Stephen Harper finds Science - Well Not Really

Could it be that Prime Minister Harper has discovered the existence of science?  The headlines across the country are declaring the PM says that "Science, not politics, will determine outcome".  It is enough to give fans of evidence based policy goose bumps.

Well don't get too excited. Lets look at what Mr Harper actually said:

"I've been very clear that decisions on these kinds of projects are made through an independent evaluation conducted by scientists into the economic costs and risks that are associated with the project."

 This statement sound more like status quo than radical change of position.  He's worried about the economics not the environment.  It seems like the press was so shocked to hear the word scientists come out of the Prime Minister's mouth that they didn't listen very closely to the words that followed it.  And to be fair a tagline saying Stephen Harper will listen to science was just too juicy to not use.

Stephen Harper tempers message on Northern Gateway pipeline - thestar.com:

Harper defends independence of pipeline approval process



Technorati Tag: Canadian politics Stephen Harper

Top Canadian CEOs making Average Canadian's yearly salary by Noon, says study

By noon today, Canada's top CEO's will have made what most Canadians take an entire year to earn.
The current Canadian Government is paying that same rate $90,000 per day to look at ways to eliminate public sector jobs.  Jobs that the 99% depend on to provide services like food inspection, environmental research, Canadian Pension Plan, Old Age Security and EI Claims processing etc...
Quietly and while people are not paying attention instead of improving Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits the government is raising the age at which an individual can claim full benefits. People waiting to the age of 70 to receive their CPP will receive 42% more than those that start receiving at 65.

Top Canadian CEOs making year's salary in half-day, says study

Don't Confuse me with the Facts I'm Trying to Run a Country

What does the Conservative Party of Canada have against facts?  What is so wrong with empirical data? Are questions I would love to ask our Prime Minister.

It started last year by downgrading our national census, the government's most reliable way to know the make up of Canada's demographics and major planning tool.  Nope lets scrap that for a survey that is less reliable because it is optional and will only be answered by people who like to take surveys.  All of the experts on data gathering spoke out publicly saying that this was ludicrous but the Conservatives said too bad we're the government and we can do what we want.

Then there was the crime bill.  It is harder to find an expert that agrees with this bill than disagrees.  Every major organization that deals with crime from law enforcement on down told this government that this bill was on the wrong track... but the Conservatives said we're in power too bad.

Most recently, the government has started laying off scientists at the National Research Council of Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.  I can only guess that this is because science disagrees with the Conservative position on climate change and the environment.  Mr. Harper has already pulled us out of the Kyoto Accord.  The government has publicly stated that science that has commercial implications is more important to them and are the projects that will get funded.  Science that protects our environment does not align well with the development of the tar sands.


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In Service to King Stephen - Senate kills Climate Bill

For the first time in 70 years a bill passed by the House of Commons without so much as a hearing was killed by Conservative senators.  Why you might ask?  Well in service to the King... ummm I mean Prime Minister Harper. 

The climate bill brought forward by the New Democratic Party (NDP), passed by DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED Members of Parliament from all three opposition parties but was not supported by the Harpocrats.  Therefore, the plot was hatched.  Call a snap vote when there were not enough Liberal Senators in the House to stop it and then kill the bill.  The idea was brilliant however devious. No one could have predicted that C-311 would be defeated without any debate, without a single witness called to explain the legislation's merits. 

Our Prime Minister has stated on the record that he believes that the elected House of Commons should prevail over the unelected Senate. - Apparently this principle only applies to the bills Harper himself supported. 

So when democracy gets in the way circumvent it, no one questions the King after all.  And the fact that most Canadians haven't noticed that their democracy has just been giving the middle finger only proves it.

http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/environment/article/892053

Food vs. fuel

“We need to feed the stomach before we need to feed our cars,” said Rattan Lal, an Ohio State University soil sciences professor. Seems obvious enough. The use of grains to produce fuel for cars has played a large role in the upward surge in food prices. A World Bank study has estimated that corn prices rose by over 60 per cent from 2005-07, mainly due to the U.S. ethanol program combined with market forces.

Joachim von Braun, who heads the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C estimated if we were stop growing grain crops for vehicle consumption and start growing these grains for people consumption then corn prices would fall 20% and wheat prices would go down 10%.

So considering top international food scientists are making the recommendation to feed people first, logic would follow that the U.S. government would be at least calling for the reduction of crops for cars? Nope… never letting a little thing like logic get in the way George W. Bush is calling for the increase of ethanol production and thereby diverting even more grain from the food supply. All in an effort offset the rising price of gasoline.

