Alberta goes on spending spree

Edmonton — Alberta Premier Ralph Klein had promised a “stay-the-course budget,” but in this wealthy province that means tax cuts for big companies, record program spending and billions leftover for a rainy day.

“Alberta is the place to be. There's no chance that we can be dismissed,” Alberta's Finance Minister Shirley McClellan told the Legislature in Edmonton on Wednesday, as she unveiled the government's budget entitled “Strengthening Today, Securing Tomorrow.”

“People are flocking here to get jobs and pursue their dreams. Businesses look to Alberta as the place to invest, pursue new opportunities and build their futures,” she added.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060322.waltabudg0322/BNStory/National/home

Open letter to Alberta Premier Ralph Klein about climate change
By ExpressNews Staff

October 22, 2002 - BR
Dear Premier Klein:

We are scientists at Alberta universities who work with climate change or its effects. We are writing to express our concerns about Alberta's position with respect to decreasing emissions of greenhouse gases. We believe that several important factors have been ignored in the debate.

We agree with you that the lack of detail about the federal plan to implement the accord is irritating, because the importance of the climate warming issue has been known for at least 20 years. But it is equally unacceptable to postpone action to reduce climate warming. To minimize the effect, we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions as rapidly as possible. A target of six per cent below1990 levels by 2010, even without specifics, seems a modest and reasonable proposition.

Contrary to the views often portrayed by the press and industry spokespersons, there is little disagreement in the scientific community on climate warming. The Royal Society of Canada, the Royal Society of London, and the US National Academy of Sciences have all taken strong positions on the global warming issues. Virtually all scientific models agree that we are faced with 1-2o Celsius of additional warming by mid-century, and considerably more by the year 2100 (see attached figure from a recent summary paper). The current scientific consensus on global warming is now greater than, for example, the general consensus in the 1960s that humans could reach the moon, or the consensus in the early 1940s that we could create atomic weapons.

Temperature records show that in southern Canada, considerable warming has already taken place on the western prairies. Increases in temperature since the early 20th century have been from 1 to 3o Celsius at various prairie locations, including those where increased urbanization cannot be a confounding influence. The resulting increases in evaporation have without doubt aggravated the drought conditions that currently plague the western prairies. With further warming, desertification of these areas may occur.
...
More :
http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/expressnews_template/article.cfm?id=3250
...

(By:)
D. W. Schindler, FRSC, FRS
Killam Memorial Professor of Ecology
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Martin J Sharp, Professor and Associate Chair (Graduate Studies)
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Alberta

James M. Byrne, Director, Water Resources Institute
Associate Professor, Department of Geography
University of Lethbridge

John Spence, Professor & Chair
Department of Renewable Resources
University of Alberta

Fiona K.A. Schmiegelow, Assistant Professor
Department of Renewable Resources
University of Alberta

G. Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, Associate Professor
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Alberta

W.J. Page, Professor and Associate Dean
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Felix Sperling, Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

William F. Donahue, Research Associate
Adaptive Management Experiment
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

John Hoddinott, Professor,
Department of Biological Sciences,
University of Alberta

Edward P. Lozowski, Professor
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Alberta

Theresa Garvin, Assistant Professor
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Alberta

Bruce Sutherland, Associate Professor
Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
University of Alberta

G. Peter Kershaw, Associate Professor
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences,
University of Alberta

Andrew B.G. Bush, Associate Professor
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Alberta
Scholar, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Earth System Evolution Program

Gerhard Reuter, Professor
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Alberta

L. Dennis Gignac, Professeur associé
Faculté Saint Jean
University of Alberta

Andrew E. Derocher, Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Heather Proctor, Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

John England, Professor
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Alberta

Shawn Marshall, Assistant Professor
Department of Geography
University of Calgary
Scholar, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Earth System Evolution Program

Colleen Cassady St. Clair, Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta,

Cameron Goater, Associate Professor and Coordinator, Environmental Science Program
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Lethbridge

Ralph V. Cartar, Associate Professor
Department of Biology
University of Lethbridge

John Volpe, Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Bill Tonn, Professor
Dept. of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

John Holmes, Professor Emeritus
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Susan Hannon, Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Mark S. Boyce
Alberta Conservation Association Chair of Fisheries & Wildlife
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Debra J. Davidson, Assistant Professor
Departments of Rural Economy and Renewable Resources
University of Alberta

Vincent L. St.Louis, Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Jan O. Murie, Professor Emeritus
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Paul Myers, Assistant Professor
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Alberta

Michael Cohen, Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Brian Amiro
Canadian Forest Service
Northern Forestry Centre
Edmonton, Alberta

David Langor
Canadian Forest Service
Northern Forestry Centre
Edmonton, Alberta

Mary Reid, Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences and Environmental Science Program
University of Calgary

