On January 27, 2011 I wrote to my Member of Parliament, Minister Gary Lunn, to ask him to provide me with a list of climate scientists who have briefed the Federal Cabinet about climate change. Here is my email.




Here is Minister Lunn's reply. I received it yesterday.




You may find the letter hard to read so here is the last paragraph cropped and enlarged. The first paragraph says that the Conservative Government is doing a fine job regarding climate and refers me to an enclosed two page document telling me about their "substantive efforts".






You can see that Minister Lunn sidestepped my question.

I had wished to check on the credentials of scientists he would identify. I wanted to know if they were climate scientists publishing peer-reviewed research. Secondly I wanted to confirm with the scientists themselves that they had indeed briefed the Cabinet. I am worried about our climate and consider it to be the greatest danger facing the human race today.

Since Minister Lunn has continued the Conservative Government's practice of non-transparency, diversion and distraction, I decided to publish Minister Lunn's letter.

The letter from MInister Lunn is paternalistic and evasive.

To be blunt, it is an insult to an intelligent, responsible citizen.

Dr. Andrew Weaver is a Nobel Prize winning climate scientist at the University of Victoria. He has been attacked by the climate denying crowd. This would be okay if the attackers stuck to the truth. However, one Tim Ball has not done so.

A website, Canada Free Press, has hosted some writing by Tim Ball which contained falsehoods about Dr. Weaver. It has now posted a retraction and an apology. With climate science under such vicious attack these days, it is excellent to see this happening. Read the apology HERE and an article about it HERE.

And remember to turn off the bathroom light.

Over and out.

love and peace.

The SIU can't find one G20 cop to charge & yet the world watched 100s of citizens being assaulted, abused & falsely arrested.

Cops witnessed cops abusing citizens. Thousands of cops witnessed other cops assaulting citizens of Canada. Hey cops, no strength of character to come forward? Youtube is full of video of police brutality. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has sworn testimony of people abused subsequent to arrest.

How about those giving the orders? To have so many cops act abusively without a thought of possible consequences can only mean one thing, a blessing/order from above.

The code of silence of cops is unethical & is a prerequisite for a government to illegal suppress lawful protest by its citizens. That's what has happened.

Canada is a police state now.



SIU initially denied the use of rubber bullets until photographic and video evidence surfaced. Count on them to lie. No good can come of that approach.




Natalie Gray of Maple Ridge, B.C shortly after being hit by two rubber bullets.

Canada has no climate legislation.

The NDP sponsored Bill C-311, Canada's only climate bill, was passed by our elected representatives in Parliament. The majority of our elected representatives voted in favour of this bill, not once but three times. It then was sent to the Canadian Senate for debate and "sober second thought" before it could become law.

The democratic process was hijacked by the Conservatives when a surprise vote in the Senate was taken, pre-empting discussion, rendering second thought non-existent.

This sleazy, manipulative move by Harper & Co. annuls democratic process. It should appall anyone, of any political stance, who holds democracy as a value. It's an attack of the values and rights of Canadian citizenship.

Further, we are facing a climate emergency on this planet. Canada does not have climate legislation. Bill C-311 would have introduced national climate accountability and the beginnings of a constructive, forward thinking set of laws, policies and practices. To disregard democratic process in this area is particularly dangerous and unconscionable.

In usurping democratic process to kill Bill C-311, the Tories have betrayed the land and people they govern. They've snubbed the safety and security of younger generations and generations to come.

My Dad landed on Juno Beach, Normandy, 6 days after D-Day, a signaler with an infantry regiment. He stayed on the front until the last day of the war. He came back hating war. He didn't go for anything that portrayed war as anything but crappy. He avoided the back-slapping displays amongst even vets, though he understood them. He was decorated. Said the army gave it to him for brushing his teeth every day. He taught us that the poppy was a symbol of remembrance of what war really is, as well as remembrance of the war dead.

My Mother saw the war as a nurse in a veterans hospital in Canada, nursing the young men who were sent there from the war. She taught us this: "No one wins a war."

My friend Ric, a veteran of the Vietnam War is much the same as my folks. He hates war too. He says. "Keep the peace in peace."

This is a poppy my Dad sent to my Mom. He picked it in a field in which Canadians died.

If you'd like to visit Gemanfushi School, you probably have a long way to go. Here is where it is:



As described in the billblog of October 21, on 10-10-10 I was with a workgroup that was linked via Skype with Swaroop Saresh, a science teacher at Gemanafushi School, Republic of Maldives.

Swaroop sent his report to members of our work group and posted his information to an online forum HERE.

Noteworthy is that the Gemanafushi School 10-10-10 event took all day long and that it affected most of the community. It involved extensive preparations, teams working to gather tons(!) of plastic and metals from the beaches and a rally involving, remarkably, 50% of the community. There were speeches, a march, and a display of people forming the the numerals, 350 10-10-10 -- photographed from the air. There was a tree-planting finale. After the events of the day, Swaroop headed to his computer to join with us in Seattle USA and Victoria Canada.

