“We generally look upon it as a backward moment when the Catholic Church put the bridle on Galileo, subjected him to house arrest and the tender rebukes of the Inquisition. So it’s at least mildly disconcerting to hear of a celebrated son of the Enlightenment, in the person of one of Canada’s star communicators, urging a university audience no less, to seek to ‘jail’ those whom he perceives as ‘ignoring science.'”
If Suzuki had any credibilty it has surely vanished. Sad that so many students would applaud his irresponsible comments.
How does Rex Murphy keep his job? Slapping down the Mothercorp’s chosen ones on a relatively regular basis should have him unemployed by now.
Thanks Rex, for having the courage of your convictions.
What about the voters that vote for politicians that ignore science? Especially the voters that are “ignoring science”, and thereby selecting for science-ignoring politicians. Going to put them in jail as well Dr. Suzuki? That would call for a rather sizeable facility of incarceration. Camp-sized, I would say.
The disturbing thing about all this is that when Suzuki made the “jail” comment he was met with a roar of approval.
What really bothers me is not adults talking about AGW between themselves but the fact that the whole theory gets pumped down kids throats at schools as though its a fact.
Thats how you get cheering at the mention of throwing “deniers” in prison.
The sad part is the silence of Canada’s media. Anyone else would have been browbeaten into some kind of apology or backtrack.
Perhaps Suzuki should be reminded (Although I’m not sure how he can forget he was there) that the government of the day (Liberal) found a way to legally uproot Japanese Canadians and put them in jail (They did call them camps though just like going on a vacation)
How did that work out for you David?
If it was wrong then to send people to jail just because they might be a threat to national security, how is it now just fine and dandy now to send politicians to jail because they might be a threat by not be doing enough to save the planet based on supposed man made global warming.
Ya! Kamps, like zee ones vee held zee little yellow peoples in during WW2.
Suzuki is such a tool!
Bravo, Rex Murphy, one of the few reasons to watch CBC.
Here in B.C., the Liberal government has jumped on the CC bandwagon with great enthusiasm, already placing extra taxes on hydro and natural gas, with more to come as they slip them in unnoticed amid the Olympic celebrations.
Carole Taylor, Minister of Finance, E-mailed me with the assurance that any new taxes for Climate Change will be offset by a reduction of other taxes, so as to be revenue neutral.
As I am naive in the extreme, I believe her!
“whole theory gets pumped down kids throats at schools as though its a fact.”
Why be bothered by it, stuff like this has been happening to kids since grade school, like shoving down kids throat the Evolution theory as fact.
It never ceases to amaze me how Mr Suzuki can go off on any number of wild tangents he chooses uninterrupted and unbated. Oh, all the usual suspects are addressed, and the drive by smears, not so subtle innuendo and outright fabrications are put forward as fact. Tar Sands = death.
“He urged today’s youth to speak out against politicians complicit in climate change . . .” “Complicit” is the damning word there. People are complicit only in dark and pernicious undertakings. He went on to suggest the students “look for a legal way to throw our current political leaders in jail for ignoring science,” drawing rounds of cheering and applause. Rex is bang on in his commentary on Gore, Suzuki and their ilk. The favorite topics of the agrarian socialist agriculture practice’s are better in Cuba somehow, rather than any modern farming practices in North America. Even though the rates of growth would not show this in any way shape or form.
I Love this paragraph
“It’s worth pausing on this point. What global warming is, what portion of it is man-made, is one set of questions properly within the circle of rational inquiry we call science. What to do about it – shut down the oil sands, impose a carbon tax, sign on to Kyoto, mandate efficient light bulbs or hybrid cars – are choices within a range of public policy that have to be made outside any laboratory whatsoever. Global warming’s more fulminating spokespeople are apt to finesse that great chasm between the science and the politics”
The constant themes of the anticapitalist, pro-internationalism, or the idiotic comments Suzuki has made time and again regarding Genetically modified ” Franken foods” gotta love that one, global warming, climate change, the sky is falling or you fill in the blank for the latest catastrophe. Now it’s throw politicians that don’t agree with this nonsense ( ie. Mr Harper, Mr Bush, Mr Howard etc )in jail for their thoughts. But, donate money too me so I can further promote me. How is it this good “Dr” maintains his charitable non-profit status with CRA. He is completely and utterly political in his attacks and commentary and has been for years, yet nothing ever happens until his money source is threatened..Now the groveling will start mark my words.
