growth
![Karl Nerenberg](http://rabble.ca/sites/rabble/files/imagecache/thumbnail/category_pictures/Karl.jpg "Karl Nerenberg joins rabble to cover news for the rest of us from Parliament Hill. Karl has been a journalist for over 25 years including eight years as the producer of the CBC show The House. He has written scripts for documentary films and long-form television reports for such shows as Le Point and Actuel on Radio Canada television and The Journal on CBC-TV. Karl also founded and, for five years, edited the magazine Federations: What's new in federalism worldwide.
Karl has been awarded a Gemini award, a Best International Documentary Series award (from "la communauté des televisions francophones"), a CBC Radio Award for Best New Series (C'est la vie) among others. As a broadcaster, Mr. Nerenberg produced and directed television series and documentaries in a wide range of genres and on a great variety of subjects -- from civil war in Central America, to the crisis in South Africa's Apartheid system.
Karl works in both English and French, and can be reached at karl@rabble.ca")
Hill Dispatches: Harper talks pension cuts; economists see sluggish Canadian economy
| January 27, 2012![Living On Purpose](http://rabble.ca/sites/rabble/files/imagecache/thumbnail/category_pictures/living100x100.jpg "Lynn Thompson is the host and producer of "Living on Purpose", a thoughtful, nourishing blend of ideas, conversation and music offered in a spirit of health and well-being. Guests are invited to share their insights and inspirations through how they embrace life's challenges and opportunities.")
You can't cut your way to growth
The Harper government's June Budget is almost entirely a reprinted version of the budget they tabled two-and-a-half months ago in March. Outside of $2.2 billion for Quebec's sales tax harmonization and the elimination of federal support for political parties, there's nothing new in the budget -- and that's the problem.
While the budget includes a few positive measures, many of which were proposed by the NDP -- such as increases to GIS payments for seniors, reintroducing incentives for energy retrofits -- they are overshadowed by what's bad and what's not there.
Let's bring balance back to our planet
I grew up on a farm and have continued to raise plants for most of my life. Anyone who does this usually learns about insects that prey upon plants. The smart ones also learn about the balance of nature.
I have seen cut worms, aphids, mites and hoppers destroy crops and the plants that produce them. I have seen how practising mono culture, that is growing huge, unbroken areas of a single crop, has facilitated terrible infestations by providing and almost endless feast of a favoured plant for a pest.
I have seen pest control that did more harm than good by killing not only the targeted pest, but directly or indirectly also many benificial organisms. Collateral damage, so to speak.
![Murray Dobbin](http://rabble.ca/sites/rabble/files/imagecache/thumbnail/category_pictures/murray dobbin.jpg "Murray Dobbin is a guest senior contributing editor for rabble.ca. Murray has been a journalist, broadcaster, author and social activist for 40 years. A board member and researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, he has written five studies for the centre including examinations of charter schools, and "Ten Tax Myths." Murray has been a columnist for the Financial Post and Winnipeg Free Press and contributes guest editorials to the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and other Canadian dailies. He writes a regular "State of the Nation" column for the on-line journal theTyee.ca which is published simultaneously on rabble.ca.
Murray has written five books, including critical profiles of Preston Manning, Kim Campbell and Paul Martin. His "The Myth of the Good Corporate Citizen" has been described as a citizens' guide to globalization. He has also prepared radio documentaries for the CBC Radio's Ideas series on subjects including taxes, human rights and the right-wing regime in New
Zealand.
A long time social activist Murray has been involved in many movements from the anti-nuclear movement, to the fights against so-called free trade and public private partnerships. He is the founder of Word Warriors, a project which co-ordinates letter-writing to the editorial pages of newspapers across Canada. He is a Senior Advisor to the Rideau Institute on International Affairs.")
Climate change and the limits of growth
As I write, much of the world's attention is on Copenhagen where the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 15) is taking place. Prime Minister Harper is there, as is B.C. Premier Campbell, and President Obama is due to make an appearance. Functionaries in the environmental movement, assorted diplomats, and politicians are all in attendance. So are thousands of protestors.
Beyond the limits
My first introduction to Donella Meadows was in the mid-1990s after I began publishing The Record in Gold River. I found her columns on the Internet published under the title "The Global Citizen," columns that spoke clearly about our environment and our place in it. I corresponded with Dr. Meadows and she allowed me to republish them as I could so that a wider audience would have access to her knowledge and vision.
Like many people in the past, Donella was a prophet whose message, as plain and obvious as it was, went unheeded by most, and flat out denied by many.