Blue Like You

Archive for the ‘Kyoto Kult’ Category

Last week when David Suzuki rolled out his Amazing Carbon Tax Schticht prior to the Federal Budget, I asked Sun columnist Lorrie Goldstein if he’d be doing a response. He replied, “All in due time…”

It was well worth the wait.

In The carbon cops are coming, Goldstein exposes the intellectual dishonesty of environmental advocates and politicians who try to woo us to the Green side with tales of how their schemes will be ‘revenue neutral’. As a public service, Lorrie offers his three-pronged guide designed to help us sort through the hot air emanating from Suzuki Nation:

1) When any of them tell you “polluters will pay” to reduce greenhouse gases, they mean you and me.

Whenever they talk about a carbon tax, a “cap-and-trade” system, carbon credits or the regulation of industrial greenhouse gases by government, they are talking about the same thing — higher taxes.

2) This brings us to the second point of our guide: Whenever a politician, or anyone else, claims a carbon tax will be “revenue neutral” nail them down on exactly what they mean.

Politicians and environmentalists like to toss around “revenue neutral” because it sounds as if even with a new carbon tax, you will pay no more in total taxes than you do now.

That’s not what it means. Even if a government was considering a truly “revenue neutral” tax, it may well not be neutral for you. Say you need your car to drive to work because you live in one city and your job is in another. If the government imposes a carbon tax by hiking gasoline prices, it may claim it’s “revenue neutral” because it’s going to return an equal amount in tax incentives for people to take public transit. Problem is, if you don’t have a realistic transit alternative for getting to work, your carbon tax is no longer “revenue neutral.” .

3) Finally, when a politician or environmentalist tells you a carbon tax can be imposed with “minimal” harm to the economy ask them what assumptions they base this on.

In both the recent study on carbon pricing by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, and in the one released by the Suzuki Foundation last week, the authors simply assume that while Canada is taxing carbon, the U.S. and our other major trading partners will be doing the same…

And that’s a huge assumption.

Even the Toronto Star takes note of the fact that while this may be a desirable situation, it is clearly not going to happen anytime in the near future. Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, brother of the current Federal Liberal environmental critic David, is not jumping on the bandwagon. He rightly realizes that such a plan would devastate the Ontario economy which is already facing huge challenges competing with China, etc.

As in all things, buyer beware.

* Denier - Anyone who crosses David Suzuki.

Tomorrow, Kyoto überkop David Suzuki will use a news conference in Ottawa in another attempt to shame the Federal Government into including in its budget a “carbon tax or carbon trading system to cut greenhouse gas emissions”.

If that doesn’t work there’s always jail.

Meanwhile, Kate has highlighted two excellent columns in today’s Sun. Angelo Persichilli asks for some truth from the media about how much environmental changes will cost us and how effective (or ineffective) they’re likely to be - Science and politics overlap the truth.

The ever-witty Lorrie Goldstein explains how the ‘Suzuki Nation’ attempts to shame us lest we dare complain about the high costs of going green and how we’re being hoodwinked into thinking that something might actually be accomplished in the bargain - It’s green fever madness!

Best line:

…And finally in crazytown … Ottawa … where, amongst so many other absurdities on the environmental front, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, a man who can’t control his caucus, has a plan to control the climate…

But Kate’s got a few little gems of her own as she exposes the hypocrisy of jouralists who pretend to care about the environment:

…But let’s back up a little, for this is the end of civilization as we know it, and they’re apparently convinced of that. A planetary emergency, no less.

How does one convinced of impending planetary doom get up in the morning to work in the industry they do - an industry that employs vast numbers of people to travel the country via commercial jet and automobile, that sustains huge media complexes clogged to the ceilings with electricity consuming CO2-belching technology, that hauls tons of satellite equipment to produce on-the-scene reporting?

That indulges in the broadcasting of sporting events? And entertainment “news”?

“We interrupt this report on the last remaining meter of Arctic sea ice to bring you live footage of Britney Spears’ entourage leaving the hospital … John, you’re in the helicoptor, what can you tell us?”

When it comes to curtailing wasteful practices and excessive C02 emissions, shouldn’t they be among the first to go?

