Angry in the Great White North

Here's what Environment Canada has to say about bromines:

Halocarbons

Halocarbons are human-produced chemical compounds containing members of the halogen family (bromine, chlorine, and fluorine) and carbon. They are some of the most effective heat trapping greenhouse gases of all. Halocarbons are typically involved in various industrial and home uses with chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) being the most familiar.

Sounds nasty. The Sierra Club agrees, and saves special scorn for the bromine-loving Americans:

How is the Bush Administration threatening the Montreal Protocol?

In 1997, the signatories to the Protocol agreed to a complete elimination of Methyl Bromide in developed countries by 2005, with interim reductions of 25% by 1999, 50% by 2001, and 70% by 2003. After the phase-out date, signatories would be allowed to apply for "critical use" exemptions to the ban. The Critical Use Exemption is designed to allow continued production and usage of Methyl Bromide in cases where there are no technically and economically feasible alternative.

The US has requested 9,921 tonnes of Methyl Bromide be considered 'critical use'. The global requested critical use exemptions for Methyl Bromide total 16,917 metric tonnes. Meaning that the United States has requested more 'critical use' exemptions than all other countries combined. The Bush administration has threatened to ignore the treaty altogether if their 'critical use' demands for Methyl Bromide are not met.

Last year, The United Nations Technology and Economics Assessment Panel (TEAP) assessed the requests for 'critical use'. Of the total 16,917 tonnes requested, TEAP is recommending that 12,901 tonnes be approved, 8,942 tonnes for the US. An approval for the US demands would cause a surge in worldwide use of Methyl Bromide. It would undermine the treaty and reverse the trend toward a cleaner, safer environment for everyone. There is the risk that other nations will follow suit with the US and that they too will fall short on their commitments made as signatories to the Montreal Protocol.

Agricultural use of bromines earns special criticism:

Methyl Bromide Use in the United States

The US uses more Methyl Bromide than any other nation. In 1991, the US used 25,000 tonnes of Methyl Bromide, representing nearly 40% of the total amount of Methyl Bromide use globally. Nearly half of the 25,000 tonnes of Methyl Bromide used by the US in 1991 was used on only two crops - Florida tomatoes and California strawberries. In California there are 849 elementary schools within one mile of fields or greenhouses which use substantial quantities of Methyl Bromide.

Alternatives to Methyl Bromide

The United Nations Methyl Bromide Technical Options Committee concluded that there are safer, healthier, non-ozone depleting alternatives for more than 90% of Methyl Bromide uses. Soil fumigation with methyl bromide has been successfully replaced by many non-chemical alternatives including cultural practices such as crop rotation, biological controls, artificial plant growth substrates, soil solarization and many more.

Not everyone agrees, though. The Bromine Science and Environmental Forum argues that bromine-based agricultural chemicals are critical:

Bromine compounds are effective pesticides, used both as soil fumigants in agriculture, particularly fruit-growing, and as a fumigant to prevent pests from attacking stored grain and other produce. Significant volumes of world trade in agriculture goods depend on the use of bromine compounds to ensure compliance with mandatory rules on quarantine. Bromine compounds are also used as intermediates to make some of the agriculture chemicals we take for granted.

In fact, the BSEF is quite aggressive in defending the use of bromine in water purification, batteries, pharmaceuticals, photography, and as a flame retardant.

What exactly is the BSEF? According to the Center for Media and Democracy, the BSEF is an industry front group:

The Bromine Science and Environmental Forum is a bromine industry front group run by the global PR firm Burson-Marsteller (BM).

Established in 1997, BSEF has only four members: the world's major producers of bromine flame retardants, based in the US, Israel and Japan.

Not just a front group. Indeed, a group that includes strong-arm tactics:

The BSEF has a remarkably aggressive, zero-tolerance strategy towards critics exposing the impacts of toxic bromine products. In a May 2003 letter on behalf of the BSEF, the law firm Harbottle & Lewis urged newspapers and television broadcasters not to cover the warnings against BFRs issued by WWF and other environmental groups. The letter advised the media to consult Lawrie Mc Laren on issues related to BFRs and ended with the following blunt notification: "We should state for the record that our clients will be monitoring future press and media coverage on the issue of BFRs, and will not hesitate to pursue all remedies available to them should there be any incorrect or inaccurate statements in relation to BFRs that adversely affect our clients' businesses."

Now who would want to be associated with the BSEF, the nefarious peddlers of bromine-based poision that is killing our planet?

