Poilievre’s Conservative party embracing language of mainstream conspiracy theories

Article published Aug. 13, 2023

OTTAWA – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been hitting the summer barbecue circuit with ramped-up rhetoric around debunked claims that the World Economic Forum is attempting to impose its agenda on sovereign governments.

It is, some experts suggest, another sign that some conspiracy theories are moving from the fringes of the internet to mainstream thinking, as people’s distrust of government grows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSscfaiTJJA

On digital IDs, the federal government has been looking at technology to create a national digital identification document to help people access government services. It has not been promoted as something that will become mandatory.

Last winter, a conspiracy theory circulating on social media suggested Trudeau was going to require provinces to sign on to digital ID systems for their residents in order to get billions in new health-care funding. That conspiracy was also debunked.

Duane Bratt, political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said some people have long embraced conspiracies, but now they have moved into mainstream politics.

“The big shift that we have seen is that it is now being promoted by someone who could be prime minister,” said Bratt.

Kawser Ahmed, a politics professor at the University of Winnipeg with a research specialty in conspiracy theories, said the number and uptake of conspiracy theories began to grow after the 2016 presidential election in the United States, aided by social media and encrypted messaging apps.

But Ahmed said the biggest trigger was the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s a lot of ideas that are now moving into the mainstream that are simply not supported by science, evidence or facts,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter and some of those politicians have been elected, like the current premier of Alberta.”

United Conservative Party premier Danielle Smith has said she is in lockstep with Poilievre, and will having nothing to do with the World Economic Forum.

Populism has driven politicians to feed into conspiracy theories because they need votes, and fear is a great motivator, said Ahmed. They get less interest peddling for votes using their record.

“It’s very easy to appeal to people that something is a threat,” he said. “For example your identity, your livelihood, your religious values.”

Ahmed said it is affecting our democracy, pitting groups against each other, creating suspicion and harming national security by spreading misinformation that eventually affects policy. |Read more https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/poilievre-s-conservative-party-embracing-language-of-mainstream-conspiracy-theories-1.6517247 | ctvnews.ca/politics/poilievre-…

#cdnpoli #PierrePoilievre #WEF #conspiracy #populism #conservatives #smith #abpoli

Extreme weather, driven by climate change, could shut down more than 16,000 hospitals worldwide: report

One in 12 hospitals around the world are at risk of partial or total shutdown from extreme weather events by 2100 if countries fail to curb fossil fuel emissions, a new report(opens in a new tab) warns.

Without a phase out of fossil fuels, a total of 16,245 hospitals could be somewhat or completely shut down by the end of the century, according to the report from XDI (Cross Dependency Initiative), a climate risk analyst, which looked at a total of 200,216 hospitals around the world.

The report was released in time for the COP28 climate summit’s health day(opens in a new tab), which saw global leaders come together in Dubai on Sunday to discuss how to strengthen the resilience of health systems in the face of climate change.

“Climate change is increasingly impacting the health of people around the world,” said Dr. Karl Mallon, director of science and technology at XDI, in a news release.

Of the 16,245 hospitals identified as at a high risk of shutdown by 2100, the report notes that an alarming 71 per cent (11,512) will be in low- and middle-income countries.

Currently, South East Asia has the highest percentage of hospitals at high risk of damage from extreme weather events, with close to one in five (18.4 per cent) hospitals considered high risk. It is followed by East Asia at 10.78 per cent and South Asia at 9.97 per cent.

Meanwhile, North America is projected to experience the greatest increase in risk of damage to all hospital infrastructure by the end of the century, with a 430 per cent increase in the amount of risk since 2020. It is followed by East Asia, at 412 per cent. |Read more https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/extreme-weather-driven-by-climate-change-could-shut-down-more-than-16-000-hospitals-worldwide-report-1.6671383 | ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environ…

#world #hospitals #COP28 #HighRisk #damage #ClimateChange #politics #environment

Conspiracy theories are popular in Canada, especially among conservatives: poll

Ottawa – The Earth is flat. We have been secretly contacted by intelligent beings from other planets. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did not land on the moon in 1969. They may sound like bizarre statements, but a new poll suggests a sizable number of Canadians believe in these and other conspiracy theories.

About five per cent of us are flat-earthers, the poll suggests, while 11 per cent say they think the lunar landings were a hoax. And one-third of respondents say they think evidence that aliens have been in contact with our planet is being hidden from the public.

In all, 79 per cent of Canadians and 84 per cent of Americans reported believing in at least one of a list of conspiracy theories mentioned in the survey. In both countries, conservative-leaning voters were more likely to believe in conspiracies.

Just over a quarter of American respondents say they believe global warming doesn’t exist, compared to 16 per cent of Canadians.

A regional breakdown suggests Albertans are most likely to believe there’s a secret global elite working to establish a world government, at 44 per cent, and that feminism is a strategy to enable women to control society, at 19 per cent.

The feminism control theory was almost twice as popular among Canadian men than women. |Read more https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/conspiracy-theories-are-popular-in-canada-especially-among-conservatives-poll-1.6671603 | ctvnews.ca/canada/conspiracy-t…

##NorthAmerica #conspiracy #theories #canadians #americans #cdnpoli #Conservatives

How Does a Fossil Fuel CEO Deliver a Win at COP28?

I posted this meme today to one of my FB groups. Then, later on, I was wondering if there was any truth to it. Before I had a chance to fact-check, the Energy Mix came in with this article by Mitchell Beer.

For one brief, surreal moment, it almost looked like Sultan Al Jaber could get a deal done. But the voluntary pledges fell far short, and then the COP28 President himself burst the bubble.

It was a surreal yet weirdly compelling, almost convincing moment: 50 mammoth fossil fuel businesses pledging to essentially phase out methane emissions and end routine gas flaring by 2030.

For half an hour on a livestream from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, you could almost believe: that COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), was serious about bringing his peers to the table and had the clout to get the deal done.

The Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter immediately ran into scorching criticism from a list of 320 civil society organizations, led by Oil Change International. The groups pointed out that a “robust negotiated energy package” by the end of this year’s COP28 negotiations in the United Arab Emirates would have to include “an unambiguous agreement to end all new oil and gas expansion” and a “clear call to equitably and rapidly phase out all fossil fuels,” along with a renewable energy and energy efficiency pledge that was announced in tandem with the oil and gas charter.

“What we’ve done already is shown that we deliver action,” when “nobody expected that we’d be able to do that,” an exuberant COP28 Director General, Majid Al Suwaidi, said Saturday. A 1.5°C threshold for average global warming “has been our north star from the very beginning,” he added, “and we’ve taken that in a very systematic way.”

The day’s decarbonization promises, coupled with the methane pledge from China and the United States leading up to the COP, could make Saturday, December 2 “the most impactful day of announcements” in nearly 30 years of COP negotiations, said Fred Krupp, president of the U.S. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). “This new initiative, if, if, the commitments are met, has the potential to reduce methane emissions by each of the companies signing up by an average of 80-90%.”

Then today, the two news agencies revealed Al Jaber’s curious view that there’s “no science” to support a fossil fuel phaseout as an essential part of the fight to hold average global warming to 1.5°C.

“I accepted to come to this meeting to have a sober and mature conversation,” Al Jaber replied, in what the Guardian called an “ill-tempered” response. “I’m not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist. There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says the phaseout of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5°C.” |Read more https://energymixweekender.substack.com/p/how-does-a-fossil-fuel-ceo-deliver | energymixweekender.substack.co…

#world #politics #environment #science #ClimateChange #AlJaber #FossilFuel