Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 10, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba A15 Winnipeg free press focus saturday july 10, 2004 climate change policy is flawed final Nail May have been driven into Kyoto a coffin 600 years ago it was much warmer than today by Tim Ball e environment Canadas website asks did you know the 20th Cen Tury has been the warmest globally in the past 600 years. In fact the 1980s and 1990s Are the warmest decades on Many scientists knew the state ments were incorrect that 600 years ago it was much warmer than today and said so but we were ignored. The website statements Are based on a single study by Mann Bradley and Hughes mbh98, the acronym used on the web that is now known to be completely incorrect thanks to a study by Canadian scientists Mcintyre and Mckitrick my. The mbh98 study undermined Exten Sive scientific knowledge that climate varies a great Deal naturally and current temperature trends Are Well within nor Mal Range. As a result it provided Strong support for the position that climate change was occurring because of human activity. The study was quickly adopted As the final proof. It became the basis of government climate change policy including Kyoto. As a result Mph and others vigorously defended their work against my a study. Now a More devastating blow has occurred. On july 1st, Mcintyre and Mckitrick were vindicated when an editorial Board of the prestigious journal nature ordered publication of an admission of errors. It May very Well prove to be the final Nail in Kyoto a coffin. The prevailing View that recent climate change is due to human activities Origi nates with the reports of the United nations sanctioned intergovernmental panel on climate change Picc. Environ ment minister David Anderson cites their reports As the sole basis of Canadian government actions on climate change despite Picc warnings not to use their work As the basis for policy formulation. Evidence the Picc 2001 summary for policy makers pm ? the Only part of the Picc reports Ever read by politicians and the press ? stated in Light of the new evidence and taking into account the remaining uncertainties most of the observed warming Over the last 50 years is Likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse Gas but Picc summary conclusions should always be viewed with considerable scepticism. In his Senate testimony in 2001, or. Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of technology and an Picc Lead scientific author explained the Picc was created to support the negotiations concerning co2 emission reductions letters to the editor the free press welcomes letters from readers. They must include the authors name address and Telephone number. Letters May be edited. Letters to the editor 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg r2x 3b6. Fax 697-7412. Email maps pensions Are unfair upon Reading of the pension rewards Given to Defeated my candidates june 30 i and i a sure thousands of pensioners across Canada Are appalled and disgusted. We pensioners who have spent All of our working lives struggling to raise our families then reaching the age of retirement receive a paltry $463 per month stipend generously being raised to $466 per month on july 1 such Benevolence. Defeated my Rey Pagtakhan As an example will receive $105,868 plus All the past Perks upon Perks per year for 16 years of service. The other Defeated members Settle ments Are truly vulgar and beyond belief As Well. This payout is a Gross example of double Standard and unfairness. No wonder voter turnouts Are declining and average canadians Are cynical bitter and losing Faith in government parties of All stripes. Joseph d. Payjack Winnipeg museum comments disappointing i am disappointed in the comments of my member of parliament Reg Alcock regarding the Promise of fund ing for the proposed Canadian museum for human rights. I agree that the museum would be an International attraction and some thing in which All Winni Eggers and Manitoban can take Pride. To Alcocks credit $100 million is an extremely Large amount of Money but it also appears that the new Liberal government might not have their act Paul Martin and the liberals promised the Canadian Public a smooth transition attending to and building on the commitments they made under the Chretien government. Alcocks comment regarding the Tim ing of the request for funding commit ments leads me to believe that our current Federal government is not in a position to make important financial decisions. Maybe they were hoping to take the summer off Laurel Baron Winnipeg lottery May be the answer since Only 60 per cent of eligible Vot ers availed themselves of the Privi lege i have a suggestion for increasing this number. This May not be new but i am not aware of it being used elsewhere. I have noticed that each voting card is numbered. Why not use this to conduct a lottery among the voters and offer ing an attractive prize to the winning number. All those on the voters list should be included in the draw. If a voting person wins it will be a Reward for Good citizenship. On the other hand should the number of an abstained be drawn the owner of the drawn number will have cause to judging from the citation Index the Lead ers of the Picc process like sir John Houghton or. Robert Watson and prof. Bert Bolin have never been major contributors to Basic climate research. They Are however enthusiasts for the negotiating process without which there would be no Picc which is to say that the Picc represents an interest in its own one also has to ask about the source of the ipacs increased level of certainty. After All the original Picc statements were based merely on computer Model results not reality. What was needed was hard data to Back up the