Suzanne Bayley, Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Leland J. Jackson, Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Calgary

David Hik, Associate Professor
Canada Research Chair in Northern Ecology
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

John R. Post, Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Calgary

Cynthia Paszkowski, Associate Professor and Associate Chair Research
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

John Yackel, Assistant Professor
Department of Geography
University of Calgary

Dr. James F. Cahill, Jr., Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Andrew Keddie, Associate Professor
Dept. of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Alexander Wolfe, Associate Professor
Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Alberta

Judith Kulig, Associate Professor
School of Health Sciences
University of Lethbridge

James E. Thomas, Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Lethbridge

Susan B. Watson
Dept. Biological Sciences
University of Calgary

W. Jan A. Volney
Canadian Forest Service
Northern Forestry Centre
Edmonton, Alberta

Suzan Lapp, Academic Assistant
Department of Geography
University of Lethbridge

Stan Boutin, Professor/Industrial Chair Integrated Landscape Management -Population Ecology
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Stefan W. Kienzle, Assistant Professor
Department of Geography
University of Lethbridge

Hester Jiskoot, Assistant Professor
Department of Geography
University of Lethbridge

Robert J. Rogerson, Professor
Department of Geography
The University of Lethbridge

Joseph S. Nelson, Professor Emeritus
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Stewart Rood, Professor and Board of Governor's Research Chair
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Lethbridge

Steve E. Hrudey, PhD, DSc(Eng), PEng, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Department of Public Health Sciences
University of Alberta


Goodbye Blue Sky :cry:

This is important (if it's not too late already... or even if it is...):

(The last entry down the page at the link.)

"REBUTTAL OF COUNTERPOINT"

(BY POINT AUTHORS)

The connection between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities and climate change is a complex scientific issue. How should policymakers and other interested non-experts, such as APEGGA members, make good judgments as to whether or not these emissions pose a major threat?

The only reliable approach is a review of the full body of research published in the peer-reviewed international scientific literature. Only such a process can allow each individual study and opinion to be placed in context, and a fully balanced picture of the current state of scientific knowledge to be arrived at. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, comprising the world's most respected climate researchers, was set up by the world's governments precisely for this purpose. In 2001, the work of the IPCC was endorsed by the U.S. National Academy of Science plus 17 other national science academies. The latter, in a joint statement in the journal Science, went further and urged governments to implement the Kyoto Protocol.

What does the IPCC1 have to say about the three most significant claims made by Counter-point authors Baliunas, Patterson and MacRae?

"CO2 is at most a minor contributor to climate change." According to the IPCC, in its Third Assessment Report Summary for Policymakers, Working Group I (available at www.ipcc.ch): "In the light of 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 concentrations." Also: "The globally averaged surface temperature is projected to increase by 1.4 to 5.8º C over the period 1990 to 2100." It should be noted that the difference in global average temperature between an ice age and the present day is only about 5º C, so this projected warming represents a profound transformation of the global environment.

"Computer models that predict catastrophic human-induced global warming have consistently failed to accurately reproduce past and present climate changes." The IPCC, however, finds good agreement between model simulations and observed temperature over the past 140 years, including the temperature increase up to 1940, if the simulations include solar variation and volcanic activity along with emissions of GHGs and particulates. Relative to the pre-industrial era, the IPCC estimates that the radiative forcing (i.e., the contribution to warming) by GHGs from human activities is currently over nine times the forcing from increased solar radiation.

"Recent temperature trends in the lower troposphere do not support meaningful human-induced warming." According to the IPCC, overall global temperature increases since the late 1950s (the beginning of adequate weather balloon data) in the lower troposphere have been similar to those at the surface. Since 1979 (the beginning of the satellite record), there has been a significant difference in warming rates, but "it is physically plausible to expect that over a short time period (e.g., 20 years) there may be differences in temperature trends. In addition, spatial sampling techniques can also explain some of the differences in trends, but these differences are not fully resolved."

The authors barely mention the IPCC. Readers should be very suspicious of scientific arguments about climate change that fail to give space to the findings of the world's dominant scientific authority on the subject. APEGGA members would also be well advised to avoid basing their views on climate science on arguments advanced by individuals who are specialists in only very narrow portions of that broad field (Baliunas is an expert in solar radiation; Patterson is a paleoclimatologist).

In our opening article, we did not spend much time on the science of climate change because the IPCC picture of the subject is almost universally accepted, not just among professional climate scientists but among the broader community engaged in the climate change issue, including most of the largest GHG-emitting corporations. The climate change debate has now moved on to economic and political issues. In this area, the authors did make one important point, with which we agree: Kyoto is only a small first step and many further ones will be needed. Let's get on with the job."


Oui. Merci.