Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Dyer himself says, “It’s not just that there’s no obvious way to feed the next 2.5 billion; in the relatively near future global heating is going to start depriving us of a large and steadily increasing proportion of the food supply that supports the present 6.7 million.”

I’d also like to note a quote from James Hansen, the top scientist on climate change. He says, “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed, carbon dioxide will need to be reduced from its current 385 parts per million to at most 350 parts per million. We’re currently at about 388. If the present overshoot of this target carbon dioxide is not reached, there is a possibility of seeing irreversible catastrophic effects.”

Part of the problem is that in the assessments that have been done to date, we have not included the feedback loops, the things that accelerate the whole system. And it’s because there’s a process in the IPCC reports, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that necessarily uses data that’s five or six years old and doesn’t allow really current information to get involved. What scientists are trying to do now is give us an update that’s really current.

Some of these feedback loops that we’ve heard about: an increased rate of evaporation from warmer oceans that will lead to more warming; melting of the polar ice cover, particularly on the Arctic Ocean, around the Atlantic coast and Antarctic coast. This melting near the two poles will replace highly reflective white ice sheets which bounce 70 percent of incoming sunlight straight back into space, with open ocean that absorbs 94 percent. So we’re going from reflecting 70 percent to absorbing 94 percent of the sunlight striking it and converting this into heat.

Another feedback loop is the release due to warming of vast amounts of fossil methane hydrate from the Arctic and also the release of methane hydrate from the oceans. We’ve heard about those. This methane is 22 times worse than carbon dioxide as a warming agent, so warming will be much faster as you include this feedback mechanism. We know now that this is already happening in the Arctic.

Another issue is that the carbon that has been absorbed by the oceans, which is a huge thing we have in our favour. The oceans actually take carbon from the atmosphere and absorb it and store it so it doesn’t affect our climate. Unfortunately, we have now realized that the capacity of the oceans is cut in half because of the warmer temperatures and the carbonation of the water. Now, this starts getting into some complicated science and so on, but the major fact here is that this is another feedback loop that is causing things to happen much, much faster. Again, it addresses this gravest of concerns.

One more quote from Vandana Shiva, director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Natural Resource Policy in New Delhi.

“With more and more land that is diverted for industrial biofuels to keep cars running we have two years before a food catastrophe breaks out worldwide. It will be 20 years before climate catastrophe breaks out, but the false solutions to climate change are creating catastrophes that will be much more rapid than the climate change itself.”

I want this House to be fully aware of the context within which we develop budgets and deliver

programs to our people. This is something -- and I feel awkward talking about this because I know people still are not aware of how grave the situation is -- I feel obligated to my people, and the people of the world, to really highlight this and stress we can’t just toy at this. We can’t debate and argue about this. The science is very clear and it’s becoming clearer every day that we speak. We need to really focus and completely green our economy, if you will. Again, I don’t want to turn people off that are tired of the green operation, but we need to redo our whole systems, the way we develop our economy, the way we do business, how we educate our children and so on. We need to really start addressing it in a holistic way. Our difficulty is that our time frame is quite short. We know that we’re already past what is sustainable. But we also know that we can take that for a while, as long as we return as quickly as possibly or, say, within a matter of decades to a level of carbon in the atmosphere that is sustainable again.

The way this happens, of course, is with each and every one of us and each and every one of our constituents out there acting in knowledgeable ways, becoming aware of the issues and then acting together to address this.

So I once again very much appreciate this opportunity to address this context within which these budgets are developed and go forward. I guess I make a plea, and I would be on my knees if need be, because we are discussing the gravest issue here for human kind and, of course, for the ecological system out there. Let’s really get aware, let’s become aware, let’s focus on working together on this and let’s focus on getting effective and make sure our budgets from this time forward are more and more cognitive of this both demand and opportunity.

Fortunately, I think recognizing everything we do must be within this context, I see the happy coincidence of many great opportunities for doing things in better ways for people that actually will respond to the need to do this. I’m looking forward to working with this government towards that end. The solutions are myriad, it’s just that they’re desperately needed yesterday.

It’s going to take a lot of awareness and commitment and innovation to act effectively on these opportunities, but the goal is great and the outcome is worth our complete dedication and focus. For our people I again make this plea to this House: become aware and act quickly. I will offer my full help on that in any way that’s useful.