On February 16, 2005, despite vapid and predictable stuttering from sceptics of climate change, the global climate underwent its most significant transformation yet. The international Kyoto Protocol, after its long and controversial genesis, finally took effect for those 141 countries that agreed to be held accountable for placing their emissions levels in check. The notion that civilization treads with heavy feet is no longer latent; it is now duly manifest.

One would hardly catch sight of this by glancing at the the pages of major Canadian newspapers, which have so far hampered the discussion with the parochial politics surrounding Kyoto. It is as if the partisan punditry, and the looming campaign trail in Ottawa, form the real stakes in the debate, and that these details somehow overshadow the fact that all but three industrialized countries agreed to acknowledge that a reduction in energy consumption is something that needs to be taken seriously. It is as if that because the Liberals have yet to unveil a schematic that would lead Canadians and Canadian industry by the hand, there still lingers a threat that climate change is but an elaborate fable told by ecological fascists whose sole aim is to plunder the federal coffers, and sap the auto-industry of its hard earned profits.

So much precious whitespace is devoured by the tired utterances of ‘the opposition’, who, resembling an obstinate Creationist in an evolutionary biology seminar, tout Liberal ‘mismanagement’, and the findings of a handful of fringe scientists, as some species of an argument against the consensus that our energy consumption habits affect the health and stability of the earth’s climate. To be sure, the scientific community is not unanimous in its thinking on this subject, but the debate now rages over the details of climate change, and not, as some would have us believe, over whether or not it is happening.

Even if Kyoto fails to achieve its lofty goal of achieving a global emissions reduction, the existence of such a treaty legitimizes claims that have been ignored for too long, and effectively alters the climates of public opinion. Like anti-smoking legislation in Ontario, which successfully stigmatized that once modish habit, the formal component of Kyoto should and will inevitably be accompanied by subtle changes in civil society’s tastes.

So why wait until you become a pariah, when you can start kicking your emissions habits now. With enough momentum, these might be the gestures that finally place those misguided sceptics on the endangered species list, for good.