The fascism Suzuki advocates… and that is exactly what it is. Fascism. Should be so repugnant to the average reader, yet it is not. It’s spun as almost gospel from the new quasi deity, accepted by his followers as just the price you have to pay for a cleaner, safer, more controlled, regulated world.
I agree with Rex Murphy.If Quebecs little forays into independence were nation threatening,then shutting down the oil sands would be a fait de accomple.
Sober2nd:
How does Rex Murphy keep his job?
Expect a human rights complaint shortly. The Church of Imam Suzuki will be offended.
Tar Sands aka Oil Sands
Ever notice that when someone (usually CBC reporters) wants to say something negative about the oil sands, they call them the “Tar Sands”, because that sounds just so much more nasty and dirty and scary. When there is something good to say (yes, Virginia, that actually happens) then they are just “Oil Sands”.
Sober2ndThought, I’ve often wondered how Murphy can stand working for that organization. He’s certainly seems to be the odd man out as far as MotherCorp’s prevailing culture is concerned.
That would call for a rather sizeable facility of incarceration. Camp-sized, I would say.
================================
Oh, the irony!
For a politician to ignore the threat of global warming in favour of profit is tantamount to treason. Dr. Suzuki is right, lock em up if they ignore that threat. They endanger the country.
When seeking advice on climate change, I’ll take advice from the PhD over the poet any day.
Oh and for people like “Talkinghead, it’s not “Mr Suzuki”, it’s “Dr. Suzuki”. Give the man the respect he has earned and deserves. Your pettiness is showing.
It is not so much the PhD, as the person with it.
Think Patrick Moore vs Suzuki.
dmorris –I met Suzuki several years ago, wimp couldn’t even give eye contact.
It’s difficult enough to support the BCLP as it is-The same name as the federal party with a lot of the same backroom boys.
Implement a carbon tax, count my vote out.
Suzuki and his crowd have clearly lost their minds. These same folk argue that taking oil from the tar sands is an ecological disaster in the making.
I mean, if the oil got there because man accidently spilled it, that would be seen as the worst manmade catastrophy in history, the Exxon Valdez to the power of God only knows what. Every environmentalist in the world would be demanding we go in and spend trillions if necessary to clean it up and return the soil to its pristene state.
But because nature is the one that put it there, we are now supposed to see it’s presence as good and any attempt by man to remove it as bad. Someone help me please, I’m getting so confused.
libforlife – not all PHDs know what they are talking about – in other fields as well as their own.
Suzuki told an audience that ‘the biosphere is fixed and finite; it does not grow’. Do you believe that? He’s totally and completely wrong, you know.
The biosphere is not fixed and finite but dynamic; the biosphere, which is the living matter of the earth, has evolved and grown from its original simple one-celled organisms to highly complex multi-celled organisms that continue to evolve and adapt.
I didn’t know that politicians were operating in a fallacious Either-Or scenario – ie, the one that you set up: Either your actions are about Global Warming OR your actions are for profit. That’s invalid.
I think that politicians are, justifiably, rightly sceptical about money scams – such as organizations asserting that:
1) climate change is not natural (despite a billion years of evidence that it’s natural);
2) the only cause of climate change is man
3) and specifically, western mankind; and specifically and only carbon emissions;
4) the only way to stop climate change is action by man;
5) the UN Kyoto plan will stop climate change. The UN plan is to fine Western industrial nations for emissions and send the money to China and India, who are exempt from emissions standards. China and India will built lots of polluting and emitting factories.
The UN will also get more money via a ‘carbon tax’; this money will go to UN agencies that will skim off ‘management fees’. The rest will go to build polluting factories in China and India.
