Talking to your relatives or friends about climate change can be an uncomfortable situation. Everybody has the right to prioritize issues in their own lives, and nobody should feel talked down to by someone who is concerned about the climate apathy many Canadians feel.

The historical culprits for causing climate change have gotten away with murder in Durban, abandoning their responsibility for this crisis and placing the burden upon the shoulders of the world. But this is not the time to mourn Durban. We must organize and create a just, sustainable future.

Few issues have united delegates at the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa. But if you mentioned the name of "Canada," the response would be unanimous -- a collective groan and lament. Canada dug the grave for the Kyoto Protocol so the United States could put a bullet in its body.

The world doesn't want us to stop pumping oil out of the oil sands anytime soon. But the vast majority of nations also want us to start playing nicer, to start acknowledging the changed reality, to start supporting their citizens' ambitions for a cleaner, more responsible future -- and we're not doing any of that.

As we enter Durban's final day, an agreement seems plausible on a second period under the legally-binding Kyoto deal -- without Canada. Other scenarios are equally plausible. Governments that take climate change seriously could choose to defer, or a dramatic final plenary could end in collapse.

Here at COP17 the world's biggest emitters, being led by the United States, are telling the rest of the world that right now is the time to wait. And yet we are standing upon a continent literally being cooked by climate change.

Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent’s opening address on Wednesday at the UN climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, in which he aff...

Canada has decided to put polluters ahead of people. It is only nation to weaken its international commitments after the Copenhagen conference; this after it stood alone as the only nation to renounce its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.