From SDA: Y2Kyoto - The Twilight Zone.

Brilliant stuff, Kate!

So as Saint Suzuki gets on the media pulpit tomorrow to whip up his congregation into another lynch-mob frenzy, just remember that there are a few truthful media pundits left.

Cherish them - before they join Harper in the gallows.

Q. What do Stephane Dion and David Suzuki have in common?

A. Someone to help put out the fires of their inflammatory rhetoric.

In Dion’s case, it was the Liberal party that had to issue a statement explaining what the Leader of the Official Opposition really meant to say. He didn’t actually want to send troops into Pakistan or “stuff like that“.

David Suzuki’s challenge to university students to look for a “legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail” was explained thusly:

Dan Maceluch, a spokesman for Dr. Suzuki, said that he did not mean the statement to be taken literally.

“He’s not advocating locking people up, but he is pulling his hair out.”

(Post - H/T ChuckerCanuk) A great read, BTW!

Dion’s gaffe was likely just another example of his bumbling inability to communicate, which is a somewhat disconcerting quality in someone aspiring to become Prime Minister.

However, in the case of David Suzuki, I very much doubt that he didn’t intend his comment to be taken in a more literal sense.

For one thing, as Terry O’Neill observed yesterday, this wasn’t the first time Suzuki had made this type of remark:

…So what exactly has Suzuki, who is on the university-lecture circuit these days, been saying? For starters, he told a University of Toronto audience last month that the next federal election ought to be about the environment. No problem there. However, as reported by a student newspaper, he then opined that government leaders who aren’t acting quickly enough to save the environment “should go to jail for what they’re not doing right now … What our government is not doing is a criminal act.”

His allegation of law-breaking was apparently no mere slip of the tongue. Speaking a few weeks later at McGill University, Suzuki again equated governments’ alleged inaction on the environment with a criminal act; in fact, he is reported to have said students ought to find a legal way to throw politicians in jail for ignoring climate-change science…

However, here’s an interesting tidbit via Mark Peters in his post Rule by Autocratic Scientists. He quotes authors David Shearman and Joseph Wayne Smith in a recent op-ed, Climate Change - Is Democracy Enough?:

…Liberal democracy is sweet and addictive and indeed in the most extreme case, the USA, unbridled individual liberty overwhelms many of the collective needs of the citizens. . .
There must be open minds to look critically at liberal democracy. Reform must involve the adoption of structures to act quickly regardless of some perceived liberties. . .

…We are going to have to look how authoritarian decisions based on consensus science can be implemented to contain greenhouse emissions…

Prometheus also quotes the following:

[T]he authors conclude that an authoritarian form of government is necessary, but this will be governance by experts and not by those who seek power.

Mark Peters has summarized this whole thing very well with his closing paragraph in which he cites the ‘two chief enemies of liberal democracy in addition to islamic jihadism’:

1. Scientists with a penchant for expert authoritarianism, and
2. Our learned deference to so-called expert opinion; our near reverence of anyone sporting a PhD.

To which I would only add:

3. Our lemming mentality that allows others do our thinking for us.

One step closer to cancelling my Record subscription - A year for saving the environment.

(Update at end)

In spite of all the histrionics emanating from Bali last week, the issue of the Environment didn’t even make CTV’s Top Ten Canadian Stories.

More bad news for the Kyoto Kult - The Looney was Number One.

Reality bites, huh?

I’m trying hard to get away from the computer for a while, but it just won’t let me…

Anyway, here is an assortment of links which I hope you find interesting. I often post these types of things for future reference. Blogger can be a useful tool for research with its search functions.

Threat to Freedom of Speech in Canada:
SDA - Macleans Magazine: A Case Study of Media-Propagated Islamophobia. Excellent comment by one of Kate’s U.S. readers:

As an American, I cannot believe what is going on in your country concerning that disgusting (and clearly dangerous) “Human Rights Commission” of yours. When criticism of government policy can be penalized as “hate speech”, you are no longer sliding down a slippery slope. Rather, you are in the muck. I will never again regret the appearance of flag burners in my country. I may disagree with them, at times to the point of fury, but I will regard their presence as a blessed sign that free speech is alive and well in America.
Posted by: Robert Pujat at December 10, 2007 3:57 PM

Tobacco Tax Protest:
LFP - Farmers to give Natives tobacco. Big tax loss for government.

