Retired NASA GISS chief James Hansen is Slagging Canada’s Oil Sands Again
Canada’s Environment *Resources Minister Joe Oliver is calling out Jim Hansen for exaggerating claims that the oil sands and Keystone XL pipeline is “game over for the environment.”
“A retired NASA scientist is exaggerating when he claims Canada’s oil sands development is an environmental scourge, federal environment minister Joe Oliver said on Wednesday.
“It does not advance the debate when people make exaggerated comments that are not rooted in the facts. And [scientist James Hansen] should know that,” Oliver told reporters in Washington, D.C., CBC reported.”
Read more:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/25/natural-resources-minister/
Story submitted by WUWT reader John Marincic
* John Marincic adds at 2013/04/25 at 12:51 pm in comments
Anthony, when I posted this NP had him as the Environment Minister. He is the Natural Resources Minister and NP changed the title on me. If you want to correct the post please be my guest.
Thx, John
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That Mr. Oliver is the Natural Resources Minister (v. the Environment Minister for Canada), is good to know (thanks Fred from Canuckistan) but, Ryan, that fact is irrelevant to the discussion. What Mr. Oliver says the key: “Oliver called Hansen’s argument ‘nonsense.’” [Nat. Post 4/25/13]
Evidence of Hansen’s Nonsense (not exhaustive — that would take pages!) from 5/9/12 N. Y. Times Editorial which Hansen wrote [emphasis mine]:
— “We can say with HIGH CONFIDENCE that the recent heat waves … were not natural events — they were caused by human-induced climate change.”
— “The earth is currently in the part of its long-term orbit cycle where TEMPERATURES would normally be cooling. But they ARE RISING … .”
— “We should IMPOSE a gradually rising carbon FEE, collected from fossil fuel companies, … This MARKET-BASED approach … .”
Plaintiff’s Counsel: Therefore, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I ask you hold that Hansen is guilty of intentional misrepresentation upon which the plaintiffs reasonably relied to their detriment.
Defense Counsel: Gentlemen and ladies of the jury, I ask that you hold my client not guilty by reason of insanity.
The scam will die when any Canadian Minister of the Environment, Energy or the Prime Minister takes responsibility for their portfolio and demands from their staff, our career “public servants”, the engineering grade policy case for,
1 The existence of global warming.(Time span needs specified)
2 The evidence of mans contribution.
3 Anthropogenic CO2 being a causative agent.
As this does not exist, to the best of my knowledge, a responsible government would start making punitive inquiries, as to how so much public treasure was spent on such poorly researched policy.
That heads are not already rolling, troubles me greatly.
I suspect the answers are 1 Some warming since 1600’s. 2 Cannot be distinguished from noise, in current measurements. 3Same as 2.
Or depending on your start point 1 is yes,no and maybe. 2 & 3 Insufficient data we do not know.
That government policy was created and imposed using the IPCC as “science supporting policy” is shameful, my own inquiries suggest few if any canadian policy advisors actually read the IPCC 4th report.
Yay Canada!
Problem is, the government
scientistscrimatologists scream censorship and destruction of science when the government tries to reduce the their funding. A left press echoes and trumpets their evidently self-interested tantrums.Ed_B says April 25, 2013 at 1:00 pm
His extremeness has brought in billions for NASA.
Yes, but not for rocketry or exploration.
Here’s another place where humanity could use a pipeline, the Karakum Desert:
http://travel.nationlgeographic.com/travel/365-photos/darvaza-gas-crater/turkmenistan
See, Mother Nature continually produces Natural Gas and longer chain Hydrocarbons, including ‘tar sands’. Mother Nature cannot ‘sequester’ her abundance, so she outgases. The question, is Mother Nature committing the worse crime of producing the GHG Methane, or using combustion to convert to the GHG Carbon Dioxide and water vapor ?
Perhaps Hansen should attacks the REAL source of these pollutants.
Climate alarmism is truly falling apart. Can you imagine the hell that would have broken loose if a politician had said something like that only a couple of years ago? The news media would have raked him over the coals, the greenies would have acted indignant, he would have lost his job, his house, his family.
Today a high level figure in a G8 country can actually openly call out a climate god like Hansen with only minor repercussions. If Climategate had never happened, to this day no politician could ever call out Hansen and live to tell the tail.
Climategate was the turning point, the single greatest blow to the climate alarmist quasi-religion.
The Globe and Mail of course presented this whole exchange as if offended describing Hansen as “a leading climate scientist”… Yet no mention that even Andrew Weaver co authored a study showing little impact from the oil sands, drawing attacks from SFU’s own Hansen wannabe Mark Jaccard, the father of British Columbia’s carbon tax.
