Bias at the Globe and Mail - Canada's "National Newspaper"
Mike Priaro, P.Eng.
First uploaded March 20, 2017
I have noticed for some time that Letters to the Editor in the Toronto Globe and Mail, Canada's self-described "national newspaper", contain misinformed statements from environmentalists while differing, science-backed, opinion is ignored.
For example, in a Letter in the Globe on Mar. 18, the writer states “..the most pressing and dangerous problem of our time (is): climate change.”
I beg to differ: by far the most dangerous problems of our time are nuclear war, over-population, the increasing distribution of wealth and control into the hands of the 1%, and intolerance of all kinds.
Environmentalists such as that letter writer seemingly ignore, or are totally ignorant of, the manifold benefits of global warming.
These benefits include the greening of the Earth, increased fresh water overall, reversal of the cooling trend which has resulted in about 50 Ice Ages of increasing duration and severity since the start of the Quaternary Period 2.6 million years ago, and a potential moderation, delay, or even warding-off, of the next, otherwise inevitable and supremely catastrophic, Ice Age. Think an ice-sheet over Toronto four times thicker than the 457-m, 1,500-ft., tall CN Tower.
A majority of residents of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Great Britain, Scandinavia, Russia, Mongolia, and Patagonia, which together constitute 25 percent of Earth’s land area, and anyone living on land higher than 500 m. above sea level, which makes up 42 percent of Earth’s land area, excluding Antarctica, are likely to welcome a warmer climate.
Many environmentalists and the general public, in their ignorance, confuse climate change with global warming with man-made global warming with weather.
Those terms describe quite separate, though over-lapping, physical processes, and each is worthy of scientific, fact-based research and writing –not confused conflation and ill-informed fear mongering.
I’d like to assure everyone that the science of climate change, and global warming if it exists and whatever its cause or effect, is far from settled.
To illustrate the complexity of climate change, the Vostok ice core data below shows each of the last four Ice Ages was preceded by a very brief period of global temperatures (middle curve) two or three degrees Celsius warmer than current temperatures accompanied by a natural increase in global CO2 and methane!
It’s not possible to tell from the Vostok ice core data if the increased CO2 (top curve) and methane (bottom curve), both GHGs, triggered, accompanied, or resulted from the increase in global temperatures.
The chart shows recent Ice Ages are characterized by a long, slow descent into the depth of a 100,000-year long Ice Age when temperatures reach eight degrees Celsius below current temperatures, punctuated by brief warm interglacials like the one we are in now.
Note that the last Ice Age ended 11,700 years ago.
The Vostok ice core data seems to confirm that the current interglacial is longer than past ones and that we should be already be precipitously heading down into the next 100,000-year long Ice Age - but we are not!
So, is the danger global warming or is the danger the next Ice Age –and will its appearance be man-made or natural, be normal or moderated or be delayed, imminent or not at all?
Shame on the Globe and Mail for not presenting both sides of the debate!
Mike Priaro, P.Eng.
Calgary
403-281-2156
For Earth’s land area at elevation see: http://lab.rockefeller.edu/cohenje/PDFs/266CohenSmallPNASHypsoDemo.pdf
