As if we needed yet another example of Albertans’ deep denial of global warming. Education Minister Adriana LaGrange claims she is receiving reports from parents of “extremist views” being taught in the province’s schools. “There was a particular document that was shown to me recently,” she complained, “in terms of
Continue readingTag: climate science
Views from the Beltline: Reality is Confirmed
Reality is essentially what science tells us it is. Everything else is speculation. About the worst story about reality that science has been telling us lately is that we are heating up the atmosphere and if we don’t stop pretty damn quick we can start writing off global civilization. This
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What does climate change mean for Alberta’s growing dependence on a pipeline to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries?
PHOTOS: U.S. Climate Change Denier in Chief Donald J. Trump. (Photo: White House.) A woman is rescued from her Houston area home (Photo: U.S. Department of Defense.) “Wow – Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood!” So said an apparently astonished Donald J. Trump, First Tweeter
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Never mind the Ottawa bashing, Jason Kenney launches bid to lead UCP pitching coded woo to religious right
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney makes it official he’s running to lead Alberta’s United Conservative Party at Edmonton’s Italian Cultural Centre yesterday (Photo: Radio Canada). Below: NDP Premier Rachel Notley and Education Minister David Eggen. How soon before Jason Kenney makes permitting the teaching of “creation science” in Alberta schools a formal
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Christy Clark’s LNG promises are nothing but hot air
Premier Christy Clark at her government’s LNG conference (Province of BC/Flickr) We have all been screwed, blued and tattooed in the riding of West Vancouver-Sea-to-Sky, and let me tell you how this affects every British Columbian in every region of the province. Just as Kinder Morgan would use the Salish Sea
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: You can’t educate Republicans on global warming
Many progressives believe that if the public were better informed about the science behind climate change, people would be more inclined to accept the reality of anthropogenic global warming. A U.S. survey by the Pew Research Center suggests that’s only true for some people. Climate scientists tell us that global
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s carbon tax: Science is political when it doesn’t suit Wildrose agenda; politics is scientific when it does
PHOTOS: Alberta Environment Minister Shannon Phillips at yesterday’s Edmonton press conference on the imposition Jan. 1 of the NDP Government’s carbon tax. Below: Wildrose Electricity and Renewables Critic Don MacIntyre. Both are CBC photos. Alberta has had a carbon tax for two days now and as Environment Minister Shannon Phillips
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Are politicians really standing up for our climate with the Pan-Canadian Framework?
Friday, December 16, 2016 The new Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change – and the games played by BC’s Premier Christy Clark during the process leading up to it – demonstrate clearly that Canada needs scientists, and not politicians, to be front and centre in developing its climate
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Do You Know Anyone?
Perhaps she’s a friend or acquaintance. Maybe he’s a relative or a co-worker. They could be in their 20s or their 70s, doesn’t matter. What sets them apart from other friends and other acquaintances, other relatives or other co-workers, is that they have already succumbed to a belief in fake
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: With LNG approval, Trudeau govt shows true colours…but we shouldn’t be suprised
Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna with Industry Minister Jim Carr (left) and BC Premier Christy Clark (right) announcing the federal government’s approval of PNWLNG (Province of BC/Flickr) Developing a climate plan to meet Canada’s Paris Agreement commitments is a challenging but achievable task for the federal government. Doing so
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Longtime Lions Bay Mayor: LNG is plain dirty, violates Canada’s climate commitments
LNG is dirty, plain and simple, charges former longtime Lions Bay Mayor Brenda Broughton. She slams both the Trudeau and Clark governments for jeopardizing Canada’s climate commitments by ignoring or cherry-picking the science, and maintains the industry won’t benefit taxpayers at all.
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Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Stephen Lewis, Prominent Canadians Demand Investigation of Climate Change Deniers
Stephen Lewis and five other prominent Canadians recently called on the Commissioner of Competition to investigate climate change denier groups.
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The Common Sense Canadian: Burning: A summer of fire, smoke, ash and change
Photo: Province of British Columbia/Flickr CC licence Wildfires are ripping across California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska during this summer of 2015, the result of unprecedented droughts and record temperatures. Millions of hectares are being burned along with hundreds of homes. Fire-fighting costs are multiplying, the economic damage is
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: New book asks: Can civilization survive unprecedented climate crisis?
Water scarcity and resulting wars will be a key consequence of the climate crisis The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that human-caused climate change is already responsible for 150,000 deaths annually. If we continue our current trajectories of “business as usual” as our response to climate change, the WHO expects that between
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: The Grinch who stole Climate Christmas
Prime Minister Stephen Harper didn’t show much climate spirit in Lima The heroic efforts of Who-ville to negotiate enough binding greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions to prevent Earth’s average global temperature from rising above a critical 2°C were held in Lima, Peru, this December. Whether the Climate Christmas event, called the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Carbon numbers keep rising, despite UN climate deals
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at COP 20 in Lima The carbon emission numbers are disquieting. Despite the 2009 pledge of multiple nations to reduce the release of their greenhouse gases so that global average temperatures do not rise by more that 2°C, the total tonnage of carbon dioxide keeps
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Justin Trudeau continues Liberal greenwash legacy: Ex-govt insider
Justin Trudeau argues for Keystone XL at a think tank in Washington, DC (Photo: Chip Somodevllla/Getty) The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) has a history of big talk on the environment, but, once in power, failing to deliver. Each climate change action plan has demonstrated this trend, accompanied by boastful press releases on how much
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Bank of England’s Mark Carney: Most fossil fuel reserves shouldn’t be burned
Mark Carney in Davos, Switzerland, 2010 (Photo: Wikipedia) Read this Oct. 13 story in The Guardian about Bank of England Governor Mark Carney’s decision to join a growing list of global economic leaders suggesting that the world needs to transition away from fossil fuels in order to mitigate the effects of climate
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Greenwash King Patrick Moore sews seeds of climate change doubt
Greenpeace co-founder-turned-greenwasher extraordinaire Patrick Moore I hesitate to give the man any more publicity. Patrick Moore, a former environmentalist and now a constant and consistent spokesman for right-wing causes, had an article on the op-ed page of the Vancouver Province, September 24th edition. In it, he denies the worldwide scientific
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Large hydro dams aren’t “green” – they actually drive climate change
BC’s WAC Bennett Dam (Photo: Damien Gillis) Read this August 14 EcoWatch column by Gary Wockner, which explodes the myth of “green” hydro dams – food for thought as Canada considers building Site C Dam atop some of the country’s best farmland. People believe hydroelectric dams provide clean energy. It’s not true. I
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