Category Archives: Education

Entries focusing on environmental education

Skeptics versus Contrarians and Deniers

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I accidently stumbled upon a website the other day that reminded me how dangerous the Internet can be for web surfers, especially students, searching for legitimate information. A simple search for a weather report landed me in the site of not just a climate change skeptic, but a climate change contrarian/denier.

A skeptic is one who doubts the validity of a scientific theory until proven otherwise – a necessary debate in science. But a contrarian/denier is one who dismisses the scientific validity of a theory despite overwhelming data, research, reports and scientific consensus. The term "denier" when applied to climate change was initially hotly debated by ethnic communities who claimed it was both usurping and denigrating the concept of World War II Jewish holocaust deniers. However, the terms holocaust and denier have legitimate and necessary meaning beyond the horrors of the last world war holocausts. Further, those terms are not owned by or copyrighted to Judaic history.

A holocaust is a sacrifice consumed by fire. It directly applies to fire and nuclear destruction involving extensive loss of life, thbut can also be extended to mean any massive slaughter of people. A holocaust denier is one who says the destruction/loss of life never happened. A climate change denier is one who says accelerating climate change due to anthropogenic causes is not happening. Both ways of thinking are equally condemnable.

When 95% of the practicing, published and peer-reviewed climate change scientists globally agree that a) climate change is a natural cyclical process, and b) we are living in a period of accelerating climate change due to anthropogenic causes, then anyone who disagrees with that consensus is not a skeptic, but a contrarian/denier. The accelerated change is a human caused economic decision, and the predicted collapse of species populations, including human, will result in a holocaust unparalleled in human history. The violence in the Middle East will pale in comparison with the global upheaval caused by the collapse of even one of Earth's ecological systems.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to predict what will happen when 7 billion people start scrambling for food and shelter on the remaining habitable spaces. The Earth is clearly saying, "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later." Deny this and we all pay.

*****

Skid Crease, Caledon

Canada’s Official Colours

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I was challenged by an enraged local tory over my last post mocking the Conservative paint job on "Canada's Economic Action Plane";  he declared that there was nothing wrong with "Tory Blue" being added to "Liberal red and white" colours.

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Well, au contraire mon ami! It is very wrong simply because the official colours of Canada are only red and white, no blue of any kind – not royal, azure, ocean, or tory. The official colours of red and white were proclaimed by King George V in 1921, red from the French and white from the British in a cultural reference to the crusader's crosses of those European founding countries.

So, if the PM's plane is painted with the official colours of red and white, then it is Canadian; if it is painted with the official colours of the Conservative Party, then it is a flying election bus for Stephen Harper, and someone in the PMO should cut another slush fund cheque to pay back the taxpayers.

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Skid Crease, Caledon 

Canada’s Economic Action Plane

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Yes, Canada, it is true – we now have a flying billboard for the Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance Party. airbusThe logo resembles the logo of the Royal Canadian Air Force, but not quite. The blue is the "true blue" of the Conservative Party of Canada, not Air Force blue. Close, but no cigar for the 60% of Canadians who did not vote for this CRAP (now claiming on their website to be "Canada's Founding Party"). Observe the evolution:

 

RCAFFirst we have the honourable – the logo, all royal blue circling a  fully etched maple leaf, of the Royal Canadian Air Force for which my father flew in World War II. The "Royal" was lost for a while during the Canadian Armed Forces amalgamation, but was reinstated in 2011, along with a simplified maple leaf. 

 

Then, we have the partisan – the colours iogo 1 and symbols (the "C" that never ends, the simplified maple leaf) of the Conservative Party of Canada, a symbol that was supposed to represent accountability and transparency, now more closely associated with micromanaging scandals and remaking Canada in the image of an oil corporation.

 

Finally, we have the freshly painted Airbus 20130607-131837-gadvertisement for the Conservative's Economic Action Plan; if you look closely, you'll notice the logo is NOT the RCAF's original but is the Conservative modification.  Behold the Canadian PM's freshly painted plane, all battle ready for our military to borrow for use in the world's most dangerous regions. Nice target for any opposition.

 

*****

Skid Crease, Caledon

Trudeau is the Real Thing

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Reprint from April 16, 2013: response to Caledon Enterprise reporter Matthew Strader’s headline story on Justin Trudeau, Hype or Hope?

Yes, Matthew, there is a new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. And, like your childhood dreams of Santa, he is very much the real thing. I had the pleasure and privilege of working with Justin aboard the MV Lindblad Explorer during a Students on Ice Arctic Expedition in 2005. We were the teachers working with a group of seventy-five international students and a host of scientists and explorers. _MG_0628photobyDodgeBaena_1

Our job was to prepare the students to give voice to a Youth Declaration on Environmental Citizenship. Our students presented that Declaration at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 11) in Montreal in December of that year. Their Declaration, thanks to the support of then Environment Minister Stephane Dion, was endorsed enthusiastically by the United Nations delegates from over 150 nations , and tossed into the shredder in 2006 by a newly elected Stephen Harper.

During those two weeks at sea, Justin and I shared many stories of our fathers, their profound influences on our characters,  and our goals in life. I can assure you with complete conviction that Mr. Trudeau believes absolutely in the vision of leadership to which he espouses. He deeply feels that the education he received as a young man growing up at his father’s side, immersed in politics, traveling the world, listening to the conversations between his father and kings, presidents, and prime ministers was a gift given to him, one that he feels he must give back to his country.

Can he win the country? He will have to take Ontario and Quebec to accomplish that goal. And if my riding of Dufferin-Caledon is any bellwether, that will be a challenge. Historically in our riding, if the federal Liberal leader is riding a wave of popular support across the country, a top-notch, well-financed local candidate running a flawless campaign stands a chance of winning. When I was involved in politics here, I was told that you could run a dead cow as the Conservative federal candidate in our riding and it would win by a landslide. I predict that our current Conservative MP will retire to pasture before the federal election of 2015. That will open the slate to an interesting choice for Dufferin-Caledon voters.

Indeed, the next federal election will offer an interesting choice for all voters.  I choose hope.

Skid Crease, Caledon