In a short televised interview on CTV’s daily political show, Power Play, Leona Aglukkaq suggested that scientific observations were not as important as the Harper government’s priorities in its new role as chair of a group of Arctic nations.
When asked whether the ice was melting in the Arctic, considered by climate scientists to be part of the evidence of global warming, Aglukkaq said there may or may not be changes underway.
“There was a report that came out yesterday, I have not received a copy of that but there’s always a debate around science and what’s changing,” Aglukkaq told the host, Don Martin, in the interview which aired on Wednesday. “But I think what’s really important during our chairmanship that I want to bring forward to the international Arctic council regions is that Arctic people, people that live in the Arctic become experts and are engaged in that… Because we live in that environment every day. We are seeing the changes every day or no changes – what have you – and we have valuable information to contribute to research.”
Climate change contrarians have seized upon recent data showing Arctic summer sea ice was higher in 2013 than a record-breaking low reported in 2012, describing this as evidence that global cooling is underway even though the data has confirmed a steady decline in the ice cover over the past few decades.
Aglukkaq’s office was not immediately able to provide a comment, but later sent an email after this story was posted, asking Postmedia News to change what it had reported.
“Minister Aglukkaq was not casting doubt on climate change,” wrote spokeswoman Amanda Gordon in an email. “Is it possible to correct the story?”
When asked by Martin if she had personally observed changes in the Canada’s north, Aglukkaq, who represents the riding of Nunavut in Parliament, sighed before saying it was “debatable” whether the Arctic was warmer, explaining that northerners experienced a cold summer in general with snow in some areas and warmer weather elsewhere.
Martin followed up by asking if that indicated a changing climate if not climate change, prompting Aglukkaq to laugh and say: “But it’s also important to look at science and use science to make our decisions as best as we can and but to also continue to work with people in the north.”
Gordon wrote that the interview was conducted last month and that Aglukkaq’s comments were related to information published by the National Snow and Ice Data Center. This research confirmed the downward trend in summer Arctic sea ice but did not suggest there was any debate about what was happening.
The minister’s office also offered a general explanation of Aglukkaq’s comments without getting into specifics, saying that she was traveling and unable to give an interview.
“Scientific debate regarding our understanding of climate change and its effects on Canada, particularly the North, is what Minister Aglukkaq was referencing,” Gordon wrote.
Since her appointment in July, Aglukkaq’s office has failed to respond directly to questions from Postmedia News asking whether she believes scientific evidence justifies further action to stop the causes of climate change and adapt to its impacts.
In the CTV interview, Aglukkaq appeared to be reluctant to speak about climate change, correcting herself after almost using those words to describe her participation at a recent conference in Oslo, Norway of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants.
“I was in Oslo, just recently at the climate ch- ah climate conference, ah environment ministers conference, sorry,” she said toward the end of the interview.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a coalition of scientists and governments from around the world, has just published the first volume of its latest assessment of scientific evidence about global warming observations and its causes.
This report said that “human influence has been detected in the warming of the atmosphere and the ocean, in changes in the global water cycle, in reductions in snow and ice, in global mean sea level rise, and in changes in some climate extremes.”
The assessment, approved by virtually all governments around the world, including the Harper government, said that human activity, mainly through greenhouse gases released from the consumption of fossil fuels as well as deforestation and other land-use changes, had “very likely contributed to Arctic sea ice loss since 1979.”
NDP environment critic Megan Leslie said the minister’s comments were “reckless” and associated with a “small fringe that continues to deny the science of climate change.” Leslie also said that Canada’s international credibility was eroded because of the Harper government’s environmental policies and that the comments would “further isolate” the country on the world stage.
The office of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau also reacted later, saying that Harper needs to answer for what it described as Aglukkaq’s “alarming” comments. Trudeau’s office said Canadians deserved to know whether the prime minister agreed with her views about climate change.
Aglukkaq’s department, Environment Canada, has predicted that the planet will warm faster than the consensus view reached by the panel, projecting average global temperature increases of at least of two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2050.
The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, a federal advisory panel established by the government of former prime minister Brian Mulroney with a mandate to bring together business and environmental interests, predicted that doing nothing about climate change could cost the Canadian economy up to $43 billion in losses per year by 2050 due to impacts of global warming. The panel also said governments could find economic opportunities by promoting a shift away from fossil fuels to clean energy as part of an emerging green economy sector, estimated to be worth about $3 trillion by 2020.
The advisory panel, which had a $5 million annual budget, was shut down by the Harper government a few months after it produced its economic analysis and its Internet website was later erased. The panel’s reports moved over to Library and Archives Canada.
Data compiled by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, based at the University of Colorado Boulder, revealed that summer Arctic sea ice in 2013 was more than one million square kilometres below the average observed between 1981 and 2010.
Aglukkaq also said the environment was important to people in the Arctic since they continue to depend on wildlife to feed their families.
“So it’s important for us to continue to protect our water and our land and our air because we depend on the background that feeds us. So I think my new role here fits in very well and I’ve said many times, that I come from a unique part of Canada. I grew up living off the land and I bring a different perspective to this file, I think, given that I come from an environment and culture that, to this day, depends on the land.”
Other members of Harper’s cabinet have also openly questioned scientific evidence about climate change, including Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, who promoted Canada’s oilsands industry in an April interview by suggesting that scientists had “recently told us that our fears (about climate change) were exaggerated.”
At the time, Oliver was also unable to name the scientists or research, supporting that statement.
A few months ago, Aglukkaq, then as health minister, took over chairmanship of the eight-nation Arctic Council, signing a statement that recognized the planet was facing an “urgent need” to reach a legally-binding deal to prevent human activity from causing average global warming of more than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
This statement expressed concerns that global greenhouse gas emissions were “resulting in rapid changes in the climate and physical environment of the Artic with widespread effects for societies and ecosystems and repercussions around the world.”
In internal briefing notes from the summer of 2012, Environment Canada said that Canadians were experiencing greater warming than most other regions of the world, with an average temperature increase of 1.6 degrees Celsius in 50 years.
“Climate change is the most serious environmental issue facing the world today and carries with it significant impacts on human health and safety, the economy, natural resources, and ecosystems in Canada and throughout the world,” said the briefing notes, prepared for Bob Hamilton, the department’s deputy minister. “There is also increasing recognition that natural resources are an important component of economic growth, along with physical and human capital, and that environmental damage and natural resource degradation can have important economic costs.”
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza
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