"Sometimes a scientific study so exhaustive, so authoritative and so alarming arrives in the public discourse that it simply cannot be ignored.
"And sometimes the timing and content of such a study merely confirms what should be evident to any thinking person anywhere on this planet.
"Such is the case with The National Climate Assessment, a draft of which was released in Washington Friday and is open for public comment beginning Monday, 1,000 dispiriting pages distilling the work of more than 300 scientists and experts. ...
"The White House Office of Science and Technology twice stressed in a Friday response that the climate assessment report is a scientific study, not a policy document.
"But the study is loaded with warnings of sweltering heat, hotter nights taking a toll on livestock, huge ocean swells, blackouts, health risks and mass transit failures.
"When the Conservatives killed the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy last year, Environment Minister Peter Kent said it was no longer needed because there was plenty of independent climate change information on the Internet.
"If that’s the case, Kent should go to the globalchange.gov website."
Full article: Tim Harper: A year of extreme weather could put the heat on Ottawa’s environmental indifference.