6) The UN will try to insist that the West reduce their industrial production, and pay huge fines and carbon taxes. This will greatly harm the economy of the West.
7) Global pollution and emissions will go up and up and up..from all those factories in China and India. Built by the West.
I don’t like scams. You do.
I like science. There is NO science that proves that mankind’s industrialism is causing global warming. NONE. There is a lot of science that is highly sceptical of such claims. Read the posts by people involved in such work – eg Big Climate’s Strange Science.
i’d rather believe scientists than political activists.
Tomax7, good example showing how the Theory of Evolution with its thousands of scientists of all disciplines following the scientific method with solid hard evidence and daily additions to fill in missing facets of the theory has become more solidified, accepted and polished over time.
While global warming/climate change is just junk science and is quickly falling apart as more scientists like Ball and Patterson are shining the hot light of reality on it and it is starting to stink.
Blazingcatfur; Oh GREAT. Now I’ll get to fund BOTH sides of the HRC complaint!
Libforife; Hahahahahhahaha. Be gone pinhead troll.
Louise; I too am amazed he doesn’t quit the CBC. He is the only right leaning (barely) voice in the place. He however, unlike a certain sad, well past his best-before date punk rocker, stays around to fight the good fight and to be a thorn in the side of those who do not share his views. As opposed to “quitting” because he can’t stand his employers’ views.
Oh that Rex. No integrity I guess.
I see libforlife has come trolling again.
Don’t ecourage the jerk, people, and he’ll pick up his ball &go away.
In yet another example of his usual left-wing rubbish, libforlfe trolled by and said, ‘When seeking advice on climate change, I’ll take advice from the PhD over the poet any day.’
So, he takes the advice of a political activist fascist, who has a very weak PhD in zoology, in fruit flys, of all things. But, at least Suzuki is a not a poet, no, he is a totalitarian fascist.
There is zero evidence of manmade global warming; a number of Playstation games claim to show such an effect (the IPCC computer models are a prime example of Playstation science).
Hundreds of real scientists, astrophysics, paleo-geologists, meteorologists, and climate scientists say there is no evidence for manmade global warming (the global temperature for the last ten years is constant, if not cooling).
Astrophysicists have been pointing out for years that the sun is not as active or warm as it has been, that it seems to be going into a quite phase (as it regularly does). It is far more likely that the globe will be cooling than it will be warming.
et: looking at the first 4 of your points.
1) climate change is not natural (despite a billion years of evidence that it’s natural);
All creditable climatologists I have read agree that there is natural climate change. Please provide something to back up your assertion.
2) the only cause of climate change is man
I do not know of one creditable climate scientist who says this. Please provide a link to back up your assertion.
3) and specifically, western mankind; and specifically and only carbon emissions;
I do not know of one creditable climate scientist who says this. Please provide a link to back up your assertion.
4) the only way to stop climate change is action by man;
I do not know of one creditable climate scientist who says this. Please provide a link to back up your assertion.
John
bob c at 12:25
You, sir, are a genius. Simply spill a thousand barrels or so of crude at each site. Then go in to clean it up. How will you know when you have it all? And if one is not certain, then the project must continue.
Thus, that nasty oil sand extraction is now a large scale environmentally friendly clean up operation, free from any and all criticism of what is happening.
Brilliant! I applaud your “outside the box” thought process!
Rex Murphy is wrong in suggesting that Suzuki is a scientist. He may have a degree in genetics but he has been in full-time showbiz and self-aggrandizement for decades. His foundation spent over a million bucks on fundraising last year.
He uses his well honed communication skills to dish out pseudo-science to innumerates.
John Cross; May I humbly suggest actually READING et’s post?
Lib for life. My pettiness may be showing, please do add meaniness as well.
Dr, Suzuki for clarification’s sake hasn’t practiced scant bugger all for research for decades. More of a commentator on all things, quasi science and to his agenda. So there may be a degree of congruence here. He has had decades of publically funded nose in trough respect… that time is passed. He will garner no from me as he attacks all things policy related and political without throwing his hat into the same political ring.
