Joe Oliver needs help.

So believe a group of eminent Canadian scientists and they are offering their services to help the federal minister of natural resources understand the scientific data behind climate change and energy development.

“We are at a critical moment,” says the letter. “In the words of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, ‘each additional ton of greenhouse gases emitted commits us to further change and greater risks.’ The longer we delay the transition to low-carbon economy, the more drastic, disruptive and costly that transition will be.”

The letter is dated May 7 and signed by a dozen scientists at universities across the country.

Among other things, scientists say the letter was written in response to Oliver’s comments about former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, where the minister accused him of making “wildly inaccurate and exaggerated comments” about the proposed Keystone pipeline.

“There are ways to get clean energy,” said John Smol, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change at Queen’s University in Kingston. “We are hoping to have a more prudent approach than build, build, sell, sell.”

Smol said the problem of greenhouse gas emissions is the “biggest” one on the planet but there is a “complete disconnect on how serious the problem is.”

The letter also says: “If we truly wish to have a ‘serious debate’ about climate change and energy in this country, as you have rightly called for, we must start by acknowledging that our choices about fossil fuel infrastructure carry significant consequences for today’s and future generations.”

In Ottawa, John Stone, a professor of environmental studies and geography at Carleton University, said time is rapidly running out.

“I don’t think he fully appreciates what the science behind climate change is saying,” said Stone. “We are offering to help better inform a much needed debate on the biggest problem we are facing.”

Stone and Smol say they are hoping Oliver will respond. Oliver was in Brussels on Thursday where he met European energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger.

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