Michael Byers

[Wondrous Nature @nature_c2ngn]

Glacier National Park 🏞️

[Michael Byers @Michael35153754]

“Climate activists and their political and media allies use this misleading term to refer to carbon dioxide (CO2), which is neither pollution nor carbon; it is a colorless, odorless gas essential to plant photosynthesis and, therefore, to all life on Earth.”

[Michael Byers @Michael35153754]

“Modern political language often uses ideologically-loaded terms that shape perception before any argument is even made.”
Tom Harris
#cdnpoli
e.g. Carbon pollution:

[CityVibesX @earthviewss1]

Alberta Canada 🇨🇦

[Conrad Black @ConradMBlack]

Prime Minister Carney’s address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg rested on several foundational errors.

The claim that freedom was won “thanks to the heroism of the European resistance” is historically false. Western Europe was liberated by the armed forces of the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. The subsequent emancipation of the Soviet empire was the product of the American strategy of containment. Canada’s role was particularly notable: a volunteer force from a country that had never been attacked or threatened by the Axis powers.

The European institutions have succeeded in reducing internal economic barriers and managing inter-state cooperation. As an economic administration, however, they have not been a success at all. In 2008 the GDP of Europe and the United States were roughly equal; the United States now stands at 140 percent of the EU’s. Much of this relative decline is attributable to the prolonged suppression of fossil fuels—an agenda Carney himself promoted for years.

Carney also omitted the decisive commercial reality: Canada sends roughly 70 percent of its exports to the United States (98% of which is unaffected by the recent tariffs) and only 6 percent to Europe. The United States accounts for half of the Canadian economy; Canada accounts for three percent of theirs. These proportions are not altered by elaborate metaphors about the transplantation of trees between Vimy and Milliken.

Until Canada recovers the relative prosperity it enjoyed with the United States a decade ago, there is little strategic sense in the prime minister travelling to the Rhine to deliver a wistful reflection on the failure of Canada and Europe to produce a superior political ethos while remaining economically competitive.

[Made In Canada @MadelnCanada]

The Icefield’s Parkway during the fall is absolutely beautiful ❤️🇨🇦🍂

[Michael Byers @Michael35153754]

Whereas the focus of the Canadian govt. should be on the quality of life of its citizens.
Is it surprising that there is no meeting of minds with the U.S. administration?

[Michael Byers @Michael35153754]

It seems to me that the leitmotif of the .@MarkJCarney govt. is an embrace of advocacy for mass immigration, illegal immigrants, Islamist terrorists, “woke” progressives, European-style socialists, and ethnic & sexual minorities.
#cdnpoli

[Earthglory @ab_cd_1235]

Glacier National Park 🏞️

[Earthglory @ab_cd_1235]

Banff National Park, Canada 🇨🇦

[Dan the Man @danschyk]

Larch Valley

[Conrad Black @ConradMBlack]

Mark Carney’s address to the European Parliament laid bare a familiar and costly delusion.

Having moved Canada past Britain as another country purporting to straddle Europe and the United States, the Prime Minister revealed in Strasbourg his authoritarian, Davosian leftist biases more clearly than he has to Canadians. He flattered his audience by rewriting the history of WW2, asserting that freedom was won “thanks to the heroism of the European resistance.” This is rubbish. Europe was liberated (from Germany) by the Americans, British and Canadians.

He neglected to mention that Canadian exports to the United States are ten times those to Europe, or that the United States accounts for more than a third of Canada’s economy. Both speaker and audience indulged a complete fantasy of reciprocal magnetic interest. It will not last long.

For twenty years the American economy has grown more than twice as fast as the European Union’s. Europe is wallowing economically; its principal powers flounder while only Italy presently possesses a serious government.

The romantic notion that the old European powers, having squandered their leadership in the world, can simply stand on one another’s shoulders and reclaim planetary primacy is a delusion.

[Michael Byers @Michael35153754]

“Canada’s Net Carbon Sinks Absorbs More Than Twice Our Emissions”
Friends of Science CliSci # 457
#cdnpoli
It seems to me that this should put to bed the need for CCS—Carbon Capture and Storage.

