In May, after Canada yet again failed to meet its international obligations on climate change, I sent this letter to the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister for Industry the Environment asking him to convene a press conference to better inform Canadians on the dangers of climate change. At the very least, I want our Environment Minister to take the muzzle off Environment Canada scientists who are no longer allowed to speak to the media without approval from the minister. In effect, that gag orders means that EC scientists aren’t allowed to speak to the media, period.

I received the following reply from David McGovern, Deputy Minister at Environment Canada. Perhaps he’s hoping that I won’t notice as as he dipsy-doodles his way around the truth.

I’ve parsed his comments below. It’s good to have a blog at times like this.

Letter from David McGovern, Deputy Minister, Environment Canada

On behalf of the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of the Environment, I am pleased to respond to your email regarding the matter of Dr. Don MacIver not having attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, as well as your concerns on Canada’s GHG emissions.

I appreciate your interest in ensuring that Canada supports its scientific and technical experts when they have a significant role to play in the international community. (1)

Dr. MacIver was not a member of the official delegation to the conference in Poznan. (2) He was scheduled to make a brief presentation at a three-hour side meeting (3) aimed at providing the delegates in Poznan on an upcoming World Climate Conference. After reviewing the purpose of the meeting and Dr. MacIver’s proposed role, as well as considering that this matter was not related to the climate change negotiations, it was decided that we could not responsibly justify the expense to the public at a time when many Canadians are experiencing serious economic hardship. (4)

I would also like to point out that this decision was not a special case involving only Dr. MacIver. Before the conference, the proposed role of each member of the Canadian delegation (2) was carefully reviewed, and only the essential members of the negotiating team were approved for travel to Poznan at public expense. (5)

In 2009, as Canada continues its efforts to work actively and constructively (6) through the United Nations Climate Change Convention to help develop an effective international agreement to address climate change, we will continue to carefully review all the proposed international travel by federal officials and to make decisions in the spirit of financial restraint during these difficult economic times. (7)

However, this will not diminish the Government’s commitment to reducing Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 2006 (8) levels on the way to a 60-70 percent reduction from 2006 levels by 2050 (9). The Government will accomplish this through concrete actions to reduce emissions from the industrial, transportation, and commercial and residential sectors. (10) We will work with provincial governments and with our partners to develop and implement a North America-wide cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases. In addition, the government has set an objective that 90 percent of Canada’s electricity needs should be provided by non-emitting sources, such as hydro, nuclear, clean coal or wind power, by 2020. (11)

For more information on federal actions to address climate change and the clean air we breathe, please visit www.ecoaction.gc.ca.

Sincerely,
David McGovern,
Assistant Deputy Minister
International Affairs Branch
Environment Canada

1) McGovern says that the government will support its scientific and technical experts when they have a significant role to play in the international community. That’s just one facet of the letter I sent. My primary concern is that Environment Canada scientists have a major role to play in every community in Canada. If Canadians had a clearer idea of what’s coming down the pike, the pressure on this government to enact meaningful climate legislation would increase exponentially.

I can see where the current government wouldn’t want that.

2) Was Dr. MacIver on the team, or wasn’t he? In the third paragraph, McGovern suggests that he wasn’t. But if that is so, why does he state in the fourth paragraph that all members of the negotiating team ― including Dr. MacIver ― needed to have a solid reason for being in Poland?

It sounds like MacIver was a member of the negotiating team, at least until he wasn’t.

3) McGovern belittles the role that MacIver was to play, describing it as a “brief presentation” in a “side meeting” at the climate talks. He neglects to mention that MacIver was acting as chair of the World Meteorological Organization, and that he was forced to resign his position after the government’s refusal to let him speak.

4) McGovern suggests that the reason that MacIver was dropped from the Poznan team ― while on his way to the airport, I might add ― because “we could not responsibly justify the expense to the public at a time when many Canadians are experiencing serious economic hardship.”

Now that’s straight bullshit. First of all, MacIver’s traveling expenses were actually covered by the WMO. When this came to light, government PR flacks suggested that it wasn’t his plane fare that was at issue, it was his salary, and the vital work he was leaving behind to attend Poznan.

