In reading both the article “Great Lakes getting dirtier, watchdog warns” written by Rob Ferguson and Tanya Talaga in the Toronto Star, and the 2009/2010 annual reports written by Canada’s environmental commissioner Gord Miller you can believe that the Canadian government is not doing their part for the environment. It can be seen that some things are happening to decrease biodiversity loss, but not enough is being done to make a real difference. It is best said in the words from the article in the Toronto Star as “His annual report [Gord Milller] slams Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government for talking a good game on the environment but not following through, putting at risk everything from drinking water to air quality and wildlife.”(Ferguson and Talaga 2010).Miller is stating that the government needs to be planting trees in every open space there is to cut down on the carbon dioxide that is suffocating us. Though the government has said that they will cut down on logging and mining and plant more trees, that Canada will be greener by the year 2020. Miller is not seeing this being done; there are still much logging and mining happening all across Canada, when there should be more planting. When mining and logging happens more carbon dioxide is produced into the air. When they bring down trees they taking away that filter to clean air so that we can breathe better. Thus Miller is saying that more trees need to be planted instead of being taking down, for example take one plant two.
The great lakes are said to be “dirtier” (Ferguson and Talaga 2010) than we think they are. This statement should not be a thought it should be a reality. Though Miller states that the American shorelines are cleaner than Canadian. Canadians have a great deal of phosphorous levels in the great lakes such as Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and Lake Ontario. (Ferguson and Talaga 2010) We need to work harder to make our lakes some of the cleanest in the world, and most biodiverse.
The environmental commissioner of Canada, Gord Miller is saying that “Ontarians need to develop a new approach to conservation, or face the significant consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss.” He is making a good point in that the citizens of Canada are not doing their part to keep the earth alive. Many things have been going wrong since day one, and these are all factors that have been contributing to the loss of our ozone, and many things that make our earth so home. As Miller is the commissioner for the environment of Canada he knows what is going on in the government and how they intend to make Canada a more environmentally friendly place.
Miller is saying that the Canadian government has not been keeping their promises that they made to help the environment. Some of these promises include; protecting wildlife, including wildlife reserves for both animals and plants. The government had also promised to plant 50 million trees by 2020, which is nowhere close the 1 billion that need to be planted in Southwestern Ontario alone (Miller).Miller is saying that the government has been lying to us, they say that they will protect our forestry from mining and logging, when logging and mining are both still happening in forests that are supposed to be protected.
The article written in the Toronto Star has made good use and kept to the words of Canada’s environmental commissioner Gord Miller. The article has shown that the government has not been keeping their promises. It could be said that they are at part responsible for the biodiversity loss in Canada. These are words that Miller has been using all along; he believes that the government is not doing near what they need to be doing for our country, and for our earth.
While comparing these two articles it was easy to see the connection, because there were direct quotations from Millers original article. This made it more like what Miller was trying to say. The article didn’t twist and turn what Miller was saying. Both articles positioned that the government has not been doing its part to help out the environment. In the secondary article from the Toronto Star; the article was more about the argument that Miller was trying to prove. Where-as in the primary article actually written by Gord Milller, he was stating where the government was going wrong and what promises they had made, and how they weren’t exactly keeping them.
Overall both articles made good points in how the government was not keeping up to their word, and bypassing what really needs to be done for our environment. The government needs to realize what is happening, and should be figuring out what they can do to help. Not just say that they’re going to do something, and do a mediocre job. They need to sit and make their promises happen not only for the people of their country but for the people of the world, present and future.
References:
1- Ferguson, R, & Talaga, T. (2010, September 22). Great lakes getting dirtier, watchdog warns. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/environment/article/864660
2- Miller, G. (2010). Environmental commissioner releases 2009/2010 annual report. Retrieved from http://www.eco.on.ca/blog/2010/09/22/environmental-commissioner-releases-20092010-annual-report/
Photo credit: Paula Gray 2010
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