How do you tackle climate change without reliable data?

Without good, reliable data it becomes virtually impossible to create effective policy.

Nobel Prize-winning scientists from Canada say the Harper government is failing to protect the country from the dangers of global warming because it has shut down a federal climate change research network and blocked new studies on the impact of rising greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.

The scientists, among a few dozen Canadians who were part of the team of international experts that won the Nobel Peace Prize after producing this year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report on the latest research on global warming, say changes in the atmosphere are happening faster than anticipated. But without adequate research, Canada and other world leaders won’t know what policies or targets could stop human activity from causing dangerous changes to the climate.

“I can only put it down as one of two things,” said Dr. Andrew Weaver, a climatologist from the University of Victoria’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences. “It’s vindictive, because the climate science community has been quite outspoken about the need for dealing with global warming, or stupidity, and not really knowing what’s going on out there, because they don’t consult the (environment) ministry.”