FRIENDS OF SCIENCE: Break free from climate tyranny

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In 2017, energy economist Robert Lyman posed the question at the Friends of Science Society’s Annual Climate Science event — “Can Canada Survive Climate Change Policy?” At the time he was hopeful. Now? Not so much.

Lyman is an energy economist, a former federal public servant of 27 years, and a former diplomat of 10 years. Much of his career was spent on files associated with GHG emissions and the economic implications of Kyoto-style climate policies. (Today’s equivalent is the Paris Agreement).

On October 17, 2023, Robert Lyman will be back in Calgary for the Friends of Science Society’s 20th Annual Climate Science event — this time asking the question that is on everyone’s mind: “When will Climate Policy Hit the Wall?”

Friends of Science Society was formed in 2002 with these kinds of questions in mind, even then. The co-founders, a handful of retired and semi-retired Professional Geoscientists, Professional Engineers, business managers, atmospheric and solar scientists all focus on the same thing: Evidence over ideology.

Every year since Friends of Science was formed, the volunteer-run, non-profit group has hosted buffet luncheons or dinner events (except for on-line events during COVID) with science and economic experts to provide public outreach and education on these crucial topics.

The Friends of Science, a small non-profit team, thought that if policymakers and the public were given proper analyses of proposed cuts to emissions, the impacts on industry, daily life and costs of living, then surely common sense would prevail. But evidence is often difficult to understand for people who do not like math or graphs.

Ideology and social drama are far more compelling to ordinary people. Thus the climate change movement grew to a point where even at the height of the Greta Thunberg craze, teachers abandoned classrooms to run around with signs advocating for societal collapse.

That is right. “Save the Planet” policies now run the risk of degrowth, likely the deaths of millions through heat-or-eat poverty and the growing global energy crisis.

Sadly, Canada has been brought to the brink of serious economic and geopolitical problems. For decades, well-funded, often foreign-funded, environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs,) most of them charities, have been driving climate policy with ideology over evidence. These ENGOs have simultaneously drained the tax pool and advocated for subsidized green projects that distort our economy and drain your pocketbook, too.

But wait, you may say. What about ‘The Science?’ Don’t we only have six years left to save the planet?

No. The claims of a climate emergency originated with the misuse of a scenario known as Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5.) For years, green billionaires with vested interests in wind and solar, along with their funded ENGOs, proliferated a catastrophic future using this scenario, claimed to represent a ‘business-as-usual’ case — but it is an implausible scenario.

Even the City of Calgary’s climate plan misuses this RCP8.5 as their baseline. It is completely implausible, and the scientific community recognizes that. When RCP8.5 is removed from climate calculations, the climate emergency disappears.

Unfortunately, we are still left with the mess this misinterpretation has made for us all.

On Oct. 17, 2023, joining Robert Lyman at Friends of Science Society’s 20th Annual Event will be Professor Emeritus Dr. Ian Clark, of the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Clark also hosted Friends of Science Society’s documentary of 2008 titled “Climate Catastrophe Cancelled.” In that film, Dr. Clark explains how he once taught the climate ‘carbon dioxide’ catastrophe scenario, only to learn more about the limitations of warming that carbon dioxide can induce. Then he changed his mind.

He was a brave proponent of more common sense thinking on climate change back then. Today he is a realist on both climate science and the forms of energy necessary to power modern society.

Dr. Clark will offer audiences “A Reality Check on Net Zero and Climate Science.”

This event will give the public the information they need to counter the disastrous climate ideology that has gripped our nation.

“Break Free from Climate Tyranny: Evidence Over Ideology” will take place at the Red and White Club, McMahon Stadium, on Oct. 17, 2023, at 6pm. Purchase tickets at friendsofscience.org. Ticket sales end Oct. 6, 2023.