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A trick politicians use to intimidate us on the subject of human-influenced climate change is to leap from the fact that because scientists say it is real, we must support whatever they propose to address it.

This is absurd. How to address human-influenced climate change involves economic policies that are political decisions, not scientific ones.

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And the fact is that much of what our politicians are implementing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national carbon pricing plan being a case in point, is nonsense.

Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

We saw an example of this tactic employed recently by Trudeau and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna.

That occurred when they instantly came to the defence of Governor General Julie Payette for her ill-advised comments as the keynote speaker at a recent science convention in Ottawa.

Payette mocked people who reject the theory of human-influenced climate change, along with those who hold other ideas she considers absurd, such as believing in God.

There was nothing “courageous” about this, as her defenders have absurdly argued.

Payette was performing before an audience where she knew that dismissing non-scientific beliefs would be warmly received.

Courage on her part, as a scientist herself, would have been to say something to challenge her audience to reflect upon their own beliefs and values.

Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

For example: “As scientists, we must always remember that the pursuit of scientific knowledge without conscience — as the world witnessed, for example, in the medical experiments of Nazi Germany — can lead to unimaginable evil.”

Instead, she played to a sense of smug superiority among those in her audience who, sadly, felt the same way she does.

Nonetheless, Trudeau instantly chimed in, in Payette’s defence: “I applaud the firmness which which she stands in support of science and truth.”

McKenna tweeted: “Could not be prouder that @GGJuliePayette stands up for the science on climate change.”

Both these statements spectacularly miss the point.