Wednesday’s Calgary Sun brought the triumphal announcement that we can stop worrying about global warming: “GLOBAL SCAM; KYOTO MAY JUST BE BAD SCIENCE.” The story, by Editor Licia Corbella, opened by saying:

“Many of the world’s top climatologists who live right here in Canada, have not even bothered to take a short train ride to attend the meeting. Why? Well, let’s ask Dr. Tim Patterson, a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences (paleoclimatology) at Carleton University in Ottawa and a world-renowned expert in the field.”

“I can’t be bothered,” he replied from his university office. “It’s just a waste of time.

“The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a UN body) is primarily a political operation and the scientists have pretty much been cut out of it. Nobody at that meeting in Montreal wants to hear scientific fact; they want to make posters and make uninformed proclamations and policy based on untruths,” said Patterson.

No question that this Kyoto meeting is more a policy session than a science fair. It’s true, too, that Dr. Patterson is renowned in climate circles. Call any Canadian climate scientists – anywhere in the country – and whoever answers will be able to tell you that Patterson is one of four working (and one retired) Canadian academics who can consistently be counted upon to argue for inaction.

Here’s a challenge to Ms. Corbella. If there are indeed “many” Canadian scientists who doubt the consensus, let her produce them and attest to their bona fides. Otherwise, let her give the space to the considerably larger crowd pressing Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to start taking this issue seriously.