What to do about global warming. Nothing!

Indur M. Goklany, PhD has a guest essay at WUWT refuting the hyperbolic claim that climate change is the most important challenge we face:

Some scientists, media, and, more importantly, eminent policy makers claim that climate change is this century’s most important global environmental problem. ... U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has declared that climate change is "the defining challenge of our age" .... Such pronouncements fuel the quest for rapid and drastic reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and concentrations.

Following a very comprehensive analysis of competing factors where "climate change" ranks 13th (at .3% of annual deaths world-wide) he concludes:

... the argument that we should shift resources from dealing with the real and urgent problems confronting present generations to solving potential problems of tomorrow’s wealthier and better positioned generations is unpersuasive at best and verging on immoral at worst.

... If one believes that developed countries have a moral and ethical obligation to deal with climate change, this obligation cannot, and should not, be met through aggressive emission reductions at this time—"cannot" because the planet is already committed to some climate change—and "should not" because the threats that climate change would exacerbate can be reduced more effectively and economically through focused efforts to reduce vulnerability or through broader efforts to advance economic development.

Dr. Goklany’s analysis accepts as given WHO mortality estimates associated with climate change. Since WHO’s assumptions and conclusions are highly dubious and alarmist to begin with, the true ranking of "climate change" on mortality is no doubt much lower than Goklany gives it credit for.

Someone should do an estimate of the effects of global cooling on mortality. Such an analysis would prove that global warming actually saves lives.

Interesting note: Dr. Goklany has the distinction of having had a letter on this subject rejected by Nature magazine which prompted this comment from Benny Peiser:

"One day, someone will have to publish a whole book of all the countless letters rejected by Nature and Science on the global warming debates."

Al Gore, "liar"

Yesterday Al Gore testified before a congressional hearing. Lord Monckton wasn't permitted to speak but Newt Gingrich did a good job of exposing Gore's usual lies and distortions:




Also, here's Lord Monckton with Michael Savage (April 24th about 1/3 in).

Lord Monckton is chief policy adviser for the Science and Public Policy Institute.

[h/t]

Dem "cowards" protect Gore

From this report at WUWT:

UK’s Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, claimed House Democrats have refused to allow him to appear alongside former Vice President Al Gore at high profile global warming hearing on Friday April 24...

... “The House Democrats don’t want Gore humiliated, so they slammed the door of the Capitol in my face,” Monckton told Climate Depot in an exclusive interview. “They are cowards.”

Earth Day - shove it!

Earth Day poll:















And the CTV poll:

And we think we've got problems!

While Canadian "Human Rights" Commissions are bonkers, as Ezra Levant's book makes clear, they're only mildly deranged compared with those freaking crazy Brits:

BRITAIN appears to be evolving into the first modern soft totalitarian
state.

... a campaign to alter people's psychology and create a new Homo britannicus is under way without even a fig leaf of disguise.

... The Government is pushing ahead with legislation that will criminalise politically incorrect jokes, with a maximum punishment of up to seven years' prison.

... In the past 10 years I have collected reports of many instances of draconian punishments, including the arrest and criminal prosecution of children, for thought-crimes and offences against political correctness.

... In September 2006, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Codie Stott, asked a teacher if she could sit with another group to do a science project as all the girls with her spoke only Urdu. The teacher's first response, according to Stott, was to scream at her: "It's racist, you're going to get done by the police!" ... she was arrested and taken to a police station, where she was fingerprinted and photographed. According to her mother, she was placed in a bare cell for 3 1/2 hours.

... A 10-year-old child was arrested and brought before a judge, for having allegedly called an 11-year-old boya "Paki" and "bin Laden" during a playground argument at a primary school (the other boy had called him a skunk and a Teletubby). When it reached the court the case had cost taxpayers pound stg. 25,000. The accused was so distressed that he had stopped attending school.

... Hate-crime police investigated Basil Brush, a puppet fox on children's television, who had made a joke about Gypsies. The BBC confessed that Brush had behaved inappropriately and assured police that the episode would be banned.

And on and on ....

Godawful! This is what we can expect in Canada if our HRCs are not shut down or seriously reformed.

[via]

Iggy's search for Canada

Michael Ignatieff's new book "True Patriot Love" is subtitled "Four generations in search of Canada".

So that's what he was doing for the last 30 years - searching for Canada!

When he left England after 22+ years he was headed in more or less the right direction but wound up at Harvard. After another 5+ years he discovered that I93 north from Boston might lead, with a detour or two, to 24 Sussex Dr, ending his search.

Ezra Levant’s new book, “Shakedown”

I just finished Ezra’s new book, "Shakedown". At first I was reluctant to start reading it. I’d read nearly everything he’s written and spoken on the subject of "Human Rights" Commissions and free speech. I religiously follow his web-site along with several others that concentrate on these issues. I’ve written over seventy-five blog posts myself.

But, to my pleasant surprise, once I started reading "Shakedown" I found I couldn’t put it down. There was some new material though, mostly, it was a familiar story. But the familiar stuff was freshly presented, and; the Kafkaesque nightmare that our so-called "human rights" bureaucracy has forced its victims to endure and the threat it poses to our liberty remain endlessly fascinating. Also, reading Ezra’s book has refreshed my contempt for the official "human rights" industry and for its blatant abuses of fundamental rights.

"Shakedown" is an important book that will be instrumental in the fight to force the repeal of Section 13 of the Human Rights Act and the reform of our "human rights" bureaucracies.

One gripe: I expect that I and many, many others will be using "Shakedown" as a reference in the months and years to come. And this is a "book", not a "pamphlet". A useful reference "book" should have an index, which I understand is fairly simple to more or less automatically generate these days. So, Ezra (and/or perhaps your publisher McClelland & Stewart) WHERE THE HELL’S THE INDEX! Or is this just one of those things one comes to expect from Canadian publishers - kinda like crappy sound engineering stands out in Canadian television drama productions.

Update (Apr 19): On his blog today Ezra acknowleged and repeated this review along with a number of others by much more significant reviewers. Thanks for that, Ezra. Your appreciation is appreciated :-)