Do bureaucrats think that climate scientists go to climate conferences hoist a few mugs of mead while casting the 20-sided die in Dungeons and Dragons?

Stephen Harper Thinks Kyoto is a Socialist Scheme

5) Some recent history would not go amiss. Canada suffered through a federal election in October, and Jim Prentice was appointed to his new post as environment minister on October 30, 2008, five weeks before the conference. So you’d expect that he might want to have a few experts on his team at Poznan ― that is, unless the government had no intention of listening to the experts.

When it comes to climate change, Harper hasn’t listened to any experts since he became Prime Minister. In 2004, he described climate change as junk science, and the Kyoto Accord as a socialist plot.

6) McGovern suggests that Canada will “continue to work actively and constructively” at climate talks.

That would be a huge step forward! Perhaps he doesn’t know what others have been saying about our recent role in climate talks. To wit:

Embassy Magazine

At the most recent round of international climate change negotiations, Canada once again emerged as a leading “spoiler,” attracting scorn and condemnation from both environmentalists and foreign delegations alike.

Graham Saul, Climate Action Network

“I think Canada is seen as a spoiler role in the negotiations,” said Graham Saul. “They’ve been blocking progress in a number key areas and have been called out for it.”

Mr. Saul said Canadians would be appalled to know what their government was doing.

“In our opinion there is a real disconnect between where Canadians are at on these issues and what the government is doing at this conference,” he said. “I think a lot of Canadians would be would be deeply ashamed to learn about the role Canada is playing.”

Sierra Club

Well it’s over. I began COP 14 with high hopes for progress towards Copenhagen and a post-Kyoto climate plan, but this did not happen. COP 14 failed to produce any significant progress. There were a few outcomes (an Adaptation Fund Board was created) but hardly the kind and number we had hoped for. It was not only Canadian NGOs and youth who left disappointed, but international delegates and NGOs as well. The world really was watching Canada actions at the negotiations to see if they would finally take meaningful action to fight climate change. But sadly for Canadians— and tragically for those whose nations will be underwater as a result of sea level rise― Canada did nothing.

Canada named Colossal Fossil

As it has at past international climate change negotiations, Canada collected a number of “awards” drawing attention to its climate change delinquency.

The “Fossil Awards” are given out by the Climate Action Network, a global network of more than 400 environmental organizations. Each day, representatives from these organizations voted on which country they think most blocked progress at the talks.

At the 2008 summit, Canada received 17 fossil awards, often more than one per day, for a variety of reasons. As a result, Canada was named the world’s Colossal Fossil as the worst climate bandit on the planet.

7) Was MacIver’s trip cancelled because money was so tight? Well, perhaps, but it’s worth noting that this example of fiscal prudence was made while Stephen Harper was telling Canadians that our economy was in good shape, that job losses would be minimal, that our budget was balanced.

8. Canada is promising to cut its GHG emissions by 20 percent by 2020, McGovern says. But he’s using 2006 as a baseline even though the most developed countries world have agreed to use 1990 as the baseline. Viewed through that prism, Canada is promising to cut emissions by 2 percent over 1990 levels. That’s pitiful; virtually every other developed nation has pledged to do better.

9) As point 8 suggests, our promise to cut emissions by 60 percent by 2050 is also fudged because we’re still trying to use 2006 as the baseline. In fact, we’re pledging to cut emissions by about 40 percent. We’re promising to do even less than many of the world’s poorest countries.

Just as a comparison, Scotland is pledging to cut its emissions by 42% by 2020! Germany will cut emissions by 40 percent, and the UK by 34 percent.

10) McGovern says that Canada is taking concrete steps to cut emissions, but he’s talking through his hat. In 2007, for example, Canada’s emissions rose dramatically. Most analysts, including the government’s own watchdog, say we have almost no hope in hell in meeting those targets given the inaction by the Harper government (and, to be fair, the Chretien and Martin governments, too).

The difference is that the science now is frightening.

11) Canada is promising to use renewables for 90 percent of our electricity by 2020. That’s good, but it might hide the fact that fully 60 percent of our power is already generated by hydro, and another 12 percent by nuclear. Similarly, the provincial governments of both Ontario and BC are currently enacting environmental policies that will dramatically increase the percentage of renewable energy that powers Canada. (Ontario, for example, is phasing out coal).

