Lord Monckton and Ezra Levant Debunk Climate Hysteria! Really?

The question is, how could Ezra Levant, a smart man, have allowed this to happen? Was it witting or unwitting?

I am referring to this well watched video CLIMATE ALARMISTS ON THE RISE put out by Sun News on December 26 in which Ezra Levant interviews Lord Christopher Monckton. The Twitter feed that got my attention said, "@EzraLevant and Lord Monckton debunk climate hysteria."

As background, here is the relevant timeline. For more background, read the Wikipedia article or do a Google search on Lord Monckton.

2009, October: Christopher Monckton gave a talk sceptical of global warming to the Minnesota Free Market Institute. The talk purported to provide scientific evidence showing that global warming was not taking place or, if it was, its impact was minimal and could be best ignored.

2010, May: John P. Abraham, an associate professor of thermal and fluid Sciences at the University of St. Thomas School of Engineering, Minnesota, published an on-line rebuttal of Monckton's statements in the form of an 73 minute video. Abraham's rebuttal was based on his having investigated the origins of many of the claims made by Monckton by contacting the authors of those papers Monckton had cited and concluding that "he had misrepresented the science". Abraham also noted numerous slides that presented "evidence" without attribution or citation as to the source of the data and which were, therefore, impossible to verify or peer review.

2012, December: Sun News Network published the video which is the subject of this blog entry.

I have watched both videos. I am greatly impressed by Lord Monckton's eloquence. I am more greatly impressed by Professor Abraham's scientific professionalism, his adherence to a peer review methodology, checking the sources of data and the originators' interpretations of those data, and the complete and utter absence of any ad hominem arguments.

So, back to my original questions - and a few more besides.

Have Ezra Levant and the Sun News Network editors watched the video of Professor Abraham's rebuttal of Lord Monckton's statements? If so, are they aware of any peer reviewed rebuttal of the rebuttal? I was not able to find one. If one exists, I am surprised that neither they nor Lord Monckton have made any reference to it.

If they have not watched Prof. Abraham's video then I would venture that they have not done their journalistic due diligence and that Lord Monckton has, indeed, taken them for a fool's ride as he has done so successfully with so many who are desperately hoping that global warming is a myth. They may as well cling to believing that evolution is a trick of the devil or that the earth is flat.

If they have, indeed, watched the Abraham video and they still prefer to glorify Monckton and tout his unverified and unverifiable assertions then I am left wordless. The little boy is wrong. The king is not in the altogether as Danny Kaye sang. He looks mighty fine in his magic suit of clothes.

If you, dear Reader, are not sure what to believe, you could do worse than have a look at Prof Abraham's video. You could do nothing.

Love, Joy and Peace to All the Earth

Gloria in Excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

I Was Adam Lanza - blog post by David Frum

I strongly, very strongly, recommend this 3-part blog by David Frum in The Daily Beast.


By way of introduction he writes:
What goes through the mind of a school shooter? In the past days, we've all asked that question. The following is one attempt at an answer. It was sent to me by a young person living in an East Coast metropolitan area. I am satisfied that the autobiographical facts described are true to the teller's memory and experience. The story is troubling, but important to consider. For reader ease, I have broken the essay into three parts. I am glad to report that the author is now personally stable, a college graduate, and gainfully employed.

This is the first in a three part essay that was submitted by an anonymous young writer.

To read David Frum's blog CLICK HERE.

2012 Year in Review by Luisa

What stops a bad guy with a gun?

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.

Oh dear. What has happened to logic? Why is the above statement from LaPierre true and the following statement false: The only thing that stops a good guy with a gun is a bad guy with a gun?

The fact is, neither of the statements are true in and of themselves. Whether the guy with a gun is good or bad is no predictor of the outcome of a gun duel. I am no gun expert but I would expect that, all things being equal with fire-power, aim, expertise, etc., the guy who gets in the first shot will stop the other guy most of the time, regardless of who is good and who is bad. Of course, all things being equal seldom applies, anyway.