In Swaroop's report there is this powerful event:

"Everyone took oath to join their hands to conserve the atmosphere by reducing carbon emission and signed a canvas to show their fortitude."

The average elevation of Gemanafushi Island is a mere foot and a half above sea level. Unless global carbon emissions are reduced and virtually eliminated, Gemanafushi and the Republic of Maldives will be swamped with violent storms and a rising sea level. It will cease to exist.

I pledge to work to the fullest that I am able toward the elimination of carbon emissions. Gemanafushi School inspires and motivates me.

Photos of the events of the day sent by Swaroop are in a display here HERE, and are used with Swaroop's permission. Do take a good look at them. (Simply click on a thumbnail to enlarge it.)

Students, Teachers and Principal of Gemanafushi School, thank you. You are a positive example for the world.

A excellently done video from pipeupagainstenbridge.ca,



I hope you'll get informed and do your part. Conserve our common wealth.

On Sunday, October 10, I attended a "Bring Your Own Laptop" work party associated with the 350.org global day of climate solutions, otherwise known as 10-10-10. Check out the 350.org site for the fullest dose of information about this wonderful event.

CBC along with much of mainstream media neglected to give 10-10-10 worthwhile coverage. On their website, CBC had nothing to say and tv-radio coverage was lame. (In fairness to the CBC website, I would like to point out that they did cover another 10-10-10 phenomenon.)Although mainstream media failed, the internet rose mightily to the occasion: There were 7,347 events in 188 countries. That is huge. That happened because hundreds of thousands of us, possibly millions of us, participated. That also means that millions more care because those that showed up for work group undoubtedly represent a small percentage of caring, concerned and worried global citizens.

As noted above, I attended one such 10-10-10 event. But let me go back to the beginning of the story.

In the past I have included information from a site I admire and utilize frequently, CO2Now.org. The widget with the earth coming out of a toaster that you see in the sidebar of this blog is from that site. There are in fact many widgets to choose from at CO2Now.org. They are free. Help yourself.

As an aside, the toaster widget was designed by Toronto artist, Franke James. Franke is an artist focussed upon climate health and a person who not only communicates uniquely, creatively and effectively, but also walks the walk. Franke and I met on twitter. Go figure. Find some time to visit Franke's website. It will draw you in, educate you, inspire you and entertain you.

Every month, CO2Now.org posts the level of atmospheric CO2 along with charts providing context. The amount of CO2 in our atmosphere is steady rising. Seeing it portrayed graphically is stunning.

A few months ago I wrote to the person responsible for CO2now.org and discovered that he, Michael McGee, is a ten minute bicycle ride from my front door. Sweet. Take a look through MIchael McGee's remarkable, generous and useful work, CO2Now.org.

It was Michael who inivited me to the 10-10-10 work group at his home. See how it works out? I wrote a single email and presto, I am part of a global happening. I am also motivated to use less carbon-based energy — more motivated than before.

Six of us met at MIchael's home in the morning of 10-10-10 -- October 10, 2010. Two members of the work group attended via, Skype. Jason a marine biologist from Stanford University joined us from Seattle. Swaroop, a high school science teacher, in a time zone putting him in the post-midnight of his day, joined us from The Republic of Maldives. As you may know, the elevation of The Maldives is on average one and a half metres. If the oceans rise, it will disappear. Swaroop noted that his particular island has an elevation of one and a half feet! To have Swaroop attend brought the reality of man-made global warming into our awareness profoundly. Thank you, Swaroop. Much gratitude.

Swaroop's presence was via audio due to bandwidth constraints. Nonetheless, the impact of his offering to the group was potent, especially when he said these words:

"Please help us to help our generations to live."

I learned that increasing storm-activity which salinate arable land is a problem in the Maldives. Adding to this, there is fish stock disruption due to climate impact upon the oceans. Swaroop said that last year they were down to one month's supply of food for a period of time.

The Republic of Maldives has pledged carbon-neutrality by 2020. Canada, by comparison, has pledged a 17% of 2005 levels by 2020, aligned with the USA.

I look forward to working with Michael and the others in this workgroup, joining with others around the globe, in support of "climate health", a term I heard for the first time on 10-10-10.

Jason and Swaroop are on the two laptops on the left.




This great shot was taken by Michael's son.

The observant among you will notice that the last offering on the billblog was back in July. The last post consisted of a graphic from C02Now.org, linked to that wonderful site. I needed to take a break.

In the meantime, some evil deed doers hacked my site. I discovered this when Google sent me a nice letter telling me so. They also put up this page to greet visitors to my site:



I'm grateful to Google for this. Believe me.

