Jump to full article: Edmonton (Alberta) Journal (ca), 2010-02-20
Author: Graham Thomson, Edmonton Journal
Intro: American governors not only need to hear that their No. 1 supplier of Canadian fossil fuels is not a climate change denier but that the Alberta government stands behind the science of climate change.
These days the science of climate change could do with all the help it can get.
It is being hammered by climate change deniers which would include some of the U.S. governors.
. . .
I imagine they'll be looking back at us much as we look back at people from 200 years ago who thought cigarette smoking was good for you. Just 40 years ago, we had pro-cigarette organizations such as the Council for Tobacco Research that fought against the science linking smoking to cancer. In an internal memo dated 1972 -- called the Roper Proposal -- the industry acknowledged its goal was "creating doubt about the health charge without actually denying it."
The tactics used by the cancer-deniers are remarkably similar to the climate-change deniers: creating doubt.
Their goal is to produce a public relations smokescreen that obscures facts and hides the truth -- and aids energy companies. And they are proving remarkably successful at it.
. . .
The science of human-induced climate change is credible.
The counterspin by the deniers might create doubt, but it can't change the scientific facts that even the largest producer of fossil fuels in the country, Alberta, accepts: "The overwhelming evidence clearly indicates that climate change is real, that human-induced climate change is something that we need to address."
It is a message that Alberta's environment minister needs to repeat -- no matter where he finds himself -- to help drown out the yelling from the deniers.
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