NEP II - Hammer Alberta and Saskatchewan to meet climate goals

Bolstering the hype leading up to the December Copenhagen Conference, the Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute today released a report recommending that Alberta's and Saskatchewan's growth be curbed:

Ottawa will have to lead a massive restructuring of the Canadian economy, with wealth flowing from the West to the rest of the country, if it is to meet its climate-change targets, a landmark report has concluded.

The Conservative government's goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 can be achieved, but only by limiting growth in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice ain't happy:

“The conclusions [the report] draws are irresponsible,” said Mr. Prentice

Still, the fact that the federal government appears to believe the ever more clearly dubious AGW hypothesis and continues making plans to waste huge gobs of money chasing that hypothesis is disturbing enough. And so is the fact that the "landmark" idiot report was funded by the TD Bank.

A Globe poll today is somewhat encouraging:

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And, coincidentally, here's Mark Steyn's timely column in Maclean's today: "Gullible eager-beaver planet savers". It's brilliant in it's exposé of statist Big Brotherism in the name of environmentalism. And good for Maclean's for publishing it. The TD Bank could use some of the same kind of intelligence and moxie.

Updates: Kevin Libin's "Carbon report’s bloody portent" [h/t Wilson in the comments].

Also see Peter Foster's "Muddled models":

... [the Pemina-Suzuki] report was leaked to The Globe and Mail, and ... the thrust of coverage appeared to contradict the smiley-faced conclusions of the report, which was titled “Climate leadership, economic prosperity.” Or, please hobble us so that we can run faster!

Under reasons for draconian action, the report quotes the widely discredited report from British economist and climate extremist Nicholas Stern....

Lord Stern is increasingly becoming a figure of ridicule. This week, he suggested that vegetarianism might save the world, and projected that attitudes towards meat eating might become like those towards drunk driving. He has also predicted climate change would turn Europe into a desert and turn the world back in time by 30-million years....

... The TD’s Mr. Drummond apparently doesn’t “endorse” the report. He told me he just wanted people to have “something to shoot at.”

But such a study, while an inviting target, should hardly be the starting point for rational analysis of the greatest policy threat to freedom and prosperity in living memory.

What it does confirm is how far the policy “debate” has been taken over by activists, supported by Big Corporate money.

Jennifer Lynch Live!

J-Ly is testifying lying before the Justice Committee today (live streaming bullcrap began 12:30 PM PST).

Thanks to Blazing Catfur for the notification.

Joe Comartin just asked whether defamation suits would pursued against Levant and Steyn ("Stain", I think he said) for their allegedly false allegations against CHRC employees. Lynch denies that there was any wrong-doing by her employees but that if they wanted to pursue legal action they were on their own.

So far, all I can say is that "I hate that smug bitch!" And I'm not too keen on some of the Bloc and Lib (eg. Jennings) committee members either.

Ezra Levant here and several posts prior.

Update: Deborah Gyapong provides some interesting observations and photos:

Canadian Human Rights Commission head Jennifer Lynch, Q.C. ... literally made my jaw drop. ... her Cheshire Cat grin was wide enough for me to see her upturned lip. She came across as the smiling school marm, patiently explaining to everyone about how equality and freedom of speech need to be balanced.

Richard Warman was there. ... strikes me as quite young, young enough to be Jennifer Lynch's son [I think Deb meant "evil spawn"].

Those useless climate models

More evidence confirming Lawrence Solomon's assessment of useless climate models (see previous post) comes from James Hansen's GISS modeling of ocean heat content.

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Oops, wrong again, James!

... What Mr. Hansen fails to acknowledge is that ENSO also has significant impacts outside of the tropics.

If and when GCMs like those used by GISS, and in turn by the IPCC, are capable of reproducing ENSO events and their multiyear aftereffects on SST, TLT, and OHC anomalies, they may be capable of determining Earth’s energy imbalance ... At present, they are not.

And since AGW alarmist fanatics like Hansen are only interested in models that "predict" catastrophe they never will be.

