Challenge of Climate evidence      Jly 2010 Click square for index The end of July 2010 was special and left us with a stark and clear challenge. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its 2009 report on the state of the climate 28 July 2010, and the facts show the speed of actual climate change, not model projections.  In addition to new and clear observations of continued ocean warming, rapid sea level rise, and losses in sea ice, glaciers and snow cover, State of the Climate in 2009 confirms that, globally, the 2000s were the warmest decade in NOAA’s temperature record (which began in the 1880s), with every single year of the decade warmer than the average temperature for the 1990s. This is not just a blip in the record, as the 1990s were warmer than the 1980s, which were warmer than the 1970s. And this past winter, 2009 was one of the ten warmest years globally since at least 1880. These scientific facts are highly significant for public debate on responsible public policies. It is to the credit of the Globe & Mail that these findings were reported on its front page on July 21st 2010. The Globe’s pages were in timely contrast with the book “Climate Cover Up” by James Hoggan, chair of the David Suzuki Foundation and of the Canadian Chapter of Al Gore’s The Climate Project. Hoggan’s book documents ways in which vested interests in carbon fuels with significant finance capability manipulated media and scientists to create a sense that there was doubt in the scientific community about global warming. These interests funded well spoken commentator scientists to question and encouraged questioning writers in pseudo-academic bodies like the Frazer Institute to promote a public perception of uncertainty. We normally welcome questioning, but misrepresenting the evidence is to be condemned. Hoggan likens the efforts he documents to those of the Tobacco industry which worked for years to question links between smoking and cancer. Hogan shows the science was clear in 2003. Since then, the public has been misled by claims that there is uncertainty in the science. After putting down Hogan’s shocking book, the Globe & Mail full pager came as a welcome surprise.   Hopefully, after the repeat facts of July 2010, Canadians can pick up more seriously the task of forging some policies and actions in response to the global climate change we have created and are creating. Our current sole focus on renewed economic growth and opening more oil fields is inadequate. Yet ultimately, it is unnerving to reflect that right wing institutes can draw on considerable resources to do the kinds of misleading Hoggan describes in other areas including refugee and migration policy.  TOP   Click:

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