Ah the Globe, the mouthpiece of Tides and the Rockefellers, of Maurice Strong and all political parties that are playing the green card Federal NDP, BC NDP, Federal Liberals, Jean Charest, Diana Fox/Carney… the very Globe that never could find the door to Steve McIntyre!
Donna Laframboise is darn right to denounce the Thomson Reuters green press, the Globe and Mail.
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/365-photos/darvaza-gas-crater/turkmenistan/
[sorry…fumble fingers + feeble proof reader]
Donna mentions also the Guardian replaying the “outrage”…
What a cozy relationship between the Globe and Mail Thomson owned and the Guardian… the common denominator here is: Sir Crispin Tickell.
That “snake” as Tom Wigley characterized Tickell in a climategate email is father to Oliver Tickell, a well known econut who is so well treated by George Monbiot when he Op-eds or publish a book. The Same Monbiot was made a fellow of Green College thanks to no other than Sir Crispin patronage…Tickell is UNEP royalty and no doubt well acqauinted with Maurice Strong who himself is family with the Desmarais and Chretien, Liberals stalwarts.
Globemedia, Thomson Reuters have no credibility when it comes to anything linked to green policies and climate. They offer free reins to Thomas Homer-Dixon the Director of CIGI, a Balsillie funded institute that works hand in hand with O surprise, the Rockefellers and Soros. lately, Homer-Dixon was backstabbing Canada’s economic efforts in a NYT Op-ed while Strong was threatening on the Globe.
It’s a twisted sort of logic; oil, being a fossil fuel is bad because burning it produces lots of C02, which is “destroying” our climate. The oil sands are a potentially huge source of oil, which should be left in the ground for the above reason. With less oil available, we’ll supposedly be forced to use other sources of energy for transportation and heating, like fairy dust and magic mushrooms.
But here’s where it gets really twisted: the oil is going to be produced, with or without the Keystone XL pipeline, so blocking the pipeline won’t actually do anything, even within the construct of their own false ideology. It’s merely symbolic, in other words.
And never forget to rub it into the eco-nutz, we Canadians are cleaning up the biggest oil spill known to mankind.We seek to make pure that lovely glacial sand, what kind of planet hating crazies would try to stop us?
It should be noted Oliver was responding to a questioner who thought Hansen had said the oil sands would be game over for the environment in 4 years, as opposed to his actual argument that all of the projected reserves burned alongside other sources would mean that in 100 – 200 years. I don’t agree with that but I don’t think Oliver would necessarily disagree or call it irresponsible. Post comments seem to indicate 1/6 of the reserves are actually likely to be used so it does seem inaccurate on that account.
Yes, but unfortunately, Oliver is a politician … never trust a politician!
Hansen is speaking in Portland, OR tonight. Admission: $40. Lecture circuit does pay.
A few points:
1) Dr. James Hansen once argued in a 1967 paper that dust made Venus hot. (wrong)
2) Dr. James Hansen switched from astronomy to climastrology.
3) Dr. James Hansen said the oceans would boil if we burned all our fossil fuels.
4) Rasool and Schneider’s paper of 1971 predicted a new ice age based on Hansen’s model.
Dr. James Hansen should stay ON his medication. His grandchildren will be so ashamed in the decades ahead.
On Hansen and runaway warming Venus style:
Dr. James Hansen has Venus on the brain. I’m sure he suffers from nightmares about it.
It really would be game over if we exploited those tar sands. LOL. Vegetation would be the new maters of the universe. 🙂
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1193833
I meant:
would be the new masters of the universe. 🙂
Not to worry, Jimbo, “maters” are good, if they have enough CO2…
And, to support other previous commenters, Sen. Inhofe wrote a book “The Greatest Hoax”.
It is documented, back in 2003, that he was then calling AGW a “hoax”.
I still like his hat…
As my mother used to say “You keep that up and I’ll give you something real to cry about.” Earthfirsters are obviously nuts. See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G880gxjj9dI
albertalad says:
April 25, 2013 at 12:52 pm
——————————————
Stay clear of the “tailing” reservoirs, and do not eat any fish from down river or moose.
I pray your confidence continue…
Oil Sands Development: A Health Risk Worth Taking?
“A good deal of the controversy about oil sands development centers around those tailings ponds, which cover more than 130 square kilometers in northern Alberta, according to the 2008 report 11 Million Litres a Day: The Tar Sands’ Leaking Legacy from Canada’s Environmental Defence. Some large tailings ponds are separated by earthen dikes from the Athabasca River, which joins the Mackenzie River to form the major watershed of Northwest Canada. The water in these ponds often contains arsenic, mercury, PAHs, and other toxics found in the bitumen.”
