I'll post again with reflexions on the whole COP, but I just had a few thoughts I wanted to get down. The last few days were a whirlwind of emotions as we met with a parade of Canadian politicians, including Jim Prentice, federal minister of the environment, and Rob Renner, Alberta's environment minister.

Although these two meetings were very different from each other in many ways, what struck me about both of them was that these two people, the only ones in their governments specifically charged with protecting the environment, simply did not appear to have that principle as their top priority. I guess I knew that ministers don't always have extensive backgrounds in whichever portfolio they end up with, but I had never really thought about what that reality looks like.

Thinking about the meetings afterward, what I think made them so potent was that, although I've discussed climate issues so many times in so many fora, for the first time, I was discussing them with somebody who had the power to do something about them. While all past discussions I've had were essentially theoretical, these two had infinitely higher stakes. Probably it was for this reason that it was so frightening to hear what they, were saying - claiming a large chunk of the remaining "CO2 space" post-global emissions reductions for Alberta, focusing on nuclear and large hydro projects (not even mentioning wind power) for federal emissions reductions, and generally denying the necessity of reducing emissions from Annex I countries by 25-40% by 2020 (accepted as the necessary target to keep global warming below 2°C, beyond which disastrous tipping points are passed).

It's pretty scary.