Before the still-unproven theory of evolution was perpetrated upon humanity, scientists were content to define their work in terms of discoveries of things that are.
Since that time, political movements promoted their view that human nature could somehow be evolved.
Tens of millions of deaths of innocents during the 20th century by political scientists who adapted the theory of evolution and promoted marxist and national socialist viewpoints have clearly demonstrated it’s impossible to change human nature.
What else can it be but political science to claim to know the future?
How can science, which is literally translated as knowledge, measure something that has not yet happened?
Suzuki has definitely gone over the deep end with his demonstration of intolerance of any viewpoints other than his own.
The future is always unknown to human beings. And, since all anxiety is about the future, Suzuki merely practises a type of political science which plays on the fears which reside within all human beings.
Humans will never evolve from that, no matter what Garth Turner believes about the mystical power of the state.
Libforlife @ 12:08 p.m. wrote, “For a politician to ignore the threat of global warming in favour of profit [sic: very shallow thinking] is tantamount to treason. Dr. Suzuki is right, lock em up if they ignore that threat. They endanger the country.”
Then, Libforlife (Lfl), I guess all the politicians who formed the last two Liberal Governments, especially Steffie, who was Minister of the Environment after the Liberals signed the Kyoto Accord, should now be in jail. (Although putting self-serving, hypocritical politicians in jail IS against my principles, I can’t help smiling at the prospect.)
And, considering your commitment to this issue, Lfl, what initiatives did the Liberals take to actually comply with the Kyoto requirements for the many years they had a majority, which they could have used to really get things done?
The answer, Lfl, is a BIG FAT 0.
Now, what do you think of that?
tomax7 @ 11:51 a.m. wrote,
“‘whole theory [AGW] gets pumped down kids throats at schools as though its a fact.’
“Why be bothered by it, stuff like this has been happening to kids since grade school, like shoving down kids throat the Evolution theory as fact.”
I can barely believe that you wrote such a thing! tomax7, this is called propaganda, and, yes, it has been going on for a very long time in our schools. Have you not noticed the precipitous decline of both reason and civility in this country, as a result?
I’m stumped at your nonchalance here. Am I missing something?
No no, that’s John Cross’s specialty. He loves to dissect, re-direct and evade without answering.
If you actually do manage to get something he can’t mis-direct or evade, he’ll tell you he’ll post something either at a later time or on another forum.
Frankly, he’s tiresome.
“Now, what do you think of that?”
Think? You’re asking a bit much from it, aren’t you Lookout.
In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II called for an “Inquisition Symposium”, and opened the Vatican to 30 external historians. What they found discounted many exaggerated facts previously believed. It was learned that more women accused of witchcraft died in the Protestant countries than under the Inquisition.
For example, the Inquisition burned 59 women in Spain, 36 in Italy and 4 in Portugal, while in Europe civil justice put to trial close to 100,000 women; 50,000 of them were burned, 25,000 in Germany, during the 16th century by the followers of Martin Luther
Nobody seriously believed the Earth was flat in the 15th-17th century, btw. Columbus and others simply miscalculated the circumference of the planet and figured it (China) was way too far a journey to make.
Ah, yes. The appeal to irrelevant authority – the mighty and all-knowing “PhD”.
Sorry to burst some thin-skinned bubbles, but a science PhD does not signify omni-science. It means that the person has demonstrated the knowledge and ability to plan, organize, and manage a specific research project within a specfic discipline, thus contributing to the sum total of knowledge, with the assumption that the person will continue that search for knowledge. As a university is in many ways an intellectual cream separator, seeking the most able to continue accumulating knowledge, that’s just fine.
One of my many problems with the IPCC is the use of the names and status of non-qualified persons (Nobel in Economics?) to support the science.
“Have you not noticed the precipitous decline of both reason and civility in this country, as a result?”
