Don’t miss Prime Minister Stephen Harperlive on YouTube at 10:45 Eastern this morning! He will be discussing the recent Throne Speech and budget (that just passed with a littlehelp from his Liberal friends.)
My first thought after reading his steaming pile of rhetoric was why did he set himself up for the inevitabledrudging? Or does he actually believe that we’re that stupid?
And how is it that the alarmists can continue to hold him up as some kind of prophet and still keep a straight face while they warn us all of impending doom?
Anyway, here are some of the better fisks that I’ve come across. If you find more please let share them in comments. Thanks.
But in response to Gore’s statement that “what is at stake is our ability to use the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption”, Bill Kristol said it most succinctly:
“Redemption comes from God, not Gore.”
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Related
More inconvenient news for the global warming alarmists:
...And oh, yes – one further interesting fact emerged from yesterday’s Select Committee grilling. Professor Edward Acton, the Vice-Chancellor of the “University” of East Anglia, now thinks more money should be devoted to researching the Mediaeval Warm Period. So apparently it exists after all.
Dr. Jack Kruuv, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Waterloo has a few choice words for Maxime Bernier in today’s Waterloo Region Record:
“Politicians should keep their trap shut, when they don’t know what they are talking about.”
And since politicians represent the people that elect them, then by extension he is telling us to keep our traps shut. So much for open debate in Canadian taxpayer-supported universities.
This is the kind of attitude that we’re up against.
…In other words, Gore obviously believes we should sit down, shut up, and let him and his buddies reach into our pockets and remove trillions of dollars without demanding proof of the scientific basis for his power grab…
And a terrific comment from a reader at the Daily Mail:
“Prof Jones today said it was not ’standard practice’ in climate science to release data and methodology for scientific findings so that other scientists could check and challenge the research.”
It is standard practice in every proper science to release date and methodology in the greatest of detail so that every aspect of the research and of the argument can be ‘falsified’ (using the Popper meaning of the word).
That is how science works.
That is why science works.
Not to do so puts climate research at the level of iridology, homeopoathy, and alchemy.
Add political agenda, and finding, and you have a bastardised pseudo-science barely worth another look. Unscrupulous people making money out of the latest political bandwagon, to justify further taxation by this dreadful government.
Yvo de Boer has just announced his intentions to resign as executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Can you spell f-a-i-l-u-r-e?
Meanwhile we learn via Terence Corcoran and Lawrence Solomon that ‘at least five major U.S. corporations have pulled out of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership‘. Yet several of our Canadian provinces are still hanging onto the cap-trade scheme.
Why is it taking our Canadian political leaders so long to catch up on the latest news? Why are they not at least acknowledging the mistakes?
…So cap-and-trade is dead. But other piecemeal energy-rationing policies are still very much alive. The Environmental Protection Agency is going ahead with regulating greenhouse gas emissions using the Clean Air Act. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is working with Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) on a “compromise” package that can gain bipartisan support. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) has passed a renewable electricity requirement and new building energy efficiency standards out of his committee.
And big corporations are still circling the trough. By my count, U.S. CAP still has twenty-three corporate members plus eight environmental pressure groups that front for big business. And of course, BP America, Conoco Phillips, Caterpillar, and many other companies that don’t belong to U.S. CAP still hope to make money off the “right” sort of policies to raise energy prices.
The good news is that public opinion has turned decisively against global warming alarmism and energy-rationing. People have figured out that they, not big business special interests, will end up paying the bills when energy prices, in President Obama’s elegant formulation, “necessarily skyrocket.” And, guess what? In the November elections, the American people will have a lot more votes than James Rogers of Duke Energy or Jim Mulva of Conoco Phillips.
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In case you missed it:
Many thanks to Frmgrl and Bec for the tip about Dave Rutherford’s interview with Jim Prentice yesterday. Definitely worth a listen. [Click on Wednesday Feb. 17 at 11 am]
Yesterday saw two huge news stories but you’ll only hear one from most of Canadian MSM. And make no mistake. Alexandre Bilodeau’s historic Olympic achievement is certainly worth celebrating.
But another major event may be in danger of slipping under the radar unless we force it to the forefront - Professor Phil Jones is now backtracking on previously-held dogma about global warming and climate change. One wonders what fellow High Priest Al Gore is thinking right now. In fact, where is he? Hiding in a snow drift somewhere on the east coast?