The federal government has nothing to do with it.

In fact, Prentice and McGovern seem to be making all the wrong decisions, in my opinion. In the last two budgets, the government has invested heavily in carbon capture and biofuels, and ignored more promising technologies like wind power and energy efficiency. Carbon capture, for example, is at least 15 years away from implementation, and it won’t work on the fastest growing source of Canada’s GHG emissions: the Alberta Tar Sands.

McGovern’s letter makes one thing clear: Prentice is trying to lock us into a fossil fuel economy to protect Alberta jobs, and his party’s power base.

With men like Jim Prentice and Stephen Harper in power, Canada will diminish.

Honorable Jim Prentice
Office of the Environment
10 Wellington Street, 28th flr,
Gatineau, Québec
K1A 0H3

Dear Mr. Prentice:

A recent Globe and Mail story (April 28, 2009) outlined an Environment Canada study which suggested that our country’s GHG emissions rose by 4 percent in 2007, and that oil, gas and mining emissions rose by 57 percent between 2004 and 2007.

Once again, Canada has the worst GHG emissions record in the developed world.

I’m discouraged by Canada’s slow, dishonorable slide on the international stage because of our country’s obstructionist climate policies. I’m ashamed that we’ve been named 2008’s Colossal Fossil as the world’s worst climate change villain by more than 400 NGOs in Poznan, and that the Climate Action Network places Canada in the same league as Saudi Arabia.

But it’s not only environmental groups who are condemning Canada. In article entitled “Canada takes its Lumps at Poznan,” Embassy magazine offered this analysis of Canada’s role:

“At the most recent round of international climate change negotiations, Canada once again emerged as a leading “spoiler,” attracting scorn and condemnation from both environmentalists and foreign delegations alike.”

The situation is desperate. Climate scientists around the world convened an emergency session in Copenhagen in March because climate change is occurring faster and harder than even the most dire predictions from three years ago.

When is Canada going get the message to start to transition to a low-carbon economy? Part of the problem would seem to be that Environment Canada scientists are no longer allowed to speak to the media without your office’s permission. In fact. Don MacIver had to resign his chairmanship from the World Meteorological Organization’s Climate Conference-3 because your office would not allow him to attend the Poznan climate summit.

In recent weeks, you’ve repeatedly suggested that Canada now has an climate ally in Washington in President Obama, but frankly, your words ring hollow. The Conservative stimulus package included very little money for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. It seems to be designed to lock us into a fossil-fuel economy for another generation.

If your government really does plan to take its environmental responsibilities seriously, then I would ask you for a show of good faith. Take the muzzles off Environment Canada’s climate scientists and convene a news conference so they can speak directly to Canadians, and explain why we need to make climate change the government’s #1 priority.

Regards,

Richard Levangie
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

____________

Send your letters to Hon. Jim Prentice, Minister for the Environment. Be polite and respectful!

Editor’s Note: To learn more about our Red Letter Campaign click here; More details on our first-ever Red Letter Day can be found here)

Let Environment Canada’s Scientists Speak!

Red Letter Day Sample letters

Remember to include your name and mailing address.

If your first name begins with the Letters A-G, please send a letter to your hometown newspaper, or one of the national newspapers.

British Columbia newspapers
Alberta newspapers
Saskatchewan newspapers
Manitoba newspapers
Ontario newspapers
Québec newspapers
New Brunswick newspapers
Nova Scotia newspapers
Prince Edward Island newspapers
Newfoundland newspapers
Yukon newspapers
Territorial newspapers

National newspapers

Sample Letter to the Editor (Newspapers)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn’t want Canadians to know that we’ve become an international pariah and deemed the worst of the world’s climate-change villains. In fact, Canada was recently labeled the world’s Colossal Fossil by more than 450 NGOs because our obstructionist policies are preventing any international progress to slow global warming. And that’s why Conservative government policy prevents Environment Canada scientists from telling us the truth about climate change, and Canada’s sorry international record.