A lonely voice at a climate change meeting

From Lawrence Solomon’s presentation at a recent Conference Board of Canada CNS meeting on climate change:

You are hearing at this conference that there is little doubt that human activity is causing profound and negative changes to our climate. Distinguished speakers are warning ... that Canada will need to be prepared for the chaos to follow, chaos that could include mass migrations of refugees, social unrest, pandemics, war and terrorism and riots born of social injustice.

I’m here to tell you that there are no such likelihoods. That there is no consensus on climate change. That the science that the doomsayers describe cannot credibly be seen as having the weight of scientific opinion behind it. ...

... All scenarios of catastrophe are based on nothing more than output from computer models that have been fed what-if scenarios. These models can’t even model the past, let alone the future. The climate is simply too complex, with too many variables, to project into the future with any degree of confidence.

... we need to be prepared for emergencies in the future. But we should base our preparations on real-world conditions, not the fantasies of climate modelers at computer keyboards.... the greatest threats to public safety and national security come not from man-made climate change but from man-made climate models. ...

... To date, attempts to mitigate global warming have caused enormous human suffering and ecological harm. With the globe not having warmed in the last 11 years — once again, to the surprise of the computer modelers — the safest thing we can do on global warming until we know more may be to do nothing; the most dangerous thing would be to continue to act boldly and in ignorance.

Bravo Lawrence Solomon! Read the whole thing.

The man has real guts. I suspect his was a very lonely voice at that meeting. It would be interesting to hear how his message was received.

Sinking support for AGW hypothesis

Lawrence Solomon points to a new poll showing Americans' declining belief in human-induced global warming:

Only 50% of Democratic voters in the U.S. agree with President Obama’s belief that humans are responsible for global warming, according to a new poll from Pew Research Center released today. This figure ... represents the first time that a majority of Democrats have not endorsed the man-made theory of global warming.

Independent voters in the U.S. ... [o]nly 33% now blame us. ... 50% [last year] ...

... Republicans ... dropping from 27% last year to 18% this year.

Among all Americans, only 36% blame humans, the lowest figure yet. Last year, 47% blamed humans.

The law can be such an ass

Lorne Gunter on David Chen’s treatment by "the law".

... Mr. Chen is the Toronto grocer who back in May performed a citizen's arrest on a serial thief, but now faces charges of assault, kidnapping and forcible confinement for his actions.

... Crown prosecutors made a plea bargain with Anthony Bennett, the thief, in return for his testimony against Mr. Chen.

Lovely! The prosecutor bribes a thief to testify against the victim of his crime.

Better make that "the law can be such an assh*le". Somebody ought to prosecute the prosecutor.

Here’s a petition to sign.

Communism, fascism and now climatism

Terence Corcoran in yesterday’s Post:

... a corporate-driven global PR machine, ... an avalanche of business-government co-operation the likes of which the world has never seen. ... the world’s leading environmentalists and green NGOs: The World Wildlife Fund, David Suzuki, the Sierra Club, Environmental Defence, Forest Ethics, the Pembina Institute and many more. Together with industry, they pressure government in the creation of the green industrial state. ...

The shape of the green industrial state rises out of a not-so-attractive place in history. The two great theories of modern statism are part of the recent past: Communism has been dead for two decades, discredited with the fall of the Soviet Union; and full-blown fascism, with government in total control of a subservient corporate private economy, has been a non-starter since 1945. What we have now rising out of the ashes to fill the void is climatism.

Some of the culprits:

... the Forest Products Association of Canada, whose president, Avrim Lazar, threw Canada’s forest firms behind a World Wildlife Fund campaign to stop global deforestation.

... the Canadian ENGO-Industry Cap-and-Trade Dialogue ... a rogues gallery middlemen, energy consumers and green activists: The David Suzuki Foundation, Dow Canada, DuPont Canada, Environmental Defence, Forest Ethics, Pembina Institute, Royal Bank of Canada, Rio Tinto, Sierra Club of Canada, the Toronto-Dominion Bank and the World Wildlife Fund. ...