About twenty years ago or more my wife and I were discussing a South African statistic that went along the lines that the most likely victims of gun violence were the owner of the gun or close family members of the gun owner, and that gun owners or their families were more likely to be killed or receive gunshot wounds than the general population. That confirmed our decision never to own a gun or to have one in our home. My impression from stories of gun violence here in Canada and elsewhere is that this still seems to hold true.

I like what Republican Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said in response to the suggestion from LaPierre that armed guards should be put in schools. “It’s fixing the wrong problem, because the problem is cultural,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Even that is decidedly simplistic but it is heading in the right direction. Mental health has to be another huge factor in the equation. I don't know what the answer is but anybody who fastens on just one, simplistic solution is surely being simple-minded.

Mo Stashed Hairiers Starting to Look Good

Please click on the link to go over and see the latest growth on the upper lips and surrounds of those fine gentlemen, the Mo Stashed Hairiers.

Among the pictures be sure to spot the one showing three generations of father and son Mo Bro's. I'm very proud of that one.

At time of posting they have raised $1,635. It would be wonderful if you could help them reach $3,000 for the great Movember cause.

Three poems, three perspectives on war and the ultimate sacrifice

---

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Anthem for doomed youth
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Wilfred Owen
September - October, 1917

Wilfred Owen was killed at Ors, near the French Belgian border, on 4 November 1918, at the age of 25.

---

Entrenched

Trembling down in the trench, thinking of nothing but home,
Above I hear a roar, another mine has blown.
There is no turning back, the battle must go on,
Nonetheless it seems to me all meaningless and wrong.

As if one shot from me, will help the war at all,
My task is to 'go o'er the top', to fire and then to fall.
Of course I love my country, but I'm too young to die,
Echoing all around I hear the bitter battle cry.

I wish I hadn't come, I wish I wasn't here,
But it is far too late, and I'm overcome with fear.
I once felt so very proud that I was going to fight,
But how can any man have pride, after seeing this harrowing sight.

I long for freedom, and yet more for peace,
The day when this endless war will cease.
But for now I value every given breath,
For the time draws near when I shall meet my certain death.

Pippa Moss
A poem written when the author was fourteen-years-old.

Lest We Forget

What do we forget when we remember
What are the stories left untold
What do we think each November
As we march down that glory road
As we march down that gory road

One hundred million
Don’t come home from war
Another eight hundred million
Who lived to bear its scar
Who lived to bear its scar

Lest we forget
What they were dying for
Lest we forget
What they were killing for
Lest we forget
What the hell it was for

What do we forget when we remember…

Owen Griffiths

Owen Griffiths is an Associate Professor of History at a university in Canada. His area of study is especially modern East Asia (Japan and China mainly).
He writes: " I have never been to war but both grandfathers (both British) fought in WWI and my father fought with the RAF in Europe and Asia in WWII. My mother worked in a mortar shell factory and a pig farm in England during WWII. My parents immigrated to Canada after the war in 1949, among the many who passed through Pier 21 in Halifax (Canada's Ellis Island). My father was a navigator on the Argus for the RCAF so I lived on air bases in Canada until I was 10.  Professionally, I currently have two main research fields: One, examines how Japanese society from the 1890s to the 1930s became increasingly militarized by analyzing the stories written for children in mainstream print media. The other argues for a reorientation of our systems and tropes of remembrance to include killing and dying on all sides in the hopes of constructing more honest and accurate representations of war as universal tragedy and as a common ground of human inhumanity."

I found these poems on The War Poetry Website

http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/

Movember - Why?

Please head over to my other blog - the Movember Mo Stashed Hairiers - where I say a bit about why I am taking part in Movember for the sixth time. There is also a bit of reminiscing on the first time, replete with pictures of my first shave since age twenty-one.

Movember - Tally-ho, let's grow the mo. Let that 'stash bring in some cash.

Remember, remember the month of Movember

Fun with Mo reason

For this is the season

For lips to grow stubble

So efforts can double

That cancer gets whipped

By those hairy lipped

And their sponsors who give

To the scientists who live

For the day

When they find out the way

After all we've endured

That cancer gets cured.

