june 2009 issue
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CLIMATE CHANGE
AN INVITATION FOR DEBATE
In February 2008, APEGGA released the results of a membership survey on climate change issues. When questioned about the debate on the science behind these causes, only 24 per cent agreed that the debate was settled, while 68 per cent disagreed.
Later in the survey, over 84 per cent of respondents agreed that APEGGA should support scientifically informed debate on the topic of climate change — apparently even some of the members who feel the debate is settled agree that it should continue.
It is in the spirit of these results that APEGGA's Environment Committee intends to foster this debate. The committee is doing this working with The PEGG’s editors to move some of the comment from the Readers’ Forum section to a climate change subsection in the environment area of www.apegga.org. Here, members may present more detailed discussions and arguments on technical issues.
In April this year, APEGGA placed an online climate change debate section on the website. We encourage our members to follow climate change issues, and to understand, critically review, discuss and provide feedback about them.
The advancement of climate science is not solely the domain of those who practice as climate scientists. There is room for participation in the debate by any interested party who is prepared to follow the scientific method in the pursuit of knowledge related to this important issue.
APEGGA's Environment Committee also invites readers to submit articles on climate change issues, on the potential to decrease any environmental impact and on energy conservation processes. These online articles are not expected to provide an irrefutable answer to every question, but they should provide relevant information to your fellow members, and identify and stimulate discussion of the issues.
Instructions for feedback can be found at www.apegga.org/Environment/article-Mar-09.html.
New to the climate change area right now is a series of articles by Neil Hutton, P.Geol., PhD, on the science of climate change. These articles are being republished online with permission from Reservoir, the magazine of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists. Dr. Hutton is a past president of the CSPG.
APEGGA recognizes there are many sides to the debate and looks forward to publishing further submissions online. Our goal is to broaden the discussion without taking sides. APEGGA remains neutral on the matter and does not favour any specific position.
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