Mike at The London Fog (inner quote is Richard Gwyn of the Toronto Star) writes:

Let's consider the question of why, quite suddenly, Canadians should overwhelmingly view global warming as an issue that must be dealt with right away, even if this involves some sacrifices.

Richard Gwyn seeks to explain the bizarre, Pet Rock-style appeal of Global Warming. "Science" agrees that it is happening. But Gwyn notes that Canadians account for only 2% of The Gas Formerly Known As C02, and could benefit in many ways from a general warming. And yet, says Gwyn, Canadians are eager to take up the dagger of sacrifice. Sure, there's the Al Gore film -- I would just die to watch that 100 years from now, when the high priests are trying to sell "climate stagnation", or some such.

There's more than a few things worth noting here:

• Mike underestimates the frequencies of these scares: global cooling, Y2K, peak oil, overpopulation, species collapse, ultraviolet zapping, global warming.... They come at least once a decade and people are about sincere and worked up about them as they are about GW. We'll be laughing at Al Gore in a decade's time (well, not me: I'm laughing now), but unfortunately we'll just be on to something else which will require the same solutions -- strip privileges from the middle class, reign in economic freedom, concentrate more power in the hands of technocrats. The solution is always the same.
• Since Harper's election a year ago, CBC radio has been doing a program on GW about once a day. Obviously someone there is agitating for senate posting or maybe even a Governor General's position as a reward for faithful lapdog service. The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star haven't been far behind, and are certainly working hard these days to catch up.
• Don't underestimate to the religious component about GW: if you don't believe in something, you'll believe in anything. Never in my life have I been lectured so often about science by people who don't have the first clue about it. And like all little cult religions, the most important accessory is the hairshirt.
• Canadians are eager to "take up the dagger of sacrifice" although they personally don't plan to lie under the business end of the knife -- they've got the perfect victim in mind. But pay $3.00/litre for gas? What are you crazy? Ban SUVs? But I live on a hill, it's very tricky to get up there you know!