For proof that this policy is on-going, you need look no futher than the most recent climate change summit in Poznan, Poland. Senior Environment Canada scientist Don MacIver was told, while en route to the airport, that his presence at the international climate summit was not required. As chair, he was also scheduled to speak that the World Meteorological Organization’s Climate Conference-3 — his flight was paid for by the WMO — but Environment Minister Jim Prentice refused permission for him to attend. MacIver was forced to resign his position as WMO CC-3 chair.

It’s scandalous and embarrassing that our scientists have best been muzzled; this is a story that sounds more appropriate to the Sovet Union of the 1960s, not Canada in 2009.

We deserve to know the truth about climate change. Mr. Harper and Mr. Prentice: it’s time to remove the muzzles from Environment Canada’s experts!

If your first name begins with the Letters H-O, please write the opposition environment critics.

Mr. David McGuinty
Liberal Environment Critic
House of Commons Room 351, West Block
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
McGuinty.D@parl.gc.ca

Ms. Linda Duncan
NDP Environment Critic
MP Edmonton-Strathcona
House of Commons Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Duncan.L@parl.gc.ca

Mr. Bernard Bigras
BQ Environment Critic
1453, rue Beaubien Est Bureau 208
Montréal, Québec H2G 3C6
bigrab1@parl.gc.ca

Mr. Peter Graham
Green Party Environment Critic
204-396 Cooper St. Ottawa, ON K2P 2H7
peter.graham@greenparty.ca

I’m discouraged by Canada’s slow, dishonorable slide on the international stage because of our country’s obstructionist climate policies. I’m ashamed that we’ve been named 2008′s Colossal Fossil as the world’s worst climate change villain by more than 400 NGOs in Poznan, and that the Climate Action Network places Canada in the same league as Saudi Arabia.

But it’s not only environmental groups who are condemning Canada. In article entitled “Canada takes its Lumps at Poznan,” Embassy magazine offered this analysis of Canada’s role: “At the most recent round of international climate change negotiations, Canada once again emerged as a leading “spoiler,” attracting scorn and condemnation from both environmentalists and foreign delegations alike.”

The situation is desperate. Climate scientists around the world are convening an emergency session in Copenhagen in March because climate change is occurring faster and harder than even the most dire predictions from three years ago. When is Canada going get the message to start to transition to a low-carbon economy?
Part of the problem is that Environment Canada’s climate experts are no longer allowed to speak to the media without the permission of the Environment Minister’s office. In fact. Don MacIver had to resign his chairmanship from the World Meteorological Organization’s Climate Conference-3 because Jim Prentice would not allow him to attend the Poznan climate summit.

In recent weeks, Mr. Prentice has been quoted repeatedly for suggesting that Canada now has an climate ally in Washington in President Obama. Frankly, his words sound hollow. The Conservative stimulus package included very little money for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. It seems to be designed to lock us into a fossil-fuel economy for another generation.

As shadow environmental critics for the opposition parties, I’m asking you to press the environment minister to take our country’s environmental responsibilities seriously. Ask him to present a show of good faith by taking the muzzles off Environment Canada’s climate scientists. Ask him to convene a news conference so the scientists can speak directly to Canadians, and explain why we need to make climate change the government’s #1 priority.

If your first name begins with the Letters P-Z, please write Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Conservative Environment Minister Jim Prentice:

Mr. Michael Ignatieff
Room 435-S, Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Ignatieff.M@parl.gc.ca

Honorable Jim Prentice
Office of the Environment,
10 Wellington Street, 28th flr,
Gatineau, Québec
K1A 0H3
Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca

I’m discouraged by Canada’s slow, dishonorable slide on the international stage because of our country’s obstructionist climate policies. I’m ashamed that we’ve been named 2008′s Colossal Fossil as the world’s worst climate change villain by more than 400 NGOs in Poznan, and that the Climate Action Network places Canada in the same league as Saudi Arabia.

But it’s not only environmental groups who are condemning Canada. In article entitled “Canada takes its Lumps at Poznan,” Embassy magazine offered this analysis of Canada’s role: “At the most recent round of international climate change negotiations, Canada once again emerged as a leading “spoiler,” attracting scorn and condemnation from both environmentalists and foreign delegations alike.”

