Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Licia Corbella: David Suzuki's Hot Air
David Suzuki wants politicians thrown in jail if they don’t act as quickly as he believes they should to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
During a speech in Montreal he said: “We can no longer tolerate what’s going on in Ottawa and Edmonton.”
What’s going on is Alberta’s government is trying to bring in emission reductions without simultaneously destroying Alberta’s oil and gas industry, which, in turn, is fuelling Canada’s robust economy, not to mention the plane that flew Suzuki to Montreal to give his speech at McGill University this week.
For a guy who hates oil and gas so much, he sure uses a lot of it. His carbon footprint is so big it’s likely rivalling Al Gore’s, which is surely an inconvenient truth for these men who like to preach to others but don’t walk their own talk.
Remember how Suzuki and six staff travelled across the country to foster awareness about global warming on a “rock-star style bus” big enough to comfortably seat 54 people, when a van would have sufficed? In other words, when faced with choosing the environment over his own comfort, Suzuki chose the latter, as his lessthan-perfectly-insulated enormous glass home in Vancouver would attest.
Anyway, this is exactly what Suzuki told his rapturous crowd of 600 doomsday believers: “What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there’s a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they’re doing is a criminal act.” Suzuki was first quoted in the
McGill Daily on Monday and his comments were subsequently picked up by the National Post, at which point the story went nuclear (a form of energy Suzuki also opposes, rightly in my view).
Suzuki’s spokespeople are now saying Canadians are not to take the renowned broadcaster at his word, even though he said virtually the exact same thing at the University of Toronto during a speech in January. Should practised public speakers delivering a prepared speech on more than one occasion not be taken literally? It’s absurd of Suzuki to now claim he didn’t mean what he said. Repeatedly. In a prepared speech. On the record. For publication. Speaking of travelling to Toronto and Montreal, have Suzuki and his ilk never heard of video conferencing?
“You have lived your entire lives in a completely unsustainable period,” Suzuki told the crowd. “You all think growth and (climate) change is normal. It’s not.”
Are we supposed to take him at his word on that? I hope not, because if there’s one constant about climate, it’s change.
“It’s an intergenerational crime in the face of all the knowledge and science from over 20 years,” added Suzuki, during his speech in the heated university.
Notice how he didn’t say 25 or 30 years ago. Know why? Because 25 years ago, this prophet of perdition was predicting that Earth was doomed to plunge into another ice age! Cooling was a catastrophe and now warming is a catastrophe. He should make up his mind.
Apparently, scientists back then, including Suzuki, were desperately frightened that Earth could cool by another degree or two, food production would be slashed and people would starve.
Well, just when Suzuki was melting down about global cooling, the sun went into a new cycle in the late 1970s and Earth started to warm again. You’d think he’d be thrilled.
After all, Earth has only warmed 0.8 C since the end of the Little Ice Age, which started in the 13th century and ended around 1860.
As for climate change being abnormal, consider this. There was a time in England when vineyards were common and temperatures much warmer than today.
After the Little Ice Age, Earth warmed up with no help from carbon dioxide and did so until about 1940, and then the temperatures started to fall until the late ’70s when Suzuki et al. started predicting another ice age. Incidentally, those almost four decades of cooling occurred postSecond World War, when man-made CO2 was spiking exponentially. What’s more, according to ice core data, when CO2 levels were 16 times higher than they are today, Earth was covered in ice.
Such scientific facts must infuriate Suzuki. He apparently refuses to debate real climate scientists about this. Perhaps he believes they should be in jail, too, just like that great scientist Galileo once was when he refuted the church’s orthodoxy that the sun revolved around Earth. But real science can’t be jailed for long, even if politicians can.
During a speech in Montreal he said: “We can no longer tolerate what’s going on in Ottawa and Edmonton.”
What’s going on is Alberta’s government is trying to bring in emission reductions without simultaneously destroying Alberta’s oil and gas industry, which, in turn, is fuelling Canada’s robust economy, not to mention the plane that flew Suzuki to Montreal to give his speech at McGill University this week.
For a guy who hates oil and gas so much, he sure uses a lot of it. His carbon footprint is so big it’s likely rivalling Al Gore’s, which is surely an inconvenient truth for these men who like to preach to others but don’t walk their own talk.
Remember how Suzuki and six staff travelled across the country to foster awareness about global warming on a “rock-star style bus” big enough to comfortably seat 54 people, when a van would have sufficed? In other words, when faced with choosing the environment over his own comfort, Suzuki chose the latter, as his lessthan-perfectly-insulated enormous glass home in Vancouver would attest.
Anyway, this is exactly what Suzuki told his rapturous crowd of 600 doomsday believers: “What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there’s a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they’re doing is a criminal act.” Suzuki was first quoted in the
McGill Daily on Monday and his comments were subsequently picked up by the National Post, at which point the story went nuclear (a form of energy Suzuki also opposes, rightly in my view).
Suzuki’s spokespeople are now saying Canadians are not to take the renowned broadcaster at his word, even though he said virtually the exact same thing at the University of Toronto during a speech in January. Should practised public speakers delivering a prepared speech on more than one occasion not be taken literally? It’s absurd of Suzuki to now claim he didn’t mean what he said. Repeatedly. In a prepared speech. On the record. For publication. Speaking of travelling to Toronto and Montreal, have Suzuki and his ilk never heard of video conferencing?
“You have lived your entire lives in a completely unsustainable period,” Suzuki told the crowd. “You all think growth and (climate) change is normal. It’s not.”
Are we supposed to take him at his word on that? I hope not, because if there’s one constant about climate, it’s change.
“It’s an intergenerational crime in the face of all the knowledge and science from over 20 years,” added Suzuki, during his speech in the heated university.
Notice how he didn’t say 25 or 30 years ago. Know why? Because 25 years ago, this prophet of perdition was predicting that Earth was doomed to plunge into another ice age! Cooling was a catastrophe and now warming is a catastrophe. He should make up his mind.
Apparently, scientists back then, including Suzuki, were desperately frightened that Earth could cool by another degree or two, food production would be slashed and people would starve.
Well, just when Suzuki was melting down about global cooling, the sun went into a new cycle in the late 1970s and Earth started to warm again. You’d think he’d be thrilled.
After all, Earth has only warmed 0.8 C since the end of the Little Ice Age, which started in the 13th century and ended around 1860.
As for climate change being abnormal, consider this. There was a time in England when vineyards were common and temperatures much warmer than today.
After the Little Ice Age, Earth warmed up with no help from carbon dioxide and did so until about 1940, and then the temperatures started to fall until the late ’70s when Suzuki et al. started predicting another ice age. Incidentally, those almost four decades of cooling occurred postSecond World War, when man-made CO2 was spiking exponentially. What’s more, according to ice core data, when CO2 levels were 16 times higher than they are today, Earth was covered in ice.
Such scientific facts must infuriate Suzuki. He apparently refuses to debate real climate scientists about this. Perhaps he believes they should be in jail, too, just like that great scientist Galileo once was when he refuted the church’s orthodoxy that the sun revolved around Earth. But real science can’t be jailed for long, even if politicians can.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
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