Showing posts with label Climate denial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Climate denial. Show all posts

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Christy Clark Taps Ex-Fraser Institute Director to Create BC's Climate Change Plan

PressProgress
Premier Clark
First the good news:
After spending months ignoring the recommendations put forward by British Columbia's Climate Leadership team, Premier Christy Clark has finally found someone to take charge of this very important file.  

Bad news? His experience includes serving as a director at the Fraser Institute, a right-wing think tank whose experts question the science of climate change. Story here.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

The Nasty Nattering of Climate Change Denier, Rex Murphy

NATIONAL
OBSERVER
Climate change denier Rex Murphy took to the CBC Wednesday not so much to eulogize Calgary and its economic woes as to slap down anyone opposed to fossil fuel development. More here.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Climate Denial Alive & Well in Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada. A Prominent, Local "Opinion Leader" Knocks the Climate Deal at the Paris Summit.

The editorial, below, appeared in the latest issue of the Neepawa Banner. It was written by Ken Waddell, the paper's publisher and long-time political, journalistic and religious voice in the community.






DENYING THE DENIERS

onEarth
The Paris climate agreement just took away one of climate skeptics’ favourite arguments for inaction. More here.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Ecojustice files complaint with Competition Bureau against climate denial groups

NATIONAL OBSERVER

Ecojustice, on behalf of a group of prominent Canadians, has filed a complaint with the federal Competition Bureau, asking it to investigate false and misleading representations made by climate change denier groups. More here.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Global Warming ‘Pause’ Never Happened, Scientists Say

The Washington Post

The climate science sphere has been wrapped up in a major debate for the past several years: over the global warming “pause.” But now, a growing body of research has some scientists saying that the case may, in fact, be closed. They’re arguing that the pause never existed. Story here.

Friday, July 10, 2015

It's Time to Wake Up and Smell the Smoke! (Letter)

by Larry Powell
It's time to wake up and smell the smoke!
Forest fire smoke (from as far away as BC) over southern Manitoba. PinP photo.
As wildfires rage around us on the Canadian prairies, forcing thousands of poor souls from their homes, we click our tongues and complain about sore eyes and reduced visibility on the roads. (Trust me, reduced visibility is the least of our worries.) 

We apparently lack the brain power to listen to and actually hear what the world's scientific community has been warning us about for over a generation. If we do nothing to curb our insatiable appetite for fossil fuels, we can expect more and worse heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and a host of other extreme weather events which are decidedly not positive, in our future. Our relentless burning of gas, oil and coal, apparently without a thought for tomorrow, produces greenhouse gases which trap the sun's heat and cause the earth's average temperature to increase. 

How much hotter will it get? 

That question does not seem to be on the minds of most humans, who are more intent on climbing aboard another climate-destroying jet plane to get to the next Olympics on the other side of the world. 

Even the common sea slug does not defile its own nest the way we do. 


This in-depth, illustrated article documented the latest (and what should be now-familiar) warnings of world scientists. Unless we drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, the mean temperature in the Boreal, a band of mostly evergreen trees which girdles the globe, will continue to soar more than most any other place on Earth. If the peat bogs and permafrost underlying both the Boreal and Arctic continue to melt, all bets are off.  A “carbon bomb” will be ignited and the “tinderbox effect” will only spread.

(The story appeared on my blog, Planet in Peril and in a couple of weeklies. Possibly afraid of losing lucrative ad contracts with Big Oil, Mass media show their cowardice and yellow-journalism by remaining largely silent on the link between this fossil-fuel consumption and the great "burning of the Boreal" now unfolding before our eyes and TV screens!)

A scant few months later, the stark warnings of the scientists quoted in the piece, are proving painfully correct, yet again. This immense eco-system is precisely where huge wildfires now rage, in Canada and Alaska. Maybe you've noticed. Smoke has now spread over entire provinces for thousands of square kilometres. 

We drove all the way from Calgary to Regina recently (almost 800 kilometres). There was smoke all the way.

We stayed in a hotel in Regina which was filling up fast with people who have had to flee their homes - "environmental refugees" from the north, now numbering some 13 thousand in total in Saskatchewan alone. That province is now in the midst of the largest evacuation in its history. These scenarios are unfolding pretty much as they have been predicted to do, if only anyone would listen! 

One would think such spectacularly ominous events would give we mortals "cause for pause" - a chance to reconsider our ways.

Apparently not.

We seem to worry more about avoiding the fires of Hell in the afterlife than we do about our own Hell (you know, the real one), right here on Earth!