[Michael Byers @Michael35153754]

‘If we extend unlimited tolerance to those who are intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.’ In this sense, hyperliberals have been the enemies of freedom by allowing militaries to atrophy and borders to dissolve.”
Matthew Syed
#cdnpoli

[Michael Byers @Michael35153754]

It recognises that defending freedom requires powerful militaries, solid alliances and strong borders, otherwise fifth columnists will enter our nations and wreck that which we value.
As Karl Popper, the great theorist of open societies, put it . . .

[Michael Byers @Michael35153754]

“The extremists are not the “populist” right … It is the likes of Merkel and that broader generation of western leaders who presided over the two great sins of hyperliberalism: open borders and the betrayal of Nato.
Liberalism as an ideology is muscular and realistic.

[Michael Byers @Michael35153754]

What else would account for the political support of .@MarkJCarney ?
Do Canadians truly believe in and trust the geopolitical and moral clarity of his government?

[Michael Byers @Michael35153754]

It seems to me that a lot of Canadians are afflicted with authority bias—the human tendency to attribute undue accuracy and credibility to the opinion of authority figures.
#cdnpoli

[Ross McKitrick @RossMcKitrick]

Two important essays were published this week on the theme that the climate movement is now a serious national security risk for the US and Europe. This one in Tablet magazine:
https://t.co/Q6MwRRGklL
is by 2 authors, one from the Hudson Inst in DC and the other a professor at the Naval Postgrad Academy in CA. They trace the links between China and the western Net Zero movement, which is partly financial, but works mostly through influence operations by which the CCP gains exemption from criticism by western green groups despite its own coal-intensive and slave labor-dependent growth strategy.
This one:
https://t.co/SV6YJ0ufUr
is by Richard Dearlove, former head of MI5, explaining how China's influence ops in the UK led to deindustrialization and a precarious dependence on China; to the extent that the UK could not now reindustrialize or stabilize its electricity grid without seeking assistance from Beijing.
Dearlove's paper raises the possibility that a security agency like MI5 saw a threat building but was unable to address it because of a perception that climate science forbids criticizing Net Zero and related measures. A question I think worth asking is whether western intelligence agencies have internalized the green Net Zero mindset thereby preventing them from challenging the climate alarmism so effectively weaponized by the CCP. And if they now want to start doing so, would they know how, or have the capacity to do so.

[Conrad Black @ConradMBlack]

The trade imbroglio with the United States is escalating and ramifying in ways that are potentially dangerous. The Carney government refuses to release the final offer or produce the conclusive evidence that would settle whether the prime minister was reacting to provocative American attempts to change the deal at the last minute. As long as that doubt exists, it is going to be difficult to conduct the war that Mr. Carney has instigated. Juvenile acts such as booing and shouting down the American national anthem are stirring up unprecedented hostility toward Canada in a country of 350 million people with a GDP of US$32 trillion.

There has never been one word of justification for breaking off negotiations that still offered this country unequalled access to by far the greatest and most swiftly growing market in the world. Of course we must pursue our national interest, but with this uneven correlation of forces it is poor tactics to escalate the disagreement. Mr. Carney seems to take himself for the global David firing his slingshot at the orange-tufted Goliath, overtly trying to hurt Trump in the midterm elections while bandying recondite asides about the ancient Greeks. This is not Finland resisting Russia in 1940; it is more like Romania declaring war on Germany in 1915.

Canada is completely dependent on the United States for almost 70 percent of its exports and for its military security. Leaping into the arms of the Chinese who conducted a form of genocide on the Uighurs, meddled in Canadian elections, and proudly continue the legacy of Mao Tse-tung is not an acceptable answer. Nor is continuing the helter-skelter policies that have put terrible pressure on housing costs, produced a fertility rate of 1.25, and made us the suicide capital of the world. If our cause is righteous, this could be a chance for Canada to demonstrate moral strength and a mature nationality. Self-impoverishment and primal-scream therapy will not achieve it.