glacial retreat (1)

Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente on climate change:

15 March 2005
"the science behind global warming isn't bulletproof after all. ... Some scientists say they've been urged to suppress their data for the good of the cause. Meantime, the climate skeptics - who include leading figures from Harvard and MIT, as well as dozens of Canadian scientists - are all but ignored in the mainstream media."

7 July 2005
"Global warming may or may not threaten our way of life a hundred years from now; no one really knows."

16 August 2005
"The consensus is a myth. Hundreds of scientists around the world think the jury is still out on many fundamental issues relating to climate change. Hundreds of peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals have questioned the link between human activity and global warming."

8 December 2005
"Most news stories make at least a token effort to include a view or two from the other side. Not environment stories. That's because a lot of people who cover the environment don't believe there is another side. Who's right? How should I know? What I do know is, the media cherry-pick the climate news to fit their prophesies of doom, and never mind the contradictions."

12 September 2006
"Last week a clear-headed woman got up and said in public what no politician, not even Stephen Harper, is brave enough to say. Her message: We should stop pretending that we can prevent climate change. No matter what we do, global warming is inevitable."

27 January 2007
"If you're an average, concerned citizen, no one will blame you for being confused
or angry. The global-warming debate has become so shrill, so political and so polarized that it's impossible for even a reasonably well-informed person to figure out who or what to believe. Only one thing is for sure: Science isn't all that is driving this debate. Politics, ideology and scaremongering are too. Because I'm skeptical by nature, I've always discounted the environmental catastrophists. Their message is religious, not rational. But I've also spoken to enough brainy scientists to conclude that human activity is affecting the climate and that global warming is for real."