The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #91770   Message #1766567
Posted By: GUEST,Woody
22-Jun-06 - 10:55 AM
Thread Name: BS: 'An Inconvenient Truth'
Subject: RE: BS: 'An Inconvenient Truth'
http://www.envirotruth.org/news_madhav.cfm

Extreme Weather Events NOT linked to Global Warming
Governments should base decisions on real data,
not shaky computer models

By: Dr. Madhav L. Khandekar, environmental consultant and former research scientist with Environment Canada

As a primary justification for allocating a billion dollars towards implementing the Kyoto Accord in Canada, Prime Minister Jean Chretien inexplicably chose to highlight the supposed connection between extreme weather events and climate change. In his mid-August 2003 speech announcing the new funding, the PM confidently told Canadians, "Extreme weather events around the world, and here in Canada, have underscored the harsh reality of climate change. Scientists have sounded the warning. We have no choice but to act. It is our moral responsibility."

In reality, governments have a 'moral responsibility' to properly consider what nature really tells us, even if the data scientists collect doesn't support the rhetoric of political leaders. While it is true that some scientists "have sounded the warning", many have not and the connection between global warming and extreme weather is being seriously questioned in many scientific studies and appears tenuous at best.

Mr. Chretien's belief in a global warming/extreme weather link originates with Environment Canada's senior managers who promote the extreme weather hypothesis despite having done no in-depth analysis of the relevant data. Mirroring Ex-Vice President Al Gore's proclamations (Gore: "Global warming is real and unless we act we can expect more extreme weather in the years ahead."), Mr. Henry Hengeveld and other Environment Canada spokespeople have tried to associate everything from snowstorms to floods to droughts with planetary warming. In my recent contract report to Alberta Environment (Alberta Provincial Government), I concluded that extreme weather events such as heat waves, rainstorms, intense windstorms, thunderstorms/tornadoes, winter blizzards, etc. are NOT increasing anywhere in Canada at this time. I also concluded that the probability of these events increasing in next 25 years remains very small..............