ICSC Media Release – Premier Redford’s Washington DC Brookings Institute Presentation Helps Opponents: Keystone XL pipeline not worth burdening Canada with severe carbon dioxide regulations

Ottawa, Canada, April 9, 2013: “It is bad enough that the Alberta government panders to environmental extremists in its own province,” said Tom Harris, executive director of the Ottawa-based International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC). “But promoting climate alarm in Canada’s most important trading partner, as Alberta Premier Alison Redford did this afternoon at the Washington DC-based Brookings Institute, is a public relations blunder of the first order.”

“The ultimate aim of climate activists is no less than to entirely terminate our use of hydrocarbon fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas,” explained Harris. “So, it is a disastrous strategy for a province that derives most of its income from those resources to support a movement that is trying to kill the market for the same resources.”

Note: ICSC has created a video that analyzes Premier Redford’s mistakes and suggests more functional messaging—see the following Webpage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXEanhiRtM0.

“What keeps getting lost in all of this is that it’s an absolutely senseless argument,” said ICSC Science Advisory Board member, Dr. Tim Ball, former climatology professor from the University of Winnipeg. “It is all based on an absolutely unproven, and now falsified, scientific argument that carbon dioxide (CO₂) is causing dangerous climate change. Seventeen years of no warming, a period during which CO₂ levels have continued to rise, demonstrates that the climate scare is obviously unfounded.” 

University of Saskatchewan geology professor Dr. Brian Pratt asked, “Now that it is well established, and indeed accepted by scientists who count themselves as global warming alarmists, that the ‘average global temperature’ has shown itself to be decoupled from the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere, then why is it that Premier Redford’s government is still fixated on a scientifically-flawed premise of human-induced, catastrophic climate change?” 

“Should we not expect our political masters to be on top of the latest scientific developments before forcing on the populace measures that will have serious economic consequences?” Pratt wondered. “This is not to say there aren’t legitimate environmental concerns associated with oil sands extraction.”

“Climate Change science is still evolving and the link between human-added CO₂ and climate warming remains elusive,” agreed Dr. Madhav Khandekar, consultant meteorologist and former Environment Canada Research Scientist. "Further, the modest warming of the last 30 years has NOT led to increase in extreme weather events, which are naturally driven and have in fact declined in respect of thunderstorm and tornado counts for North America. Also global sea level rise has been a mere 1mm to 1.5mm per year over the last two years."

Khandekar advised, “We must prepare for and adapt to climate change as it occurs, not vainly trying to stop it from happening.”

“If the Americans don’t change course and quickly approve Keystone XL, with no climate change-related strings attached, then we should focus instead on getting the Northern Gateway pipeline approved and built and expand our oil sands shipments to China,” asserted Ball. “Canada doesn’t need Keystone XL. The absolutely useless CO₂ reduction concessions Redford is making to appease the Obama administration is too costly for our country and based on an entirely bogus scientific foundation besides.”

“It is perhaps understandable that the Redford government is so frightened of activists that they dare not contest the science foundation of the climate scare,” Harris said. “But they do us all a great disservice when they promote it in their Keystone XL pipeline lobbying efforts and so feed the fire that threatens to destroy the province’s, and ultimately Canada’s, main source of wealth. This is a one-way ticket to a future with no Keystone XL, no Northern Gateway Pipeline, no oil sands and ultimately no ‘have’ provinces at all.”

The ICSC is a non-partisan group of scientists, economists and energy and policy experts who are working to promote better understanding of climate science and related policy worldwide. We aim to help create an environment in which a more rational, open discussion about climate issues emerges, thereby moving the debate away from implementation of costly and ineffectual “climate control” measures. Instead, ICSC encourages effective planning for, and adaptation to, inevitable natural climate variability, and continuing scientific research into the causes and impacts of climate change.

ICSC also focuses on publicizing the repercussions of misguided plans to “solve the climate crisis”. This includes, but is not limited to, “carbon” sequestration as well as the dangerous impacts of attempts to replace conventional energy supplies with wind turbines, solar power, most biofuels and other ineffective and expensive energy sources.

For more information about this announcement or ICSC in general, visit http://www.climatescienceinternational.org, or contact:

Tom Harris, B. Eng., M. Eng. (Mech. – thermofluids)
Executive Director, International Climate Science Coalition, and Advisor to the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
P.O. Box 23013
Ottawa, Ontario K2A 4E2
Canada

Email: tom.harris@climatescienceinternational.net This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Phone: 613-728-9200

ICSC Webpage: http://www.climatescienceinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=393