13 thoughts on “Global Climate change is MYTH I tells ya”

  2. Environment Canada is sending out a CD “Annual Arctic Ice Atlas” Mine arrived yesterday, haven’t looked at it yet. I was looking for the link, but apparently I dumped it. No doubt it’s easy enough to find on their site.
    I wonder if they will follow up with a Martian Arctic Ice Atlas so we can finally get it through everyone’s head that the public is being scammed on the carbon credits.

  3. Before Spence took Jenn to Lac Phillip in the Gatineau’s today, he was spouting off something about the people in Manitoba not being able to handle our humidiity. Now I find out it was 53C with the humidex — I’ll have to ask him how he does in 53C!!

    Also, I don’t know how anyone could watch Al Gore’s “A Global Warming” and come away a non-believer!!

    Chipper will look for this CD.

  4. Obviously the planet is warming right now. Why is it warming? aL gORE’s epistle is full of faults, and he is contributing to the problem in a big way if indeed his premise is correct. The inconvenient truth is that he uses more electricity in his own house than a small town, and spends gazillions of jet miles delivering his version.
    What is wrong with that picture?
    21000 scientists really cannot be wrong.
    Mars, the planet which previously apparently did not have water, is also suffering from a very active solar cycle, which is melting its polar ice caps. Sometimes it is really difficult to understand what is going on. Just another reason to pay attention to other than the MSM.
    We can look forward to the coming mini-ice age (or as I prefer to say “miceage”, apparently scheduled to begin about 2020, when the current high activity solar cycle burns itself out. I guess we will see when we get there. Maybe 21000 thousand scientists are wrong, and a politician is right.

  5. Sorry about the redundancy in my last sentence. I usually proof better. It’s only 21000 scientists, not a gazillion.

  6. Chipper, the mini-ice age theory doesn’t seem to leave individuals with something they can do now. Whatever the cause, there will need to be added infrastructure to reduce flooding and some people may choose in advance to move away from coastal areas and/or to higher ground.

    My mother always told me “It’s better to be safe than sorry”. In the mean time, I don’t think it will hurt to treat out planet with respect – reduce emissions, reduce waste, recyle, change to energy efficient lighting, and so on AND get that message out to the point that more and more people are doing it. This will improve the quality of our air and water (above what it would have otherwise been) for all inhabitants of the planet.

    What I liked about Al Gore’s movie was that he made it understandable to the masses (if they watched the film). Truthfully, if I had the money, I imagine I would travel, I would probably fly AND buy property on very high land.

  7. well ya can’t get much higher than where I am right now. It’s 1300 feet above sea level here. I suppose I could climb Everest or move to Denver, but I don’t think flooding is a worry.

    Nor was it where we lived before. Anal as it sounds, Paul and I actually consulted maps about earthquake safety and got a place on high ground when we bought a house. The one time there was an earthquake of any size in the GVRD – Chipper you will remember as you were drinking coffee at the kitchen table with Paul when it happened because I phoned you guys right afterwards – there was NO MOVEMENT at our house, and here on Burnaby Mountain the building where I work shook like a finger waggling and I thought an elephant on a pogostick was going by my desk.

    As far as what we can do is concerned, I think there are three things we can all do.

    Reducing consumption is important. So is learning about permaculture. So is saving seeds. So is not eating meat except onr special occasions and learning to eat less appetizing forms of meat. The best animal flesh in terms of turning greens into protein is rabbit… after that rats and chickens. Meat eating is one of the biggest holes our culture has fallen into when it comes to the tradeoff between feeding people and growing luxury goods. One of the things about the future that bugs me most is how scarce bacon will be.

  8. Reducing consumption – I’m there. Permaculture – I learned recently that perennial grains are being developed – a very good thing. Saving seeds – well, first I have to figure out how to constrain the vegetative growth of certain vegetables so that they will produce seeds. This year – six tomato plants several feet tall, few tomatoes set on, and ONE spaghetti squash plant which overwhelmed the other vine plants I started at the same time, and is now climbing the tomatoes. I think, beneath its vast leaves, it may have set on a squash or two. I guess this is all the result of putting a few wheelbarrow loads of compost on the vegetable patch.. This tendency to go to extremes in recycling may be my problem.

  9. A major monument to our consumptive society is the scar left by oilsands development near Fort McMurray, Alberta. The size of this pit is nearing if not already surpassing the same area as Greater Vancouver. Check it out Fort McMurray on Google Earth. The major extraction activity is little bit north of the city.

  11. Debbie, I have a problem with reducing consumption in a personal manner, because I already don’t consume much of what is average in our culture. I do wish more peoplw would follow what I have done since childhood. My attempts to get the local community to recycle have not gone well. I use less electricity that anyone I can think of, except perhaps me mum. I don’t make garbage, and I pass things on to people or organizations that can use them instead of the dump. Favourite shopping place when working on a building project is the local dump (also known as the Madawaska Mall).

    Packaging produces a huge amount of garbage. Food packaging is obnoxious at best. So much of it is unneccesary. Without the package you can’t be delivered advertising though.

    I have a garden, and I also gather from the wild when I have the time. However, I do not get all of my food from within 100km. There are no olive trees growing in this part of Ontario…I do buy things at the grocery store.

    I try to get the tourists here to participate in the program by providing simplicity. Of course, lots of people do not book when they find out there is no hot tub/air conditioning/tv in rooms. It is a niche market, and even some of those who do arrive claiming to be environmentally sensible campers are leaving tons of garbage behind without a second thought. It bothers me that people bring bottled water because my well tests 0/0 (yes, perfect after all these years) and we have no local recycling program to deal with the plastic. It all becomes landfill. The shift from naptha run campstoves, lanterns etc. to propane is a total dismay, because we have no local hazardous waste disposal except once a year (Victoria Day weekend when I am here, unable to participate. Besides, I do not believe that it is a sensible investment to make a bulding to store these things in so I can drive 30 km to dispose of them once a year). I offer to people that they can take these things back to their city where their tax base provides appropriate recycling/disposal, but few do.

