Climate Change Tag

07 Dec 2015 Climate Change Fall 2015

Please see the attached pdf at the bottom of this article for the formatted version. Below is the text-only: Respectfully Submitted Policy Report for Parliamentarians In announcing his newly-elected cabinet, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke with the past by lengthening the title of the ‘Minister of the Environment’ to now include ‘and Climate Change’. This was meant to signal to Canadians that the new government is making climate change policy a priority, worthy of a key cabinet post. One of Minister Catherine McKenna’s first tweets as Minister was, “Canada agrees the science is indisputable, and we recognize the need for urgent/greater action that is grounded in robust science.” The Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada shares the Minister’s passion for grounding climate policy in “robust science” and encourages the Parliament of Canada to re-examine the facts and ideologies directing climate change policy. The idea of climate change – specifically catastrophic anthropogenic (man-caused) global warming – was brought to public attention when high-profile environmentalists and politicians publicized statistics showing a rapid increase of the earth’s temperature since the industrial revolution. The signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 and Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth documentary popularized the cause. Based on computer modelling of historic weather patterns, cataclysmic predictions were made: total polar ice-cap melts, dramatic increases in sea levels, flooding in some areas and severe droughts in other areas, the extinction of animal and plant species, and the increase of natural disasters, plagues and famines which will alter the lives of billions of people across the globe. Such predictions are understandably alarming.
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19 Sep 2014 Protect the Poor: Ten Reasons to Oppose Harmful Climate Change Policies

ARPA Canada's Executive Director and Legal Counsel are among the signatories of a quality declaration from the Cornwall Alliance titled "Protect the Poor: Ten Reasons to Oppose Harmful Climate Change Policies." We joined over 20 climate scientists, along with many economists, policy experts, and ministry leaders and we encourage our readers to consider signing onto this declaration as well (please note that this declaration is available for all citizens to sign, not just those with fancy titles and educational degrees). Among other things, the declaration calls on political leaders "to...

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02 Jul 2014 Report Card: Assessing Canada’s Conservative Government

The following article, "Report Card: Assessing Canada's Conservative Government on 10 Key Issues" was originally published in the Reformed Perspective magazine. It has been updated and included here as a reference item for our readers. You can download a PDF of the updated version, linked at the bottom of the text if you wish to print a copy. By Mark Penninga (Updated July, 2014) In a June 2011 article for Reformed Perspective I detailed 10 realistic goals that could be accomplished for our nation under this Conservative government if our leaders have the courage to lead and if citizens give them the encouragement and accountability to do so. Now that we are about halfway through this government’s mandate, how are we faring on these issues? 1. Give Aboriginals the responsibility and hope that belongs to all Canadians Grade: B+ Not long after ARPA published a policy report on this issue in 2012, we were very encouraged to see the federal government announce a number of bills and policies to increase accountability, equality, and opportunity for Canada's Aboriginal peoples. In June 2013, the First Nations Financial Transparency Act became law. Aboriginal MP Rob Clarke has also introduced a private member's bill C-428 entitled the Indian Act Amendment and Replacement Act. And the government has also taken steps towards allowing private property ownership on reserves and increasing parental responsibility in education. As encouraging as these changes are, they are small steps in light of the enormity of the problem. And given that the issue crosses into provincial responsibility, much more can also be done in having the provinces and federal government work towards a common vision. 2. Reform the Canadian Human Rights Commission Grade: C- In light of all the opposition from all sides of the political spectrum to problematic sections of the Canadian Human Rights Act, it is striking that it took a private member's bill (Brian Storseth's C-304) to finally abolish Section 13 in the summer of 2013. This was a huge victory, but the current government can't take much credit for it, apart from not actively opposing it. Much more can be done to reform or even abolish the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
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25 Jan 2011 The Competing World Views of Environmentalism and Christianity

E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D.. The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation: Religion is the root of any culture, and environmentalism has become a full-fledged religion in its own right. It is the most comprehensive substitute in the world today for Christianity so far as world view, theology, ethics, politics, economics, and science are concerned, and you need to understand it in order to counter it effectively, from presuppositions to policies, from classroom to movie theater, from evening network news to Internet and local...

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30 Aug 2010 UN climate panel urged to reform, stick to science

Globe & Mail, August 30, 2010: The UN climate panel should only make predictions when it has solid scientific evidence and avoid straying into policy advocacy, a group of national science academies said in a report on Monday. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was hit with a wave of criticism after acknowledging in January that its 2007 global warming report had exaggerated the pace of Himalayan glaciers melting. It had previously said the report had overstated how much of the Netherlands is below sea level. Read more...

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16 Jul 2010 Don’t dismiss Climategate just yet

Lorne Gunter, National Post, July 16, 2010: Last week, the third of three allegedly independent inquiries into last fall's Climategate scandal at Britain's Climate Research Unit (CRU) was concluded. Like the other two, it found troubling behaviour by the scientists at the CRU or by the University of East Anglia, of which the CRU is a part -- most notably attempts to hide data from critics and from government investigators. [Read more]...

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05 Jul 2010 Climate Change Report Had More Errors Than Previously Thought

ARPA Note: For a quality perspective on "climate change" check out the Cornwall Alliance website. Globe & Mail, July 5, 2010: A leading Dutch environment agency reported Monday that the seminal 2007 UN scientific report on climate change is too generalized and has even more errors than discovered so far — including one contributed by the agency itself. [Keep reading this article here.]...

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25 Feb 2010 Why is CIDA Funding Domestic Advocacy Groups?

ARPA Note: Consider sending in a letter to the editor of your local paper on this topic, given the upcoming federal budget. Also, be sure to read this follow-up article to the one below, which provides concrete suggestions for change. Written by David Murrell Ph. D Thursday, 18 February 2010: Last December at the Copenhagen climate talks, a Canadian environmentalist group – the Climate Action Network – bestowed upon Canada its “Fossil of the Day” award, attacking the country for its supposed slowness in undertaking policies against...

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15 Feb 2010 Climategate academic Professor Phil Jones admits he ‘lost track’ of vital data

Related: Globe and Mail - The Science Isn't Settled. Now What? Telegraph.co.uk, Feb 15 2010: Prof Jones stepped down as director of the University of East Anglia’s climate change unit in December after leaked emails appeared to show academics were manipulating data to bolster claims that global warming is caused by humans. Now the academic has admitted he may have lost track of some of the data used to produce the famous “hockey stick” graph, which uses climate readings from...

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07 Jan 2010 Request for a Royal Commission to Look Into “Global Warming”

In the wake of "Climategate" one person has taken the innitiative to prepare a petition calling upon our Canadian government to: 1. Forthwith establish a Royal Commission to investigate into the scientific veracity of the anthropogenic Global Warming Theory which holds that: a. Global Warming is occurring at an accelerated rate; b. That Global Warming is primarily caused by the emission of Carbon Dioxide from human activities; c. That the proposed laws, policies, and prescriptions recommended by the United Nations, if enacted and enforced will have a material effect in stopping the...

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