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Premier’s conclusions simplistic

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell is convinced that the West Coast’s temperatures, during last month’s Olympics, are a result of global warming.
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B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell is convinced that the West Coast’s temperatures, during last month’s Olympics, are a result of global warming.

Apparently, the former mayor of Vancouver somehow doesn’t know that Canada’s third largest city has a tendency to get positively balmy — even in February — from time to time.

It’s called weather. And believe it or not, Mr. Premier, as weather occurs, the temperature can fall or it can go up. It’s kind of magical in that way.

Campbell says he’s so convinced of an imminent threat, after warm weather made a soggy mess of Cypress Mountain, that he’s accelerating his campaign against global warming.

What that means is anyone’s guess, though it’s probably just a bunch of hot air as the premier surely would have addressed climate change prior to the Olympics if he really considered it a pressing concern.

After all, neighbour Ed Stelmach has promised to spend billions of dollars on untested carbon capture and storage projects that will probably only accomplish one thing: They will alleviate pressure on the big corporations involved in the oilsands to clean up their environmental nightmare, if the carbon projects ever come to fruition.

Like Campbell, Stelmach may be full of hot air.

In any case, it’s ludicrous to build an argument for or against global warming on the basis of temperatures during a three-week period, in one region of a Canadian province.

If it were that simple, we could conclude that global warming is a myth because Red Deer got a lot of snow in December. Similarly, we might conclude that climate change is credible because March is coming in like a lamb here in Central Alberta.

In other words, it’s important to distinguish between climate change and ordinary weather.

Is it any wonder that an opinion poll from Angus Reid Strategies, released in early 2010, shows that Campbell has the lowest approval rating of all Canadian premiers, standing at 21 per cent?

No, it’s not.

Campbell’s simplistic conclusions about global warming don’t even deserve a bronze medal.

Lee Giles is an Advocate editor.