... In Ontario, the list of corporations supporting and circling the province’s new Green Energy Act is an appalling demonstration of climatism run amok. From TransCanada to GE, from wind farm developers to solar panel makers, it’s a corporatist free for all. All have joined forces with David Suzuki, Environmental Defence and other green groups in cahoots with government ...

... The model for Ontario’s green renewable schemes is Germany, where climatism is well advanced and where solar and wind power programs ... has created an economic fiasco.

... Last week ... a Canadian green business summit boasted Walmart, Maple Leaf Foods, Coca-Cola Bottling, McDonald’s, Home Depot as leaders, with a keynote speech by David Suzuki ...

Any guesses as to what Canada’s position at the Copenhagen climate treaty will be?

And from the comments at the Post:

Lord Monckton calls it the traffic light syndrome: Greens too Yellow
to admit they're really Reds.

Maldives - dishonest rent seekers

Our esteemed media has been flogging this story about the Maldives’ underwater Cabinet meeting to highlight the phony AGW threat of rising sea levels. No doubt it’s all part of the ramping up of alarmism leading up to the December Copenhagen conference.

But today an expert on sea level measurement sets the record straight:

Open Letter
October 20, 2009
To: President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives
From: Nils-Axel Morner, Stockholm, Sweden

... In 2001, when our research group found overwhelming evidence that sea level was by no means in a rising mode in the Maldives, but had remained quite stable for the last 30 years. ... I announced this happy news during an interview for your local TV station. However, your predecessor as president censored and stopped the broadcast....

... I have written to you twice without reply. Your people ought not to have to suffer a constant claim that there is no future for them on their own islands. This terrible message is deeply inappropriate, ...

... Let me summarize a few facts.
(1) In the last 2000 years, sea level has oscillated with 5 peaks reaching 0.6 to 1.2 m above the present sea level.
(2) From 1790 to 1970 sea level was about 20 cm higher than today
(3) In the 1970s, sea level fell by about 20 cm to its present level
(4) Sea level has remained stable for the last 30 years, implying that there are no traces of any alarming on-going sea level rise.
(5) Therefore, we are able to free the Maldives (and the rest of low-lying coasts and island around the globe) from the condemnation of becoming flooded in the near future.

... Your cabinet meeting under the water is nothing but a misdirected gimmick or PR stunt. Al Gore is a master in such cheap techniques. But such misconduct is dishonest, unproductive and certainly most un-scientific.

Nils-Axel Morner
Head of Paleogeophysics & Geodynamics at Stockholm University, Sweden (1991-2005); President of the INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution (1999-2003); Leader of the Maldives Sea Level Project (2000 on); Chairman of the INTAS project on Geomagnetism and Climate (1997-2003).

Maldives and other island nations have been banging on this drum for a long time, supported and encouraged by the AGW alarmists. None of the dishonest bastards cares about the facts. And all Maldives wants is money.

Those "lefty, liberal, multicultural appeasement monkeys"

Pat Condell:


[h/t:The Canadian Republic]

Copenhagen climate treaty a vast global boondoggle

The United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen December 7-18 is aimed at reaching an agreement to replace the failed Kyoto Accord.

Kevin Libin’s excellent column examines the draft agreement and its potential impact on Canada. It makes for very scary reading but it’s a must read!

The whole mess is premised on a collection of assumptions that range from dubious to faulty to outright false. The driving assumption is of course the increasingly dubious hypothesis that AGW is a critical threat to the health of the planet. And the involvement of global statists and of environmentalists (of Maurice Strong’s and David Suzuki’s ilk) pushing agendas which are operative even in the absence of any supposed climate threat should give pause to any sane Minister of Environment.

Here are some excerpts from Kevin Libin’s piece[emphasis mine]:

The Kyoto Protocol ..... was in some corners accused of being a covert wealth transfer plot, ... "a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations," was Stephen Harper’s assessment, long before he became Prime Minister.