…
“The authors also noted that a 2006 analysis of the health status of Fort Chipewyan residents showed that residents have elevated prevalence rates of diabetes, hypertension, renal failure, and lupus. All these diseases have been linked with one or more of the toxics commonly found in tailings pond water”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2679626/
Cancer Incidence in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta 1995-2006 (one of the principle papers quoted in the above study)
“The study did not make any connection between oil sands developments and the high chemical levels found in sediment, nor did it connect the community’s perceptions of elevated cancer and disease rates to chemicals within the sediment.”
…
“This study examined the prevalence of certain disease and disorders within the Peace and Athabasca river basins, focusing on reproductive health congenital anomalies, respiratory ailments, circulatory diseases, gastrointestinal disorders, endocrine and metabolic disorders, and neurocognitive disorders. This study did not provided specific information about the lower Athabasca region. Furthermore, cancer was not part of the outcome assessment.”
…
“The long-term impacts of oil sands in its early stages of the development since 1968 are not clear. A previous publication in 1980s indicated that Suncor permitted effluent discharge of oil and grease to the Athabasca River at 420 kg per day.120 Sometimes, operation problems resulted in excessive effluent discharge into the river.120;121 In addition to water-born effluents, the two oil sands extraction plants (Suncor and Syncrude) emitted massive amounts of particulates in the atmosphere. Particulates mass emissions from the Suncor powerhouse stack ranged from 547 to 780 kg per hour; the Syncrude Canada main stacks mass emissions ranged from 713 to 1067 kg per hour.120”
http://www.ualberta.ca/~avnish/rls-2009-02-06-fort-chipewyan-study.pdf
But no worries, a new study found some previous concerns were contested by government and industry sources and that more study is needed to evaluate the need to study some more…
““As an industry, we welcome science. We believe what’s needed is more solid data to build confidence among Canadians that this resource is being developed responsibly and safely.”
http://www.ienearth.org/new-study-to-examine-health-impact-of-alberta-oilsands/
Sounds good to me!
Robert of Ottawa says:
April 25, 2013 at 2:21 pm
Yay Canada!
Problem is, the government [scientists] crimatologists scream censorship and destruction of science when the government tries to reduce the their funding. A left press echoes and trumpets their evidently self-interested tantrums.
========================
Ya really, all that whining about being muzzled and not allowed to speak to the press…sheesh
Or the crying “We get fired if we whistle-blow”, slackers…
And then all the efforts of the leftist press to inform with “truth” that we all know can’t be true…like for instance:
If you see the word “tar sands”, I automatically associate it with a certain D word. Tar is a long chain hydrocarbon. The augers I was sampling looked like an oil change after 15000 or so miles – dirty oil mixed with sandy bits, but the mix was freely flowing. If the oil weren’t mostly about the length of hexane or octane you wouldn’t be able to get gasoline out of it. This material has been flowing into the Athabasca River for over a thousand years. The exploration program I was working with was easy – once the tap root on the pine trees hit the surface of the oil, the tree died. The smallest trees indicated the “richest” areas. Tall, well treed areas (some 4 inches across at the base!) meant the oil was deep. And the places we found gravel that had been mixed with bitumen by previous rivers…. well, it’s like tar balls along the Gulf of Mexico. They’re there regardless of human activity.
Kajajuk – aren’t you glad that the doctor who found all of the rare cancers in the one Indian reserve was cleared of the ethics charges? The main National Post link is no longer active, but fortunately archived here: http://oped.ca/National-Post/kevin-libin-exposing-john-oconnor-is-all-part-of-the-oilsands-conspiracy/
My favorite portion of the story is “Dr. O’Connor’s claims proved to be only the latest tall tale from a community supposedly swimming in industrial toxins: in March, scientists revealed that a fish found on the banks of the Athabasca River in Fort Chipewyan, which had been exhibited as a “mutant” by community activists, garnering international media coverage, was, in fact, a perfectly normal specimen. An alleged second jaw was, in reality, a harmlessly decomposing tongue. The fact-check follow-up received scant coverage compared to the original, false story. Had the regulatory body’s investigation not been leaked to the media, against Dr. O’Connor’s wishes, his dramatic tale of an aboriginal community supposedly poisoned by big business, with the complicity of politically corrupted health authorities, would remain the official version of things.”
Yup, not guilty of fraud. But Alberta’s College of Physicians and Surgeons found that he treated the truth and scientific method as, er, shall we say, somewhat elastic.
Oh, and Kajajuk, since David Thomson, the first European through the area, noted that there was oil flowing into the river 300 years ago and that the local Indians used bitumen to caulk their canoes, why are you against us cleaning up this natural oil spill? Is it only bad if it’s been touched by humans?