We drove to Prince Albert Park in Saskatchewan a couple of week ago. A road into the park is being "improved." We were treated to many kilometres of heavy equipment - caterpillars, front-end loaders, earth-scrapers, big trucks...all doing their part to scratch away at Mother Earth, emitting their own payloads of greenhouse gases into the air - just so "connoisseurs of the backcountry"can more easily access the wilderness with their luxury RVs - all on the comfort of a superhighway, of course. 

In the face of this vast wildfire threat, Environment Canada has been scrambling to advise those with breathing problems, especially, to stay indoors. And, surprise, surprise, such people are reporting it harder to breathe!

I used to think that we humans wouldn't sit up and take notice of the climate crisis until we were gasping for air in the streets.  

I was wrong. 

We are gasping for air in the streets! And we are still turning a blind eye.

I guess I can only dream of the day when we might, in addition to taking the heroic efforts we are now - by bombing the flames and bringing in the army - all necessary steps now that we have let things go as far as we have - that we also change our behaviour in ways that improve our planet's chances over the long-term, too.

Oh, by the way, my story also included oft-repeated concerns by the scientists themselves, that we don't really pay enough attention to their advice.

Ya think?

Sunday, March 15, 2015

'Merchants of Doubt' Author on the Origins & Persistence of Climate Denialism

Inside 
climate 
news

Naomi Oreskes discusses the network of pundits and scientists who have delayed action on climate change, and how they did it. Story here.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

In Florida, Officials Ban Term ‘Climate Change’

Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.

The state of Florida is the region most susceptible to the effects of global warming in the US.
But you would not know that by talking to officials at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection...Story here.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?

National Geographic
We live in an age when all manner of scientific knowledge—from climate change to vaccinations—faces furious opposition. Some even have doubts about the moon landing. Story here.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Documents Reveal Fossil Fuel Fingerprints on Contrarian Climate Research

InsideClimate News

Scientist Willie Soon calls his papers 'deliverables' to fossil fuel executives, and grants a big coal utility pre-publication review and anonymity. Story here.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Canadian Climate Scientist Wins $50,000 In Libel Lawsuit Against Conservative Newspaper

climateprogress

A prominent Canadian climatologist, Andrew Weaver (l.),  has won his libel lawsuit against The National Post, after a judge decided that the newspaper had published several articles that were both inaccurate and defamatory to his character. Story here.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Confessions of a Former Climate Change Denier

by Kasra Hassani - Canadian Science Writers' Association

I, a scientist with a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology, was a climate change denialist. Wait, let me add, I was an effective climate change denialist: I would throw on a cloak of anecdotal evidence and biased one-sided skepticism and declare myself a skeptic. Good scientists are skeptics, right? I sallied forth and denied every piece of evidence that was presented to me, for a relatively long time. Details here.
 Photo via 

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Could A Climate Scientist’s Defamation Suit Shut Down America's Leading Conservative Magazine?

CLIMATEPROGRESS
The National Review has held great influence among Republicans and conservative thought leaders for nearly 60 years, but a lawsuit from a climate scientist could threaten its very existence. Details here.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Kerry: Climate Change is World's 'Most Fearsome' WMD; Slams Deniers as 'Flat-Earthers'

Brandon Sun
A raging stream where none had been before during Manitoba's epic flooding of 2011.  PLT photo.
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Climate change may be the world's "most fearsome" weapon of mass destruction and urgent global action is needed to combat it, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday. He compared those who deny its existence to people who insist the Earth is flat. Details here.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

At Last. Someone Gets to the "Bottom" of Climate Change!

by Danny Dimwit

ROBLIN, MB: 

Wow! Sure has been windy lately, huh?

We had two big trees blow down right beside our own house near Roblin late one night back in July. The top 8 or 10 feet of 6 others were ripped off and came crashing down at the same time.

I even had a heart attack after cleaning up the mess in my yard. (Needed open-heart surgery - bypasses, the whole 9 yards!)

(Later, I talked to a lady who had a bit of a heart attack, too, while cleaning up a campground near Portage, further to the east. She said a big wind kind of like a tornado had passed through!)

The storm at our place (I think they called it a plow wind), damaged our sun porch, buckled our garage door and damaged our car. Cost a couple of thou to fix.

As bad as it was, other poor souls in our neck of the woods also suffered damage from the wind which could have been even worse. We saw trees down everywhere, including some on top of houses and trailers in Roblin. Did you?

Word is, folks were even taking food to the dump because their power was out for so long, it spoiled.

Lately, those damn grassfires whipped by the wind, have even been burning houses and forcing folks out of their homes south of the Peg. They've been without power for days now!

