Right now, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative party are blaketing the airwaves with a US-style attack ad campaign against NDP leader Thomas Mulcair. In one of the ads the very serious voice-over tells us that “according to experts Mulcair’s carbon tax will raise gas by 10 cents a litre.”
Continue readingAuthor: Kevin Grandia
DeSmogBlog: FreedomWorks’ Pro-Coal Lobbyist Tom Borelli is Former Professional Pro-Tobacco Scientist
Tom Borelli, a former science director at Philip Morris who fought claims that secondhand tobacco causes lung cancer and respiratory illness in children, is now touted on Fox News as an expert on the cleanliness of the coal industry. Borelli was busy this election season fighting Obama’s “war on coal” on behalf
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Rep. Markey Raises Big Questions About Shell’s Containment Dome Fail
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass), has penned a letter to Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, looking for answers about a Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) containment dome that “crushed like a beer can” in tests earlier this Fall. Markey, who is the Ranking Member of the US House Committee on Natural
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Denial-a-Palooza: Heartland Institute’s 5 Most Offensive Attacks On Science and Public Health
With the ultra-conservative Heartland Institute completely discredited in the US, they are taking their climate change Denial-a-Palooza circus act over to Germany this week.
The Heartland Institute has a long history of attacking conventional science …
DeSmogBlog: Denial-a-Palooza Hits Germany and DeSmog is There… Kind Of
The ultra-conservative Heartland Institute is kicking off their climate change Denial-a-Palooza gathering in Germany today. DeSmog has managed to get top billing on a major German website with an article describing the 50 shades of crazy we have witnes…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Denial-a-Palooza: Does German Media Really Believe There is No Link Between Cigarettes and Lung Cancer?
A US group called the Heartland Institute will be in Munich, Germany this week holding a conference that has become known as “Denial-a-palooza” where a small group of unqualified “experts” gets together to talk about their conspiracy theory that climat…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Is Obama Already Waffling on his Climate Change Commitment?
In his first press conference after being re-elected, President Obama told reporters that climate change could take a backseat to efforts to boost the economy in the near term.
It sure didn’t take the President long to water down the passionate commitm…
DeSmogBlog: Proposed Aviation Law Will Test President Obama’s Climate Change Commitment
In his acceptance speech last Tuesday, President Obama stated that: “We want our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt, that isn’t weakened by inequality, that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.”
The Pre…
DeSmogBlog: All the Single Ladies! China’s Fetish For Canada’s Tar Sands
In 2007, when President Obama proposed a carbon tax on imported Canadian tar sands oil, the Canadian oil lobby and the Conservative government threatened to start sending their crude overseas to countries like Russia and China with weaker environmental…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Climate Refugees in America
This is a chilling video of a voicemail from a Hurricane Sandy victim in the Long Island neighbourhood of Rockaway Peninsula. With scientists telling us that climate change is raising sea levels, storm surges and the intensity of hurricanes there is on…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Key Findings From the Mashey Report on Donors Trust
Dr. John Mashey’s report is posted exclusively on DeSmogBlog today. The report, exposing the right wing’s money scrubbing scheme, is extensive in detail to say the least. In a nutshell, the 200+ page report finds that wealthy donors like the Koch brothers and Chicago industrialist Barre Seid move money through
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Media Watch: Will Cato Dupe Journalists with Counterfeit Gov’t Copycat?
Cato Institute, the right wing think tank co-founded by the Koch brothers, plans to release a document this week that has all the appearances of being a government report on the impacts of climate change in the United States – but of course it is not. The Cato report, titled:
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Comedian Kamau Bell Joins Romney, says F**K Science!
This is a funny video brought to you by Actually.org – the same team that produced Samuel L. Jackson’s election video “Wake the F**k Up!” Enjoy: Tags: kamau bell election 2012 actually.org mitt romney Science 2012 election
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Obama and Romney Have One More Chance to End Climate Silence
It’s almost like President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney have already forgotten that this summer Americans experienced some of the most severe droughts in history and massive wildfires. Yet here we are with only one Presidential debate to go and not once has either candidate uttered the words “climate
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Oil Giant Citgo Criminally Convicted in Bird Deaths (remind you of something?)
Here’s a rule of thumb: if something is so toxic that birds die when they land on it, it’s probably a good idea to put a cover on it. In Texas yesterday, a federal district court upheld a criminal conviction against the oil refinery giant Citgo Petroleum after migratory birds
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Andrew Coyne’s Connections to Free Market Think Tanks; Disclosure Lacking
Andrew Coyne, the former editor of Macleans magazine, founding opinionator for the National Post and frequent political pundit on CBC, has a rather long history tying him to free-market think tanks in Canada. According to the Canadian government’s charity registry, Coyne has been a director for at least the last
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: The Natural Gas Lobbyist Rush is on in British Columbia
According to lobbyist registry data, there are currently 57 lobbyists representing the natural gas industry to elected officials and government agencies in the province of British Columbia . This is a pretty astounding number when you consider that the provincial government only consists of 85 elected representatives. British Columbia, Canada is
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: I Love You Huffpo but What’s Going On?
I have been writing on environmental issues on the popular news blog Huffington Post going on five years now but I am not sure if I will continue. read more
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Mordor found in Northern Alberta
Following up on an article I wrote last week for Huffington Post Canada, a commenter suggested that the Alberta tar sands looked like a real-life version of Mordor, the home of the evil Sauran in J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings. read more
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: ‘Peer of the Realm’ Monckton now a Birther
monckton.jpg This is a guest post by Greenpeace USA's Kevin Grandia, former DeSmog Managing Editor. Christopher Monckton, well known for his wacky behavior attempting to deny the scientific realities of climate change, has now moved on to look into the conspiracy theory around whether US president Barack Obama was actually
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