    Then there is all the gadgetry and other gizmos that people buy from CrapTire, leaving behind broken tents, packaging, air mattresses that don’t hold air, etc…our culture loves to consume, and doesn’t seem to get it that camping is by nature a tread lightly activity.

    Then again, most people don’t actually camp, they just live outside for a couple of days. Almost no one has a pail or a basin, 2 of the most important pieces of camp gear ever. They run water while they wash their dishes at one of the communal taps, making it look like a third world country and providing ample mess to attract raccoons.

    I am not saying that it is a bad thing to reduce emissions; I just think it is a shame to tax air in the name of global warming.

    My biggest conservationary downfall in this environment is my vehicle. There is no public transit; I must have a vehicle which can perform work for me also, so instead of having 2 vehicles, I have a Jeep that consumes a fair amount of gas. It, or some other such vehicle is a necessity. However, I plan shopping and other trips well, often only driving any distance once every 2 weeks.

    I have a seed bank.

    As far as flooding is concerned, it is just a reflection of how our culture has become complacent over time, because there has been a lack of cataclymic events. Expensive houses dot shorelines, where no one in their right mind would have built 100 years ago. Suburban complexes destroy the natural runoff and seepage patterns for rainwaters with all the concrete and asphalt. This is due to a cavalier attitude toward making money. Mankind has indeed made a mess.

    As Allegra knows, I have done a lot for conservation, environmental doctrine, and sustainability. I was astounded to do the ecological footprint assessment and found that I was rated as murderous to the environment. Of course, a lot of this is because there is no public transit, and no store within walking distance. Also, there is no entry for the 2000 trees I have planted on my land.

    As I told a friend at Energy Canada, all the energy saving devices are really a bust. It is the behaviour of people which needs to change. How often do I see people here renting a cabin who have the heat on, the door open and the ceiling fan working in the cooling direction? Why can men not turn off taps in the bathroom? The average family of 4 puts out a green garbage bag every day. One in 100 takes their recycliables home. Lots of people throw deposit bottles in the garbage. I find batteries from cameras etc. in firepits. I rescued 2 Lagostina cooking pots from the garbage because someone had burnt the bottoms and was too lazy to clean them. What is going on here? All those people come here because they love nature.

    I could go on but you probably wish I would stop…

    The Mennonites I knew as a child had phenomenal energy saving techniques. Cold cupboards, root cellars, all kinds of latent energy uses. We have been marketed in to being energy pigs (well, actually not me, but the culture I live in); it’s all for money. Another way to short circuit the cycle would be to stop participating in the brain pollution delivered by the MSM. Marketing is brutal to sensibility.

    As far as getting the message out is concerned, I believe it is part of the senior public school curriculum in all provinces in Canada to have a segment on conservation and environment. It has been in the curriculum for over 20 years in Ontario. I have seen my friends children do projects about these topics for credits at school. These are the same children that I see leave doors open in winter, leave lights, tvs, computers on when they head out to school or to play, turn up the heat instead of putting on slippers and sweaters, and have 30 minute showers. Apparently the message is still being ignored. Their parents buy them individually portioned over packaged items to take to school for lunch. Convenience is more important in everyone’s very busy life.

    Lots of talk…lots of message…lots of pretense, and little self responsibility.

    Why are country roads a mess? I tell ya, it’s not the locals throwing the Timmy’s cups out the window. We don’t drive 68 km for a cup of coffee.

    See my point(s)? As usual, if I comb my hair right no one will notice.

    And yes Allegra, I distincly remember the elephants on pogo sticks at the office.

  12. Yes Chipper, I do see your point. I know Allegra is a highly intelligent and informed individual. You are too, I can see that from your blog entries. Sadly, as you find with your campers, most people don’t get the point AND we need to reach those people too. Yes, the curriculum for my daughter also included classes and projects in conservation and environmental studies.

    Here’s a girl with a 4.0 GPA at an Ivy League university, and I suspect she won’t get conservation until she is the one paying the utility bills. Yesterday I found her sitting in the study with the window wide open — we have Central Air. Her showers range from 1 to 1.5 hours every day — our efforts to conform our daughter seem hopeless. So, I can guess how frustrating it is to get the message out. That’s my only point really. Communication is difficult at best and finding ways to reach “different” types of people is necessary — not everybody is as well-read and intelligent as you, Nautilus3, Allegra, etc.

    I really enjoy reading your blog entries, no worries there.

  13. The message is indeed out, Debbie. It is just that most people think it is someone else’s job. They are too busy, or important, or don’t handle anything resemblng garbage because it is dirty and they are “clean”. And don’t forget, the amount of garbage one makes is still a psychological measure of wealth in this society. Even poor people make garbage so that they can feel rich.
    And thank you for the compliment, but I don’t know that intelligence and being well read are prerequisites for reliquishing consumerism and dealing with the mess humans are making. Perhaps it is more about money and self-awareness. People are constantly seduced into buying junk by ingenious advertising and packaging. Everyone wants to make a million dollars. When they do it will be worth about $10.
    Personally I am a little tired of ‘saving the earth’ for a generation that is killing it faster than ever before, and not just because of sheer #s. It is because of the current average standard of living and a sense of entitlement as far as I can see. My world gets more expensive in spite of the fact that I have consistently conserved. Cell phones and computers are pervasive, but few know how to wash dishes without a machine. It is sort of pathetic when you think about it.

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