The world is on a collision course with climate change. We need real leadership to steer the ship away from catastrophe.

The lost souls that went down with the Titanic should be haunting the climate change negotiations leading to the global summit at Copenhagen in December. The Titanic is the most apt metaphor for our imperiled planet. The habitable environment of Earth is like the ship heading towards the iceberg that is catastrophic climate change. Already, scientists are contemplating that the tipping point of a two-degree rise will be reached sooner than expected. After that, it will be about adapting to environmental catastrophes rather than avoiding them.

The difference between the ocean liner and climate change is that this time virtually everyone knows that the ship is on a collision course with the iceberg. Yet there are some who refuse to help steer the ship away from the catastrophe unless everyone in the crew helps.

Canadians might be astonished to learn that the Stephen Harper-led Conservative government seems willing to let Canadians and the rest of the world go down with the ship if others do not do their part. Since assuming power in 2006, Harper and his three environment ministers have insisted that Canada will not agree to any climate change treaty in Copenhagen unless developing countries like India and China also agree to binding targets to reduce greenhouse emissions.

At the UN Climate Change Summit of some 100 world leaders that was organized this September in New York, Environment Minister Jim Prentice, speaking for the absent Prime Minister, continued to encourage full steam ahead, while downplaying indications that a critical member of the crew, China, was willing to take some first substantial steps towards reducing emissions. China announced a massive reforestation initiative to cover an area the size of Norway and pledged that within a decade, 15 per cent of its energy needs would come from renewable sources, including the increased use of nuclear energy and improved energy efficiency. President Hu Jintao seemed to understand the lesson of the Titanic when he said, “Out of a sense of responsibility to its own people and people across the world, China fully appreciates the importance and urgency of addressing climate change.”

While the UN praised China for taking a leading role in battling climate change, Prentice seemed dismissive of the Chinese efforts, pointing out that China had yet to commit to clear targets for greenhouse emissions. But then, neither has Canada. The only clear Conservative environmental plan is to wait to see what the U.S. will do with its cap and trade legislation and then follow suit. The U.S. Congress has become the super legislature of Canada as far as our climate change plans go.

And unlike the new climate change efforts of China and India, the Harper government has cut back on funding for renewable energy initiatives. Meanwhile, the U.S., European Union, and Japan are all committed to dramatically ramping up the development of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and the manufacturing of environment-friendly goods and vehicles. As so many leaders in other countries have pointed out, these efforts can also assist in the economic recovery from the “Great Recession” of the last two years, and the creation of millions of 21st-century careers for their unemployed and underemployed citizens.

So while senior crew members like President Obama warn that the time is running out to change course, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki- Moon says that “failure to reach broad agreement in Copenhagen would be morally inexcusable, economically short-sighted, and politically unwise,” what have the delinquent Canadian crew members done? They put blindfolds on and refuse to look at the looming iceberg (at one time Harper even questioned the existence of the iceberg).

Just as an impudent child would, Canada is stamping its feet and demanding that others start the avoidance measures first, before Canada does anything of substance to help steer away from the danger.

Canadians need to tear the blindfolds off their elected leaders and demand that they work hard to avoid the fate of the Titanic. Canada needs leadership that demonstrates real moral courage. We should have a leading role in the development of a global consciousness to avoid the sinking of our planetary ship.