Last week, world-renowned University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver, lead author of several IPCC reports, shocked friends and enemies alike by publishing an article in Nature Climate Change in which he makes an unexpected claim. He and co-author Neil Swart (a UVIC PhD student) find that Alberta’s Athabasca tar
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350 or bust: Anti-science Lobby Group Funded By Polluters Writes “Global Warming Curriculum” For Schools
The Heartland Institute’s President and CEO just admitted that Heartland is writing a “global warming curriculum” that would say climate science isn’t settled. Heartland would like to create the appearance of a scientific debate where there is none by having our teachers claim we just don’t know if humans are
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Republic Report Slams Media Obsession With Shiny Penny In Heartland DenialGate Coverage
Republic Report.png Lee Fang at the Republic Report has a great post noting the media's obsession with the shiny penny of the who/how story surrounding the leaked documents chronicling the Heartland Institute's planned attacks on science and democracy. While groups like Greenpeace, The Climate Reality Project and Forecast the Facts
Continue readingWhat happened to Dan Gardner? The only reasonable man in the room is riding off the rails.
I had the greatest respect for Dan Gardner. He wrote such compelling newspaper columns that I, Mr. Short Attention Span, attempted to read his book Future Babble. I actually understood most of it and continued to look forward to his newspaper articles. His writing was an oasis of progressive thought
Continue readingTrashy's World: Friday miscellany…
… climate change, robo-calls, dingoes and Oscars edition… +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sugar bushes in Ontario and Quebec have tapped their trees weeks early this year due to the non-winter that we have been experiencing in this part of the world. Tapping in February hasn’t happened in decades. The sugar bush owners are
Continue reading350 or bust: TED Talk Thursday: The Future Of Clean, Efficient Energy Is Here Now
This TED Talk features Justin Tipping-Hall, CEO of Nanoholdings, talking about the extraordinary work being done on nanotechnology that’s focused on creating alternative solutions for how we generate, transmit, store and use energy. Tipping-Hall asks us to question our idea of “normal”, and suggests this can lead to huge breakthroughs.
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: An Open Letter to Kevin Falcon
Kevin Falcon Minister of Finance Government of British Columbia Dear Mr. Falcon, During your budget speech yesterday, you announced that BC’s carbon tax will be frozen, and its place in our economy reexamined, after its final scheduled increase later this year. Forgive me if I am being presumptuous, but given
Continue reading350 or bust: Oilman’s Son At Enbridge Pipeline Hearing: It’s Time To Chose A New Path
The son of an oilman shares a powerful story at Enbridge Pipeline hearings, about an experience at an oil refinery on a different continent. He shares insights about tankers, pipelines, and lives affected. Insightful analysis of how oil executives (and politicians) blatantly ignore the known impacts of the fossil fuel
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Whistleblower Authenticates Heartland Documents
Gleick.jpg Climate scientist Peter Gleick has acknowledged that he was the person who convinced the Heartland Institute to hand over the contents of its January Board package, authenticating the documents beyond a doubt and further exposing the disinformation campaign Heartland has pursued in the last week, trying to discredit the information. In
Continue reading350 or bust: More Light Shed On Origin And Veracity Of Heartland Documents
Dr. Peter Gleick is the co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California. His bio states that he is a hydroclimatologist by training, with a B.S. from Yale University and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley from the Energy and Resources Group. His research
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: December 14, 2011
Wednesday, December 14 saw another day of debate devoted to free trade issues, this time addressing a proposed treaty with Jordan. But first… The Utterly Unprecedented, Stunning Development Which Shook The Very Foundations Of Canada’s System Of Government As Administered By Stephen Harper Helene Laverdiere asked a simple question to
Continue reading350 or bust: Climate Scientists To Heartland Institute: Refrain From Misleading Attacks, Engage In Civil Debate
Seven leading climatologists victimized by the Climategate email theft in 2009 have published this letter in the Guardian in response to DeSmogBlog’s revelation last week of confidential Heartland Institute documents: As scientists who have had their emails stolen, posted online and grossly misrepresented, we can appreciate the difficulties the Heartland
Continue reading350 or bust: Heartland Institute Threatens Legal Action Against Mom Working For A Better World
The Heartland Institute is attempting damage control after the DeSmogBlog revealed confidential documents about the institute’s funding and strategies to undermine the IPCC and insinuate its anti-science agenda into our children’s education. Although the Heartland Institute applauded the illegal release of thousands of personal emails stolen from Climate Research Unit
Continue readingConservative conundrum: Navy head says Canada needs bigger presence in Arctic because of … oops … climate change
Harper wants more than just about anything to expand our military forces. He is also wont to acknowledge the effects of global warming on our environment. With Vice-Admiral Paul Maddison admitting the existence of climate change as the prime reason for bolstering Canada’s presence in our northern shipping lanes, he
Continue reading350 or bust: Take Time To Renew Your Spirit
When asked at colleges if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science that describes what is happening on earth today and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t have the correct data. If you meet the people in this unnamed
Continue readingBBC: Canada "muzzling" its scientists
This may not be news in Canada but good to see the news is spreading abroad. Prof Thomas Pedersen, a senior scientist at the University of Victoria, said he believed there was a political motive in some cases. “The Prime Minister (Stephen Harper) is keen to keep control of the message,
Continue reading350 or bust: Heartland Institute Funded By Fossil Fuel Interests To Work Against Public Interest
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Here’s one that gives some background about so-called “think tanks” and their anti-science, climate change denial agenda. These guys cut their teeth on denying/suppressing/ridiculing the science demonstrating that cigarette smoking caused cancer (see Fake Science, Fakexperts, Funny Finances, Free of Tax) and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: We Have The Fraser Institute, They Have the Heartland Institute
Adding the word ‘institute’ into one’s ‘think-tank’, a measure devised to give the patina of legitimacy to what is frequently simply a right-wing propaganda machine, is nothing new, given their ubiquity on both sides of the border, the Fraser Institute and the Macdonald Laurier Institute in Canada, the American Enterprise
Continue reading350 or bust: Chasing Water: Examining The Human Toll On A River
Chasing Water, follows photojournalist Peter McBride and writer John Waterman (great name, I know!) as they set out to document the flow of the Colorado River from source to sea. A Colorado native, McBride hails from a ranching family that depends on the Colorado for irrigation, and this is the
Continue reading350 or bust: Heartland Institute: Funded To Spread Misinformation About Climate Change
The Heartland Institute is a right-wing “think-tank” that describes itself as a “devoted to discovering, developing, and promoting free market solutions to social and economic problems.” However, as DeSmogBlog has recently revealed, Heartland is much more interested in promoting the bottom line of its pro-pollution funders than it is about
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