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 ©)