Natural Resources Stewardship Project
The Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP) is a Canadian non-profit group, including a number of leading climate change sceptics, which describes itself as a group that "will promote responsible environmental stewardship through:
- broad-based media, government and public relations;
- consumer education and advocacy;
- private initiative and the promotion of private property rights;
- market-based approaches; and
- sensible and efficient legislative and regulatory frameworks, particularly at the federal level." [1]
NRSP states that it has members in from North America, Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Germany and Sweden. [2]
NRSP's Genealogy
The NRSP maintains it has no direct connection with the Calgary-based group of climate change sceptics the "Friends of Science" [3] (FOS), even though the FOS's most outspoken member, Tim Ball, is now the Chairman of the NRSP. With the exact same purpose and goals, and most of the same scientific allies and members as the Friends of Science, the NRSP is viewed by many as a reincarnation of the FOS, after the FOS was "outed" by the Globe and Mail newspaper in August 2006 as being partly funded by the oil and gas industry. [4].
The NRSP project is led by Executive Director, Tom Harris, who, in November 2002, while in the employ of the PR firm APCO Worldwide, organized a press conference titled "International Climate Experts Speak Out Against Climate Change Myths." [5]. The press conference was sponsored by Talisman Energy and Imperial Oil (ExxonMobil's Canadian subsidiary). [6] The NRSP and its allies, maintain that this press conference had no connection with "Friends of Science," which was founded considerably earlier. However, many of the same scientists and advisors linked to the FOS were present, including Tim Ball and APCO's Tom Harris.
NRSP describes its "first priority project" as being "Understanding Climate Change: A proactive grassroots campaign to counter the Kyoto Protocol and other greenhouse gas reduction schemes while promoting sensible climate change policy." [7]
Personnel
- Tom Harris, Executive Director, NRSP, is the former Ottawa Director of a public affairs and public policy consulting firm High Park Group (HPG). Harris has written several articles that dispute the science backing the Kyoto Protocol and other schemes to "stop climate change" through the reduction of human emissions of carbon dioxide. Prior to HPG, Harris was employed by APCO Worldwide and organized a press conference [8] in Ottawa that included Professor Tim Patterson [9], Professor Fred Michel [10], Dr. Tim Ball [11], Dr. Fred Singer [12], Professor Patrick Michaels [13], Dr. Madhav Khandekar [14], Professor Howard Hayden [15], and Professor J.T. Rogers. [16]
- Dr. Tim Ball, Chairman, has resigned from the Science Advisory Board of FOS to head up NRSP. His credentials as a climatologist were challenged in a April 23, 2006, letter to the editor of the Calgary Herald by a Professor at the University of Lethbridge, Dr. Dan Johnson. Ball has filed a statement of claim against Dr. Johnson, the University of Lethbridge and the Calgary Herald.
- Dr. Sallie Baliunas [17]sits on the NRSP "Scientific Advisory Committee." Baliunas sat on the board of advisors for the Greening Earth Society, a now-defunct organiaztion that argued that increased CO2 emissions and the subsequent warming of the earth would green the earth and make our lives better. The Greening Earth Society was an industry front group funded and controlled by the Western Fuels Association. Baliunas is also listed as an "expert" with the George C. Marshall Institute [18], a think tank that has recieved millions from ExxonMobil and oil industry-linked foundations.
Funding
According to an October 16, 2006 Canwest News article, when asked who financially backs the NRSP, their executive director, Tom Harris, stated that, "a confidentiality agreement doesn't allow him to say whether energy companies are funding his [the NRSP] group. [19]
Contact Details
P.O. Box 23013
Ottawa, Ontario K2A 4E2
Phone: 613-234-4487
Fax: 613-234-3325
Web: http://www.nrsp.com/default.html
External Links
- National Resources Stewardship Project in the Wikipedia.
- Archived links on Tim Ball posted by DeSmogBlog.com.
- Richard Littlemore, "Discredited Friends of Science Re-emerge as the Natural Resources Stewardship Project," DeSmogBlog.com, October 12, 2006.
- Jim Hoggan, "NRSP: Not Really Science People," DeSmogBlog.com, October 13, 2006.
- Richard Littlemore, "NRSP: Not Really Serious People," DeSmogBlog.com, October 14, 2006.
- Richard Littlemore, "NRSP: 'Scientists' Who Hate Science Journals," DeSmogBlog.com, October 15, 2006.
- Peter O'Neill, "Climate-change 'skeptics' hopeful Harper accepts their view," CanWest News Service (The Vancouver Sun), October 16, 2006.
- Dr. Tim Ball and Tom Harris, "Environment Commissioner should stick to auditing. Gelinas' environmental evangelism based on a misunderstanding of her role and the fundamentals of climate science," Canada Free Press, October 21, 2006.
- Richard Littlemore, "NRSP Makes it on the Sourcewatch List," DeSmogBlog.com, November 4, 2006.
- Richard Littlemore, "NRSP 'Expert' a Half-Hearted Denier," DeSmogBlog.com, November 4, 2006.
- Kevin Grandia, "Are the Estonians funding the NRSP?" DeSmogBlog.com, November 6, 2006.
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