Scenes from the Climate Inquisition
February 13, 2007 · By Aaron Unruh
The Guardian’s most recent effort to silence anyone who dares to diverge from the climate change super-consensus:
On February 2, an AEI research project on climate change policy that we have been organizing was the target of a journalistic hit piece in Britain’s largest left-wing newspaper, the Guardian. The article’s allegation–that we tried to bribe scientists to criticize the work of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)–is easy to refute.
Hayward and Green, however, are hopelessly naive:
It is possible to accept the general consensus about the existence of global warming while having valid questions about the extent of warming, the consequences of warming, and the appropriate responses. In particular, one can remain a policy skeptic, which is where we are today, along with nearly all economists.
Whaaa? You mean that it’s possible to think that climate change may be occuring and not be in favour of wrecking the Canadian economy through implementation of the Kyoto Protocol?
You mean that it’s possible to think that climate change may be occuring and not be in favour of wrecking the Canadian economy through implementation of the Kyoto Protocol?
As usual, you start off with the presupposition that implementing any kind of concrete action on climate change would “wreck the Canadian economy”. Surely you have more faith in the inventiveness and creativity of Canadians than that!
Kyoto would. Are you supporting it Grog?
Shane, do you have some resources that you can share with respect to that view?
I’ve only really read macroeconomic forecasting conducted by the EIA for the US economy, and it really wasn’t that bad (big coal and oil would say differently).
It would seem obvious that regardless of the solution(s) there will be (at least) short-term economic impacts - every solution would have to be assessed from a cost/benefit perspective.
S
My point is this - the conservative naysayers run around claiming that Kyoto - or any other process that obliges industry (especially the beloved Oil industry) to change their practices will cause an economic collapse.
I do not accept that assertion. The claim is made, and yet considering how Alberta claims it is this hotbed of “entrepreneurial spirit”, it’s amazing to me how few people in Alberta seem to be willing to see opportunity in retooling our economy.
Which would you prefer - to become the epicenter of technologies that reduce our footprint on the world (while we have the cash flow), or would you prefer to go through the same degradation that the US auto industry has while foreign competitors eat your lunch for you?
Yup, sure Grog. An energy hungry world is going to quit buying Alberta energy and ‘eat our lunch’ by producing what technology exactly?
I am laughing so hard I couldn’t possibly become scared.
What ‘retooling’ would you specifically suggest that would be such an economic boon to Albertans? Are there some technologies that are more efficient that we are just to hidebound to implement that you would like to tell us about?
Is retooling like reclassifying CO2 as a toxin, when it isn’t, and them Shazzam! Albertan’s will make more money somehow by using this technology to produce our energy resources more cleanly?
Wow, Grog, you really do live in a bizzaro universe.
Mister Speaker, I rise today to announce measures that my government must take to comply with Bill C288, otherwise known as the “Pablo Rodriguez Law of Unintended Consequencesâ€.
In order to comply with the Bill and Kyoto, it is necessary to take some drastic measures to either reduce emissions ort buy credits from other signatory nations of the Kyoto Protocol who do not need to reduce their emission but get to sell these credits.
Canada got hosed at Kyoto. Jean Chretien’s Liberal government signed Canada to a treaty that means we must reduce our standard of living in order to comply. Bill 288 further obligates Canada to reduce its economy in order to comply and because of the way the Bill is worded, our Government must achieve the 2012 targets within 180 days of the Bill being granted Royal Ascent, so we must act NOW.
I am instructing a number of government department and agencies to enact the following emergency measure so that we can comply with the will of Parliament, or at least the Liberal, NDP and Bloc Quebecois parts of parliament.
1. Immediate shutdown of all coal fired power plants in Canada. We realize that this will hit Ontario very hard – 1/3 of Ontario’s electricity is coal generated, but look on the bright side, the lack of power will also cause the shutdown of thousands of plants and factories, throwing hundreds of thousands out of work. While we are it, we’ll close down all the top ten, as researched by Pollution Probe, listed below:
Rank Company Name Province
1 Ontario Power Generation On
2 Transalta Utilities AB
3 Sask Power SK
4 Alberta Power Corp AB
5 Nova Scotia Power Inc NS
6 Syncrude Canada Ltd. AB
7 Suncor Energy inc. Oil Sands AB
8 EPCOR Generation Inc. AB
9 Petro-Canada AB
10 Dofasco Inc. On
2. Immediate shutdown of the entire Petroleum industry across Canada – we will need to import our oil but we are only going to import oil from countries that will sell us Kyoto Credits.
3. Immediately ban all wood burning fireplaces, charcoal and propane BBQ’s and summer campfires. All recreational vehicles and activities are deemed frivolous and will be banned. Sorry Bombardier, no more skidoos and water jet boats. We are investigating how to ban forest fires as well, but that has its challenges.