In any case, Tim Ball was on the Roy Green show yesterday for a brief chat on the significance of all this [click on Sunday Feb. 14 at 2 pm and fastforward to the last 10 minutes]. Roy asked Tim if ‘this thing is totally unraveling right now?’ and Tim answered ‘completely’ and the question is now ‘how long is it going to take for the politicians to realize it?’ They both agreed that the pols would be ‘breaking their ankles jumping off the bandwagon’, but they have a problem having already committed so much money to it.
Watch the Richter Scale as Politicians Jump Off the IPCC Wagon
Jones only concedes some points but they are enough from the high priest of the CRU and IPCC to completely destroy its credibility. What will the sycophants and exploiters like Gore and the Mainstream Media do now? What about politicians who based positions and policy on environment and energy on the IPCC? What about the massive scams of Cap And Trade? What about the extreme environmental groups who have bullied and preached from the moral high ground? What about the scientists who took vehement positions without understanding? It is a very sad day for science, the people and the world.
Well I hope that politicians wake up but I fear they’ll only do the right thing once the public is made aware of the inconsistencies and contradictions. And that will only happen once the media decides to cover the stories or if ordinary citizens start taking up the fight for truth.
As Adrian MacNair brilliantly pointed out, the pols are only going to do what’s popular:
…Don’t expect our politicians to drop everything either. “Conservative” Environment Minister Jim Prentice is still sending Canada’s industry on a suicide pact with the United States’ own Obamachange legislation, and the province of British Columbia still has a carbon tax on fuel that isn’t making the unemployment rate any better right now. They don’t care. They still believe utterly that the public believes utterly in the science behind boiling pots of frogs and hockey stick graphs.
You can’t really blame them. They’re politicians. If Canadians believed that the world faced the grave danger of alien abduction and medical probing, you can bet the government would install some kind of alien-abduction and probing prophylaxis system that would make us feel better. Just like we do when we strip for the peek-a-boo cameras at the airport…
Meanwhile, expect to see some media outlets continue to stick tenaciously to the old party line until media consumers and ordinary citizens start demanding the truth.
…All of which leads the Post’s Dana Milbank, no friend of conservatives or Republicans, to write in his column that all that talk about more frequent and worse hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts because of global warming was about as scientifically valid as the recent babble that record-breaking snow storms in DC disprove global warming. “Argument-by-anecdote isn’t working,” he says. Only too true and it’s about time someone not on the right had the courage to say it.
But Milbank takes his column further. Noting recent revelations and contradictions in the science, he writes: “The science is overwhelming — but not definitive.” There was a time when such blasphemy would earn Milbank the title of “denier.” But that time is swiftly passing and there’s beginning to be a general retreat from the global warming crowd on all the doomsday scenarios and “we have X number of years to save Earth” talk. Milbank notes that even Al Gore’s outfit is switching from TV ads about climate change to the importance of green energy…
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Tuesday Update
Lots of great links out there. Too many to keep up with really.
And this is a blockbuster of a column – Climate: Politics of fear by Chris Vander Doelen of the Windsor Star:
…To me, the most important lesson to be learned from climate change and its believers isn’t about the environment at all. It’s about mob behaviour and the politics of fear.
The global warming cult came so close to taking over the free world because it mixed the fear-mongering and moral superiority of old-time religion with the central control of classic Marxism.
The brilliant mix of do-gooderism and totalitarianism explains why those huddling under the climate umbrella are an unlikely coalition of church ladies, the well-meaning, union hardliners and college-age anarchists.
The people who pushed global warming didn’t want to save the planet — they wanted to enslave it through taxation.
The money — trillions of dollars — would have been redistributed by shadowy forces at the United Nations to those with favoured political systems. Capitalism, of course, would have been dead in a matter of decades. Liberty would have disappeared along with free markets…
I think Springer’s really nailed the conundrum that PM Stephen Harper finds himself in right now concerning Anthropogenic (man made) global warming.
If we are perfectly honest here, many of us at BLY are finding the Prime Minister’s stance on climate change and global warming somewhat disconcerting – especially in light of recentevents that are increasingly calling the scientificcredibility into question.
Neil D made an interesting observation in the previous post and I think it reflects the opinion of many Conservative supporters:
This is the problem I’m having… we all know he doesn’t believe the planet is warming, he’s called it a wealth-transfer scam in the past, yet he continues on like he does believe although not whole-heartedly leaving himself open to all kinds of criticisms from so many different people. I know he’s not being totally honest and you know he’s not being totally honest and he knows he’s not being totally honest but what I’m personally looking for in a leader, and especially in the Prime Minister of Canada,is someone who IS honest! Someone willing to call a spade a spade and then deal with the fallout.
