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Alberta's carbon resolution has a grain of truth and a whole lot of '90s climate denial

#69 of 69 articles from the Special Report: Climate of denial

Alberta's United Conservtive Party passed a resolution Saturday embracing a long-discredited theory created by the fossil fuel industry that excess carbon emissions are good for the planet (they're not). Photo by Chris Schwartz/Government of Alberta

A recent resolution by Alberta's ruling United Conservative Party (UCP) to recognize carbon as "a foundational nutrient for all life on Earth" is rooted in fossil fuel disinformation that dates back to the 1990s. 

The statement, while technically true in the strictest of biological terms, is deeply misleading in the context of climate change, and was crafted by a front group for a coalition of American coal producers in 1997 to prevent that country from enacting climate policies. It has since continued to circulate, amplified by climate deniers and online conspiracy theorists. 

"Arsenic is natural, too, but we don’t want it in our food or water. Or lead. Or mercury," said Naomi Oreskes, a historian of science at Harvard University who has long researched climate denial. "Lots of natural things are bad, especially at high doses. The fossil fuel industry has given us a high dose of atmospheric CO2." 

At the party's annual general meeting last Saturday, UCP members overwhelmingly voted to support the motion, which effectively denies that carbon dioxide emissions caused by burning fossil fuels are heating the climate. The resolution also called on the government to ditch Alberta's greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. Premier Danielle Smith herself endorsed the resolution’s spirit following its passage.

Researchers have been clear for decades that humans burning fossil fuels are driving a massive spike in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, warming the planet and changing the climate. Far from helping plants — including food crops — climate change is fueling devastating wildfires, floods, droughts and other natural disasters. Rapidly reducing emissions is vital to forestall future disasters. 

Still, the claim is "effective," Oreskes said. "[The statement] ‘CO2 is natural’ is not false — it’s not a lie — but it is utterly misleading. And many people are still profiting from fossil fuels, so they have as strong an interest as ever in blocking climate action."

The idea that higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will boost food production and help the environment was first spread in two videos produced by the now-defunct Greening Earth Society, a U.S. non-profit front organization created by the Western Fuels Association. The Western Fuels Association is a cooperative that supplies and transports coal to electric utilities in the western U.S. 

Both Greening Earth Society videos made the debunked claim that adding carbon to the atmosphere would feed larger plants and a better, greener world. They were distributed in classrooms, ended up in bibliographies and lectures and one version was distributed on Capitol Hill. By its own admission, producing the second version of the film cost the Western Fuels Association $583,000, enough to prevent it from turning a profit.

Climate advocates at the time slammed the films for spreading disinformation. In a 1998 statement, two U.S. environmental groups released a statement attacking the second movie as "a re-run of the corporate denial we've seen from tobacco companies' paid scientists." 

Fast-forward nearly 30 years — and dozens of major climate disasters later — the myth continues to thrive, including in Canadian politics beyond the UCP's recent resolution.

It showed up in B.C.’s recent election, too, when Conservative Party of B.C. Vancouver-Point Grey candidate Paul Ratchford tweeted the myth last January, according to a trove of research attributed to the B.C. United Party. Maria Sapoznikohv, another candidate for the party who lost by less than 50 votes, also made a similar claim on X, the B.C. United research notes

J. Timmons Robert, a sociology professor at Brown University wrote in an email he expects to see more "rollback" efforts on climate action like the UCP resolution in coming years as the 2030 deadline Canada and other countries have set to fully implement the policies looms. 

"It worries me," Oreskes said. "It shows that, despite what many people say or hope, real-life climate change denial is not dead. We know it is alive and well…on social media; now we know it is alive and well in Alberta, too." 

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