“Human Health in a Changing Climate” Gets Harper’s “Low-Profile” Treatment
[UPDATE: As predicted, Ottawa tried to hide the report by making a low-key announcement with no details on its content, and then not making it available for downloading. Go here for details on how to bypass Tory censorship.]
Canada’s federal government, like its good friends in the White House, is hiding science it doesn’t like.
Last year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his cronies delayed From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate for months after it was completed, then released it very quietly, posting it in a hard-to-find section of the Natural Resources Canada website. As a result, detailed information on the impact of climate change on all regions of Canada received virtually no media coverage.
Today, the Globe and Mail reports that Harper plans to do exactly the same thing with Human Health in a Changing Climate: A Canadian Assessment of Vulnerabilities and Adaptive Capacity, a 500-page report that was supposed to be released in the spring.
No release date has been decided, but at an internal Health Canada conference call on July 3 the report’s authors were told to expect a “low-profile release” similar to the Natural Resources report.
In February, Dr. Peter Berry of Health Canada’s Climate Change and Health Office provided advance information about the new study to a meeting organized by Clean Air Hamilton.
Ironically, his presentation included a slide that said “The extent to which society is willing to expend resources to avoid the effects of climate change will depend in part on its perceptions of the risks posed by climate change….”
Of course, that’s exactly why Harper and crew are hiding the information.
Related reading
-
The 2007 From Impacts to Adaptation report is HERE.
-
Peter Berry’s February presentation in Hamilton is HERE.
-
We’ll post a link to the new Human Health report as soon as possible.