The situation is desperate. Climate scientists around the world are convening an emergency session in Copenhagen in March because climate change is occurring faster and harder than even the most dire predictions from three years ago.

When is Canada going get the message to start to transition to a low-carbon economy? Part of the problem would seem to be that Environment Canada scientists are no longer allowed to speak to the media without your office’s permission. In fact. Don MacIver had to resign his chairmanship from the World Meteorological Organization’s Climate Conference-3 because your office would not allow him to attend the Poznan climate summit.

In recent weeks, you’ve repeatedly suggested that Canada now has an climate ally in Washington in President Obama, but frankly, your words ring hollow. The Conservative stimulus package included very little money for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. It seems to be designed to lock us into a fossil-fuel economy for another generation.

If your government really does plan to take its environmental responsibilities seriously, then I would ask you for a show of good faith. Take the muzzles off Environment Canada’s climate scientists and convene a news conference so they can speak directly to Canadians, and explain why we need to make climate change the government’s #1 priority.

Let Environment Canada’s Scientists Speak!

We’re calling on the Liberals, NDP, Green Party, and Bloc Quebecois to work together to overturn a preposterous and dangerous situation: Environment Canada’s top climate scientists have been muzzled so they can no longer speak to the media without approval from their Conservative overlords. Since when has it been against Canadian policy to provide Canadians with best advice available? This isn’t the Soviet Union in 1972. The free and open exchange of ideas is the very bedrock of democracy!

The story hasn’t been widely reported, so here’s the background. After Canada was roundly condemned at the Bali climate change summit in December 2007, then-Environment Minister John Baird ordered climate scientists at Environment Canada to stop talking to the media without his office’s official permission. Baird, a heavy-handed partisan, was tired of critical headlines and being forced to answer climate change questions that were beyond his ken.

The current Industry Environment Minister, Jim Prentice, has taken that directive one step further. At the 2008 climate summit in Poland, one of the country’s top climate scientists was prevented from attending because his message would have embarrassed the government and demonstrated that our environmental policy is predicated on hot air. In fact, Don MacIver — a Nobel laureate — was forced to resign his chairmanship from the World Climate Conference-3 soon after because he had no support from the Conservative government and couldn’t do his job.

In the last two weeks, climate scientists have convened an emergency session because politicians don’t seem to understand the peril, and how the pace of global climate disruption is acclerating faster and harder than the best predictions made just a few years ago. Climate change will be the most important story of the 21st century, but Canadians are being denied access to their most vital climate resource — a resource that we all fund with our taxes. It should not be politicized!

Canadians need to know that our international reputation is in tatters, and we need to do much, much more to slow climate change.

So please join us on our first Red Letter Day in demanding change. Let scientists speak the truth… Together, we are mighty!

If your first name begins with the Letters A-G, we’re asking you to send a letter to the editor in your hometown newspaper. We’ll be adding a sample letter shortly.

If your first name begins with the letters H-O, we’re asking you to send letters to Liberal environment critic David McGuinty, and copy them to NDP environment critic Linda Duncan, Bloc Québécois, environment critic Bernard Bigras, and Green Party environment critic Peter Graham.

If your first name begins with the letters P-Z we’re asking you to write to Conservative Industry Environment Minister Jim Prentice and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

Thank you! Please tell your friends

Contact details follow. PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL.

If your first name begins with the Letters A-G, please send a
letter to your hometown newspaper, or one of the national newspapers.

British Columbia newspapers
Alberta newspapers
Saskatchewan newspapers
Manitoba newspapers
Ontario newspapers
Québec newspapers
New Brunswick newspapers
Nova Scotia newspapers
Prince Edward Island newspapers
Newfoundland newspapers
Yukon newspapers
Territorial newspapers

National newspapers

If your first name begins with the Letters H-O, please write the
opposition environment critics.

