National Affairs
Some won't let facts get in the way
Claire Hoy
Dtalks, then U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt quipped that, "repetition does not transform a lie into a truth."

Which brings us, of course, to Canadian environmental icon - or menace, depending upon your point of view - David Suzuki and his repeated depictions of climate not only as absolutely cataclysmic, but all the fault of those fabled profit-seeking big business tycoons and their political surrogates.

And so it was late last month, that Suzuki told a receptive audience at the opening session of the McGill Business Conference - where you would have hoped there would be at least some critical thinking - that, "You all think growth and (climate) change is normal. It's not."

Actually, it is. If there is one thing that is changeable about both growth and climate change it is that it is changeable. This doesn't mean there are legitimate concerns or even things that humans can do to mitigate against the bad parts of change. But it's just simply wrong, wrong, wrong, to say that climate change is abnormal.

But Suzuki's hubris wasn't done yet. Not by a long shot.

He then went on to tell his awe-inspired crowd that, "What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there's a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they're doing (on the environment) is a criminal act." He later dispatched one of his paid minions to claim that his comments about jailing those he disagrees with weren't to be taken literally.

Really? Well, he didn't apparently see fit to tell that to the useful idiots in the crowd who, according to the McGill Daily, let out a huge ovation when he said it.

Nor did he explain the fact that he'd said the same thing earlier in the week while addressing students at the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall, claiming, according to undenied published reports of his speech, that, "What our government is not doing is a criminal act" and our leaders "should go to jail for what they're not doing right now."

Suzuki apparently opened his discussion with a 1992 pamphlet containing a "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" and claiming the "frightening"warnings on ozone depletion and acid rain had been ignored. Again, that's not true. Suzuki must know that both those issues have been largely resolved since then. If he doesn't, what does that say about his "scientific" credentials? If he does, what does that say about him?

It has been the experience of your correspondence - with over four decades flailing around in the world of journalism behind me - that, with a few exceptions, those who consider themselves the most "liberal" in their views are, in fact, the least "liberal" when it comes to accommodating those with whom they disagree.

Rather than make a persuasive case through reason - and, dare we say it given the cult status of Suzuki, Gore et al, some actual facts - it's far easier to repeat the same nonsense over and over again - our "disappearing" polar bears come to mind, even though their population is fivefold what it was 50 years ago - and then simply demand that those who disagree be put in jail.

After all, anyone with the nerve to question the Gospels of Suzuki and Gore must clearly be either a)-a complete idiot or b)-a paid hack in the employ of Big Oil or c)-both of the above.

As mentioned earlier, it would be encouraging to think that audiences of university students - particularly business students - would be a little less susceptible to the current environmental propaganda machine and at least recognize that without economic growth they would not be enjoying their privileged places in our society.

Again, it's not a question of unfettered economic growth, any more than it is one for suggesting there is no need whatsoever to exercise restraint on polluters.

The difference is, most people think that with a little planning, both things can co-exist.

It's only the zealots who see it as absolute and they certainly aren't going to let the facts - or common sense - interfere with their mission.

Pity some of their well-educated disciples can't seem to get past that.