MOVEMBER - Mo Stashed Hairiers

2012 Newmarket Business Excellence Award for Innovation

L-R: Joe Mardini - Bell and  Mark McCann - Myostat Motion Control Inc. Signature Sponsor: Bell

The Bell Innovation Award at the 2012 Newmarket Business Excellence Awards was given to Myostat Motion Control Inc..

Myostat also happens to be the company that both Marks work for - Mark McCann,  of Jonty and Luisa fame, and Mark Dankowych, boyfriend of Judith. If you look carefully at the video, each of them makes a 2 second cameo appearance.

Since 1989, the Newmarket Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards has been recognizing Newmarket businesses whose business achievements or community involvement have made significant contributions to the economic and social well-being of the Town of Newmarket.

Criteria for being awarded the Bell Innovation Award are:

• Must be in business for at least 1 year.
• Recognizes extraordinary innovation in the use of technology.
• Must have utilized an innovative and creative approach to integrate leading-edge  technology into their business.
• The use of the technology must have a significant impact on the company’s business plan.

Congratulations to all at Myostat.

Getting Ready for Movember 2012

It's that time again. I'm starting to get ready for the month of Movember, 2012.



Since Movember last year my prostate cancer fortunes have changed as many of you may recall. Last year this time I had been living for five years with a small, slow growing cancer of the prostate that was being monitored every six months with a PSA test and with a needle biopsy every eighteen months. At the beginning of this year the biopsy showed that the cancer had gone up a notch in aggressiveness and had also spread somewhat within the prostate. It was time to stop watching and to take some action. After a couple of weeks of reading and consultation I decided, with my urologist, that the wisest course of action was to have a radical prostatectomy.

That was in April. The procedure was successful and there was no evidence of metastasis.  The first of the six-monthly PSA tests that I need to have for the rest of my life showed a count of 0 (zero!), meaning no trace or evidence of cancer. However, I do remain at higher risk which is why the testing needs to continue.

All the above leads me to continue having an interest in Movember and the cause of promoting men's health - physical and mental - through clinical research and public education. To help fund this worthy cause we will be running the Mo Stashed Hairiers again this year and I sincerely hope that friends, family and strangers will be generous with this great cause in spite of hard times.

You can find my Mo Space Home Page here. It has a "Donate" button. Donations by Canadians are tax deductible.

Note. For a blow by blow diary of my prostate cancer journey click on the "Prostate Cancer" label here or in the panel to the right of this blog.

Holiday in Haliburton

Ingrid and I spent two very relaxing days at Country Charm B&B, Haliburton. Highlights included a leisurely stroll through the Sculpture Forest and a little excursion up to Skyline Park with its view of Haliburton Village and Head Lake, with the Haliburton Highlands in the background.

Rain had been in the forecast but the weather co-operated very nicely.

Click on the link to see our whole Haliburton Holiday 2012 album.

Here are a few of the photos:

Ingrid and I with the village of Haliburton and the Haliburton Highlands in the background.

Beaver contemplating lamp post. I would  have simply called it Mister Tumnus.

Barb - superb hostess and proprietor. Her barn is reflected in the kitchen window

Hard Labour in a Canadian Prison?

An Internet search on Julie Balotta, according to Google, will produce about 144,000 results in 0.24 seconds. She is famous, having given a breech birth to a baby boy who survived the ordeal.  OK, that happens somewhere every day. What made her famous is that the labour started in what is now an infamous prison. This, too, has been known to happen in prisons for women around the world. What makes the Ottawa-Carlton Detention Centre infamous?

• This woman was in labour for hours without being provided one shred of medical assistance other than a pain killer. If the reports are to be believed, nurses (really?) told her she was having indigestion or "false" labour. (In my opinion these nurses need recertification before being let loose again on an unsuspecting population.)
• She was told that she should not have allowed herself to become pregnant if she cannot handle pain.
• When she made too much noise she was moved from the cell which she shared with two other women and segregated in an isolation cell where she was utterly alone.
• Finally, after a baby's foot emerges, officials call an ambulance. Baby Gionni is delivered by the paramedics right there in the prison cell - all credit to them.
• Eventually mother and child are admitted to hospital - Julie needing blood, Baby Gionni with respiratory problems.