Model predictions. This came in the Mph paper published in nature in 1998. They produced a graph of Northern hemisphere average temperature using data from a variety of sources such As tree rings. The graph quickly became known As the hockey stick because of the Long handle from 1400 and to 1900 and and the dramatic curve of the Blade in the 20th Century. It contradicted evidence from a multitude of sources that showed the Middle Ages were much warmer than today and even warmer than computer Model forecasts for the next 100 years. Vikings were farming in Greenland soil that is now permafrost and sailing in Arctic Waters now pack ice. This raises the question what caused the warming then a period of cold known to science As the Little ice age from 1550 to 1800 also disappeared from the graph. In 1683 there was a metre of ice on the thames in London. Significant swings of temperature that occurred Long before humans could be a Factor. Human induced global warming enthusiasts and Kyoto supporters quickly adopted the Mph study As the smoking gun they desperately needed to support their warming theory. Critics were Dis missed As a fringe minority or in the words of Anderson outlier scientists operating on the margin of the to question the Validity of the hockey stick became a sacrilege deemed unworthy of Public discourse and governments every where began to tune their environmental policies to the new paradigm. In science it is Standard proce Vikings were Dure to have the farming Validity of import in Greenland soil Tant research results checked by that is now other scientists permafrost and who use the same data and methods sailing in Arctic to see if they get Waters now the same pack ice. Outcome. Despite the enormous stakes involved a proper assessment of mbh98 was not published until octo Ber of last year when Canadian analyst Steve Mcintyre and University of Guelph environmental economics professor Ross Mckitrick published the results of such an audit study. They found that the temperature curves of mbh98 could not be reproduced using the methods employed by Mann it Al. In fact using the mbh98 methodology and data their results were dramatically Dif Ferent. Mcintyre and Mckitrick wrote our of course proof will be required that the Winner did vote. I consider this preferable to fining abstainers As is being done in some countries. Sam Yurman Winnipeg Bill 53 is a progressive Law i am writing in response to the editorials the latest in Shotgun marriage july 3let couples decide july 6 and the july 3 article new Law shocks unwed couples on the coming into Force of Bill 53, the common Law part ners property and related Amend ments act. It is difficult to understand How one can claim to be blindsided by this legislation Given the ample coverage by your own paper of the committee doonesbury hearings on Bill 53 two Summers ago and the Public awareness measures undertaken by the province and detailed in your article. If people were unaware the reason May be that Many couples do not think about these matters in the flush of Romance or already believe that prop erty jointly acquired is shared. In the past common Law couples who believed that they were protected by property legislation in the event of separation or the death of their partner were often left in the lurch. For them Bill 53 has aligned their Legal rights and responsibilities with what they already believed to be the Case. Bill 53 also affords Protection to the financially More vulnerable partner in a relationship an especially important consideration where children Are involved. With respect to the need for this legislation the Manitoba human rights commission supported and continues conclusion after detailed study of Mann it. Al. Data base is that the hockey stick is an artefact of poor data handling Selec Tive use of sources Reliance on obsolete versions of source data and erroneous statistical these Are harsh judgments in the scientific world. Of course Mann Bradley and Hughes and their supporters vehemently protested but a science editorial Board ordered a correction and on july 1, 2004, the mbh98 corrigendum was published in nature. Mcintyre and Mckitrick main Tain that this document is a Clear admission that the disclosure of data and methods behind mbh98 was materially inaccurate. Theory so the single research article that was the sole evidence for the ipacs support of the human induced climate change the Ory is now known to be completely wrong. This Means that the Canadian governments confident assertions and subsequent multimillion Dollar climate change plans Are based merely on politicized junk science. One of the most important figures in the history of economics John Maynard Keynes of Cambridge once said if the facts change ill change my opinion. What do you do sir Well David Ander son the facts have changed and changed dramatically. What will you do sir Tim Ball is a Victoria based environmental consultant. He was the first climatology pad in Canada and worked As a professor of climatology at the University of Winnipeg for 28 years. To support Bill 53 As a progressive Law which forwards Equality rights. Bill 53, and earlier related Laws have addressed a number of issues of discrimination on the basis of marital or family status and sexual orientation. Collectively they eliminate much systemic discrimination that common Law partners and in particular same sex common Law partners who cannot choose to marry in Manitoba have faced. Bill 53 is Only a default mechanism. Couples May opt out of its provisions at any time. The problem with the opt in alternative is individuals who Are unwilling to provide for their partner or who assume that sharing goes with out saying. Janet Baldwin chairperson Manitoba human rights commission Winnipeg by Garry Trudeau ;