Canada Has Enviro Canada Parody Pages Shut Down

The government of Canada has used strong-arm tactics to shut down two parody websites criticizing Canada's poor environmental policy, taking down 4500 other websites in the process.

Pretty typical of the Harper Tories. The response of the IP in question, Germany's Serverloft, is more than a little disappointing, however:

In response to Environment Canada's request, Serverloft immediately turned off a whole block of IP addresses, knocking out more than 4500 websites that had nothing to do with the parody sites or the activists who created them. Serverloft was shown no warrant, and never called the web hosting company about the shutdown.

I have sent them a bitchy email.

h/t

Our PM In Copenhagen

Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived at the Bella Center, where the summit is being held, at around 9:30 a.m. local time with bloodshot eyes after attending a gala dinner hosted by the Danish Queen that stretched until two o'clock Friday morning.

Reports say the gala would have gone even later, but Harper insisted on playing piano.

Edmonton Radio Station Pranked By Climate Hoaxers?

As you probably know by now, Canada was subject this morning to a very elaborate (and quite wonderful) hoax in Copenhagen, wherein a fake press release from Environment Canada went out saying that Canada would be making much stronger commitments than originally claimed. This was followed by a fake news conference by the (fake) Ugandon delegation, and links to a fake online Wall Street Journal with a fake story by a fake journalist named Gustav Rainer.

Did I say these were all fake? Well, it looks like 880 AM out of Edmonton got rooked particularly hard, for it appears that they contacted/were contacted by "Mr. Rainer" and did an interview with him:

Gustav Rainer is a freelance journalist with the Wall Street Journal. He was the writer in Copenhagen who penned the story that Ottawa was prepared to meet new emission reduction targets, and provide billions in aid to help poor countries in this regard. The email Rainer says he received even quoted Environment Minister Jim Prentice.

It turns out the information Rainer received was a hoax. He put up a brave front, while a guest of 630 CHED's Dave Rutherford Monday morning.

"Yes I wrote it," said Rainer. "I've been freelancing for the Wall Street Journal, but unfortunately, I think it'll be the last time I do."

Rainer says he is, however, disappointed the information was fake, adding a number of reporters in Copenhagen have been hoping for an announcement like this to happen.

Suckered out in the oil patch! Interviewing one of the hoaxers and not catching on! But on the other hand, whoever is behind this stunt gets a 10 for technical excellence.

Whose Behind The Enviro Canada Fake Press Reliease?

...that Kady writes about here. I'm betting its the folks (whoever they might be) behind the Canadian Tourism Federation. Both this and the fake release website seem quite official looking. Even if not, their intro video is more than worth a look.

Thanks...Assholes!

At first I thought the hacked e-mails would damage the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Conference, but now I think these outrageous crimes may serve to bring world leaders and negotiators closer together.

Obama, K. Rudd, et. al would not show up for a failure, so you can be sure that something in the way of an agreement will come out of Copenhagen, and the world will call it a victory. Mind, alot of what was promised and what is needed will not be in this agreement, and there will stuff in the agreement that nobody promised and that really isn't needed. Everyone will get less than they think they deserve. Like marriage, in other words, and really just a first step towards something, hopefully, a wee bit better.

Meanwhile, here's a clip of head denier Marc Morano in action. For about two minutes, the tv host and guest professor Andrew Watson vainly try to stop him from babbling like a kid on a sugar high, and at the very end an exasperated Watson bestows the richly deserved epithet of "asshole" upon him.

Only in America (and, to be fair, only in certain parts) would this be called debating.

And damned if the guy doesn't remind me of a slightly less dorky-looking Ezra Levant.

Looks Like There IS An International Climate Conspiracy

...for it looks like CRU is not the only institution targetted by criminals allied with the denialist community: attempts were made to steal documents and computer files from U-of-T as well:

An alleged series of attempted security breaches at the University of Victoria in the run-up to next week's Copenhagen summit on climate change is evidence of a larger effort to discredit climate science, says a renowned B.C. researcher.

Andrew Weaver, a University of Victoria scientist and key contributor to the Nobel prize-winning work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says there have been a number of attempted breaches in recent months, including two successful break-ins at his campus office in which a dead computer was stolen and papers were rummaged through.

It would sure be nice--and its interesting that its the NP picked up on this story--if the media concentrated a little more on the fact that they are being shopped material by crooks rather than picking over emails they don't understand the meaning of and freely improvising based on what they think they see behind the words.