New “citizen” site targets Canadian children with misinformation on climate change
I’m always suspicious of any Web site claiming to “set the record straight” when they don’t include the name of a contact person or explain who they are, other than vague references to being ordinary private citizens with no links to government or industry. That’s essentially what www.climatechange101.ca is, and whoever is behind it has geared a misinformation campaign at Canadian children. I first heard an advertisement for the site on FM alternative radio station 102.1 The Edge, which is quite popular in Toronto. The group claims it has a small budget but apparently has the money to place ads on radio stations and draw people to their Web site.
What are they about? They believe climate science is wrong, CO2 is the greenest gas of all, and that taking any serious action on climate change is wrong. “We are concerned about the enormous cost of the numerous activities and projects being proposed, most of which are highly questionable, not to mention the resulting financial benefits to certain corporations and organizations, at taxpayers expense.” Interesting, they don’t seem to take into account the ENORMOUS financial benefits to certain oil and gas corporations who benefit from massive subsidies at taxpayers’ expense. “We object to the valueless creation of an enormous debt that would be passed on to our children and grandchildren,” they say, again failing to mention the environmental debt we’ll be passing on to our children and grandchildren and ignoring the economic benefits of transitioning to a low-carbon economy.
Of course, what web site that denies anthropogenic global warming would be complete without a MYTHS/FACTS section that treats myth as fact and fact as myth. All the science that points to a warming trend is wrong, they assert. The “hockey stick” graph has been proven flawed and statistically unreliable, they say, ignoring that in fact it has faced several independent reviews and repeatedly found to be statistically sound and relevant. They say there is no proof that CO2 is the main driver of global warming. Here’s another zinger: “The number and the lengths in time of sunspots can be correlated very closely with average temperatures on earth.” Wrong — we’re in a clear warming trend and the sun is just coming out of a cyclical low….
Their bottom line: “To the present day there is still no scientific proof that man-made CO2 causes significant global warming.” They also have links to all the usual climate-change denier sites.
Ugh… smells like Friends of Science have their dirty paws all over this one. What disturbs me the most is that they’re trying to target their message at children. “It behooves the public, especially children, to study and evaluate for themselves. To get a degree in “Global Warming For Dummies”, be sure to read all of the articles in this website!” it reads on its home page. Creepy — hey kids, you want some candy?
We don’t know who these people are, and apparently they want it that way, so all I can say is what I always tell my children: beware of strangers.
UPDATE: DeSmog Blog has been all over this one since July, and indeed, it seems Friends of Science is behind it.
Tags: climate change 101
Tyler Hamilton is associate publisher and editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and former business columnist for the Toronto Star. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005.
October 8th, 2010 at 8:15 am
I find it sad that if anyone questions the conventional “wisdom” on climate change particularly given the overwhelming evidence against it, they are blasted as environmental haters that love big oil and could care less about the environment. I argue that achieving energy independence from foreign sources is reason enough to pursue sustainable sources of domestic energy. However if achieving energy independence is as it should be the number one priority, no domestic sources of energy should be discounted solely based on their CO2 output. If coal or natural gas is what is required in the near term to become energy independent until more sustainable sources can be cultivated, then by all means we should be tapping them. I also find it sad that nuclear power seems to be shunned by the environmental extremists despite its lack of greenhouse gas emissions. I repeat, energy independence should be the first priority and we should be pursuing every environmentally responsible avenue to achieve it regardless of CO2, as it is NOT a pollutant.
(Tyler: It’s sad that you truly think there’s overwhelming evidence proving climate change is not happening. You may indeed care about the environment, but your perspective is warped.)
October 14th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Thank you!
I actually emailed Fred (on Edge 102) on this one after taking about 5 minutes to google who was behind it (after looking at it and nearly laughing myself stupid). A very easy find – “Friends of Science” strikes again.
What bugged me (apart from something like that being on my favourite station) was that theywere billing themselves as “no big oil money behind us”. The first thing that came to mind was “then how the he!! are you affording ads being run every commercial break on what is one of the most popular stations in Toronto!?”.
It just went downhill from there. It’s frightening how hard these guys are working to spread disinformation, but not surprising. However, I do think that their efforts are in vain. Being at university for the last while has shown me one thing: most young people accept AGW as real and are somewhat mystified by the arguing going on about it. They just want to get on with finding solutions to the problem. Seems kinda like what happened with the smoking argument a generation back and we all know how that ended.