Sierra Club Canada Foundation Has Been Sent a Letter from Friends of Science Requesting Retraction of Climate Change Billboard Blog
Calgary, Alberta, Canada (PRWEB) December 12, 2014 -- A satirical commentary about the Sierra Club Canada Foundation’s critique of Friends of Science Society’s climate change billboard that was published in the National Post Dec. 5, 2014, sub-titled “Sierra Club Finds a New Enemy in Global Plot Against Truth” has ignited an on-line firestorm of controversy in Canada over Freedom of Speech and climate change.
National Post author Kelly McParland alleges the Sierra Club Canada Foundation’s National Program Director made contradictory statements in the Sierra Club Canada blog, published Dec. 4, 2014 in an online blog: “Free speech is the right to express a point of view – a right I will rely on, and defend, every day.”
Not, apparently for Friends of Science. Sierra Club Canada Foundation’s National Program Director claims the billboard that states “The Sun is the main driver of climate change. Not You. Not CO2.” is ‘disinformation’ and asks followers to demand it be taken down.
Friends of Science Society have sent a letter to the Sierra Club Canada Foundation demanding a retraction of the blog and an apology.
Friends of Science point out that even the IPCC agrees with them “The Sun powers Earth’s climate.” Climate change is a stated Sierra Club Canada Foundation mandate; Friends of Science say climate has changed.
Friends of Science resident science adviser, Norm Kalmanovitch, P. Geoph, says “We are setting a proper context for Canadians to have a thoughtful and rational discussion about climate change issues and policies. Sierra Club Canada Foundation is trying to prevent that.”
Kalmanovitch points to both the NCDC and HadCRUT4 global temperature datasets used by the IPCC.
“There is negative correlation of global temperatures with CO2 which means that since 2002, CO2 definitely does not drive a global temperature increase,” says Kalmanovitch.
Kalmanovitch goes on to say, “When the current global cooling trend began in 2002 it pushed the statistical end of global warming back to between 1997 and 1995, depending on the dataset used. This is why it is a perfectly valid statement to claim (as we do on one billboard) that global warming has stopped naturally for more than 16 years despite a rise in carbon dioxide.”
Kalmanovitch also refers to a graph of solar irradiance from the the World Radiation Center in Davos, Switzerland.
“There is also a drop of 0.8W/m2 in total solar irradiance between the peak of solar cycle 23 in 2001 and the peak of solar cycle 24 in 2014 which explains the global cooling since 2002,” he says. “This drop cannot be explained by the 9 billion tonne increase in emissions that took place between 2002 and today. Surely this is important information for taxpayers and policy makers.”
Friends of Science objects to the email campaign Sierra Club Canada Foundation has initiated against the company that accepted its billboard as not in keeping with Canada’s Charter Right of Freedom of Speech and Expression or fair business practices.
A critique of this type of worldview was also the subject of an Oct. 9, 2014 column by Martin W. Lewis, author and senior lecturer at Stanford University, in Geo-currents.
Lewis deconstructs the climate catastrophe pronouncements of Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway’s recent book.
Lewis writes an atypical polemic commentary, noting that “...climate activism seems to be veering in an unabashedly authoritarian direction. In such a heated atmosphere, even handed positions are at the risk of being flooded out by a rising sea of mutual invective and misinformation.”
“We too are looking for a rational, civil, evidence-based debate on climate change science and policies, “says Kalmanovitch. “Freedom of speech is imperative in a democracy and for scientific inquiry.”
About
Friends of Science has spent a decade reviewing a broad spectrum of literature on climate change and have concluded the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2). The core group of the Friends of Science is made up of a growing group of Earth, atmospheric, astrophysical scientists and engineers who volunteer their time and resources to educate the public.
Friends of Science Society
P.O. Box 23167, Mission P.O.
Calgary, Alberta
Canada T2S 3B1
Toll-free Telephone: 1-888-789-9597
Web: friendsofscience.org
E-mail: contact(at)friendsofscience(dot)org
Michelle Stirling, Friends of Science, http://www.friendsofscience.org/, +1 (888) 789-9597, [email protected]
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