A couple of years ago, and last year, too, I guess, we sure did have a lot of flooding. Our farmers couldn't grow crops on millions of acres because of it, apparently. Now, this year, it's drought. Yields weren't what they'd hoped for earlier. Apparently crop diseases that are usually rare, were more common 'kuz of the lack of rain.

I've heard that some folks who lived along the lakes still aren't even back home, yet. Bummer!

But this is nothing new, is it? We get bad weather all the time, don't we?

And those people who call themselves "experts," with the government and the universities, telling us that we, you and me, are behind this "athro por jenik," or whatever, change in our weather! What a bunch of pointy-heads!

I only got my high school, but I talk to folks in the coffee shop! They may not have fancy degrees, but they know things! And they say this weird weather is natural. It's just part of natural shifts in weather patterns, sun flares, the tilt of the earth, 'n such...things we got no control over. Apparently there even used to be a big lake covering a lot of the province. So there! That proves it!

And that fella, Tim Ball, he knows. He was a professor once. And he goes around telling farmers they better hope for more global warming! The pointy-heads claim they get their information from satellites, weather stations, models they make using computers, observatories on mountains, tree rings and ice-cores. Not sure where Tim gets his from. But I just know he's out there in the arctic and in the deserts, gathering the proof he needs for what he says!

And those pictures you see in the news of polar bears swimming up north and all the ice melting….that's just those pointy-heads, doctoring the photos so they can get more research money. They must be doing something crooked, kuz Tim says the planet is actually cooling down, not heating up!

They try to tell us the bad storms are worse and happening more than they used to. What a crock!

I remember, when I was a kid, back in the 40s and 50s.....well, OK, I don't remember almost getting killed in my house, or houses burning, or so many crops being wiped out, or floods destroying so many cabins, communities being evacuated or highways caving in quite like this. 

OK, maybe not.

But the warm weather! Hey, so what if it is getting hotter out there!  Those warnings from the pointy-heads that our kids may face a planet unfit to live in when they grow up, is just more blather! After all, you can always crank up the A/C in your car. That's what I do!

I say, if this is global warming, bring it on!
======
PLT: The facts of this tale, we know to be true, unlike the name we have ascribed to the "author." The scarey part is, the conclusions Danny draws are disturbingly similar to real opinions one hears all too often on the street!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Global Warming Study Finds no Grounds for Climate Sceptics' Concerns

Ian Sample, science correspondent guardian.co.uk, 20 Oc '11
Cloud formation photo by PLT
Independent investigation of the key issues sceptics claim can skew global warming figures reports that they have no real effect. Details here.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Is Rex Murphy About to Damage the CBC's Reputation?

by Larry
Rex Murphy, that pompous darling of the CBC's flagship TV newscast, "The National" and CBC Radio's "Cross-Country Checkup," seems about to jump into the murky waters of climate denial.

The dishonestly named "Friends....." is actually dedicated to sowing doubt and discrediting peer-reviewed science surrounding global warming. 

According to the painstakingly-researched book, "Climate Cover-up," "Friends of Science" had its origins in the Calgary oil patch, among geologists and oil industry PR types determined to discredit the Kyoto Protocol.

The main sponsor of the event on the 29th is the "Frontier Centre for Public Policy," a conservative "think-tank." It has long been associated with Tim Ball, arguably Canada's best-known (and most infamous) climate-denier. Ball is widely believed to have been compensated by oil industry interests for his speaking tours. The same book, "Climate Cover-up" questions Ball's credentials as a climate scientist and points to his lack of peer-reviewed research into the very topic he claims to specialize in.

For Murphy to enter the fray as another "climate crank" comes as no surprise to me, personally. As a regular CBC viewer and listener, I've noticed for a long time now how he studiously ignores this pressing issue of our time, obviously holding our very climate crisis and those who support the science, in contempt.

His foray into the shark-infested waters of climate denial, peopled by cranks, contrarians, vested interests and charlatans,  will do nothing but lower the esteem many now hold for our national broadcaster.

Perhaps it's time for the CBC to sever its ties with this broadcast dinosaur, and move on!
=====
FOOTNOTE: Someone suggested I should give Rex the benefit of the doubt and wait to hear what he has to say on the 29th. So, I did remove this post, for awhile,  until I read this. Unless the "Frontier Centre" is taking some elaborate liberties with what Rex stands for, there's little doubt, now! 
UPDATE: In its wisdom and for whatever reason,  the Frontier Centre has seen fit to remove the story to which I provided a link to, above. 

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