12 December 2011 Last updated at 17:27 ET

Canada will formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, the minister of the environment has said.

Peter Kent said the protocol "does not represent a way forward for Canada" and would have forced it to take "radical and irresponsible choices".

The move, which is legal and was expected, makes it the first nation to pull out of the global treaty.

The protocol, initially adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, is aimed at fighting global warming.

"Kyoto, for Canada, is in the past, and as such we are invoking our legal right to withdraw from Kyoto," Mr Kent said in Toronto.

He said he would be formally advising the United Nations of his country's intention to withdraw.

He said the cost of meeting Canada's obligations under Kyoto would cost $13.6bn (10.3bn euros; £8.7bn): "That's $1,600 from every Canadian family - that's the Kyoto cost to Canadians, that was the legacy of an incompetent liberal government".
(Note: But spending over $7,000.00/family on war machines is a good thing)

Canada declared four years ago that it did not intend to meet its existing Kyoto Protocol commitments and its annual emissions have risen by about once third since 1990.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16151310

Repeat after Harper: "Canadians Don't Care..."

Reposted from another thread:

I'm really choked about Canada withdrawing from Kyoto.  Our permafrost is melting, the mountain pine beetle is marching across the country and the Arctic ice is melting threatening, not just the environment but our sovereignty and national security.  In response to these threats our American lapdog of a Prime Minister licks some dog shit off Uncle Sam's boots and pleads for more.  I can just about see him capering around his desk, anxiously watching his phone, hoping someone will give him a good boy call and a pat on the head.

An excellent summation of Harper, jim.
I have a visual of Harper as a little, gray yapper dog with Uncle Sam's mop handle up his butt mopping the floor.
Maybe Sid can make such a cartoon?

Jim... I don't know what's worse - Harper... or that most Canadians are either disillusioned or willfully in denial.

Both are pretty bad....and I can only hope that the decent, thinking people of the country keep speaking out. When you are outnumbered by the sloth of others (and I think most are simply willfully uninformed and lazy) it is very frustrating and a lot of stones will be thrown at everyone. It is important to remember what is important and work for any step in the right direction.