You can get more details here: Ottawa prison investigating allegations that guards ignored womanwho gave birth in jail cell

Human right organizations, bloggers and newspapers are outraged, rightly, that Julie's rights were violated, regardless of why she is in jail, and an investigation is underway according to Ontario's minister for correctional services, herself a former delivery room nurse. (Advocates call for inquiry after woman gives birth in Ottawa jail cell)

Nobody seems upset that Baby Gionni's rights were violated. Oh, yes. Of course. This is Canada. In this country a child in the womb, of any age, is not legally a person and has no rights. I wonder what the legal position is when a foot is sticking out?

Babysitting Claire

Thank you, Geoff and Miriam, for giving us the opportunity to have Claire all to ourselves from lunch on Saturday to lunch on Sunday. She kept us entertained the entire time that she was awake and slept at all the right times.

Here is a photo that Ingrid took on Saturday afternoon while Claire was playing in the baby pool. The lawn is a mess. I'm waiting for Canadian Tire to let me know when my new lawnmower battery arrives.

Enbridge Northern Gateway, Eh?

For any tl;dr readers, just look at the yellow highlight.

This is the record of submission by Elizabeth May on Friday, 31 August, 2012 to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project Joint Review Panel. You can click on the above link or just read it below. I did not see any notice of copyright and I doubt that there is one; it is a public submission.

This should be considered required reading for anyone who has any interest in the pipeline but, more especially, for Canadians with no interest in it or who do not care one way or another.

I have taken the liberty of adding yellow highlight to salient points for the sake of people who do not want to read every last word of Elizabeth's submission but want to know the gist.

Submission to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project Joint Review Panel

On Friday, August 31st, 2012

As leader of the Green Party of Canada and as the Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands, I appreciate this opportunity to place on the written record my comments on the Enbridge proposal for a 1177 kilometre long, twinned pipeline across northern British Columbia and a port at Kitimat to receive diluents and pipe it to Alberta, while piping back to Kitimat the mixture of diluents and bitumen.  The proposal further involves the shipping of this mixture by super-tankers to be operated by persons unknown to, as yet undisclosed, ports.

Having observed the hearings and the evidence over the nearly eight months since the hearings began, I wish to make the following observations: 

1. The proponent, Enbridge, has failed to provide any specific information about the impact of spills, on land or at sea, of the mixture it proposes to move by pipeline and sell to other carriers for shipment by sea.  Bitumen and diluents were shown in the Kalamazoo Michigan spill to be considerably more difficult to remediate than conventional crude.  The proponent has now admitted all its evidence was based on a substance it is not proposing to ship.  Meanwhile, it should be noted that few improvements or technological advances on handling spills of conventional crude have been made since the Exxon Valdez spill.

2.  The proponent has violated its social licence to operate through a culture of negligence. This failing is well-documented in the report of the United States National Transportation Safety Board  (Enbridge Incorporated, Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Rupture and Release, Marshall Michigan, July 25, 2010, Accident Report NTSB/PAR-12/01, PB2012-916501, July 10, 2012).  The spills and pipeline leaks in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 2010 and additional spill in the summer of 2012 in Wisconsin are ample evidence of the corporate culture of Enbridge being negligent. The panel is commended for accepting the report of the US. NTSB into evidence.  As evidence before this panel, the litany of failures in preventing the Kalamazoo spill and subsequent negligence in ignoring alarms and pumping more bitumen-diluent mix into a broken pipeline must lead to a rejection of this proposal at this time.

3.  The July 2012 report of the US NTSB is also relevant as it is clear that the Enbridge proposal was developed without any consideration of the experience of the serious spill in 2010 in Michigan.  As such, the current proposal should be rejected and the proponent instructed to revise any proposal to take into account lessons learned in the 2010 failure.