Oh, indeed we have. In fact, that decline has become a fetish, as this blog ably demonstrates.
dafs.. The Church itself didn’t burn heretics; it would judge them as heretics but then, hand them over to the civil justice service to ‘review’ the judgment and declare and carry out the sentence. Neat sidestepping action.
I think that most popular thought was that the earth was flat, prior to the 13th-14th c. After all, without a consideration of gravity as a law, we could not explain why those ‘on the other side’ didn’t fall off.
He loves to dissect guilty! I would have called it looking at things critically, but potato / potahto!
If you actually do manage to get something he can’t mis-direct or evade, he’ll tell you he’ll post something either at a later time or on another forum.
In fact, if someone points an error of mine, I acknowledge it, thank the poster and then look at how it changes things. I can point to examples where I have done that on this blog, can you do the same?
In regards to posting at another time – can you provide an example.
Thanks
John
If Suzuki wants to seek to ‘jail’ those whom he perceives as ‘ignoring science.’, then he better be prepared to jail those opposed to the scientific study of group differences and their macro and micro effects upon our society.
The radical feminists aren’t going to like that.
CBCpravda has a solution for everything. this stuff is commercially available at 20$ for 30ml or about 666$/liter. so we can soak up C02 emmissions for roughly a million bucks a tonne.half of that if we get a gubmint discount.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/02/15/tech-carbon-capture.html
do these useless journalist investigate anything at all on their quest for AGW mandated stories.
Schools have devolved into fluffy, feel-good vessels of conditioning, where you are entitled to “success” regardless of effort or ability. Perfect garden for growing uncritical voting machines.
An “Inconvenient Truth” conveniently offered up in public schools – with zero challenge to its scientific accuracy. In the local public school one of my children attends – not one whiff of skepticism, zero counterbalance. Put on your gray overalls, pick up your hammer, and get in queue. It’s off to work we go. The Great Dumbing Down. Complete with fully indexed pensions for less and less real teaching. But I digress…
Dr. Suzuki deserves the criticism, for he should be welcoming opportunities to have his work scrutinized fully. Instead, he wants to use jail to demonstrate the truth of his hypotheses. Jack boots in a dusty old lab coat. I will have none of it.
What I will do is personally continue to be as frugal with resources as I can. To conserve energy, and raw materials. Yes, by being conservative with energy and resources, I derive a financial benefit, and impact the environment less and less by degree. Being conservative with resources is win-win. Being liberal with resources is bad for the planet.
multirec: checkmate–to you! Yes, a different verb would have been more accurate. (I’ll try to be more careful;-)
“And, considering your commitment to this issue, Lfl, what initiatives did the Liberals take to actually comply with the Kyoto requirements for the many years they had a majority, which they could have used to really get things done?”
Well if you want that answer then all you have to do is look at what the Conservatives cancelled when they took over. Then fast forward to when they found out it was political suicide to ignore the environment, and see the things they relabelled (as well as watering down)and reinstated. Apparently the Conservatives agreed with what the Liberals had done after all. Are you going to tell me the followers of the Automaton and his isodopes were too thick to have noticed what happened there?
canadaonline.about.com/cs/homeenergyuse/a/retrofitgrants.htm
canadaonline.about.com/b/2007/01/21/energy-retrofit-program-coming-back.htm
Suzuki is a “CooCoo Clone” (probably cloned himself) and REX well he’s always been “King of the Kommentators”. Long live the REX!
Garry
I’d like to hear Suzuki’s position on the internment of the Japanese during World War II.
Libforlife: Hahahahaha. Be gone pinhead troll.
One Newfie > 1000 Politically-Correct Journalists.
(Explanation: that’s a greater-than symbol for you math-challenged leftoids)
Hey, don’t forget that the upside to Suzuki’s throwing non-believers in jail, is that when his ‘science’ is proven wrong as it soon will be, he’s fair game to be thrown in jail also.
Why doesn’t Suzuki the climate carpetbagger, just go and buy a sportscar or get a new squeeze, and leave the rest of us adults to work thru the problems of the world?