With Copenhagen, however, there is no hidden agenda: its authors say that transferring wealth is exactly what they aim to do. ....It proposes in plain language an arrangement that will see nations like Canada guarantee to send billions of dollars every year for decades to the developing world as payment of a "climate debt"

... the Copenhagen treaty calls for the payment by rich countries of what can probably best described as climate reparations.

.... industrialized countries are to commit "at least 0.7%" of their annual GDP, above and beyond existing foreign aid commitments, to compensate the developing world for lost dignity and other distress (in Canada’s case, roughly $10-billion a year, ... on top of the $4-billion already spent on foreign aid)...

If Canada does sign the treaty, [an expert] warns, we "will lose all control over our sovereignty and resource base in a matter of years."

... [Unlike the Kyoto Accord] Copenhagen ... entrust[s] these billions to the management of the United Nations, whose administration of the severely corrupted oil-for-food program in Iraq bred widespread skepticism of the world body’s transparency and accountability....

... if the UN doesn’t like a certain country’s plan to cut greenhouse gases (GHGs), it has the power to deny assigned emission allowances until it sees a plan it does — potentially ... leaving countries without full control of their own environmental policy....

... "Any elected leader who signed the climate treaty would be signing the death-warrant of his nation’s democracy," says Lord Monckton ....

Meanwhile back on the home front:

... Environment Minister Jim Prentice’s office would not say whether he or his staff was alert to the apparent and special risks to Canada in the current version of the Copenhagen treaty. "We won’t be commenting on drafts," said a ministry spokesman ...

Copenhagen is a bureaucratic boondoggle of vast, global proportions as one might expect of a UN sponsored project. Governments and NGOs worldwide have been expending enormous resources over decades trying to figure out how to wreck the global economy. If the first world signs on to an agreement in Copenhagen that looks anything like the draft they’ll have succeeded.

Damn, now I have to write another letter to my MP and to Jim Prentice!

Obama's Nobel in context

[NRO]

Obama's Nobel Peace Prize - what a joke!

Obama received the prize "... not for substantive accomplishments, but for his 'vision' and inspiring 'hope' ...". We might'a known!

The Nobel Peace Prize was a joke long before it was awarded to fat head Al Gore and his fellow warmists. It was a sick joke when they awarded it to career terrorist Yasser Arafat. It was a stupid joke when they awarded it to Jimmy Carter.

The Nobel Peace Prize - a worthless joke (not counting the $1.4M cash award).

Jonathan Kay, Mark Steyn.

Updates:

Melanie Phillips - "Barack Obama wins the Yasser Arafat prize: ... You have to have a heart of stone not to laugh."

Wall Street Journal - "The Nobel Hope Prize: ... Our own reaction is bemusement at the Norwegian decision to offer what amounts to the world's first futures prize in diplomacy, with the Nobel Committee anticipating the heroic concessions that it believes Mr. Obama will make to secure treaties that will produce a new era of global serenity."

From the peons:

Globe and Mail

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CNN

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Thanks for capitalism

To mark the approach of Thanksgiving weekend William Watson has penned an excellent column, "Giving thanks for capitalism":

... Maybe in the end material circumstances are not important. Maybe poverty would not prevent spiritual wealth. Maybe if we were poorer, we'd be happier, or more fulfilled. Most of us seem unwilling to take that chance, however. Thanks to the effort of those who came before us, thanks to our own efforts, we don't have to take that chance.
... Life might be better all round if as a species we weren't acquisitive. But we do seem to be acquisitive. And it has brought hundreds of millions of us to a standard of living that while probably pitiful by the standards of the future is astounding by the standards of the past.
... Excessive acquisitiveness we usually call "greed." Critics of capitalism, from Marx to Moore, see it as a system founded on greed. Acquisitiveness and self-interest are clearly key to capitalism. But is most people's acquisitiveness really excessive? Is the desire to work hard, to save and to better oneself really "greed"?
... who's to say what's excessive? One man's obsession is another man's passion. We admire obsession in sports, entertainment and the arts. [And let’s not forget science and the obsessions of people like Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman.]
... The only place such obsession is regarded as hurtful or evil is business. Outside business it's regarded as "dedication."
... some participants in capitalism probably are motivated by "greed." But the acquisitiveness that motivates the rest of us is normal and healthy and something we should be thankful for.

