The widespread economic turmoil of the past few weeks has Americans hearing and thinking a lot about the long-term impact the crisis on Wall Street will have on the nation. If recent events in Canada are any indication, the ripple effect of this problem will reach into an area most people aren’t even considering at this moment: the environment.
Roger Gibbins, of the Calgary Herald, recently asked the question that holds a global resonance: Will Canadian voters hold firm to an environmental agenda in bad times as well as good? Until recently, the upcoming Canadian election, much like the American counterpart, had a decidedly green feel to it. Environmental issues were part of the campaign dialogue.
But then the economic crisis began to unfold, and Canadians hoping to push a green agenda found voters a lot less interested. In the western province of British Columbia, where a carbon tax was recently adopted by provincial voters, support for the incumbent Liberal government that pushed the tax plan is fading, recent polls show.
“The argument that aggressive climate change action is essential for Canada’s economic prosperity is not holding in tough economic times,” Gibbins noted.
With the plunging stock market, escalating fuel costs, and general economic uncertainty in the U.S. comes less media coverage of green issues, and more concern for traditional economic necessities. When you’re worrying about foreclosure, greenhouse gases usually aren’t the biggest issue on your mind.
As it is, only 22% of American voters consider themselves “active participants” in the environmental movement, whereas over 60% of voters cite the economy as “the nation’s most important problem”. There is clearly some kind of disconnect at work here: either American voters are unaware of any relation between the two issues, don’t believe it exists, or (the most likely scenario) simply don’t care.
Green issues have a global impact that is increasingly apparent and accepted, if not yet fully understood. It is called Global Warming after all, not American Warming. Whether the economy is strong or weak doesn’t change the long term importance of addressing environmental issues.
What does change with the economy, however, is whether or not voters will let environmental concerns hit them where it hurts: the wallet. So far, events in our friendly neighbor to the north suggest that even the environmentally-conscious Canadians are not prepared to tackle global warming when the economy cools. Is this an attitude that will carry over south-of-the-border? Stay tuned.
Most Read