Do you really think the Libs, Dippers and Greens (or the Bloc) will think any less of him?
He doesn’t have to come out and say that global warming is a scam but the very least he could do is question the science and ask for a full debate. That’s not too much to ask for.
But as Springer and Hunter point out, trying to find a middle, rational ground is difficult for PM Harper in a media environment where even the faintest suspicion of skepticism is cause for a tarring and feathering by CTV, CBC and the opposition leaders.
But wouldn’t we respect a leader more who follows the actual science and responds accordingly, rather than trying to appease the propagandists simply because the majority of Canadians seem to have swallowed the Green Koolaid without an ounce of healthy skepticism?
…Security and media on board the PM’s plane were initially shocked by the sudden appearance of fighter jets, but were eventually assured that there was no threat to anyone’s safety.
Rather, it was an “honour guard” sent to escort the prime minister out of Swiss air space, a Harper spokesman explained.
The honour guard escort is rarely deployed, and is considered a heartfelt sign of close ties between Switzerland and Canada, the spokesman said...
...No one’s really talking about the failure of Copenhagen now because the ostensible threat to humanity was shown to be shrouded in hype. Al Gore and his crew simply don’t have now what we used to call “the face” to deliver another grand and imperiously moralizing lecture to the world and its carbon-consuming innocents after the travesty revealed in Climategate and the clutter of revelations that followed it.
…At our high schools, climate change is taught as dogma, with Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, a staple (in the U.K., after a high-profile case before the High Court found that An Inconvenient Truth is an error-filled work of propaganda, Gore’s film can no longer be presented as scientifically valid). At our universities, no school dares encourage debate on global warming among its faculty, for fear of repercussions in research funding. By the time students have gone through high school and experienced a year or two of Canadian university, as would have been the case with many in the Munk audience, they almost surely would never have been exposed to the scientific controversy over climate change by their schools, except dismissively. One recent graduate of an Ontario university whom I know, who only discovered the controversy over climate change after receiving her master’s in environmental engineering, feels outrage at being kept in the dark by her school in the area she chose for her career…
And the following are really good links that I don’t have time to follow up on at the moment. Perhaps another blogger or columnist will and then leave a note to that effect? Thanks.
I’m sorry but I just had to point out Lorrie Goldstein’s column published in yesterday’s Sun – Copenhagen sure was a gas. Goldstein at his best, IMHO.
He’s packaged all the Copenhagen hypocrisy into one zinger of carbon-spewing roast:
Now that the enviro nuts have finished handing out their “Fossil of the Day” and “Colossal Fossil” awards, unfairly smearing Canada at the just-completed Copenhagen climate summit, let’s return the favour with some well-deserved honours of our own.
Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, we present the Copenhagen Flatulence Awards, honouring those who raised the art of generating hot air and gassy emissions to new intensity levels during the UN-sponsored festival of indignation.
—
The “I’m Not Really A Climatologist, I Just Play One on TV” Flatulence Award:
To Al Gore, who, having made a career out of mocking opponents for “getting the science wrong” on global warming, gets the science wrong on the melting of the polar ice cap, according to the scientist he says he got the science from.
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The “That Old Man River, He Just Keeps Rolling Along” Flatulence Award:
To David Suzuki, for suggesting during a CBC interview — twice — that anyone worried about lost jobs if Canada’s oil sands are shut down, would also have endorsed slavery in the American south….
Please read the whole thing. Bonus chuckle near the end. I don’t want to spoil it for you.
The comments in response to Lorrie’s column are worth checking out too and include kudos for some of those who were actually looking out for our best interests in Copenhagen:
Patsplace
December 20th 2009, 10:19pm Don’t forget to send the PM a note telling him that he did a good job. Nice that he was so polite in waiting until the Empty Suit repeated what he’s been saying for years. Nice of him not to make the big O look more frantic than he was.
HarpeS@parl.gc.ca
Jim Prentice deserves a pat on the back too.
Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca
Two men that Stood Up for Canada.
This is probably as good a time as any to thank Lorrie for all his dedication and effort in putting forward the truth regarding the true motives of the carbon-credit industry and environmentalists in general. Goldstein has done a terrific amount of research in this field and is extremely knowledgeable as well as objective. He is always ready to discuss the issues with readers, bloggers and colleagues.
Canada needs more in the media like Lorrie Goldstein.
Now back to your regularly scheduled shopping, wrapping and baking.
