Government must convene climate change hearings

International Climate Science Coalition warns against including greenhouse gas standards in Canadian national energy strategy

Government must convene climate change hearings to inform the public about the real state of the science

Ottawa, Canada, February 3, 2012: “The Canadian Government must categorically reject calls to include greenhouse gas (GHG) standards in any national energy strategy,” said Tom Harris, executive director of the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) which is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. “Energy plans should be restricted to addressing only the environmental concerns we know to be real, such as air, land and water pollution. The linkage between energy usage and climate is far too tenuous to be included in any serious national discussions about energy.”

ICSC chief science advisor, Professor Bob Carter of James Cook University in Queensland, Australia reminds Canadians, “Here in Australia, our Prime Minister is in the process of disadvantaging our energy and manufacturing industries by forcing companies to pay for the carbon dioxide (CO2) they emit from July this year. Canada would be well advised not to follow our lead, but rather to ignore CO2 emissions and instead prepare to deal with natural climate change and its ramifications—such as warming and cooling, drought and flood, etc.

“Governments need to deal with the very real and often tragic consequences that accompany inevitable natural climate change before they start worrying about the speculative, and much lesser, threat of human-caused global warming,” concluded Carter.

In his York University seminar on February 1, former Environment Canada Research Scientist and ICSC science advisor Dr. Madhav L. Khandekar, explained, “While human-added GHGs may have produced some warming in the last 30 years, they are certainly not playing a substantial role in climate change at present.

“Climate change appears to be driven primarily by natural variability,” said Khandekar. “Regardless, the net effect of warming and rising CO2 is most likely to be beneficial to humans, plants and wildlife.”

The real concern is possible global cooling, something that could have a disastrous effect on Canada , Khandekar warns. “Since the start of the new millennium, winters have become colder and snowier in Europe and North America . Winters in South America and South Africa have also become colder,” he told the York University audience. “Right now dangerously cold weather is sweeping parts of Europe . North America may also quite likely see even colder winters in the next few years if forecasts of dropping solar activity prove to be correct.“

Applied mathematics professor and ICSC science advisor Dr. Chris Essex of the University of Western Ontario explains why the global warming scare is misguided:

"The elephant in the room is presuming that, since classical physics is known, it is a simple matter to put it onto computers to predict the future. Many people, including people with PhDs, are very weak on this issue. They do not grasp what an enormous reach it is to integrate classical physics over decades or centuries using computers. A little known consequence is that no climate models anywhere are first-principle implementations of physics. They are instead all empirical in nature, despite our very best efforts, and fervent wishes, that they be otherwise."

Essex emphasizes that "the big policy questions are beyond the best models we can currently make. Climate is far from a simple solved scientific problem, despite rampant proclamations and simplistic analogies suggesting otherwise. Policymakers, not to mention academics, must come to terms with that."

“Despite the rise in atmospheric CO2 levels over the past decade and a half, there has been no overall global warming in this period,” said Harris. “Instead of continuing to sidestep the issue, or even to help fuel the global warming alarm, it is time for the Canadian government to convene cross-country climate change hearings to inform Canadians about the real state of science. Alarmists have had their way long enough. It is time for climate realists to be heard.”

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.
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