4. A 30 cent per liter “GhG Kyoto credit buying Tax. Based on recent data that we use about 45 Billion liters of gasoline every year, this new tax revenue should provide enough money to both buy the $10 billion in foreign credits we need annually and make up for the billions in lost income taxes the Federal and Provincial governments will not collect by the 35% contraction of our economy we need to achieve to be Kyoto compliant.
5. We will not be able to afford generous EI support for all the laid off workers because the numbers will reach in the millions. Shutting down the oil sands alone will result in huge job losses in Alberta, but also in Quebec and Ontario, where tens of thousands of workers make the pipes, valves, machinery, trucks, tires, computers and other equipment that would have been purchased had we not put these actions in place to meet the requirements of the “Pablo Rodriguez Law of Unintended Consequencesâ€. Shutting down the transportation industry will also be hard on employment, but we haven’t had time yet to count how many truck drivers there are in Canada, but their jobs are all toast.
6. For the tens of thousands of workers in the Financial sector, we are aware that the mortgage and credit crisis these moves will cause will result in the devastation of your industry as well but we expect that the Barons of Bay street will be able to salvage a few jobs trading in the International Credit Trading Market, or as some have come to call it, the Kyoto Hot Air Credit Socialist Money Sucking Ponzi Scheme. Hopefully you will be one of the few out of the tens of thousands Financial Sector workers who will get one of these new jobs – you might even make megatonnes of money.
7. Since there will be a huge rise in the number of corporate and personal bankruptcies , our government will be enacting new legislation to simplify the process. Simply nail a sign to your property say “We quit†or for consumer debt, place your cut up credit and bank cards in an envelope. That’s all, no lawyers or courts needed
8. We will also be reducing the size of the federal government payroll by at least 35% to meet the requirement to keep the budget balanced to the new and much lower levels of government funds. That should be a few hundred thousand at the Federal Level and many, many more at the Provincial level.
9. We will be reducing the Federal government transfer of dollars to the provinces to meet the new fiscal capabilities of Canada’s Federal government. We will leave it up to individual provinces to decide to close schools or hospitals or whatever. It’s a provincial responsibility, but expect much longer waits for even basic medical service.
Its not all bad news. Canada should be able to save a fortune in Immigration costs. We have a forecast from government experts that Canada will go to last place in the quest for skilled immigrant labour. Somehow they don’t want to come to a country with power shortages, no air conditioning, limited winter heating, no jobs and a devastated economy. Go figure. The USA and Australia will benefit from these immigrants and their skills,
Mr. Speaker, let me close by thanking the Liberals, especially the mega green leader Citoyen Dion, the NDP, under the leadership of Jack “Talban†bin Layton, the Bloc Quebecois and their inspired of Gilles “Hairnet†Duceppe for voting for Bill C288. But especially all Canadians want to thank Liberal Pablo Rodriguez for devastating our economy, depressing our standard of living to upper third world status. As we huddle in the cold and swelter in the summer heat, as we stare at our old car we can’t afford to drive, as we fondly remember how hard it was to get out of bed on a Monday morning to go to the job we used to have, we can take pride in being the best-est, wonderful-est, the most moralist international boy scouts out to help the planet be saved.
Thank you Mr. Speaker
remember when we used to call the area around ft. mcmurray the “tarsands”. now we call them the “oilsands” implying that the oil needs but a quick sift from the sand and we’re all set to gas up our SUV’s. waugh from the edmonton sun like to call it the “oil patch” which evokes images of children playing and little bunnies hopping around in bliss.
but wait a second. the reality is that the TARSANDS do have oil. and extracting it has a cost. this cost takes the form of innovation and technology, natural gas, and GASP, environmental degradation. yup, here’s blasphemy: extracting oil from the tarsands in alberta hurts the environment. sorry, that’s the truth.
the question should not be “kyoto yes or no”. its not a question. kyoto is not perfect, and it will negatively impact alberta’s economy, surely. it will also impact the rest of canada’s economy. but the ethos of kyoto, its essence is not designed to hurt canadians, or even those cute albertan kids playing in the oil patch, rather it is designed to slow the effects on the planet from human produced environmental pollution such as carbon dioxide emissions. this is a zero sum game. unfortunately you can’t have ever increasing oil production AND reduced greenhouse gas emissions (well perhaps it would balance out if the rest of canada stopped driving, or using electricity).
so, the question should then be: “do you want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to levels that will stop global warming?”
if your answer is yes, then the “oilpatch” needs to accept its share of the problem and REDUCE its emissions, probably in an amount that most would call drastically.
if your answer is no, then perhaps you don’t quite have as much faith in albertan innovation as i do.