Yes, things are heating up, new environment minister says

Canada's new environment minister, John Baird,isn't saying what he'll try to do about global warming, but he suggested in a CBC interview on Friday that weird weather has eliminated anydoubts that temperatures are rising.

"I mean, I grew up here in Ottawa, lived here my entire life, and I can't remember a winter where I didn't have to use my boots,"he told Heather Hiscox of CBC Newsworld. "I left the house without even awinter coat this morning. So that's obviously a huge concern."

Baird, who stressed that he was just 20 hours into the job and still needs to be "briefed up," replaced Rona Ambrose, who had struggled to defend the government's have-it-both-ways stand on the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

Under Stephen Harper's Tories, Canada remains a Kyoto signatory but rejects the main idea of the agreement, a schedule for substantial cuts in heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. A Liberal government under Jean Chrétien ratified the agreement in 2002.

Baird gave no hint of his thinking on the Kyoto targets, but missed no chance to accuse the Liberals of dissembling.

"Canadians … are pretty skeptical when it comes to climate change because they saw the previous government for 13 long years increasegreenhouse gas emission by 30 per cent, at the same time wearing a cloak of green. So Canadians want to see some real action and one that will have results and not just rhetoric."

In his remarks on global warming, hewas following the lead of Prime Minister Harper, who at times had seemed unconvinced it is a problem, but declared this week that Canadians deserve more action on both air pollution and climate change.

Liberals' climate change record 'pretty bad': Baird

Baird said climate change is "a huge priority of Canadians," and one he intends to tackle as soon as he gets up to speedon the scientific and policy issues.

"Canadians want a minister who's going to be concerned," he said.

"I think [Liberal Leader] Stéphane Dion has clearly said he's very concerned about the issue, but people aren't going to look at what you say. They're going to look at what you do, and the Liberals' record on this is pretty bad."

Dion, in a separate Newsworld interview, said his own emphasis on environmental policymay have helped topushHarper to change his tone on global warming.

The prime minister"received a wakeup call, maybe from me, but from all Canadians," but itremains to be seen how serious he is about it, the Liberal leader said.

"It will not be difficult to do more than he did last year. Last year, he cut 90 per cent of the programs for environment and climate change. Last year, he embarrassed the country with his approach regarding Kyoto on the international stage.

"So I hope we will see some improvement, even though it will stay far from what wereally need to do … and if he is willing to improve even a bit what he did last year, this will be very positive."