TNM’s Editorial Stance On Climate Change ‘Mystifying’

The Northern Miner’s editorial comments on climate change leave me mystified. A recent example is the editorial in the Dec. 7- 13/09 issue, but the substance and tone have remained largely the same for years.

The object of criticism in the first part of the editorial (unsubstantiated, “salacious” allegations by NGOs and individuals against the mining industry) bears more than a passing resemblance to the editorial statements a few lines further down concerning climate change and those involved in its study (the most extreme of several examples: “Anthropogenic global warming is a hoax and possibly a fraud perpetuated by a segment of scientists and environmentalists eager for funding and anxious to advance a leftist agenda”).

It is hard to know how to react to statements that are at once so strident and disrespectful, and above all incorrect. The number and diversity of scientific studies concerning the topic of climate change is increasing all the time. They appear in refereed scientific journals and in the periodicals and reports of reputable, non-partisan scientific societies like American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, U.S. National Academy of Science, and their Canadian counterparts.

What is most striking about this range of works, both specific studies and summaries that attempt to synthesize many studies, is how the large, large majority of them point to the same conclusion: that global warming is happening, and that anthropogenic activities are the almost certain cause. “Almost” is a key word here — it acknowledges the uncertainty that accompanies any reputable scientific study. Yet the weight of evidence that is accumulating — weekly, monthly, yearly — in studies big and small, makes that uncertainty smaller and smaller. It is not compromised by the as-yet unknown extent and nature of impropriety at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, as troubling as that is.

I feel that the substance and especially tone of The Northern Miner’s position on climate change would benefit by adhering to the standards it applies to the reporting of mineral exploration and development.

–David Pattison Professor of geoscience, University of Calgary Calgary, Alta.