4. The proponent has offered to this panel a mathematical risk estimate for spills in which the proponent deliberately chose to exclude local spill and accident events in the waters in which the proponent proposes to operate. This evidence of dramatically under-estimated risk of accident should be entirely discounted as fanciful and absurd.  The review of this mathematical alchemy by the Raincoast Conservation Foundation should be accepted instead.

5. The need for the additional pipeline capacity has not been established.  On this point, the evidence of J. David Hughes should be accepted that unless and until bitumen production increases by 150% from current levels, the existing pipeline infrastructure is adequate. (“The Northern Gateway Pipeline: An Affront to the Public Interest and Long Term Energy Security of Canadians,” November 22, 2011).
6. Transport Canada’s submission to this panel was reported in the media as establishing that there was no serious risk in super-tanker traffic. In fact, it did not say that at all.  It merely said there were no “regulatory gaps.”  In other words, it said, if there is a spill, we know which department will be in charge. In the entire Transport Canada review, there is no specific assessment of the particularly turbulent and navigationally challenging passages any super-tanker would encounter. The words “Hecate Strait” do not appear in the Transport Canada review, even though, Environment Canada’s Marine Weather Hazards Manual states that the Hecate Strait is “the fourth most dangerous body of water in the world.” The Transport Canada submission should not be used in evidence as relevant to the specific risks of the British Columbia coast. 
7. No federal body nor the proponent have come forward with any credible analysis to lift the 1972 moratorium, honoured by every federal and British Columbia government since that time. It banned super-tanker traffic along the BC coastline, with the Port of Vancouver grandfathered.  The federal government and the proponent would like to “pretend” the moratorium away.  Admittedly, the moratorium was not enshrined in law, but its observance for four decades is a significant statement about its existence and importance. This panel has an obligation to consider Enbridge’s proposal as one that has the burden of proof to lift an existing moratorium.    
8. The increased tanker traffic has been found to be a source of significantly increased risk to the endangered whales in the area. Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) review of threats to humpback whales in 2005 named the proposed tanker traffic to Kitimat as a threat to whale recovery.  Humpback whales are listed as a species at risk in the threatened category.  Scientists actually think the fin whales may be even more at risk of tanker collisions. Proposed mitigation measures of whale spotters on board tankers are mere “window dressing.” The notion that whale spotters can avoid collisions with endangered whales would only be plausible if super-tankers were prohibited from travelling at night, in dense fogs (typical in the area) or in storms and gales (also typical in the area).

9. First Nations constitutionally protected rights have not been honoured by the proponent.  The proponent made false claims about the extent of its relationship with the Haida Nation, according to a letter sent to this panel by the President of the Council of the Haida Nation last year.  The timelines and deadlines for this panel’s work will be unlikely to survive a court challenge under many precedents of the requirement for consultation and for the federal government’s fiduciary obligations to First Nations.

10. Dr. Jeffrey Hutchins of Dalhousie University has drawn attention to the fact that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was unable to provide the detailed scientific information this panel requires to make any judgement about the extent of damage to ecosystems and fisheries in the hundreds of stream and water crossings the pipeline will entail.  It is outrageous that a government agency would conclude all damage can be mitigated when, by its own admission, it lacks the capacity, due to a loss of scientists and budget, to be capable of assessing the situation on the ground.
11. Recent budgetary cuts make this project even more risky due to a loss of capacity to respond to a spill. Environment Canada’s Environmental Emergency Programme has been shrunk from regional offices, including one in Vancouver, to one office in Quebec.  Ten Coast Guard operations are being shut down.  In BC alone, we are losing the search and rescue operation in Vancouver plus marine communication operations in Kitsilano, Comox and Tofino.  The cuts affect the ability of the Coast Guard to monitor and deal with marine pollution offences. As well, the safety of mariners could be affected.
12. Further loss of capacity is found in the decision to reduce staff and budget to DFO’s Centre for Off-shore Oil, Gas, and Energy Research (COOGER), ending work in progress in many areas, including a “Baseline Hydrocarbon Study in Hecate Strait.” It was studying impacts of oil and gas leaks, counter-measures for an oil spill, restoration of environment after any spill, among other key areas.
13. Meanwhile, the entire marine mammal contaminants programme within DFO has been shut down.  Nearly all of the DFO scientists studying marine toxicology across Canada are being laid off.   Dr. Peter Ross, a globally respected scientist working at the Institute for Ocean Sciences in my riding, lamented, “The entire pollution file for the government of Canada, and marine environment in Canada’s three oceans, will be overseen by five junior biologists scattered across Canada – one of which will be in BC.”  (quoted in Times Colonist, “Ottawa sinks pollution checks,” May 20, 2012)
14. The Joint Review Panel should take note of the fact that even when the programmes listed in points 10, 11, 12 and 13 were in operation, the Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development, within the Office of the Auditor General, concluded that Canada lacked the capacity to respond to an oil spill or other marine emergency.