The convoy would be illegal. Special permits are required to transport tobacco from Delhi to Caledonia. It is also illegal to transact tobacco outside the auction exchange in Delhi…

Will the OPP uphold the law?
Sex offender registry funds diverted, Tories say. (OPP diverted funds…)

Runciman suggested the OPP diverted some of the money for the sex offender registry to pay for policing the nearly two-year aboriginal occupation of a disputed housing development in Caledonia.

Isn’t that great?
Sun - Province failing Christopher.

Paying homage to Mother Earth:
Celestial Junk - Ecophobia: Taking Advantage of NHL Hammer-heads.
FLICK OFF, eh?

Making lots of green: A convenient £50m for Green Gore (Times, courtesy of National Newswatch). Also see Australia ’stalling Bali Talks’. Wow!! Wasn’t Rudd supposed to be the Environmentalist’s messiah or something?

Highly recommended: Angelo Persichilli - Dion’s Polluted Reputation.

Anyone got some darts? Suzuki as a guest columnist for the Star - Could there be a worse combination?

Lorne Gunter - Harper right to oppose Bali proposals.

Lorrie Goldstein - New Kyoto must include U.S., China.

Justice:
Big Blue Wave - The Unborn Victims of Crime Bill: It’s a go!
Thursday, Dec. 13 - Second Reading scheduled (first time debated)

Scantygate:
National Post - The NDP’s Nosey Nanny. BTW, isn’t there a screen of some kind that you can buy for a laptop so personal information can’t be seen at an angle by straying eyes?

Update: Dr. Roy says yes!!! Memo to James Moore - Put this on your Christmas list!!!

Steve Janke has a video for Irene Mathyssen.

Dr. Roy found the link to Irene’s imaginary diary!

What would Irene say about this??? (H/T Mary T in comments) - Don’t look, James!!!

Times Colonist - Sleazy NDP porn allegation dishonours all MP’s.

More grievances from the Eternally Offended:
David Warren - Suing for Silence.

Urban Funding:
Record - Lack of transit link to Toronto an ‘embarrassment’, Cannon says and Minister blames cities, province for bogged-down transportation.

O.K. Premier. C’est maintenant votre tour.

Health care Accessibility:
Michael Coren - Two-Tier Trauma

Ottawa Sun - New funding trims abortion wait times. “Now, new funding has cut the wait time to terminate a pregnancy to about a week”… Well, at least Smitherman has his priorities straight, right?

Potential Dion Replacements:
Maybe Chretien should try again? (Don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know whatcha got til it’s gone…)

More to come…

Kudos to Jonathan Kay for diffusing some of the hot air emanating from yesterday’s Star.

Today’s National Post editorial focuses on the failures of Kyoto and the ironic hypocrisy of the upcoming Bali conference itself - Son of Kyoto:

…The UN is hosting a major conference this week and next in Bali, Indonesia, to negotiate a successor agreement to Kyoto. What lessons have the delegates drawn from the first treaty’s flaws? None, apparently. If anything, their proposals for a Kyoto II suggest an accord that would be worse than the original.

While nominally binding more nations to reduction targets, the UN in reality appears intent on making the same three dozen wealthy countries make the bulk of the sacrifices. At the same time, it would saddle them with an additional burden: sending hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to developing nations in order to ensure that what marginal emission reductions those countries are called on to make can be achieved cost-free.

The sheer size of the Bali gathering shows how the global-warming movement has become an industry unto itself. During their negotiations on emission reductions to save the planet, the 20,000 delegates and observers in Bali will generate a greater carbon footprint than all the residents of a city the size of Victoria, Halifax or London, Ont., would produce in a month. The Canadian Climate Action Network, which includes some of this country’s best-known eco-crusaders, boasted Monday that it was sending 60 participants. Flying those delegates and their confreres from around the world to the remote resort island will generate 110,000 tonnes of CO2, alone.

