30 Fairmont Park Lane S
Lethbridge, AB
T1K 7H7
Phone: (403) 328-1804
Monday, February 28, 2005
The Editor
The Lethbridge Herald
P.O. Box 670
Lethbridge
AB, T1J 3Z7
Re: Climate Change Conspiracy
Dear Editor,
David Suzuki rails against questioning of climate change science as the product of conspiracy theorists. He also implies the media should restrict reporting on the views of climate change doubters. (“Science doesn’t know all, but it knows an awful lot”, 05/02/27).
Merriam Webster provides three definitions of “conspiracy”. The first two invoke illegal or evil intent on the part of two or more persons to harm others. The third defines a “striking concurrence of tendencies, circumstances, or phenomena as though in planned accord”.
One climate change conspiracy theory, which has been around for years, is that the United Nations is setting up the climate change issue as a long term source of funding. The ultimate ulterior motive cited is to establish global government. Candidly, if significant climate change is being caused by carbon dioxide emissions which quickly mix through the planet’s atmosphere, it is a global issue and it makes sense to coordinate effort on a global basis. The United Nations reports on climate science remain an outstanding platform to learn about climate change theory.
Pressure to sell climate change theory and action to control greenhouse gases is intense, unrelenting and something to be wary of. Canada has embarked on a series of measures to control greenhouse gases in the name of Kyoto which are so far ineffective. Many of these have been promoted by environmental organizations. We can expect many more in the near future. Canadians must legitimately wonder whether this frenzied activity is the result of an evil conscious conspiracy of the first two kinds, or if they are being crushed by a crowd of lemmings following impetuous leaders to some brave new world.
I encountered, just a couple of days ago, a new association. It is dubbed KyotoSmart and has a website (www.kyotosmart.net). The member list reads like a Who’s Who of organizations in Canada with a vested interest in latching on to the climate change issue. The David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace Canada, and the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development are all included.
Most interesting is the last member on the list, the Sage Foundation. A website is not listed and a Google search finds none. A charitable organization called Sage Centre does have a password protected website (www.sagecentre.org) which is not open to the public. It identifies Sage Centre as the operating name for the Sage Foundation. Its Executive Director is Tim Dramin. Mr. Dramin is also the Executive Director of the Tides Foundation (www.tidescanada.org). It in turn funds the David Suzuki Foundation, Sage Centre, Sierra Club of BC Foundation and many other environmental organizations. A news release at KyotoSmart also makes reference to Louise Comeau as Director of the Sage Climate Project. Ms. Comeau once led climate change activity at the Sierra Club of Canada and then at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. She was recently appointed as a director of the Sierra Club.
Personally, I do not now believe there is a conscious conspiracy to do evil in the name of climate change. However, there is a striking concurrence of interests suggesting conspiracy of Merriam Webster’s third kind. The linkage of organizations I just outlined reminds me very much of Michael Crichton’s best selling science fiction novel “State of Fear”. He postulates an evil environmental conspiracy using climate change to further their many causes as the central thesis of his story. He concludes, in extensive supplementary notes based on his research for the story, that the potential effects of human induced climate change are highly uncertain. He provides rationale and an extensive bibliography to support his position.
I’ll leave it to others to further investigate the possibility there is a conspiracy of environmental interests leading the charge to implement Kyoto in Canada. In the meantime Canadians need to be extremely wary of those who would like to muzzle debate, and the media, on climate change and greenhouse gas management.
Yours truly,
Duane Pendergast