These comments are not exhaustive, but represent substantial evidentiary hurdles on which the current proposal must fail.

Respectfully submitted,

Elizabeth E. May, O.C.

Member of Parliament

Saanich-Gulf Islands

Heather and Stephen (Official) Wedding Photos

You just have to love it.

This is Heather's communication to her FaceBook  friends on the availablity of their wedding photos:

Steve and I want to thank everyone for all of the lovely sentiments and posts on facebook. We also want to thank everyone for the beautiful photos taken during our wedding. We are so lucky to have so many special friends and family members. We have included a link to our amazing photographer's blog that includes a photograph snap shot of our special day. Enjoy!

Not to be outdone, this is Stephen's communiqué:

Our photographer has put up some photos from our wedding on her blog.

Anyway, here is the link to Stephen and Heather's Wedding photos at samantha erin photography. Their photographer did a wonderful job, I'm sure you will agree.

Wedding photos added

On the "Photo Galleries" page I have added links to two albums with just a few of the pictures that I took at Heather and Stephen's wedding. Go on over and have a look.

Here are a few for the blog record:

The bug is supposed to bring good luck. So much for post-grad education.

Gavin, Mary Ann, Stephen, Heather, Rob

Heather, Caitlyn, Jonty, Stephen, Claire

Heather helping Stephen get dressed properly

Off on their honeymoon...

Toronto Mayor's Solution to Guns and Gangs - Lower Taxes

You can't make up this stuff. An important plank in Mayor Rob Ford's solution to the city's gun violence is to lower taxes for businesses so companies can create jobs so that gang members can "get a job."

I naively thought that Ford could not surpise me any more. I was wrong. Click the link and read on.

Toronto Mayor RobFord’s blunder in labelling immigrants criminals hurts the city.

The Toronto Star, 22July 2012

Stephen Harper: selling our (children's) birthright for a mess of pottage

This is scary. I never realised that the list was so long, or so serious, and I consider myself an informed person. The phrase, to sell your birthright for a mess of pottage, comes from a Bible story, Genesis 27:1–40

Dear Terence,

Harper's assaults on the environment.

There is no shortage of compelling issues to discuss in a Hill Times Environmental Policy briefing.  Even listing, without describing, the catalogue of assaults on environmental law and policy by the prime minister in the last 12 months is enough to occupy the whole issue.

Canada undermined global climate negotiations in Durban in December, negotiated in bad faith, and immediately announced intent to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol when the Environment Minister touched down on Canadian soil. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver kicked off the New Year with an assault on environmentalists and First Nations as “radicals.”  The Prime Minister attacked environmental groups for accepting foreign funding, even as he courted Communist Party controlled state operations from China as investors in the oil sands.  One Parliamentary Secretary said anyone opposed to pipelines and tankers was “against Canada.”  When asked to withdraw the remark as un-parliamentary, she refused.

The legislative juggernaut, C-38, repealed the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, replacing a coherent piece of legislation with a discretionary formula for confusion, conflict and court cases.  The gutting of the Fisheries Act raised the ire of four former federal Ministers of Fisheries.  Environment Minister Peter Kent insulted the four former ministers, suggesting they had not read the Act.  Mulroney era Minister Tom Siddon showed up to testify before the sub-committee on Finance and in short order made it clear he may be the only Minister who has read the act.  While Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield tried to claim the new Fisheries Act will improve habitat protection, the assault to habitat is real, underscored by the subsequent lay-off notices to all DFO habitat officers in British Columbia. The National Round Table on the Environment and Economy is scrapped.  The Species at Risk Act and Navigable Waters Protection Act amended to allow the National Energy Board to assume jurisdiction of endangered species or navigable waters are in the way of any pipeline.

