You can always count on...

...the Fraser Institute to toe the neo-con party line. In this case, the party line is that global warming, if it exists, isn't caused by human activity. Why do I bring this up, well because the Fraser Institute has mailed to my school, and undoubtedly every school in at least Alberta, a copy of Great Global Warming Swindle. For those of you unaware of this great "masterpiece" of British television, it claims to show that global warming is just a big conspiracy. By cherry picking data, charts and misquoting scientists, the program attempts to counter act the massive weight of peer reviewed science showing human activity as a problem in global warming. Now I'm not going to critique the program as others have done a good job of that here, here, here, here, and here.

That a program with such obvious flaws is being pushed by the Fraser Institute does little to help the Institute's reputation for being nothing more than a mouthpiece for the neo-cons. That the Fraser Institute's research is blinded by ideology is common knowledge, this just reinforces that, but now they're going after the children of Canada. Nothing new really, but I though I should mention to those of you out there with kids that there's a good chance your child's school received this program from the Fraser Institute along with an accompanying booklet called Understanding Climate Change by one Nicholas Schneider. A quick read, the book doesn't outright claim that there's no global warming and that Humans are in part responsible, but uses couches its language in such a way that it spreads some FUD into the concept. All in all an attempt by the Institute to blunt any possible regulation into GHG's.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone's child's school has also received the mailing. As I said, I suspect that it's gone to all the schools here in Alberta, but don't know about the rest of the country.