The Prince of Darkness says he'll let "science" determine the fate of the Northern Gateway and, presumably, Kinder-Morgan bitumen trafficking proposals.
Harper insisted Tuesday a decision on major projects such as the Northern Gateway will be made independently by scientists examining the “economic costs and risks” associated with the project.
Science, what science? The science of economic costs?
The Northern Gateway could invite a great deal of scientific scrutiny. He might begin by looking at bitumen trafficking from a climate science perspective. What are the scientific implications of piping dil-bit to the coast, transporting however much of it isn't lost to tanker catastrophes to China, refining it into a usable product in China and then burning it in some end use. Hydrographers, oceanographers and marine biologists might have some insights into the probable consequences of a supertanker disaster in Vancouver harbour or out in the Hecate Strait or Dixon Entrance.
Who is to explore the economic costs to the climate ravaged corners of the world from the hefty carbon emissions associated with the filthiest fossil fuel on the planet? What science will examine the risks of a pipeline operated by Enbridge? Isn't that something best left to professional gamblers, seasoned odds-makers?
And, about these scientists. Will they be gagged as you have gagged all government scientists since you came to office? Will they be assigned minders, handlers if you will, in keeping with your Stalinist ways? Will your Commissars be unleashed to "tell" the public what these scientists supposedly conclude?
Steve, you promised Canada so much - honesty, accountability, transparency. You promised that explicitly. And then you delivered dishonesty, unaccountability, ironclad secrecy instead. And, having shown yourself to be, hands down, the least democratic prime minister in Canadian history, you want us to believe some fanciful tale about scientists making the call on the Northern Gateway and similar projects? The last thing you're going to want is honest science.
Harper and his gang are deceitful, pompous idiots. That is all anyone needs to know about them.
ReplyDelete"by scientists examining the “economic costs and risks” associated with the project"...
ReplyDeleteI was also going to point that out. Seems to me the journalists didn't catch that. Maybe he thinks his corporatist economists are scientists?
Yes, the eternal debate over economics as a science. It is certainly no physical science nor is it particularly accommodating of the "scientific method." It is, at the very best, sort of a social science in which knowledge is often divined rather than deduced. Physical science can test some risks but that is a sphere that can go well outside science and, it strikes me, may properly belong in the realm of math and actuary.
ReplyDeleteThen again, this is Stephen Harper speaking, a man whose world view, shaped by fundamentalist superstition, is hardly amenable to facts and science of any sort. For him to pretend that the pipeline issue is not a purely political matter is to deny his previous decisions and pronouncements. The man is an utter charlatan no more concerned with his personal integrity than he is with the fate of our west coast.