Basic science and monitoring is being savaged with the end of funding to the Canadian Foundation of Climate and Atmospheric Science, elimination of the Adaptation research group within Environment Canada, the cuts to ozone monitoring, the closure of the Polar Arctic and Environmental Laboratory (PEARL) in Eureka, the sale of the 58 lakes in the globally unique Experimental Lakes Area near Kenora, Ontario, the elimination of the marine contaminants programme within DFO, the loss of scientists in Natural Resources Canada to study ice cores data (and the hope to find a university with a large fridge willing to take the 80,000 year ice core record Canada’s government no longer wants), the end of monitoring smoke stack emissions, cut backs in the Canada Oil and Gas research group in Halifax, and cuts at NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) resulting in the closing of the Yukon Research Lab at Yukon College in Whitehorse.

The thin end of the wedge of privatization has hit National Parks – first Jasper and then the hot springs at Banff, while cuts to ecological staff in the parks compelled former Deputy Minister Jacques Gerin to call on Harper to stop gutting National Parks.

It is a blitzkrieg of bad news as cut-backs and programme cancellation hit the core areas of federal responsibility to protect nature.  The multi-faceted assault has the effect of blinding media and the public to the largest threat.  In 2012, Canada still has no plan to address the threat of climate change.

While Stephen Harper has succeeded in dramatically reducing the Canadian media coverage of climate science through the muzzling of government scientists, the atmosphere does not seem to have gotten the memo.  Around the world, the force and frequency of severe weather events has woken up even the mainstream US media.  Fires, floods, tornadoes, heat waves are wreaking havoc on agriculture and running up the bills to the insurance industry.  The culprit for much of this year’s strange weather phenomenon is the rapidly warming Arctic.  As the Arctic warms the differential in temperature between the Arctic and the Equator becomes less pronounced. That causes the jet stream to lose its straight and fast course. (Francis, Vavrus study, Rutgers/Univ of Wisconsin). Slowing down, it has allowed large low pressure systems and high pressure systems to sit for far longer periods than normal in one place --  causing flooding in the low pressure zones and heat waves and fires in the high zones.

Loss of agriculture, losses to floods and fires also cost the economy, as well as human lives. Despite the Prime Minister’s attempts to destroy the collection of data, the evidence of the climate crisis is all around us.  We are sabotaging our children’s future – but what does it matter as long as the bitumen flows?

Elizabeth May
M.P. for Saanich-Gulf Islands
Leader of the Green Party of Canada

Weather Opposites

The following is a recent facebook chat about the weather that I thought might be interesting for some. Temperatures are quoted in degrees Centigrade. I've always been fascinated with how difficult it is to recall the "feel" of the extreme temperature that is the opposite of what I am feeling at a moment in time. Joeys is Johannesburg.

Sunday 15 July

Terry - Canada

What a beautiful storm. Lots of rain and thunder; complete with birds singing afterwards. Well, blue jays squawking rather than cuckoos, but it still calls for Beethoven's 6th...

Cynthia - South Africa

Sounds good. We are freezing here in Joeys. 5 degrees outside.

Terry - Canada

I was speaking to my Aunty Bessie yesterday. At 96 she is really suffering with the cold and is afraid to use the heater too much because of the cost.

Alice - Canada

I would give anything for 5 degrees......ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!

Monday

Terry - Canada

Alice, your wish will be granted in January !

Tuesday

Peter - South Africa

I'm always careful of using the word "freezing" in the presence of Canadians and other far-northerners, but I did experience -3 in Oudtshoorn over the weekend. It was freezing.

