Erik BJORGAN for Parliament

Scientist didn’t fake data, report says

Mike De Souza
Canwest News Service

An academic inquiry into the so-called “climategate” e-mail scandal has concluded that a well-known U.S. scientist did not directly or indirectly falsify data in his research.

Report:
http://www.research.psu.edu/orp/Findings_Mann_Inquiry.pdf

The review, by a panel of senior administrators at Pennsylvania State University, found no evidence that climatologist Michael Mann had manipulated research that indicates humans are causing global warming.

However, the panel has recommended further review on questions about whether his conduct had undermined public confidence in his findings as a scientist.

http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=b940becf-3434-4391-9f80-ec3a19485b4f

Contribution by Anne Morris

An independent study recently published in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Science suggests that pollution from Alberta’s oilsands is nearly five times greater than industry figures say and twice as widespread. The study says toxic emissions from the oilsands industry are equal to a major oil spill occurring every year. Government and industry officials say contamination in area soils and rivers is natural, but the study links it firmly to oilsands mining. Read the rest of this entry »

Government regulation another obstacle to alternative energy’s cause

John Morrissy
Financial Post

Despite public support for alternative energy — and the opportunity it presents to replace carbon-based fossil fuels — its progress in Canada is impeded by uncompetitive prices and the lack of clear government policy, accounting firm Ernst &Young said in a report Monday.

“We’ve seen a real willingness from the Canadian public to embrace the virtues of ‘going green,’ but price is still a top consideration,” said Cathy Cobey, Canadian leader for Ernst & Young’s climate change and sustainability practice group.

http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/news/money/story.html?id=db36887f-5c4e-404e-9865-13ecbd116cad

By Richard Rolke – Vernon Morning Star

Okanagan-Shuswap MP Colin Mayes is fighting off claims he refutes global warming.

Mayes, who returned home from a vacation Monday, says the recent controversy about e-mails he sent out on climate change is misleading. “I didn’t say there wasn’t climate change. Climate change is happening all of the time,” he told The Morning Star. “But the question is global warming and what are the reasons for it. There is a lot of information out there and a lot of conflicting data that needs to be resolved.”

In the e-mails to constituents, Mayes says, “Climate warming is happening. Just what the cause is has yet to be substantiated. Is it CO2 in the atmosphere, sun activity or cyclical? Is this a trend that will change as we have seen recently in cooling of temperatures and rebuilding of ice caps?”

http://www.bclocalnews.com/okanagan_similkameen/vernonmorningstar/news/80319467.html

Prime Minister follows President Obama’s lead in going to Copenhagen, but clearly has no plans to take decisive action on global warming.

Barbara Yaffe,
Vancouver Sun

Should he, or shouldn’t he? He has decided not to. No, wait — he’s going.

Stephen Harper’s indecision about attending the Copenhagen climate change conference reflects his government’s ambivalent positioning on global warming.

The PM decided Thursday to travel to Denmark for the Dec. 6 to 17 United Nations gathering only after Barack Obama made his decision this week in favour and (2) an Angus Reid poll revealed Canadians want Harper there.

Indeed, he’d have stood out by not attending, given that 64 other leaders are going. But, in being such a reluctant player on the global warming front, Harper is simply playing to the Conservatives’ political base.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Harper+foot+dragging+climate+reflects+Conservative+attitude/2274846/story.html

byaffe@vancouversun.com

Kevin Libin,
National Post

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2162682

Those 200 protesters who disrupted Question Period this week demanding the government pass Bill C-311 — setting strict targets for reducing carbon emissions — showed how dearly some people will pay to slash Canada’s carbon footprint. Six protesters were arrested; one later showed up on television with blood around his nose claiming he’d been brutalized by Parliamentary guards. “My face was smashed on the floor,” Jeh Custer told a CBC audience, insisting he would not give up pressuring the government to commit to aggressive emission-reduction goals.

With the arrival yesterday of a report funded by TD Bank, prepared by the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute, and based on economic models by M.K. Jaccard and Associates, calculating for the first time the economic impact of government climate-change policies, the rest of us are left to decide how willing we are to have our own noses bloodied in the name of atmospheric justice. Read the rest of this entry »