Satire

It's Thursday, February 1st.

The novel 'Snow Falling on Cedars' has been removed from English class reading lists by an Ontario Catholic school board after a complaint about the book's sexually explicit content.

Currently, maybe I've just come to expect more from my sexually explicit content providers … but I just bought a copy of 'Snow Falling on Cedars', and apparently it won't send emails or let me upload music. I find this strange.

This is The Current.

A Low Emissions Economy?

If public opinion polls are anything to go by, Canadians have undergone a mass conversion to the religion of climate change. And the ranks of the non-believers may be thinner by the end of tomorrow. That's when the first installment of the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be released in Paris.

In the report, the body of two thousand scientists and climate experts say they're about 90 percent convinced that climate change is a reality, and that human activity is causing it. Among the consequences … more heat waves and droughts ... stronger -- albeit fewer -- hurricanes ... rising sea levels and disappearing sea ice at the poles.

Andrew Weaver is one of the lead authors of the report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a Canada Research Chair in Climate Modeling and Analysis at the University of Vancouver. We heard from him with his take on the urgency of the situation.

For years, the primary argument for not acting quickly to reign in carbon dioxide emissions has been that it would cripple our economy. That's the reason US President George Bush cited for backing out of the Kyoto Protocol and why Prime Minister Stephen Harper says that any action on climate change will have to happen without harming the Canadian economy.

But is there a way of cutting our carbon dioxide emissions without killing our standard of living? For their thoughts on that question, we were joined by three people.

Thomas d'Aquino is the Chief Executive and President of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and he wass in our Ottawa studio.

Glen Murray is the Chair of the National Roundtable on the Environment and Economy and he was in our Toronto studio.

And Toby Heaps is the editor of Corporate Knights ... a magazine devoted to environmentally responsible business. He was also in Toronto.

Listen to The Current: Part 1

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

The Current: Part 2

Graveyard Dispute – Talk Tape

How we choose to mourn is usually an intensely personal thing. But in New Brunswick, the Human Rights Commission is considering a case that could set some limits around how we express grief.

The case was brought to the commission by Inge Bulmer. Her husband Jim died three years ago, and she and her daughters had him buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in Moncton. For about a year after his death, she visited his grave regularly and spent many hours caring for it ... all with no problems. But then something changed and Inge Bulmer was told that she was violating the graveyard's rules.

Peter Anawati is The Current's Producer in New Brunswick. He has been following the story and he joined us from Saint John.

James "Jim" Bulmer's Grave

Inge Bulmer and her daughter, Ingrid Bulmer

Letters

Tomorrow The Current will be coming to you from Shanghai, courtesy of this week's Friday Host -- and CBC's China correspondent -- Anthony Germain. Anthony joined Anna Maria from Shanghai to take a look at this week's mail.

Listen to The Current: Part 2

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

The Current: Part 3

Iran/Iraq – Reporter

We started this segment with the sound from 28 years ago today, as a plane carrying Ayatollah Ruhola Khomeini touched down in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

It was the end of fifteen years of exile for Khomeini and the beginning of the end for the regime of the American-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. The Shah was ousted ten days later.

Shortly after Khomeini's rise to power, Iranian students stormed the American Embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats and embassy staff hostage. They were held for more than a year.

Since then, relations between the United States and Iran have never really recovered. But in recent weeks, the tension has been unusually high as the Bush Administration ramped up accusations that Iran -- along with Syria -- is meddling in the war in Iraq. We aired a clip with what President George Bush had to say in last month's State of the Union address.

In the days that followed the State of the Union Address, the White House also said it was giving the green light for American troops to shoot to kill any Iranian agents operating in Iraq that they deemed a threat. And yesterday the Bush Administration accused Iran of training the insurgents who raided a compound in Karbala, killing five American soldiers earlier this month.

For more on those allegations, and how they're being received in Iraq and Iran, we were joined by Borzou Daragahi. He's the Baghdad Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times and he was in Tehran earlier this year, but he was back in Baghdad this morning.

Iran/Iraq – Neocon

Judging by what we've just heard, it's pretty hard to tell if the Bush Administration is on solid ground in making the case about Iranian interference in Iraq.

For his thoughts about what -- if any -- evidence there is to support the President's claims, we were joined by Patrick Clawson. He's the Deputy Director for Research at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington, DC.

Iran Dissenter - Analyst

Of course, there are many views about what Iran is really up to and what Washington's motives are for pushing so hard on Tehran.

For his thoughts on those questions, we were joined by Houchang Hassan-Yari. He's the head of the Department of Politics and Economics at the Royal Military College of Canada. He's originally from Iran, and was formerly a guest professor at the National University in Tehran. Houchang Hassan-Yari was in Kingston, Ontario.

Listen to The Current: Part 3

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

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