Amen!

Ezra and Mark went up the Hill

Today Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn were witnesses before the Justice Committee hearings into HRA Section 13. I missed the live video action from the Hill but it was blogged by Maclean's Kady O'Malley and also here's Deborah Gyapong's take (with some nice photos). Unfortunately, what stands out most from both is the impression that the Committee is largely populated by MPs who have a weak grasp of the issues, which leaves the further impression that scrapping Section 13 is not something they're likely to recommend any time soon.

More links at Blazing Cat Fur who dubs Ezra's and Mark's performances a "tour de force".

Update: Now, having viewed the proceedings (here and here) I'll agree with BCF that Mark's and Ezra's performances were superb, a "tour de force". Hopefully their powerful testimony will get through the thick skulls of some Justice Committee members. See also Mark's and Ezra's subsequent remarks.

National Post backs Obamacare

The National Post editorial board has come out in favor of Obama's public option. What is this, socialist Mondays for the NP?

The editorial is correct that more choice is most often better for consumers. But it overlooks a glaring exception - which is that the choice of a ‘public’ (government) option is, for many reasons, a very bad one. Government involvement inevitably politicizes the process. Government is in a position to legislate rules favorable to itself. Government is in a position to use taxes coerced from the private sector to compete against the private sector. In other words government competition with the private sector is inevitably riddled with conflicts of interest (or, less politely, "corruption").

Furthermore noting the strong statist tendencies of the Democratic Party and the Obama administration in particular it is highly likely that whatever steps it takes towards setting up a public option are merely first steps in an ever expanding role for government and eventually the end of many private choices. Legislating a public choice now will likely lead to less choice in the future. Eventually American healthcare could wind up looking much like Canada’s. And then where would we go for the treatment denied here?

These are some of the real reasons for the strong opposition to Obamacare.

Stephen Harper - rock star

See also Christian Conservative.

Update: And Joanne's Harpemania at Blue Like You.

And here's an HD version.

A very un-PC phone message

According to one source that message is (was?) for real.

Update: On the other hand probably not. [Via Christian in the comments.]

[Ripped off from Halfwise]

Big Bird's vicious attack on Obama

Good one Conan!

[H/t: Vinney]

Lord Monckton praises National Post's fearless climate skepticism

Lord Christopher Monckton is on a speaking tour of Canada. Today he's in Calgary and Kevin Libin reports via Twitter:

Nice to hear Lord Monckton, former British science advisor, applaud the Nat Post's fearless skepticism of global warming at a luncheon today.

The CHRC presses its assault on free speech

Blazing Cat Fur alerts us to the Canadian "Human Rights" Commission's application for a Judicial Review of the CHRT's recent Lemire v. Warman decision, and rallies the troops.

Related and, and also.

Let the games begin continue!

Tobacco lawsuits “a crude shakedown”

An excellent Post editorial pretty much says it all:

... the Ontario government ... Tuesday launched a $50-billion lawsuit against a dozen tobacco companies for health services dating back more than half a century. British Columbia and New Brunswick already have multi-billion-dollar suits before the courts ...

... It is hard to avoid the impression that this is anything but a crude shakedown of an unpopular industry ...

Governments should just admit they are as hopelessly addicted to tobacco as any smoker, and end their duplicitous attempt to look pious on smoking while at the same time reeling in billions annually.

F**king politicians and their legal bureaucrats - scummy, lying, hypocritical, shakedown artists! The tobacco industry should countersue for $100B.

Bennett spreading Canadian healthcare bullcrap

Liberal MP Carloyn Bennett testifying before a US Senate committee:

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"I believe we need to defend our system in order to help the president and help our neighbour's citizens to make sure that no child is born uncovered. This is, I think, our responsibility as a citizen of the world," Bennett said.

... I was asked to explain why we pay less but get better results ...

Liberal bullcrap extraordinaire!