluit, Nunavut
7 of JT td
PRESENTING: _
YOUR QUEEN!
Science Matters
We’ve heard this story before
David Suzuki
The other night while I was watching television, an
ad came on for an auto company boasting about the
effectiveness of air bags and how it was one of the
leading companies concerned with safety. I sat up.
Wait, didn’t the auto industry lobby fight air bags
with everything they had? And why does this sound
so familiar?
Years ago, we did a program on The Nature of
Things about air bags. This was before they were
actually in any cars but had undergone years of test-
ing. Ralph Nader was riveting in his interview as he
explained how air bags were a cost-effective way of
saving lives and reducing injuries. The response of
the automobile industry shocked me—all out oppo-
sition—even though their own data showed that
thousands of lives would be saved. Today, those same
companies have the gall to boast of their safety
achievements.
I’m old enough now to remember similar prob-
lems decades back. I remember when people began
to press for better air standards in Sudbury, Ontario,
at a time when the city resembled a moonscape. The
company responsible for killing all the vegetation,
Inco, thundered that reducing emissions would lead
to bankruptcy and they would have to shut the plant
down. Years later, when Inco was forced to accept
higher standards mandated by government, they not
only found ways to reduce emissions, but to actual-
ly make money with the residues they captured and
the new emissions technology they could sell. In
addition, they garnered huge PR benefits by boast-
ing of the greenery returned to Sudbury thanks to
the company’s “ecological concerns.”
And who could forget the tobacco industry? We all
know about that industry's lying, deliberate decep-
tion, PR spins, junk science and cover-ups about the
health effects of smoking. Two years ago, the World
Health Organization (WHO) released a report doc-
umenting in detail how the industry had been
secretly working to discredit WHO's efforts to
reduce smoking and educate citizens in the develop-
ing world about smoking’s effect on health.
We need to remember the historical response of
industry lobby groups to the need for change as we
witness the outrageous tantrums by the oil industry
lobby and Alberta Premier Ralph Klein to the prime
minister's commitment to ratify the Kyoto Protocol
on global warming. Let’s look at the Protocol this
way: Health Canada statistics indicate that air pollu-
tion, much of it coming from burning fossil fuels,
prematurely kills up to 16,000 Canadians a year.
There are all kinds of technologies to reduce those
emissions immediately and at acceptable economic
costs, which would mean thousands of lives could be
saved annually. By bellyaching, dissembling and
delaying, the oil industry and their supporters like
Mr. Klein and the Alliance's Stephen Harper are
essentially telling us that we should allow further
deaths because corporate profits are more important.
Time after time, we have been faced with a prob-
lem in dire need of a solution—from the effects of
cigarette smoking to deaths in automobile accidents,
to global warming. And time after time, industry
lobby groups have said that catastrophe would be
the result if solutions were adopted. Well, guess
what? After new standards were enacted to protect
David Suzuki
the public, the sun still rose and the economy still
chugged along just fine. Tobacco continues to flour-
ish and the automobile industry posted record prof-
its in 2000.
Maximizing profits at the expense of human and
environmental health is not a God-given right.
Government's role is supposed to be to set standards
that benefit all, not just a few powerful industries.
Yet Premier Klein is about to embark on a taxpayer-
funded multi-million dollar ad campaign against
Kyoto, even though polls show the majority of
Canadians, including Albertans, support the treaty.
Think about that when you see those ads. Better yet,
think about air bags and tobacco.
To discuss this topic with others, visit the
discussion forum at .
page9 ©)
Edited Text
the other press
Op-Ed
Editorial
‘Cartoon
J.J. McCullough
- OP Cartoonist
Klizabeth and Philip
October 2, 2002
visit Iqaluit, Nunavut
7 of JT td
PRESENTING: _
YOUR QUEEN!
Science Matters
We’ve heard this story before
David Suzuki
The other night while I was watching television, an
ad came on for an auto company boasting about the
effectiveness of air bags and how it was one of the
leading companies concerned with safety. I sat up.
Wait, didn’t the auto industry lobby fight air bags
with everything they had? And why does this sound
so familiar?
Years ago, we did a program on The Nature of
Things about air bags. This was before they were
actually in any cars but had undergone years of test-
ing. Ralph Nader was riveting in his interview as he
explained how air bags were a cost-effective way of
saving lives and reducing injuries. The response of
the automobile industry shocked me—all out oppo-
sition—even though their own data showed that
thousands of lives would be saved. Today, those same
companies have the gall to boast of their safety
achievements.
I’m old enough now to remember similar prob-
lems decades back. I remember when people began
to press for better air standards in Sudbury, Ontario,
at a time when the city resembled a moonscape. The
company responsible for killing all the vegetation,
Inco, thundered that reducing emissions would lead
to bankruptcy and they would have to shut the plant
down. Years later, when Inco was forced to accept
higher standards mandated by government, they not
only found ways to reduce emissions, but to actual-
ly make money with the residues they captured and
the new emissions technology they could sell. In
addition, they garnered huge PR benefits by boast-
ing of the greenery returned to Sudbury thanks to
the company’s “ecological concerns.”
