Basher and climate change doubting scientists could fit in small Volkswagen

[Hux]

5 per cent of climate scientists don't accept the idea that humans are causing the planet to warm by altering the gases in the atmosphere.

Gordon McBean, former head of the Meteorological Service of Canada and a professor at the University of Western Ontario, says the view that humans are causing the planet to warm by altering the gases in the atmosphere "is the consensus view of 80 to 90 per cent of the climate scientists in the world."

He says about 5 per cent don't accept the idea, but an equal number believe climate change is likely to be far more devastating than most scientists are forecasting. "Whenever you hear from the skeptics, think consciously that there are at least as many credible scientists who would go beyond on the other side of the issue."

Harper puts green machine in motion

Frayed by criticism, PM sends Baird on climate offensive to Paris summit

MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT , GLORIA GALLOWAY and BRIAN LAGHI

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Stephen Harper moved yesterday to mend his government's frayed international reputation on climate change by dispatching his Environment Minister to Paris for a key conference and promising to join an emergency UN summit on the issue.

The decisions came as the Prime Minister was battered for a second day in the House of Commons over a letter he wrote five years ago in which he called the Kyoto accord a "socialist scheme" aimed at sucking money from wealth-producing nations.

While in Paris, Environment Minister John Baird will be briefed by the group of leading scientists whose work on global warming inspired Kyoto. The scientists will release a major report tomorrow concluding there is "unequivocal" evidence that climate change is real and is happening faster than expected.

French President Jacques Chirac is expected to ask Mr. Baird for Canada's support for a new United Nations environment organization. Mr. Baird's spokesman, Mike Van Soelen, confirmed the Paris meeting, but would not say whether Canada would support the creation of the agency.

Also yesterday, the Prime Minister said he is willing to take part in a summit on global warming being called for by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"I have not received an invitation from the United Nations Secretary-General," Mr. Harper told the Commons. "However, if we did, we would accept . . . we all realize this is a serious environmental problem that needs immediate action."

But the Liberals spent much of yesterday trying to prove that Mr. Harper remains in climate-change denial. A 2002 fundraising letter he wrote when leader of the Canadian Alliance appears to debunk the science of climate change and calls the Kyoto accord a "socialist" agreement that would only suck money out of the world's wealthier economies.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion asked the Prime Minister in Question Period to admit that the recent Conservative interest in global warming "is just an attempt to mislead the Canadian people." He demanded to know whether Mr. Harper had changed his mind about global warming since 2002.

After dodging the question twice, Mr. Harper responded with one of his most direct acknowledgments that man-made climate change is a problem. "This government has made it clear in the election campaign and since that we accept the science and that is why we are acting," he told the Commons.

But not everyone agrees.

As Conservative MPs emerged from their weekly caucus meeting in Ottawa, reporters asked whether they believe that increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are causing global warming. Most refused to answer the question directly.

Asked whether he believes in the science of global warming, Blaine Calkins, a Conservative MP from Alberta who is a member of the Commons environment committee, grinned and replied, "I'm going to defer on that one."

In Vancouver, the conservative-leaning Fraser Institute has put the finishing touches on a 53-page report that contends global warming due to human activity is a "hypothesis" and says "there is no compelling evidence that dangerous or unprecedented changes are underway" in the world's climate.

The Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank, issued a statement yesterday saying "anyone who says that the planet is warming at an increasing rate is simply dead wrong."

But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of about 2,000 of the world's top climate scientists, is expected to issue a report in Paris tomorrow saying that global warming is real and will have big effects over the next century, ranging from more violent hurricanes to shrinking Arctic sea ice.

A draft summary of the IPCC report obtained by The Globe says: "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, melting of snow and ice, and rising sea level."

Within the scientific community, there is widespread dismay that, even after years of compelling evidence, some still dispute the temperature readings showing the exceptional warming over the past 50 years, and dismiss the models that predict the warming will intensify if more fossil fuels are burned.

Gordon McBean, former head of the Meteorological Service of Canada and a professor at the University of Western Ontario, says the view that humans are causing the planet to warm by altering the gases in the atmosphere "is the consensus view of 80 to 90 per cent of the climate scientists in the world."

He says about 5 per cent don't accept the idea, but an equal number believe climate change is likely to be far more devastating than most scientists are forecasting. "Whenever you hear from the skeptics, think consciously that there are at least as many credible scientists who would go beyond on the other side of the issue."

The Fraser report was prematurely leaked yesterday on a Canadian blog, http://www.desmogblog.com, that tries to discredit those who deny climate change is occurring.

The blog accused the Fraser report of being misleading and linked the institute's work that plays down global warming to its receipt of funding from oil and gas interests.

"My feeling is that this is not science. This is public-relations spin," says Jim Hoggan, the blog's founder.

At the Fraser Institute, executive director Mark Mullins defended the report, saying it will be "a useful addition to discussion that's ongoing about climate change."

He denied that the organization is trying to attack the idea of climate change. "I really want to refute what these other characters are saying over at smogblog, and this is not an attack on anybody. It's a summary of the science."

But some climate scientists dismissed this contention.

Dr. Andrew Weaver, a lead author of the IPCC report and a researcher at the University of Victoria, called the Fraser Institute's interpretation of climate science "highly ideological." While the Fraser Institute says there isn't evidence that global warming is under way, Dr. Weaver said the IPCC "presents 1,600 pages of compelling evidence; that's the whole point."

With a report from Bill Curry

[Baj]

BASHER RULES

[Cully]

I second that.

[tigger]

Stop all Festivals ,there is to many fumes present

[Basher]

Question everything.

[questcequecest?]

do we really need this thread?

[Hux]

Do we really need to question the need for this thread?

[questcequecest?]

if we don't, who will?

[Hux]

Basher?

[Velvet]

The other day they mentioned the pending end of the world on the CBC news, and it wasn't the lead story.

Also, nobody freaked out.

I always expected to hear a newscaster tell us that the world was coming to an end, but I always expected some sort of public reaction too.

[ollie]

Question everything.