This is a grain of salt

  • Dear Mr. President...
  • Salt graphic (detail)
  • Full ad
SUMMARY:

A quarter-page ad in the Washington Post in advance of Barack Obama's visit to Canada, advising him to take Stephen Harper's words on climate change with a grain of salt and encouraging him to press Harper for action on the issue.

PROJECT: This is a grain of salt

DATE: Feb 19, 2009

TAGS:

This ad ran yesterday in the Washington Post (page A3), in advance of Barack Obama's visit to Canada today. It warns Obama to take Canadian Prime Minister Harper's words on climate change with a grain of salt and to press him for action. The full text of the ad is below:

Dear Mr. President,

This is a grain of salt

Please clip it and take it with you to Canada on Thursday. Everything Canadian Prime Minister Harper says on climate change needs to be taken with one of these.

For the last three years Mr. Harper has claimed concern for the environment while undermining Canada and the world's attempts to fight climate change.

Harper's plan to reduce emissions has been publicly denounced by his government's own environmental watchdog as being "based on flawed assumptions" and containing "almost no analysis."

The result? No progress has been made. Emissions are rising fast. And our new Environment Minister is a former Industry Minister from Canada's oil patch.

Don't take Prime Minister Harper at his word, Mr. President. Challenge him to agree to a global cap on carbon, a fair share of the responsibility for cutting emissions, and a clear mechanism to meet these commitments.

Because when it comes to climate change, our government is not worth its salt.

This message has been endorsed and funded by thousands of concerned Canadians.

* Photo courtesy of Jared Fein