I’ve been trying to find a way of working in this email which was CC’d to me from a reader, Dean, who wrote to his MP (he also CC’d the Prime Minister). I finally found it. First the email:
From: Dean
Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2009 9:31 AM
To: ProudToBeCanadian.ca
Subject: FWD: So called “Climate Change”Joel,
I’m stunned! See my e-mail below re G8 tomfoolery. I cc’d PM Harper as well.
Dean
From: Dean
To: Harold – M.P. Albrecht
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 12:29:39 -0400
Subject: So called “Climate Change”Harold,
It was disheartening to say the least when the news popped up via the Globe & Mail that the G8 countries are arrogant and dishonest enough to agree to keep global temperature increases to 2 degrees. How God like! Even worse was the following quote:
“The emerging economies will be hit as hard, if not harder, by climate change as anyone, so it’s important for them to realize the necessity of making commitments,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday .
Climate change is natural. Mankind cannot change climate. We can and should reduce pollution. Attempting to change nature itself is a fool’s game and I am ashamed that my government, and my Prime Minister, are playing this game.
Dean
Then this morning I read this excellent editorial by the Wall Street Journal (spoiler alert: contains closing paragraph).
King Canute at the G-8
World leaders tell the Earth’s temperature not to rise.When King Canute of lore wanted to teach his citizens a lesson, he set his throne by the seashore and commanded the tides to roll out. Canute’s spirit was back in business this week at the G-8 summit in Italy, where the assembled leaders declared that the world’s temperature shall not rise: “We recognize the scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2 degrees [Celsius],” or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, said the summit declaration.
So let it be written, so let it be done.
As for how they will achieve this climate-defying feat, well, the leaders were somewhat less definitive: “we will work . . . to identify a global goal for substantially reducing global emissions by 2050.”
Translation: Since the heads of the world’s leading economies couldn’t agree on an actual policy on climate change, they opted instead to command the clouds, the seas and all of the Earth to cool. Or maybe they were finally admitting that this whole climate business is getting too expensive, so let’s just throw out a goal that everyone knows is beyond the reach of kings, much less democratic leaders.
[…]
In the legend of Canute, the king, after failing to stop the rising tide, told the assembled crowd: “Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth and sea obey by eternal laws.” If a medieval monarch could draw the right conclusion, how hard can it be for his sophisticated 21st-century successors?
Ahhh. I love common sense, and clear, lucid thinking.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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