But then, this do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do attitude should not be surprising: The most strident champions of carbon abatement are unaccountable NGOs and celebrity environmentalists who travel around the world feting one another, drinking their own green Kool-Aid…

Exactly. And if any of those eco-evangelists feel the need for a brief diversion, there’s plenty to atone for afterwards.

Cutting through the hype is a challenge for the average Canadian, but let me make this perfectly clear - It will affect your own bottom line. As Ultramar vice-president Louis Forget said of Quebec’s ‘green tax’, “Somehow, the consumers will pay for it.”

Oh yes, we will pay and pay and pay again.

Those of us who still have jobs, that is.

Evening Update: It appears that Jonathan Kay intends to publish this editorial in tomorrow’s Post - Dump Kyoto, Save Lives. (H/T National Newswatch)

It’s a direct rebuttal to Byers’ Star piece (see below).

…My problem with the Kyoto camp isn’t that it’s peddling “junk science.” It’s that, like Byers, they go straight from the science to the politics without stopping to count the money. What if global warming is real, but Kyoto is still a rip-off — even according to the big-hearted humanitarian logic at the core of the pro-Kyoto camp?

On that note, here’s something that pops out at you when you read Byers’ op-ed: a total absence of numbers. The same is true of most pro-Kyoto articles, and sometimes even whole books. Too often, the argument for fighting climate change is based on vague appeals to cuddly polar bears, our moral debt to mother nature, the “will of the international community” — as well as the usual litany of worst-case (and, often, worse-than-worst-case) disaster scenarios. You rarely see anyone actually crunch the numbers and prove Kyoto’s worth on a cost-benefit basis…

Consider: The global all-in compliance costs of Kyoto amount to about $180-billion per year. Yet all these billions — even paid in perpetuity — would delay the globe’s expected rate of heating over the next century by just 5%. Assuming Kyoto is allowed to expire in 2012, its total effect will have been to delay the pace of global warming by one week. In terms of Canada’s contribution to Kyoto, the effect would be measured in hours. Think about that the next time Dion or David Suzuki lecture you about Canada’s lost opportunity to save the world.

Thank you Jonathan for this refreshing reality check. If only all my wishes were answered so swiftly.

I can’t let this one go by, but I need some help due to time constraints.

Please read this opinion piece by Michael Byers - Prime Minister Stands out as Small Man of Humanity (Star). If you’re a True Blue Conservative, this one’s gonna make you see red!

Here’s what jumped out at me:

Harper’s antipathy to international environmental co-operation is well known. He once dismissed the Kyoto Protocol as “essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.” But his concerns about burden-sharing and free-riding are misplaced. Firefighters don’t check tax records before responding to an emergency call.

Now this sounded vaguely familiar, and then I remembered. That analogy was used in a recent Record editorial (which we totally picked apart):

If rich and poor houses on a street were on fire, would Harper wait until everyone paid the same taxes before calling the fire brigade?

So what’s up with that? Is this the latest revelation from some kind of Kyoto New Testament or something? I guessed I missed that service. (Oh, yeah. We were snowed in.)

Lots more to challenge in the article.

Have fun.

(Update at end)

Environment Canada forecasts “coldest winter in almost 15 years“.

If November is any indication, I’m inclined to agree.

Oops. Stephane must have read the same report! Y2Kyoto: Politics ends at the swim up bar.

“We are speaking about the worst ecological threat that humanity is facing, and I will do my best to get out of this damn frozen country.”

Saturday Update: Speaking of Bali, this is a must-watch video - Rex Murphy (Bali Logic). H/T Socialist Gulag:

…If global warming is the imminent and catastrophic peril to the earth that everyone from the IPCC to David Suzuki to Al Gore and every socially-conscious celebrity on the planet have been telling us it is, then there can be no serious argument for Canada to make mandatory commitments, while exempting the giant emitters of the world such as China and India. This is like plugging a leak while ignoring a flood…

Oh the irony…

The eco-cruise ship which belongs to Al Gore’s buddy Bruce Poon Tip and sunk in the Antartic, is fast becoming a huge eco-disaster - Sunken Antarctic cruise ship leaves oil spill, threatening 2,500 penguins (MS Explorer).