Honorable David McGuinty

Liberal Environment Critic
House of Commons Room 351, West Block
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
McGuinty.D@parl.gc.ca

Honorable Linda Duncan
NDP Environment Critic
MP Edmonton-Strathcona
House of Commons Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Duncan.L@parl.gc.ca

Honorable Bernard Bigras
BQ Environment Critic
1453, rue Beaubien Est Bureau 208
Montréal, Québec H2G
3C6
bigrab1@parl.gc.ca

Mr. Peter Graham
Green Party Environment Critic
204-396 Cooper St. Ottawa, ON K2P 2H7
peter.graham@greenparty.ca

If your first name begins with the Letters P-Z, please write Liberal
leader Michael Ignatieff and Conservative Environment
Minister Jim Prentice:

Honorable Michael Ignatieff
Room 435-S, Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Ignatieff.M@parl.gc.ca

Honorable Jim Prentice
Office of the Environment,
10 Wellington Street, 28th flr,
Gatineau, Québec
K1A 0H3
Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca

We need to reach Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal Party of Canada. We think he’s biding his time, and preparing to bring down the Conservatives later this year. That’s all well and good. But even if the Conservatives are defeated in a general election, and the Liberals gain a majority, we still believe that our country would best be served by a coalition that represents Canadian interests from sea to shining sea.

The problems that come with transitioning to a low-carbon economy are vast and complicated. We need as many parliamentarians as we can find all pulling in the same direction. We need a new spirit of cooperation and common purpose if Canada is to once again become a great nation that is respected throughout the world.

Ignatieff has put the Tories on notice. Well, it’s time for us to put Ignatieff — and the Liberals — on notice!

The Red Letter Campaign:

Ignatieff is busy. He’s trying to save the party, cozy up to Alberta, support the Conservative budget without seeming like a toady, fill depleted Liberal coffers, and hone his political skills. He’s WAY too busy to read our mail.

But we’re willing to bet that some members of the Liberal caucus do read their mail, and we bet they talk to their colleagues. So we we’ll write to them. Every week or two in our Red Letter Campaign, we’ll have a Red Letter Day: we’ll decide on a theme, and write letters to our Liberal MPs, or to a members of the Liberal shadow cabinet. We want to voice our objections to Ignatieff’s unqualified support for the fossil fuel industry when renewable energy makes more sense for the economy and future generations, ask him to fight so that Environment Canada scientists are free to talk to the media about climate change, and bring down this government with all due haste.

We’ll post our letters here at our One Blue Marble blog, and on the main RLC page as text files, so you can download them easily, and personalize them before mailing. We want to keep up the pressure on Ignatieff, and help the Liberals understand that we speak for the MAJORITY of Canadians.

But that’s not all we can do. We can also:

1. Talk to friends and family about climate change, and tell them why we need to support a change in government so that Canada stops stifling progress at the international climate talks.
2. Talk to friends and family about why the current Conservative budget will place Canada at an economic disadvantage for a generation — or more!
3. Write Letters to the Editor to Canadian newspapers. We’ll start compiling a list of newspapers, and writing our own letters and posting them here.
4. Send us your Letters to the Editor. We’ll post the best ones here as often we can, with full attribution (if that’s what you’d like).
5. Keep us informed. We have two other jobs, so even though we follow global warming in the Canadian media, stories still get past us. Tell us what people in your community are saying!
6. Ask us for advice. We have answers for anyone who tries to hit you over the head with junk science.
7. Add our link to your blog to boost our hits. If you write about climate change, we’ll do the same.
8. Buy a One Blue Marble Bumper Sticker to show your public support for the Coalition. Buy a groovy t-shirt or hoody to help us keep fighting!

We have four more campaigns that we’re getting ready to launch in the coming weeks and months, so please stay tuned.

1. We want to slow development at the Alberta Oil Sands, the world’s most environmentally destructive project.
2. We want to mothball all coal-fired power generation in Canada and the US over the next four years, or convince utilities to switch to biomass. This will cut more greenhouse gas emissions than anything else we can do as a society.
3. We want to engage religious groups across Canada to get them to join the campaign to slow climate change, as they’ve done in Scotland. And guess what… Scotland recently tabled incredibly ambitious climate change legislation that won the praise of environmentalists.
4. We want to take the muzzles off Environment Canada scientists so that Canadians can learn the truth about global warming

If you have any great ideas, please get in touch!