Doubtful climate change denial web site

By hrynyshyn on November 23, 2006.

The good people at deSmogBlog have stumbled across exactly what's wrong with the public debate on climate change. IsCanadaReady.com is a compedium of non-scientific arguments that attempts to undermine confidence in anthropogenic global warming theory. But nowhere on the site is there any information describing the author(s) of the material posted thereon. I wonder why that could be?

Could it be that the fellow to whom the domain is registered, one Ed Unverricht of Edmonton, Alta., appears to have some claim of expertise in taxes and golf, but not atmospheric heat flux trends, radiative forcing or anything else remotely related to climatology.

The registration information listed with the powers that control the net are:

Registrant:
Taxsoftware Inc
749 Burley Dr
Edmonton, AB T6R 1W8
CA
780 468-4641

Domain Name: ISCANADAREADY.COM

Administrative Contact:
Unverricht, Ed ed@golfscorecentral.com
749 Burley Dr
Edmonton, AB T6R 1W8
CA
780 468-4641

Technical Contact:
Unverricht, Ed ed@golfscorecentral.com
749 Burley Dr
Edmonton, AB T6R 1W8
CA
780 468-4641

All this is very annoying, because Canada's current government has just decided to opt out of its Kyoto protocol commitments in favor of a Bush-style focus on carbon-emission intensity. Under the newly proposed plan there will be no decrease in absolute total emissions until 2050, far after it's too late to do anything about catastrophic climate change.

I recommend sending Ed an email or phone call, and asking him to be more upfront about his identity, motivation and expertise. It's not much, but as Kwai-Chang Kain said, to fight injustice anywhere is to fight injustice everywhere.

Tags
Climate

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First, I don't consider myself a "denialist". The climate is certainly changing rather quickly, human activity certainly has a lot to do with it, and we need to do something about it. However, the referenced site has some good questions. Do we know (do existing models predict) how much any natural cyclic conditions might contribute to this warming? Do existing models suggest how much effort it would take to reverse this trend? I've read that a sudden surge of fresh water into the North Atlantic might shut down the Gulf Stream (or otherwise mess up deep water flows in the Atlantic), resulting in serious cooling in the northern hemisphere, reaching some king of unstable "tipping point". Do existing models suggest what effect human activity might have on this cycle of excess-warmth-leads-to-serious-cooling?" Would our excess carbon dioxide actually avoid the potential temperature downturn? Or do things just get too unstable and unpredictiable at that point?

Thanks.

Exactly. The problem with Ed's approach is asking these questions implies the scientific community hasn't answered them. And of course, they have. Realclimate.org is a good place to start.