As the united na-tions kicks off its climate-change conference in Copenha-gen this week, much ire is focused on a new and surprising international bad boy: Canada. The country, of course, has long been revered as a champion of good causes. But to many Copenhagen delegates, Canada is now just another eco-hostile petrostate, thanks to its unapologetic support for its extremely dirty but highly lucrative energy industry, especially the carbon-spewing Alberta tar sands. Canada's fall from grace may seem abrupt, but the critics have a point. Three years ago Ottawa formally dropped its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, and Canadian CO_2 emissionshave risen 25 percent since 1999. "At least the United States had the courage to withdraw from the start," says Saleemul Huq, a scientist working with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "Canada signed up and then did nothing, and that undermines the whole point of an agreement."
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