And who could forget the tobacco industry? We all
know about that industry's lying, deliberate decep-
tion, PR spins, junk science and cover-ups about the
health effects of smoking. Two years ago, the World
Health Organization (WHO) released a report doc-
umenting in detail how the industry had been
secretly working to discredit WHO's efforts to
reduce smoking and educate citizens in the develop-
ing world about smoking’s effect on health.
We need to remember the historical response of
industry lobby groups to the need for change as we
witness the outrageous tantrums by the oil industry
lobby and Alberta Premier Ralph Klein to the prime
minister's commitment to ratify the Kyoto Protocol
on global warming. Let’s look at the Protocol this
way: Health Canada statistics indicate that air pollu-
tion, much of it coming from burning fossil fuels,
prematurely kills up to 16,000 Canadians a year.
There are all kinds of technologies to reduce those
emissions immediately and at acceptable economic
costs, which would mean thousands of lives could be
saved annually. By bellyaching, dissembling and
delaying, the oil industry and their supporters like
Mr. Klein and the Alliance's Stephen Harper are
essentially telling us that we should allow further
deaths because corporate profits are more important.
Time after time, we have been faced with a prob-
lem in dire need of a solution—from the effects of
cigarette smoking to deaths in automobile accidents,
to global warming. And time after time, industry
lobby groups have said that catastrophe would be
the result if solutions were adopted. Well, guess
what? After new standards were enacted to protect
David Suzuki
the public, the sun still rose and the economy still
chugged along just fine. Tobacco continues to flour-
ish and the automobile industry posted record prof-
its in 2000.
Maximizing profits at the expense of human and
environmental health is not a God-given right.
Government's role is supposed to be to set standards
that benefit all, not just a few powerful industries.
Yet Premier Klein is about to embark on a taxpayer-
funded multi-million dollar ad campaign against
Kyoto, even though polls show the majority of
Canadians, including Albertans, support the treaty.
Think about that when you see those ads. Better yet,
think about air bags and tobacco.
To discuss this topic with others, visit the
discussion forum at .
page9 ©)
the other press
Op-Ed
Editorial
‘Cartoon
J.J. McCullough
- OP Cartoonist
Klizabeth and Philip
October 2, 2002
visit Iqaluit, Nunavut
7 of JT td
PRESENTING: _
YOUR QUEEN!
Science Matters
We’ve heard this story before
David Suzuki
The other night while I was watching television, an
ad came on for an auto company boasting about the
effectiveness of air bags and how it was one of the
leading companies concerned with safety. I sat up.
Wait, didn’t the auto industry lobby fight air bags
with everything they had? And why does this sound
so familiar?
Years ago, we did a program on The Nature of
Things about air bags. This was before they were
actually in any cars but had undergone years of test-
ing. Ralph Nader was riveting in his interview as he
explained how air bags were a cost-effective way of
saving lives and reducing injuries. The response of
the automobile industry shocked me—all out oppo-
sition—even though their own data showed that
thousands of lives would be saved. Today, those same
companies have the gall to boast of their safety
achievements.
I’m old enough now to remember similar prob-
lems decades back. I remember when people began
to press for better air standards in Sudbury, Ontario,
at a time when the city resembled a moonscape. The
company responsible for killing all the vegetation,
Inco, thundered that reducing emissions would lead
to bankruptcy and they would have to shut the plant
down. Years later, when Inco was forced to accept
higher standards mandated by government, they not
only found ways to reduce emissions, but to actual-
ly make money with the residues they captured and
the new emissions technology they could sell. In
addition, they garnered huge PR benefits by boast-
ing of the greenery returned to Sudbury thanks to
the company’s “ecological concerns.”
And who could forget the tobacco industry? We all
know about that industry's lying, deliberate decep-
tion, PR spins, junk science and cover-ups about the
health effects of smoking. Two years ago, the World
Health Organization (WHO) released a report doc-
umenting in detail how the industry had been
secretly working to discredit WHO's efforts to
reduce smoking and educate citizens in the develop-
ing world about smoking’s effect on health.
We need to remember the historical response of
industry lobby groups to the need for change as we
witness the outrageous tantrums by the oil industry
lobby and Alberta Premier Ralph Klein to the prime
minister's commitment to ratify the Kyoto Protocol
on global warming. Let’s look at the Protocol this
way: Health Canada statistics indicate that air pollu-
tion, much of it coming from burning fossil fuels,
prematurely kills up to 16,000 Canadians a year.
