Mr. Speaker, I listened to what the member had to say. I would simply reflect back to him what I have said to others when I have engaged in the comments on these debates and that is, it is based on huge assumptions on all facets.
First, on the environmental facet, one must recognize that carbon dioxide, which is the main element of the Kyoto accord, is the fourth element in our atmosphere. As a matter of fact, nitrogen and oxygen comprise 99%, actually it is 99.03%, of our total atmosphere. Everything else is less than 1%. The next one is argon and following that is carbon dioxide at .033% by volume. Therefore, when one says that carbon dioxide emissions will greatly affect our atmosphere, our weather, our global temperature, I think it is a huge leap of assumption.
Furthermore, Canada emits about 2% of man-made carbon dioxide. The man-made portion of carbon dioxide production in the world is an infinitesimal amount of the total if we think of things like volcanoes and forest fires. Every swamp that is rotting away produces carbon dioxide. It is not reasonable to assume that the small proportion of carbon dioxide that is emitted by mankind worldwide can really have a sizable affect on the total amount of carbon dioxide in the world. It is the same as saying that the oceans are too high so we had better take a couple of cups of water out of them. Numerically that would reduce the volume of water in the oceans, but it would be an infinitesimal amount. That is the first assumption.
Then the big assumption is that by actually reducing our production of carbon dioxide, even by the percentage proclaimed here, it would have any affect at all. I think that is a huge leap.
I am a mathematician, a math physics major. I did a little chemistry but probably only enough to be dangerous. I think we need to be very careful with what we are doing.
The question is are we ready to risk such huge economic repercussions for something that may not make any difference at all?