Terry - Canada

Pete - you don't have to be overly cautious. Even in extreme cold we are still warm in our homes. I felt colder in my home in SA when the temp was +1 than at home in Canada when it's -20. However, I do feel sorry in the cold weather for people with outdoor occupations. It can be brutal with the wind and chill factor.

Wednesday

Peter - South Africa

Terry - you're right about feeling cold in our homes. Someone from England told me that it seems South Africans (try to) ignore the cold rather than accommodate it. I thinks that's because for 10 months of the year we're just right or else trying to cool down.

Yesterday at 02:47 · Like

Thursday

Terry - Canada

I don't know about elsewhere, but Canada seems to be at the other extreme. In the cold of winter it is not uncommon for homes to be heated to 23-24 deg. In the heat of summer homes are often cooled down to 18 deg. The big stores seem to be the worst offenders. That has to be a factor in Canada having one of the worst per capita rates for global warming CO2 emissions. See http://www.google.ca/publicdata.

Overdue Family Update

When you wait too long to provide an update it gets difficult to choose what to share. Here goes, in the order that things come to my disorganised mind:

Judith. Don't even ask.

Judith 

Completed her second year at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College.   She has one more academic year to do and then begin what is effectively her residency. Judith is still dating Mark "Dank" - they were going out already in high school. Her health is good and she is enjoying her role as aunty to Claire, Caitlyn and Jonty.

Judith, Mark Dank, Heather

Mark Dank

Supplementing his engineering skills with personal trainer qualifications Mark is more than the picture of health right now.

Caitlyn

Caitlyn Grace

Already two months old she is smiling and very engaging - a real cutie pie. She's been camping but still too small for a life jacket so no boating. Caitlyn looks so much like Geoff's sister.

Claire Abigail
Couldn't wait for Caitlyn to be born, Claire is proving to be a wonderful big sister. Also a big cutie pie, Claire's big news is that she has just turned two years old. A serious talker and singer who commands a captive audience in Oma and Grampa Mac with her already quite large repertoire of songs. She has just started at a new daycare centre within walking distance of home.

Claire and Jonty

Jonathan Tiago

Five months younger than Claire, Jonty is always a very busy little man with a whole world to explore every day. A happy, active boy, his ball skills would make his cricketing namesake proud. There is some room for improvement with catching but his throwing is truly awesome.

Ingrid

a.k.a Moed or Oma, she is totally besotted with Caitlyn, Jonty and Claire. Ingrid has also been a great source of strength to me through my recent surgery and recuperation. She joined Weight Watchers at the beginning of the year and has averaged a loss of a pound a week for the last twenty-five weeks. Ingrid is now looking for new clothes.

Miriam

On a year's maternity leave and enjoying motherhood, Miriam is taking delight in helping Claire and Caitlyn grow into little people with their own personalities.

Geoff and Claire

Geoff

Like Miriam, Geoff is taking huge delight in spending time with his two little girls, singing and playing with them, talking to them and making them laugh.

Caitlyn engaging Uncle Sean

Sean
Still working hard in the restaurant industry and in the throes of relocating where he stays, Sean totally enjoys his role as Uncle Sean. He took a rare weekend off to go camping with everyone a couple of weeks ago.

Luisa
Just recently returned to work after a year of maternity leave with Jonty, Luisa is as fit as a fiddle playing ultimate Frisbee every week. She is also putting in her share of effort with "the renovations".

Luisa, Mark, Jonty

Mark

"The renovations" are the main thing consuming Mark's energy at the moment. He and Luisa pulled down a shed and a small annex and are building an extension to their home. He still hopes that one day the Lions will make a Super 15 comeback.

Claire, Uncle Stephen, Jonty

Stephen

When his fiancée was assigned the residency of her first choice in Peterborough Stephen decided to resign from his job in Mississauga and move to Peterborough as well. He was fortunate to find an engineering job there without too much difficulty. Right now his emotional energy is focused on his coming marriage to...

Heather

Heather

Doctor McLaughlin is juggling the demands of her new residency program with the itsy bitsy details of her and Stephen's wedding in about four weeks time. I look forward to having Heather as my daughter in law.