There are all kinds of technologies to reduce those
emissions immediately and at acceptable economic
costs, which would mean thousands of lives could be
saved annually. By bellyaching, dissembling and
delaying, the oil industry and their supporters like
Mr. Klein and the Alliance's Stephen Harper are
essentially telling us that we should allow further
deaths because corporate profits are more important.
Time after time, we have been faced with a prob-
lem in dire need of a solution—from the effects of
cigarette smoking to deaths in automobile accidents,
to global warming. And time after time, industry
lobby groups have said that catastrophe would be
the result if solutions were adopted. Well, guess
what? After new standards were enacted to protect
David Suzuki
the public, the sun still rose and the economy still
chugged along just fine. Tobacco continues to flour-
ish and the automobile industry posted record prof-
its in 2000.
Maximizing profits at the expense of human and
environmental health is not a God-given right.
Government's role is supposed to be to set standards
that benefit all, not just a few powerful industries.
Yet Premier Klein is about to embark on a taxpayer-
funded multi-million dollar ad campaign against
Kyoto, even though polls show the majority of
Canadians, including Albertans, support the treaty.
Think about that when you see those ads. Better yet,
think about air bags and tobacco.
To discuss this topic with others, visit the
discussion forum at .
page9 ©)
the other press
Op-Ed
Editorial
‘Cartoon
J.J. McCullough
- OP Cartoonist
Klizabeth and Philip
October 2, 2002
visit Iqaluit, Nunavut
7 of JT td
PRESENTING: _
YOUR QUEEN!
Science Matters
We’ve heard this story before
David Suzuki
The other night while I was watching television, an
ad came on for an auto company boasting about the
effectiveness of air bags and how it was one of the
leading companies concerned with safety. I sat up.
Wait, didn’t the auto industry lobby fight air bags
with everything they had? And why does this sound
so familiar?
Years ago, we did a program on The Nature of
Things about air bags. This was before they were
actually in any cars but had undergone years of test-
ing. Ralph Nader was riveting in his interview as he
explained how air bags were a cost-effective way of
saving lives and reducing injuries. The response of
the automobile industry shocked me—all out oppo-
sition—even though their own data showed that
thousands of lives would be saved. Today, those same
companies have the gall to boast of their safety
achievements.
I’m old enough now to remember similar prob-
lems decades back. I remember when people began
to press for better air standards in Sudbury, Ontario,
at a time when the city resembled a moonscape. The
company responsible for killing all the vegetation,
Inco, thundered that reducing emissions would lead
to bankruptcy and they would have to shut the plant
down. Years later, when Inco was forced to accept
higher standards mandated by government, they not
only found ways to reduce emissions, but to actual-
ly make money with the residues they captured and
the new emissions technology they could sell. In
addition, they garnered huge PR benefits by boast-
ing of the greenery returned to Sudbury thanks to
the company’s “ecological concerns.”
And who could forget the tobacco industry? We all
know about that industry's lying, deliberate decep-
tion, PR spins, junk science and cover-ups about the
health effects of smoking. Two years ago, the World
Health Organization (WHO) released a report doc-
umenting in detail how the industry had been
secretly working to discredit WHO's efforts to
reduce smoking and educate citizens in the develop-
ing world about smoking’s effect on health.
We need to remember the historical response of
industry lobby groups to the need for change as we
witness the outrageous tantrums by the oil industry
lobby and Alberta Premier Ralph Klein to the prime
minister's commitment to ratify the Kyoto Protocol
on global warming. Let’s look at the Protocol this
way: Health Canada statistics indicate that air pollu-
tion, much of it coming from burning fossil fuels,
prematurely kills up to 16,000 Canadians a year.
There are all kinds of technologies to reduce those
emissions immediately and at acceptable economic
costs, which would mean thousands of lives could be
saved annually. By bellyaching, dissembling and
delaying, the oil industry and their supporters like
Mr. Klein and the Alliance's Stephen Harper are
essentially telling us that we should allow further
deaths because corporate profits are more important.
Time after time, we have been faced with a prob-
lem in dire need of a solution—from the effects of
cigarette smoking to deaths in automobile accidents,
to global warming. And time after time, industry
lobby groups have said that catastrophe would be
the result if solutions were adopted. Well, guess
what? After new standards were enacted to protect
David Suzuki
the public, the sun still rose and the economy still
chugged along just fine. Tobacco continues to flour-
ish and the automobile industry posted record prof-
its in 2000.
Maximizing profits at the expense of human and
environmental health is not a God-given right.
Government's role is supposed to be to set standards
that benefit all, not just a few powerful industries.
Yet Premier Klein is about to embark on a taxpayer-
funded multi-million dollar ad campaign against
Kyoto, even though polls show the majority of
Canadians, including Albertans, support the treaty.
Think about that when you see those ads. Better yet,
think about air bags and tobacco.
To discuss this topic with others, visit the
discussion forum at .
page9 ©)