ICSC counters 24 hour anti-pipeline appeal by The Climate Reality Project, 350.org and other climate activists

Ottawa, Canada -   “In their deliberations about the Keystone XL pipeline, the United States Senate must completely ignore the alarmist and unfounded claims of Al Gore , 350.org and their climate campaigner allies,” said Tom Harris, executive director of the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) which is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.

“Climate campaigners oppose these pipelines because they are trying to stop oil sands development in general,” explains ICSC science advisor Brian Pratt , Professor of Geology at the University of Saskatchewan . “This is because they believe that dangerous global warming will occur as a result of the carbon dioxide (CO₂ ) released during extraction, refining and later combustion of the hydrocarbon fuel derived from the oil sands. ”

“But the geologic record does not show this to be the case,” Pratt continues. “We have had far higher CO₂ levels in the past and during these periods it was in fact, at times, very cold.”

On December 15, 2011 four leading climate experts testified before the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources . The witnesses clearly demonstrated that humanity’s CO₂ emissions are not driving climate change. One of the scientists testifying, University of Ottawa Earth Sciences Professor Ian D. Clark , also an ICSC science advisor, summed up the session, “…CO₂ has played no role in the dramatic climate change of the ice ages, or at any other time over the past 500 million years. Only in unverified computer models cited by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change does CO₂ drive climate change. Yet, Canada and other countries base exorbitantly expensive policy decisions on these flawed models.”

“Other concerns about Keystone XL— the potential for oil spills and land rights issues—must be dealt with through appropriate safety measures, route selection and respectful negotiations with land owners,” concludes Harris. “But the idea that even a doubling the 0.1% of the world’s CO₂ emissions, wrongly referred to as “carbon pollution” by Gore, that currently comes from the oil sands will somehow disrupt global climate is obviously unfounded.”

The ICSC is a non-partisan group of scientists, economists and energy and policy experts who are working to promote better understanding of climate science and related policy worldwide. We aim to help create an environment in which a more rational, open discussion about climate issues emerges, thereby moving the debate away from implementation of costly and ineffectual “climate control” measures. Instead, ICSC encourages effective planning for, and adaptation to, inevitable natural climate variability, and continuing scientific research into the causes and impacts of climate change.