Kenney’s views on climate change? Still thinks it’s an ongoing multiple-side debate

For immediate release
March 15, 2018

EDMONTON – Jason Kenney thinks there’s still a debate about anthropogenic climate change, stating, “climate change, of course, is a permanent factor of the natural environment.” He also stated he’s held his current views for 20 months. He was an MP for more than 19 years.

In his interview yesterday with journalists, Kenney said there was still debate, stating, “Listen, I think there is a legitimate range of perspectives about uh um, exactly to what degree anthropogenic causes are behind climate change.”^[1]

Kenney justified his views by citing Bjorn Lomborg, a political science professor who does not support the Paris agreement. That agreement commits Canada to take action on climate change, a position Kenney’s own federal Conservatives voted to support in 2017.^[2]

Kenney has doubted climate change in the past. He’s tweeted previously, “Co2 is not pollution. Life would cease to exist without it. Our forests breathe Co2.”^[3] In fact, CO₂ emissions are one of the leading causes of anthropogenic climate change.

NASA, summarizing the international consensus, states, “On Earth, human activities are changing the natural greenhouse… a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations concluded there's a more than 95 percent probability that human activities over the past 50 years have warmed our planet.”^[4]

Newsflash to Kenney: the only debate is in your caucus. Man-made climate change is real.

-30-

[1] Legislative Assembly scrum. March 14 2018.

[2] House of Commons. June 6 2017. http://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/votes/42/1/308/

[3] Twitter. March 29 2016. https://twitter.com/jkenney/status/715022404825837568

[4] NASA. March 15 2018. https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/