Chicken Little exists to this day

DO YOU remember the story of Chicken Little? The tiny chick was struck on the head by a falling acorn and decided that the sky must be falling. The little bird kept repeating the story so convincingly that soon all the other barnyard fowl were in a panic and they ran off to warn the king.

In the earliest version of this fable, they met a fox on the way who took advantage of their hysterical state and gobbled them up.

Today this fairy tale has come to life. Many well-meaning people, including NDP environment critic Nathan Cullen, have been taken in by Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Politicians of all stripes are hurriedly implementing carbon taxes and cap and trade schemes to soothe the afflicted consciences of Canadians who desperately want to help save Planet Earth. These carbon taxes will never be revenue neutral but are already playing a role in the skyrocketing price of oil and gasoline.

Cap and trade and carbon offsets do nothing to solve environmental problems but do add another level of taxpayer-funded bureaucracy, leaving even less money in the hands of Canadians to pay transportation and heating needs.

Mr. Cullen continues to promote this outlandish fairy tale in spite of the growing mountain of data that conflicts with the global warming hoax. To date, over 31,000 scientists have signed a petition to cease and desist from aggressive carbon-focused policies and treaties like Kyoto, which they say will damage our economy and impede our efforts to curb real pollution.

There is no evidence that miniscule increases in CO2 levels are contributing to global warming. Natural cycles have always existed and sunspot activity is most likely at the core of any real climate change. Unlike Al Gore’s hockey stick graph, historical evidence suggests that increases in CO2 levels follow periods of global warming, rather than preceding them. Some scientists point to evidence that the planet may even be entering a cooling phase.

Of course, conserving fossil fuels and developing viable alternative energy systems are good things to do but let’s not confuse the public by hyperventilating about “carbon”.

Canada has many other legitimate and urgent environmental problems, some of which we could actually do something about.

In Victoria, the capitol of British Columbia, raw sewage containing hundreds of toxic chemicals in addition to disease-bearing human waste, is flushed into the ocean every day. In the Prairie provinces, Canadian farmers spray Canadian wheat (up to four times per season) with herbicides and insecticides under the watchful eye of federal inspectors. Canadian children will eat that wheat.

Genetically modified food crops increase daily and Canadians are rightly demanding labeling legislation so they can know what’s in their food.

The environment is a huge topic and should also include the moral 1environment in which our children are growing up. When we talk about climate change, we should also consider the changing political, social and educational climates, which seem increasingly hostile to the time-tested family values that defined our nation. We cannot control sunspots but we should seek to please the One who can.

Fear and panic are tools used to manipulate and control people and to wring more money out of them for ever-expanding government.

Chicken Little and the alarmist flock may be making a flap in Parliament but it’s taxpayers who will have to pay when the chickens come home to roost.

Let’s take our finger off the panic button and focus on the things we can change: reducing real pollution, ensuring clean drinking water for ourselves and our children (that includes protecting the Sacred Headwaters, something upon which Mr. Cullen and I agree) and pursuing realistic energy alternatives for the future.

Rod Taylor is the Christian Heritage Party candidate for the Skeena - Bulkley Valley riding