By PAUL SULLIVAN 


Wednesday, November 27, 2002 – Print Edition, Page A23

You have to wonder about the mental choreography required to be an advocate of the Kyoto Protocol while wheeling around in a gas-devouring, pollution-generating SUV.

But that's exactly what such Kyoto stalwarts as federal Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal and Saskatchewan Liberal Leader David Karwacki have been caught doing. And we're not talking SUV-lite either -- both have opted for the ultimate heavy-metal rides -- Mr. Dhaliwal has a three-tonne, 345-horsepower Caddie Escalade and Mr. Karwacki despoils the environment in a Yukon Denali, which weighs in at 2,520 kilos and gets the gas mileage of a Sherman tank.

How can they plead for drastic reductions in greenhouse gases and improved fuel efficiency by 2010, even as the economic consequences are far from clear, while blithely lumbering around in vehicles that consume more fuel than a squadron of Toyota Prius hybrid cars?

When caught with their foot on the gas, the excuses are pitiful. Mr. Karwacki needs to feel safer on the highway and requires a big unit to truck the four kids around, and the $65K deluxe Yukon is just the ticket. Mr. Dhaliwal, who owns two SUVs, is similarly challenged. He needs his fleet to take his son to hockey practice and for ski trips.

This goes far beyond the normal hypocrisy we commonly expect from politicians. SUVs are bad, but the Escalade and Yukon are badder. They give the planet the finger as standard equipment, and are outrageously expensive. Mr. Karwacki would be hard-pressed to spend that much on a house in the centre of Regina, his capital city.

Sadly, this is nothing new. At the end of the British Columbia NDP government's mandate two years ago, at the same time cabinet contemplated slapping a $4,000 tax on gas guzzlers, it was revealed that eight cabinet members drove SUVs. And they had the same lame excuses as the current crop of land yachtsmen. Of course, all of these guys, and guys they are, are on healthy government expense accounts. They want the rest of us to go green if it kills us while we subsidize their wanton depredations.

Even more sadly, these unbearably lightweight beings are just following the bizarre fashion that has seen SUVs, pickups and minivans account for more than 50 per cent of the vehicles sold in North America in the past year. According to Northwest Environment Watch, fuel consumption in B.C. has actually risen by 7 per cent over the past decade, this at a time when our elected hypocrites are solemnly declaring to increase fuel efficiency by 25 per cent in the next one.

Of course, General Motors has just unleashed the first commercial luxury assault vehicle in history, the Hummer, and how many Escalade junkies like Herb Dhaliwal are going to find it necessary to upgrade in order to establish a beachhead at the neighbourhood hockey rink?

Whatever the ultimate virtues or drawbacks of Kyoto, these, um, leaders surely can't steal a peek at the driveway without feeling a little embarrassed. Well, maybe they can. We're all sick on consumption. While most of the people on Earth wonder where their next meal is coming from, here in North America we're buying assembly-line military hardware to go to the mall, while whining about rising energy prices.

Under these circumstances, the critics are right. The debate over Kyoto is pointless. We should start at a more fundamental level. We should be questioning our sanity.
psullivan@globeandmail.ca