Wildrose needs to get real on climate change to be taken seriously

Here’s a friendly suggestion for the Wildrose.

If you want to be taken seriously on the issue of climate change, take climate change seriously.

Don’t pretend there’s a debate over the science or argue that the climate is always changing. And don’t use Twitter to circulate articles calling it a hoax.

The latest fumble on the climate change file comes from Wildrose MLA Tany Yao, who re-tweeted a link on May 22 with the heading: “Greenpeace Co-Founders Warns of Global Climate Change Scam/Global Warming Hoax!”

The link takes you to a YouTube video of Patrick Moore, a former president of Greenpeace, giving a 30-minute presentation denigrating the notion of humaninduced climate change.

Moore has been an outspoken critic of global warming for years and has been roundly criticized by climate scientists who, unlike Moore, have been doing real research.

Moore’s views are not new, except, it seems, to Yao, who thought them intriguing enough to re-tweet along with the “Global Warming Hoax!” headline.

Why would a Wildrose MLA circulate a tweet on an issue that has proven to be a quagmire for the party?

In the 2012 provincial election campaign, then-Wildrose leader Daniel Smith was ridiculed for questioning the science of climate change.

To put the issue behind him, and the party, Wildrose leader Brian Jean has said repeatedly: “Man-made climate change is real and we need to tackle it head-on.”

So, why would Yao drag the issue up again?

“Just because I re-tweeted it doesn’t mean I endorse it,” said Yao in a brief phone conversation on Wednesday.

He thought it interesting a former Greenpeace leader would raise questions about climate change.

“I do believe in climate change,” he added.

OK, if he believes in climate change, why re-tweet an article that calls it a hoax? Or, in the exclamatory rhetoric of deniers, a “Hoax!”

“I’m pretty much in the middle of the road on this,” said Yao. “I believe we’re affecting the climate but I don’t know to what extent.”

Yao is flirting with the kind of passive-aggressive language used by climate change deniers to avoid taking action to address the problem.

It’s the kind of language Alberta’s NDP government — particularly Environment Minister Shannon Phillips — loves to use as a club to beat the Wildrose over the head.

In March, when Wildrose MLA Rick Strankman seemed to be questioning the science of global warming during question period, Phillips was on her feet in a flash to remind everyone of the 2012 election campaign: “It’s quite interesting that I’m going to have to rise in this house and explain the science of climate change to an opposition caucus, half a dozen of whom ran on a platform of rejecting the science.”

These days, Phillips is itching for a fight with the Wildrose over climate change.

She’s hoping her new Climate Leadership Implementation Act will draw the official Opposition into a debate over how Alberta can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. And, ideally for Phillips, expose the party as a bunch of climate change deniers.

But the Wildrose isn’t rising to the bait.

It has focused its attacks on the government’s carbon tax, turning a debate over the environment into a debate over the economy. It’s an effective move politically, allowing the Wildrose MLAs to attack the government without outlining a plan of their own.

Of course, you could call the stance cynical and disingenuous.

But, come to think of it, NDP leader Rachel Notley refused to release a climate change platform of her own during the 2015 provincial election, saying, “we probably deserve a month or two” to come up with a plan if she won the election.

For Notley, the best plan was to have no plan.

It seems the Wildrose has come to the same conclusion.

The big difference is Notley intended to come up with a plan eventually.

And none of her MLAs were retweeting about a “Global Warming Hoax!”