I used an FTP tool to see if I could find any nasty files anywhere. Nope. I did a search of the site using the filenames provided by Google. Yup. I deleted the files and did another search and concluded that hidden files answering the call of my search. I'll skip the details of how I figured this out. It motivated me to delete the whole site. After pondering for a while, I wrote to my webspace provider asking them to sandblast the whole thing and set me up with a brand spanking new webspace with a new password and account name. With an up-to-date version of one of the highest rated security applications for mac, Intego's VirusBarrier X6, I repeatedly scanned my hard drive which included all of the site files. All clear, every scan. I do not know how my site was hacked.

I've disabled comments, at least for the time being. Comments are not stored in an onsite data base but with a cloud-based service so that is an unlikely source of the hack, but I don't know for sure. I am having geekly consulting sessions to see if I can figure out if anything at my end of things has a hole. If it is the webspace provider's security issue then they are no doubt on it. I've been impressed in the past with their security protocols. They jumped on my request for assistance in a blink.

You can feel safe visiting my site now. It looks the same, but it's all new.

In another time & place, I'd be your shaman, oracle or sage. This time & place isn't the only 1 that counts. July is Mad Pride month. http://bit.ly/9EG9UT

Just say NO (thank you) to the stigma.

The G20 Protest that was Stolen from the Peaceful Majority and Never Told - June 26, 2010 - Toronto, Ontario from Michael Napiorkowski on Vimeo.

"I attended the peaceful protest march in response to the G20 on June 26, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario and continued with the peaceful protest into the night. The movement was huge, powerful and filled with amazing energy. The messages were strong and creatively expressed through signs, music, dance, poetry and pure solidarity. However, I was saddened by the media's shallowness of coverage and obsessive focus on the acts of vandalism by a small group to the complete exclusion of the peaceful majority who carried a strong and extremely important message to the world, so I decided to share another perspective with the footage and images that I captured during the weekend. I purposely left out the broken windows and damaged police cars that I encountered along the way because they do not represent anything that the majority were protesting or experiencing. There was a horrible disservice committed against democracy during the weekend by the mainstream media, by oversized and overreaching security presence, and by the unjustifiable fear that was instilled in the minds of the public by the government. These courageous protesters should be applauded for being actively engaged in their democracy and seeking justice for the marginalized. They are the ones who are truly looking out for us, for our children and for future generations." - Michael Napiorkowski

Meet Officer "Bubbles" in the vid below. He epitomizes the Toronto police and G20 Security people. He's rude, intimidating, coercive and disproportionately aggressive. I suspect his behaviour is jerky in other ways as well. He cares little for Charter Rights and Freedoms and he has the sense of humour of an angry two year old. Take a look at the young woman he is being mean to. Are you kidding me, Officer Bubbles? And catch that first look by the female officer beside Officer Bubbles as she realizes what kind of spiel he is about to do. Is she embarrassed to be standing beside him or am I reading too much into her facial expression?




Officer Bubbles got under my skin even though his behaviour is mild compared to the criminal behaviour of many other police officers, the ones who assaulted and injured peaceful citizens, who ripped a prosthetic leg off an amputee (because he might take it off himself and use it as a weapon!), and the ones who tossed innocent citizens into cages, denied them legal counsel, food, water and sanitation.

The following vid is from the same neighbourhood of Toronto. My daughter used to live there. It got me thinking about how this kind of oppression could be mounted in anyone's neighbourhood, anywhere in Canada. In asking police forces to serve and protect us, are we safe from them and those who control them? Do you want to trade the security provided by police services for the loss of Charter Rights? Is that a fair thing to ask of a population? What if it is not even being asked? What if it simply is ordered, part of a big plan by unseen individuals?



Of course police forces across the country are watching Toronto to see what they can get away with in the future. The cages purchased for the G20 and used to detain a thousand in Toronto can be easily transported to any location in Canada -- far easier than building jails for mass arrest. Canada now has the capability to incarcerate masses of people in short order -- anywhere in the country. That is what the G20 has done for us. The mechanisms and tools are in place. A billion dollars didn't buy just security for the G20 bosses. It bought the tools, procedures and protocols for trammeling dissent and incarcerating hundreds, if not thousands. It bought a big step toward the police state that the conspiracy theorists keep yammering about. A billion dollars of our money has been used to buy what is needed to oppress us.

The only thing missing is the legal right to behave as they did and yet, the police acted as if they did have the legal right to behave as they did. The often brutal "catch and release" strategy is abhorrent as well as patently illegal. Is it a precursor to the legalization of extraordinary police powers at the whim of politicians or even police chiefs or upper level bureaucrats?

We cannot let them get away with the illegalities and injustices of the Toronto G20. We must support all initiatives to bring to justice the criminal elements among police, their leaders and their political bosses. We must not only take back the streets, but take back our country. It is more than a matter of shameful behaviour by a police force. Much more. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been violated multiple times. The police have committed assault multiple times. Citizens have been deprived, humiliated, victimized and traumatized by those who are charged with protecting them. Peaceful dissent has been re-framed as criminal behaviour, though it is the response to peaceful dissent that has been criminal.

We are being tested. Some people want to be able to exercise absolute authority over us at some point in the future. Is this such a far fetched notion now?