10) CLIMATE CHANGE: BELIEVE IT OR NOT...

By Kimball Cariou

     One of the world's most influential climate change skeptics has now declared that climate change is real, and caused entirely by humans. Physics professor Richard Muller, the founder of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, has proclaimed himself a "converted skeptic."

     New findings from Muller's project assert the earth's average land temperature rose by 1.5 degrees Celsius over the past 250 years almost entirely due to greenhouse gas pollution. Climate change is real, he wrote, and humans are "almost entirely the cause."

     Muller's turnabout is a major setback to climate change skeptics such as the billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch.

The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project received $150,000 from Charles Koch. The Koch brothers have also given $500,000 to the right‑wing Fraser Institute, well‑known for its ties to high‑profile climate change skeptics.

     Only two per cent of Canadians who responded to a new opinion poll believe climate change is not occurring, according to a recent Canadian Press article.

     The findings are in a survey of 1550 people conducted in early June by Insightrix Research, for IPAC‑CO2 Research Inc., a Regina-based centre that studies carbon capture and storage.

     "Our survey indicates that Canadians from coast to coast overwhelmingly believe climate change is real and is occurring, at least in part due to human activity," said centre CEO Carmen Dybwad.

     Almost one‑third (32 per cent) said they believe climate change is happening because of human activity. Another 54 per cent believe it's because of human activity and partially due to natural climate variation. Nine per cent blame natural climate variation, and only two per cent deny that climate change is occurring at all.

     According to the survey, Prairie respondents are least likely to believe that climate change is occurring due to human activity, while residents of Quebec, Atlantic Canada and British Columbia are most likely to hold this belief.

     In related news, the Greenland ice cap was melting at a record pace with a month left to go in the summer season. Researchers at New York's City College said in August that the ice cap had already set records for the extent of melting over its surface and the amount of ice exposed to warming air temperatures.

     Greenland's ice cap and Arctic sea ice are considered to play an important role in regulating climate over the rest of the planet.

(The above article is from the September 1-15, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)