"And the truth of the matter is, it's in our national interest that our farmers grow energy” said Bush

Food supply instability continues to be an issue for aproximately 1 billion people worldwide.

Reference: Stop biofuels to fight world hunger, food scientists say

Climate Change and Rising Fuel Prices Equals Political Instability and Rising Food Costs Worldwide

John Holmes, the UN’s top humanitarian official, points to a worldwide 40% hike in food prices since mid-2007, as a contributing factor to the protests and clashes over food in Haiti and Egypt. To say that a lack of food causes political instability is nothing new. Starving people have been a catalyst for change many times over history. Up until now however, the food shortages have always been localized.

Rising fuel prices combined with poor crops due to the extreme weather associated with climate change, are giving rise the “perfect storm” of food shortages. The average gas-guzzler driving, slightly chubby North American may not be feeling the pinch yet but if current trends continue we may be very soon.

In Canada, wheat shortages have caused the price of flour to double in the first two months of 2008. "It's a very, very tight situation," said Canadian Wheat Board analyst Bruce Burnett. "World production has been under [its] consumption in the last couple of years, so we have been drawing stocks down … and we've finally hit levels that have made the market very, very concerned about supplies and rightly so."

References:

Soaring food costs threaten world's political stability: UN official
Wheat shortage sends bread, pasta prices soaring

John Baird is an Embarrassment in Bali

Baird is not the Minister of the Environment he is the Minister of kissing Bush’s butt! His performance in Bali and sheer ignorance on the issue of climate change is embarrassing to the country he represents. Baird only took the Environment portfolio because his riding is in Ottawa and the didn’t want to be heading the Treasury Board while the government was in collective bargaining with the public service’s largest union (not a good idea to tick off a large number of potential voters in a minority government). He doesn’t give two shakes about the environment and that attitude is coming out loud and clear at the Bali conference.

Only an idiot would put the economy (a man-made invention wholly unrelated to the survival of the species) ahead of the environment (essential to the survival of the species). Especially since leading economists in Britain say that being environmentally responsible is actually good for the economy.



Reference: Canada lumped with U.S. at climate change talks

Baird targeted at Bali over Canada's climate stance

Why Baird's Do-Nothing Plan is a Bad Idea

You could imagine my surprise when I received the following comment to Canada’s Environment Minister Would Rather Do Nothing about Climate Change:

A true legislative commitment to reducing green house emissions, to sustainable levels, would cause our continent's economy to tail spin to an extent that would make the storey "The Grapes of Wrath", look like a picnic gone bad.

I appreciate our leaders' caution. My childern's children will see a change in life style. Let's hope it won't be a catastophe, but a dignified submission of privledges and luxuries.

The following video highlights how this persons views are utter nonsense.

Canada’s Environment Minister Would Rather Do Nothing about Climate Change

Minister Baird has said that Canada will not sign any international treaties on climate change unless the U.S. signs as well. Very shrewd move. If you want to do nothing, but you don’t want to say that you want to do nothing, placing a condition like that on signing an accord is a pretty sure bet.

Too bad for Baird the Canadian public is smart enough to see through such a transparent move. Given the Bush administration’s position on climate change (i.e. they are nearly the only ones on this planet not sure if it is real) hell would be experiencing a climate change of its own before the United States signed on.

Reference: Canada signing climate treaty without U.S. like 'unilateral disarmament': Baird

Canada’s Climate Change Performance - Nearly Scraping Bottom

It seems that the Harper Conservatives in their unending effort to make us more like the U.S. have decided to join our American friends in the race to the bottom of the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). Canada placed 53rd out of 56 countries several places below China (40th) and just above the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. which refuses to sign the Kyoto Accord and the Harper Conservatives which refuse to acknowledge that Canada has signed it, have joined forces to promote the most bizarre form of measuring CO2 emissions. The Bush Administration, in an attempt to look like it is doing something on climate change, has committed to reducing “greenhouse gas intensity of the American economy”. Greenhouse gas intensity refers to the relative amounts of CO2 produced per unit of economic activity (GDP). The problem with this political brainwave is that if targets are tied to economic growth then actual emissions can continue to rise right along side as long as the CO2/GDP ration gets smaller.

Newsflash – the climate doesn’t care how much money anyone is making. It is only by reducing real emission levels with there be any substantial effect on the environment.

Canada’s current Clean Air Act put in place by the Conservative government uses intensity based targets until 2020. (Too bad this government’s vision of our environment’s future isn’t.)

Reference: Canada 4th-worst in climate change performance