“Immediate cessation of CO2 emissions . . . cannot have a large near-term effect on global temperatures," said the memorandum, drafted in April by Environment Canada scientists Greg Flato and Elizabeth Bush. “Our past emissions have essentially ‘locked in' the warming experienced to date, committing future generations to a warmer world. The real issue is that ongoing emissions lead to ongoing increases in atmospheric CO2 and therefore ongoing warming."
The memo was written in response to an opinion piece published in a national newspaper that cast doubt on the credibility of scientific evidence linking human activity to global warming observed in recent decades. The memo noted that there was no credible evidence supporting the arguments from the piece that are repeatedly used by climate change skeptics to discourage or delay action in addressing pollution that largely comes from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.
“If the rate of warming is to be reduced, so as to avoid the ‘dangerous' climate change referred to in the (international climate change) discussions, then emission reductions are required," said the memo to Environment Canada Deputy Minister Paul Boothe, released to Postmedia News through access to information legislation. “The warming that has been caused so far cannot be ‘undone' — at least for many centuries. The point of emission reductions is to reduce further warming in the future."
The memo said the opinion piece, published in the National Post by David Evans, a former consultant in the Australian government, made many statements “considered misleading" that could be refuted by a “vast body of peer-reviewed scientific literature."
Some of the arguments used by Evans included claims that climate projections from the past were overstated and suggestions that any observed changes falls within the range of natural climate variability. Read the full report here.
Source: by Mike De Souza, The Montreal Gazette.
