Stephen Harper on climate change:

“My party’s position on the Kyoto Protocol is clear and has been for a long time. We will oppose ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and its targets. We will work with the provinces and others to discourage the implementation of those targets. And we will rescind the targets when we have the opportunity to do so.” (Stephen Harper, Ottawa Citizen, November 22, 2002)

The UK government's meteorological branch, the Met Office, issued a statement yesterday entitled Global Warming Goes On:

Anyone who thinks global warming has stopped has their head in the sand. The evidence is clear – the long-term trend in global temperatures is rising, and humans are largely responsible for this rise... longer term analyses have shown that current warming is being caused mainly by human emissions of greenhouse gases which have accumulated in the atmosphere and intensified the greenhouse effect by absorbing more of the thermal radiation emitted by the land and ocean.

This long-term warming trend is set to continue as the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continues to increase. Inevitably this will lead to further impacts on our lives and the world’s natural ecosystems. Heatwaves and droughts are likely to become more prevalent; snow cover is projected to continue to diminish; and sea-ice to continue to shrink.

Global average temperature anomaly from 1975 to 2007, relative to the 1961-1990 average. The black line shows the annual figure. The red line shows the trend over the full 33 years.The blue lines show the varying rate of the trend over 10-year periods.

For Head In Sand Harper:

The methane time bomb (Sept. 23 2008, The Independent)

Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane – sometimes at up to 100 times background levels – over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.

In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through "methane chimneys" rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a "lid" to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.

They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years.

Methane is about 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant positive feedback where more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane.

Its only a matter of time before Bully Baird seizes upon this, blames climate change on the Russians and the Conservatives will reiterate past deceptions they've deployed implying CO2 isn't an issue; its a natural by-product of breathing, and that plants will only grow better.

Virtuous peas

No, its not yet another NDP or Green candidate-gone-wild. Its the supposedly staid Conservative Party who today is dealing with the blogospheric rantings (via Jerad Gallinger) of Ryan Warawa, the unlikely CPC candidate for Vancouver-East challenging the indefatigable and can't-be-defeated Libby Davies.

MacKay fails miserably in my integrity and honesty litmus test Ryan Warawa, soon to be fired CPC candidate

Ryan - a former Young BC Liberal - failed to win the Conservative nomination for a potentially winnable seat in Burnaby, much like Vancouver-Kingsway CPC candidate Saloman Rayek failed to win a seat in north Burnaby. It seems as if both have received counsel that running in the hinterlands of east Vancouver will build them character and improve their chances in grabbing a nomination elsewhere in the future. Certainly they'll earn some character but not many votes.

Then again, perhaps Ryan's views fit in with the eastside of Vancouver, or the NDP or Marijuana Party or the Communists:

“I in principle favour government legalizing prostitution — forcing the sex trade into brothels.”

“I favour decriminalization of both marijuana and prostitution…” Ryan Warawa

Shocking, isn't it? Warawa directly contradicting the policy of the government of the day. Earlier this year Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day specifically rejected the notion of decriminalization (Feb. 7 2008).

Imagine, a Conservative candidate stumping for legal paid sex and pot. What is this world coming to?

What's amazing is that in another urban centre - Toronto - Conservatives pushed a candidate out for uttering far less radical thoughts. Conservative candidate of record Mark Warner was shoved out of Toronto Centre in the fall of 2007. Mr. Warner's sin? He was a self-confessed "Red Tory", which for most of us former Progressive Conservatives simply means that taking a pragmatic, socially progressive, fiscally conservative, stance is natural.

Yet, so far, Warawa is still a candidate. In the Conservative Party its not what you say but who you know or share blood with. Conservative vetting rules don't count when your dad (Mark Warawa) is a member of the holier-than-thou community of extra-urban B.C. government-side members of parliament.

There is one thing Ryan and I can agree upon: Peter "I am not the merger candidate" MacKay can't be trusted. You know what? Ryan Warawa aside there are at least three people in Canada who want to see Elizabeth May triumph in Pictou-Antigonish over Peter MacKay: (1) me, (2) Elizabeth May, and (3) Stephen Harper (the dark lord himself).