OTTAWA – A scientist-turned-Green party candidate is offering to tutor Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, after the government’s point man on pipelines quoted his research out of context in support of Keystone XL.
Defending the merits of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline during question period on April 23, Oliver quoted research co-authored by University of Victoria professor Andrew Weaver, saying “the total impact on global warming of the oil sands would be three per cent of one degree in 300 years.”
The numbers are correct.
The problem, says Weaver, is that Oliver forgot the punch line.
The last paragraph of the paper advises policy-makers looking to limit global warming to less than two degrees to speed the transition to non-fossil fuels and curb new investments in fossil-fuel infrastructure.
“What you are doing is cherry-picking the data to support an argument, which is decision-based evidence-making instead of evidence-based decision-making,” said Weaver, who is the Canada Research Chair in climate modeling and analysis.
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He’s also running as a Green party candidate in the British Columbia election.
The paper, published last year, measured how a variety of sources contributed to climate change, including the Alberta oilsands. While oilsands ranked relatively low, Weaver said the paper makes it clear that most of the world’s oil, coal and gas reserves must be left in the ground to keep global warming less than two degrees.
And the research certainly can’t bolster arguments in favour of infrastructure designed to expand fossil fuel industry, he said.
“When you put in infrastructure projects like this you are committing a resource to be used, you are committing a continuation of the infrastructure for at least decades ahead,” he said.
Oliver responded to Global News’ request for comment saying that given there was no dispute about the numbers: “My statement is correct and I stand by it.”
Weaver is the second scientist in the last week to call out Oliver’s interpretation of climate research. Speaking in Washington last week, Oliver called the climate change claims of former NASA scientist James Hansen “exaggerated rhetoric” and “nonsense.”
Hansen later told CBC News the Canadian government is “a Neanderthal” on the issue of climate change. l
Members of the opposition went after the government on Monday for its “attacks” on scientists. NDP MP Peter Julian accused Oliver of embarrassing Canadians by questioning a rocket scientist like Hansen.
“When is the Minister going to start listening to science and to the experts who spent their lives fighting this major threat and when is he going to stop taking his orders from oil industry lobbyists?” Julian said.
Environment Minister Peter Kent responded, saying the government considers the issue of climate change important and is the first Canadian government to have actually reduced greenhouse gases.
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