January 2, 2007
Kamloops Daily News


Here are a few simple things you can do to reduce the
problem of global warming.

First, deny that there is a problem. That way, even if the
planet continues to heat up you won't have to do anything
about it.

Words are important. Never use the term "global warming,"
which suggests something alarming. Use "climate change"
which sounds less cataclysmic says Frank Luntz. He helped
U.S. President Bush solve his global warming problem and is
now advising Prime Minister Harper.

Never call yourself an "environmentalist." They have their
heads in the clouds and are out of touch with reality. Call
yourself a "steward" of resources.

Capitalize on uncertainty. Suggest that that lack of total
agreement by scientists is reason to do nothing.

Luntz puts is this way: "Voters believe that there is no
consensus about global warming in the scientific community.
Should the public come to believe the scientific issues are
settled, their views on global warming will change
accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the
lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate."

Equate global warming to a change in the weather. Ignore
the fact that global warming is not a forecast, it's a
reality.

Start up a group with an authentic-sounding name and change
it as required. In Canada when the Friends of Science
became discredited because their funding was suspiciously
linked to the big oil, they switched to the Natural
Resources Stewardship Project.

Find scientists to join the group who revel in being
antiestablishment.

Dr. Tim Ball is one of those scientists. He has not
published anything on climate science for 14 years but that
doesn't stop him from presenting himself as an expert on
climatology (his doctorate is in geography).

One his former colleagues says that Dr. Ball would say
anything to challenge authority. If scientists were to
suddenly say that global warming is not happening, "Tim
would be the first one out there saying, 'wait a minute,
global warming is really happening,' he jokes.

Dr. Ball makes a virtue out of being anti-authoritarian. In
his letter to the Daily News, he applauds TRU Chancellor
Nancy Green in speaking contrary to accepted scientific
understanding about global warming. "Besides, consensus is
not scientific fact," Ball adds.

Ball told a receptive audience in Comox Valley that "The
temperature hasn't gone up, but the mood of the world has
changed: It has heated up to this belief in global
warming." Ball's contrariness apparently extends to the
denial of observation which indicates the opposite. He also
contradicts the considered opinion of 2,000 members of The
World Meteorological Society.

Ridicule global warming. Ex-premier Ralph Klein suggested
that climate change was the result of "dinosaur farts."
Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day had mocking comments
to make about former vice president Al Gore's claims of
catastrophe of global warming: "And I was begging for Big
Al's Glacial Melt when the mercury hit -24."

Suggest that technology is the solution to pollution not the
cause of it.

Assert that it makes no sense to invite great economic cost
to solve a problem that science is not sure of. Ignore the
potential economic benefits of reducing greenhouse gases.

Learn from other successful lobbies. The tobacco industry
was able to delay government action for years that would
have saved thousands of lives from the deadly consequences
of smoking.

Employ the same tobacco lobbyists, like Dr. Fred Singer, to
delay the reduction in greenhouse gases.

In his letter to the Daily News, Tom Harris, Executive
Direction of Natural Resources Stewardship Project says that
we should ask questions rather than muzzle opposition.

Good point. Here are my questions for Mr. Harris: Who
funds your group? One of the principles of investigation is
to follow the money. Do you invite the same scrutiny and
skepticism of your group that you advocate for others? Why
does your colleague Dr. Ball say that the planet is not
warming when it obviously is? At what point would you
accept that conventional scientific wisdom is fact? Or
would you also support those who claim the earth is flat?
Why do you criticize the politics of global warming while
engaging in them yourself?

And why don't you, as a wise steward of our natural
resources, campaign for the reduction of the wasteful
consumption of our dwindling energy resources even it is
not contributing to global warming as you claim?

David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca

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