marklynas.orgWill Canada join the Axis of Denial? 17 June 04
Yes, if the Conservatives are elected on June 28. Party leader Stephen Harper is a paid-up denier of the Bush mould, and has pledged to scrap Canada’s commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. “My suspicion is that human activities have some impact upon [climate change] but I think the jury is out on a lot of the actual specific trends,” Harper is quoted as saying recently. Welcome to scientific never-never land, Stephen! This same type of mealy-mouthed nonsense still plagues political discourse in the United States of course, where senior scientists gathered this week under the aegis of Science magazine and the American Association for the Advancement of Science to once again underline the strong scientific consensus underpinning global warming. They called the conference ‘The Reality of Global Warming’, and the message was crystal clear. “While some policy experts and sectors of the public dispute the risk, there is in fact no cause for doubt,” the AAAS press release states baldly. “The world is significantly warmer today than it was a century ago – and it’s getting warmer. Without action now, the impact could be devastating.” Are you listening, Mr Harper?
Comments
Peter Winters
June 17th, 2004 at 03:58 PM
Despite that news story, my Canadian friends tell me that the Conservatives are really not that likely to win the election in Canada. Fingers crossed!
But from the press release “Climate experts urge immediate action to offset impact of global warming”, I like this idea ..
“One of the conference experts, Harvard geochemistry Professor Daniel Schrag, likened the situation to the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. “So if you’re standing at the back of the Titanic, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going up, we can’t be sinking’.”
Using this idea – I imagine that the people in Lima could think the same thing about their fresh water supplies. Global Warming = more water from Glacial Run-off. The problem is – what happens when the glaciers in the Andes have melted?
So, the immediate impact of Global Warming can be (mildly positive). The longer term impact is likely to be devastating! Are there other situations like this?
Peter Winters
June 30th, 2004 at 07:46 PM
thank goodness!
Vicki Falde
July 1st, 2004 at 02:58 AM
Yes, the liberals “won,” but their numbers are lower, and getting consensus will be that much harder. Kyoto, even ratified, will have a tough go of it.
Peter Winters
August 4th, 2004 at 10:41 AM
This is a little aside – there is currently a debate amongst Canadian pollsters about why their polls did not reflect the actual results.
More details below ..
http://www.worldopinion.com/news?cmd=item&id=23216
Thursday, July 8, 2004 A Look At Recent Election Polling In Canada Ipsos-Reid says people will realize that it is not the pollsters who got it wrong. ....
Although published surveys failed to anticipate the final results of Canada’s recent federal election, describing a much tighter race than actually materialized, researchers say this election was unique. The polling was not flawed, they say, but a large number of Ontario voters changed their minds in the two days before the election and decided to vote Liberal óter the last media-disseminated polls had been published. When the dust settles, people will realize that it’s not the pollsters who got it wrong, said Ipsos-Reid, which undertook surveys for The Globe and Mail and CTV. ©2004 WorldOpinion