Why, Liberals of couse!

In particular, two Liberals, John Duffy and Robert Asselin.

You might remember John Duffy from the last election. He was the Liberal mouthpiece who threatened CTV's Mike Duffy off the air, then was chewed out by the Duffster on national television. Here is a video of that famous encounter:

Robert Asselin was a colleague of John Duffy's in StrategyCorp and formerly a special advisor to Paul Martin.

Robert Asselin was a lobbyist for the BSEF throughout 2005.

John Duffy was a lobbyist for the BSEF from 2004 until January 2007, just a few weeks ago.

What did these two Liberals do for the BSEF? They fought tooth and nail against the definition of bromines as toxic:

The purpose of this initiative is to propose the addition of the following substances to Schedule 1 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999):

• Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, that have the molecular formula C12H(10-n)BrnO in which 4<=n<=10;
• Perfluorooctane sulfonate and its salts;
• Compounds that contain one of the following groups: C8F17SO2, C8F17SO3 or C8F17SO2N.

Scientific assessments conducted indicate that these substances are entering the environment in a quantity or concentration or under conditions that constitute or may have an immediate or long-term harmful effect on the environment or its biological diversity and thus satisfy the criterion set out under paragraph 64(a) of CEPA 1999. Therefore, these substances are recommended for addition to Schedule 1 of CEPA 1999.

The available data regarding persistence and bioaccumulation also indicates that tetraBDE, pentaBDE and hexaBDE satisfy the criteria outlined in the Persistence and Bioaccumulation Regulations, made under CEPA 1999, and as such, meet the statutory criteria for virtual elimination (VE) of releases to the environment.

Polybrominated diphenyil ethers are of interest to the BSEF. They hired Duffy and Asselin to look into the "issue":

ISSUES SURROUNDING PROPOSED REDEFINITION OF POLYBROMINATED DIPHENYL ETHERS AS DEFINED IN SECTION 64 OF THE CANADIAN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT, 1999

So what is these guys up to now? Since last November they've been running ClimateLiberal.ca. What is ClimateLiberal.ca?

Focus on the climate crisis

Make the Liberal Party of Canada the Vehicle

Organize via the web

Well, isn't that special. Fix the problem of climate change, but only if the Liberal Party is in charge. And being organized by two Liberals who for years, and until only a few weeks ago, were lobbyists for industrial concerns who were aggressively opposing any attempt to regulate bromines, recognized as one of the worst contributers to ozone depletion and temperature rise:

Since our launch in late November, climateliberal.ca has been a great success. We have made a major media splash, put on an impressive display at the national Liberal convention, and nudged the Liberal Party a good deal of the distance it needs to travel to make the climate crisis its number one priority.

Indeed, there is much to suggest that our work among Liberals is largely complete. The Liberal Party of Canada's new leader, the Hon. Stephane Dion, is passionately commited to environmental issues. He has placed the drive towards sustainability at the core of his offering to Liberals -- and now, to all Canadians as a national leader.

Stephane Dion's commitment is probably sincere. But John Duffy's is suspect. Certainly he does not admit to his work for BSEF. In fact, in an article for the Globe and Mail reprinted on ClimateLiberal.ca, he writes about how the Liberals missed the environmental boat over the last few years, conveniently forgetting to mention that during those same years, he was a Liberal shill for the BSEF, and therefore was working hard to make sure that the Liberal Party did not go too far along the environmental path:

The author, along with other Liberals, must contritely acknowledge that while the last two Liberal governments started moving in the right direction, they clearly were not moving swiftly enough. The core mission of the Chretien-Martin Liberals was restoring Canada's economic and fiscal health, not climate change. The core mission was accomplished. And now looking ahead, dealing with the climate crisis must be the core mission of the next Liberal leader, and the next Liberal government.

Not moving swiftly enough. I wonder why. Perhaps aggressive lobbying by Liberal insiders on behalf of major chemical concerns?

Makes me wonder just how many "environmentalists" in the Liberal Party are really working for the other side.

Is it any surprise at all that while they were in power, the Liberal Party achieved nothing with regards to the environment?

Important cross-links:

• This is not the first time someone has put ClimateLiberal.ca in the spotlight.
• The video of Duffy-v-Duffy was extracted from the original capture by ProudToBeCanadian.ca. I couldn't find the link at PtbC but I had a copy of the raw video.
• John Duffy knows my name!