Oh Frac’d U of Alberta! VP university relations, Jacqui Tam, resigns over controversial ‘Beefier Barley’ billboard pimping global warming as beneficial. Brazenly working for polluters or warming up Alberta’s nefarious War Room?

Climate Risk in the Housing Market Has Echoes of Subprime Crisis, Study Finds by Christopher Flavelle, Sept. 27, 2019, New York Times

WASHINGTON — Banks are shielding themselves from climate change at taxpayers’ expense by shifting riskier mortgages — such as those in coastal areas — off their books and over to the federal government, new research suggests.

The findings echo the subprime lending crisis of 2008, when unexpected drops in home values cascaded through the economy and triggered recession. One difference this time is that those values would be less likely to rebound, because many of the homes literally would be underwater.

In a paper to be released Monday, the researchers say their findings show “a potential threat to the stability of financial institutions.” They warn that the threat will grow as global warming leads to more frequent and more severe disasters, forcing more loans to go into default as homeowners cannot or would not make mortgage payments….

The paper: Mortgage Finance in the Face of Rising Climate Risk by Amine Ouazad and Matthew E. Kahn, September 2019, Released as NBER Working Paper 26322 on September 30, 2019

University of Alberta vice-president resigns over controversial ‘Beefier Barley’ billboard by Brennan Doherty with files from Claire Theobald, Sept 29, 2019, Star Calgary

A vice-president at the University of Alberta has resigned over a billboard that says climate change will boost Alberta’s barley yield.

The “Beefier Barley” billboard will be removed as soon as possible, according to a statement from Jacqui Tam, the U of A’s vice-president of university relations. She acknowledged serious concerns that the billboard appears to suggest climate change is a benefit, but said the research it promotes doesn’t do that.

… She took responsibility for the ad in the statement and announced her resignation from the U of A, effective immediately.

Criticism of the U of A billboard has been pronounced over the past several days.

A petition with just under 600 signatures by Sunday evening on Change.org called for the school to remove the billboard, calling it a “misleading message, particularly in a province where the public acceptance of climate change is so low.”

University of Alberta president David Turpin said Sunday night that he can understand the criticism and the university is working to pull down the billboards “as soon as possible.” …

Turpin said the university does a lot of research around climate change and that the billboard “did not appropriately reflect the work that we do.”

Stanford Blade, dean of the U of A’s faculty of agriculture, life and environmental sciences, tweeted last week he was proud of the work his colleagues do to address climate change, but said he could not defend the billboard’s messaging.

Initially, the school pushed back [showing their true polluter-biased colours] against criticism of the billboard. In a statement last Thursday, Tam said it was part of a larger advertising campaign by the U of A in effect since last fall intended to highlight research focused on complicated global challenges.

This original statement said sparking debate around discoveries and ideas is an important job played by universities, noting the question of climate change adaptation is “a key global challenge.”

University of Alberta executive resigns over controversial ad by Janet French, Sept 30, 2019, Calgary Herald

Billboard in west Edmonton talking about a study on climate change. Wednesday Sept. 25, 2019 (CTV News Edmonton)

A controversial University of Alberta billboard advertisement touting a benefit of climate change would never have been approved if proper processes were followed, the university’s president said Sunday night. [Pfffft! Now he says that? Too late!]

President David Turpin said he reluctantly accepted the resignation of vice-president of university relations, Jacqui Tam, on Sunday after she said she approved the research [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Polluter propaganda more like it.] advertisement. The president and other vice-presidents did not see it for approval.

“I felt the ad should have been vetted by the executive team and I’m pretty sure it never would have seen the light of day,” Turpin said.

The university is in the process of removing billboard advertisements that read, “Beefier barley: climate change will boost Alberta’s barley yield with less water, feeding more cattle.”

It was based on research from 2017 that found Alberta barley would grow better and require less irrigation if the climate was warmer and wetter.

The ad appeared in Edmonton days before youth, including U of A students, participated in a global climate strike to protest governments’ failures to take more aggressive action to slow climate change.

University spokespeople did not immediately know Sunday where and in how many places the billboard had appeared.

“When I first saw it, which was on Thursday [why the hell did he not order them down then?], I could understand why people interpreted it the way they did,” Turpin said. “It would not have been an ad that if I had seen, I would have put forward.”

In a statement posted Sunday on the university’s blog, The Quad, Tam said the public’s interpretation of the ad as promoting climate change shows the billboard “fails to communicate the meaning and complexity of the research.”

“The messaging on the ad called the reputation of the University of Alberta and its extensive research on climate change into question. As vice-president (university relations), I apologize for this and take responsibility,” she said, adding she was resigning immediately from the institution

Among the critics of the campaign was the university’s dean of agriculture, life and environmental sciences, who said on Twitter Thursday he couldn’t support the way the university’s promoters framed the research in the billboard.