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Tuesday Update:
Lorrie Goldstein gives well-deserved kudos to PM Harper and Jim Prentice – Enviro nuts blow smoke (H/T Liz J):
Congratulations to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Environment Minister Jim Prentice for receiving both the “Colossal Fossil” award and the most “Fossil of the Day” awards from the enviro nuts at the now-concluded Copenhagen climate summit.
This means Harper and Prentice remembered their duty in Copenhagen was to represent Canadian taxpayers, not radicals who would happily destroy our economy, primarily for ideological reasons...
First he excoriates the likes of George Monbiot and his sycophantic MSM followers. I suspect that the one he is particularly singling out as an environmental groupie is Heather Mallickwhose recent column was largely devoid of facts and rational thought, and full of shame for our country and disdain for Canadian voters (i.e. you). Her hatred for our Prime Minister is palpable:
…What takes place when a nation can’t decide on a government and lets a rightwing minority, quivering with hate, have just enough power?
Catastrophe, that’s what.
Countries supposedly get the government they deserve. I’m not sure Canada deserved Harper….
( . . . )
...We love the Kyoto protocol, we want to prostrate ourselves in Copenhagen next month, but until we make our mind up about whether to make Michael Ignatieff prime minister, we can’t….
Heather says you goofed, Canada! And you make her feel ashamed of our country.
Anyway Lorrie Goldstein lets them both have it:
I’m not sure which is worse.
Is it painfully self-righteous journalists-cum-environmental-radicals like the U.K.’s George “Moonbat” Monbiot, falsely accusing Canada of being a “corrupt petro-state” as the Copenhagen climate follies drag on?
Or is it the cheering from their sycophantic, know-nothing journalistic admirers in Canada, one of whom recently wrote a piece of such spectacularly uninformed drivel that appeared across the pond in the wake of the Moonbat’s ravings, that it practically screamed: “Oh, flay me, George, flay me, you great big, greenhouse-gas emitting hunk of Canada-bashing flatulence, you”?
It was yet another monumentally ignorant expression of environmental self-loathing, typical of Canada’s chattering classes…
Lorrie then goes on to insert a few ‘facts’ – something that members of the Mallick crowd seem to loathe as much as they do the tar sands:
...Never mind facts. Never mind reality. Never mind that in last year’s exhaustive environmental survey by The Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and The Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University, Canada finished with the world’s 12th best environmental record out of 192 countries — including almost 50 that don’t even compile enough credible data to be assessed.
Judged on 25 environmental factors, including climate change, Canada achieved an aggregate score of 86.6 out of 100 on the study’s Environmental Performance Index, ahead of Germany (land of the useless wind turbines) in 13th place, the Moonbat’s U.K. in 14th, and, oh, look, 14 places ahead of Denmark, whose capital is Copenhagen, site of the latest UN carbon dioxide-spewing festival of indignation on the dangers of spewing carbon dioxide.
The U.S., home of Nobel Peace Prize winners and warmists extraordinaire Al Gore and Barack Obama, finished in 39th place, although no doubt Canada’s self-loathing chattering classes, now aware there is such a study, will blame it all on George Bush…
Goldstein realistically reminds us that while we do indeed have serious environmental challenges in Canada, the outrage about carbon emissions in Alberta is overblown:
…The oil sands are currently responsible for less than one-tenth of one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Canada is responsible for 2%.
Until China and the U.S. — the world’s number one and two greenhouse gas emitters, responsible for 40% of global emissions — wean themselves off coal as their major electricity source, Canada could turn out the lights tomorrow — shut down everything — and it wouldn’t make any difference to the planet…
But the chattering classes were never concerned about facts.
It’s about selling media and helping their left-wing friends – especially their Moonbat heroes.
Peter Foster takes on takes on the Globe piece by Thomas Homer-Dixon and Andrew Weaver who were attempting to refute the deniers’ arguments (Responding to the skeptics).
In Weaver’s web, Foster pillories both the approach and the substance of the column:
…Dr. Weaver has also been in the forefront of the warmist counterattack. On Monday, he co-authored a piece with Thomas Homer-Dixon in The Globe and Mail from which references to Climategate were conspicuously absent. The two academics boldly knocked down erroneous “skeptical” arguments without identifying who actually holds them. Strangely, apart from avoiding the “C” word, and appearing not to understand what solar climate theory actually involves, they also ignored the main point of scientific skepticism, which is that a link between human activity and a significant impact on the global climate has not been established. Meanwhile they make some distinctly dodgy arguments of their own…
Foster’s essay is well worth the read and provides some excellent material for your own debates with the truth skeptics.
