While Canada’s environment minister, Peter Kent, faces criticism for not moving fast enough on environmental issues, Postmedia News reports that he is also defending climate change science from questions and criticisms from fellow MPs and even the Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Postmedia News gained access to correspondence within Kent’s office:
But in each of the letters, released through access to information legislation, Kent defended scientific evidence, while dismissing myths such as a suggestion from one Conservative that volcanoes were a major contributor to global warming.
“Even major volcanic eruptions emit only a very small fraction of carbon dioxide compared to annual human emissions,” Kent wrote in a Sept. 6, 2011 letter to one colleague that noted volcanic ash can cause short-term cooling in the atmosphere, lasting up to three years. “Volcanoes, in short, are not a major contributor to global warming.
Image of Peter Kent at an oil sands monitoring announcement