Doug Ford’s gas pump stickers hid an uglier truth link.medium.com/LaQbw5g4Lab #onpoli #climatedenial #stickers #ClimateChange
2. It started as a comedy - who among us didn't laugh as the (misleading) anti-carbon tax stickers literally came unstuck due to cheap glue? I mean, what does Doug 'Deco Labels and Tags' Ford know about stickers anyway?
3. Then it morphed into a satire of the courtroom procedural, as the Ford government’s expert witness tried to defend not including any info on the rebates on the grounds that Ontarians are too stupid to grasp anything more complicated than a bumper sticker slogan
4. Cue the narrator voice-over informing viewers that this was not, in fact, a winning argument.
5. Dig a little deeper into who the government picked as their expert witness — the American Enterprise Institute’s Benjamin Zycher — and you have the makings of a gritty political drama.
6. Looks like a terrible casting decision. Zycher defends Trump’s claim that climate change is a hoax & is a featured speaker @ Heritage Foundation conference that advertises itself as being for those “who are brave enough to publicly tell the truth about the CLIMATE DELUSION.”
7. He's the guy you hire to argue that governments shouldn’t even try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because “there is no ‘consensus’ among scientists about climate science” & “opposition to fossil fuels is fundamentally antihuman"
8. The Ford government publicly accepts climate science, but has dabbled in denial cbc.ca/news/canada/to…
9. Storyline goes for poetic justice, as Minister Rickford's own words (“we’re going to stick it to the Liberals and remind the people of Ontario how much this job-killing regressive carbon tax costs”) are key evidence in court ruling that gas pump stickers are unconstitutional.
10. Which leads us to the mystery: why hire a hyper-partisan US-based climate denier -- best known for attacking Republicans who dare suggest the party propose some for of climate policy -- to prove your legislation is non-partisan and respectful of evidence?
11. Answer: Zycher argues that for conservatives, admitting climate change is a problem that can be solved “is to lose the game & much more, immediately…. We cannot defeat climate alarmism & the fundamental threat to freedom that it represents unless we defend first principles"
12. His proposed course of action? "In the context of climate policy, watchful waiting and adaptation over time is the only sensible approach consistent with [those first principles].”
13. Political drama -> disaster movie. "Watchful waiting" = do nothing to prevent future warming by reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Adaptation (here) = the rich move to higher ground & put up walls to keep out those displaced by rising sea levels, extreme storms & ruined crops
14. "Watchful waiting & adaptation" is the Ford government's climate strategy. Why they gutted provincial climate plan and are trying to block federal climate policy in court.
15. So in the end, the sticker saga is a tragedy. Denying the climate crisis won’t make it go away. This story needs new writers, and that is up to you and me <fin>
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