Climate change journalism

Credit where credit is due.

In his column today on why Canada lags on reducing greenhouse gases Jeffrey Simpson says something that all reporting on the Chrétien-Martin climate change record should note:

Successive Liberal governments failed miserably on the climate-change file, but the record shows that even the Liberals' modest measures were opposed tooth and nail by the Reform Party, the Canadian Alliance and the Conservative Party.

The Conservatives' credibility on this issue isn't great anyway, but their active role in slowing down Canada's response is something about which we need to remind ourselves. Compare Simpson's clarity and insight with his colleague John Ibbitson's pathetic column a couple of weeks ago commented on previously by TC. All references to the weaknesses in the Liberal record ought to highlight the Conservative role in making it what it was.

In the week that the G8 leaders did at least accept the science of climate change even if their response to it remains weak, the possibility of global warming's connection to the increasing intensity of hurricanes was highlighted by the Indian Ocean cyclone Gonu, which struck Oman and Iran. Simon Donner comments here and links to this interesting post here.