Taking a less alarmist view on climate change – by Derek H. Burney (National Post – May 20, 2021)

https://nationalpost.com/

Canada should take a more pragmatic approach that focuses both on environmental concerns and measures that will bolster, not retard, our economic prospects

Given the Supreme Court verdict validating the Liberals’ carbon tax and the awkward manoeuvre by Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole to emulate a “carbon pricing plan,” one would think the political debate about climate change is over in Canada.

But wait a minute. There are some myths to challenge and some other views to consider and evaluate. Many Canadians see their country as being in the vanguard of those committed to assuage what is widely proclaimed as an “existential threat” to the world.

And yet, despite the implementation of an increasingly costly carbon tax, Canada is, as Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and an ardent climate change advocate, has bluntly pointed out, “the only G7 country where carbon emissions have increased since the signing of the Paris Agreement (in 2015).” The carbon tax has not delivered and yet the economic costs to many Canadians are growing.

While we are told incessantly that the “science is settled” on climate change, the reality is somewhat different.

A new book entitled “Unsettled,” by Steven Koonin, who served as chief scientist in Barack Obama’s energy department, debunks both the alarmism and the policy prescriptions emitted at the Earth Day virtual summit hosted by President Joe Biden.

For the rest of this column: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/derek-h-burney-taking-a-less-alarmist-view-on-climate-change