Kathryn@fivefteditrix · Sep 26, 2019

I might expect this kind of nonsense in Calgary, but for @UAlberta to buy into it is truly embarrassing: https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/billboard-touting-the-benefits-of-climate-change-appears-in-west-edmonton-1.4611019 …Billboard touting the benefits of climate change appears in west EdmontonA billboard bearing the University of Alberta’s logo appears to suggest that climate change isn’t all bad.edmonton.ctvnews.ca

Dr. Alison Rukavina@AlisonRukavina

I’m disappointed and horrified that my alma mater @UAlberta is advertising the positives of global warming. Who cares about the terrible consequences of global warming, as long as the barley is “beefier” in Alberta—not.

Some alumni posted online about how they were “embarrassed and disappointed” by the message.

On Thursday, the university had posted a defence of its “Truth Matters” campaign on The Quad blog, saying it was seeking to highlight the complexity of some research underway at the university.

“Different, even divergent, approaches are pursued by researchers across the University of Alberta; this is necessary work, even when it challenges expectations and assumptions,” Tam wrote Thursday.

Turpin said he’s unsure whether the fiasco had affected the university’s reputation as an institution that takes climate change seriously. Many told him the ad did not reflect the good work researchers do on novel power generation techniques, climate change adaptation, smart grids or oilsands remediation, he said.

“Climate change is real, it’s happening and as a society, we must adapt,” he said.

He’s asked the university to review its advertising approval processes to determine what went wrong, he said.

Billboard touting the benefits of climate change appears in west Edmonton by Steven Dyer, CTV News, Sept 25, 2019

A billboard bearing the University of Alberta’s logo appears to suggest that climate change isn’t all bad.

The words “beefier barley” appear in large font above the U of A logo and the website UAlberta.ca/truthmatters.

The rest of the billboard talks about how climate change will result in greater yields of barley, which will be able to feed more cattle.

“The “Truth Matters” [Polluters’ truth, aka propaganda a la CAPP and huge donations by oil and gas companies? Refer to mega list of examples below. And worse, installed just before a million Canadians took to the streets marching and protesting our federal and provincial govts’ failures to take responsible appropriate real action!] campaign has been running in various media at different times since fall 2018. It features several research discoveries made by University of Alberta researchers in a variety of areas, including organ transplantation, artificial intelligence, children’s health, renewable energy and atomic scale computers, among others,” says Michael Brown, a media specialist with the University of Alberta.

A picture of the billboard was posted to Reddit in the early evening on Tuesday Sept. 24 and there was varied reaction to the post.

While some users questioned a potential motive behind the study, others delved deeper into the discussion of climate change and its various effects.

… Michael Brown says that it is important to highlight complex research like the study behind the “beefier barley” billboard.

“The goal of the Truth Matters campaign is to highlight University of Alberta research tackling today’s complex challenges, such as future potential impacts of climate change.”

Brown adds that there are other billboards from the ‘Truth Matters’ campaign in Edmonton and Calgary.

Refer also to:

Alberta academia was frac’d years ago

A small example of oil-patch-$$$$$$$-tainted Alberta academia (after these posts years ago, Ernst no longer had time to diligently find & follow the bribes):

Cenovus, Syncrude and Suncor and other oil and gas companies “helping draft” curriculum for students from kindergarten to Grade 12!

[After the Ernst lawsuit was filed, Encana split off its oil riches into Cenovus]

Cenovus donates $1.5 million to Lakeland College

Talisman pledges $1.25 M to Mount Royal University, Alberta

EPA Fines Talisman For Fracking Violations

EnCana racks up the fines

Burning Waters: UVic Partner’s environmental record questioned

Encana donates $1.5 Million to Mount Royal University

EnCana donates $7.5 Million to the University of Alberta

Corporate polluters don’t just buy their way out of contaminating community drinking water supplies with settle ‘n gag orders, also given to them by their judicial friends in our courts, they buy their way out with donations too, including generously frac’ing academia.

After this 2008 press release by eight Alberta landowners rejecting the Alberta government closing their drinking water contamination cases, Encana swoops in with big money:

Cenovus donates $3 Million to the University of Alberta

University of Calgary Prostitutes Itself To Big Oil & Gas

EnCana to donate $1 Million to the University of Calgary

Encana donates $1 million to Red Deer College

EnCana $1 Million donation to University of Calgary questioned as company awaits energy decision

Million-dollar Nexen donation to Mount Royal University to benefit future journalists, educators

Imperial Oil donates $1 Million to Mount Royal University

Cenovus donates $3 Million to the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology

Is the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology overflowing with oil money?

ConocoPhillips Canada supports University of Lethbridge and places students link previously went to: http://www.thisismyu.ca/stories/donor/2010/11/conocophillips-canada-sees-benefits-support

Trican Donates $5 million for cancer research at the University of Calgary

Trican donates $5 Million to Fight Chidhood Cancer and for research at the University of Calgary

Enbridge donates 1.2 million to the University of Calgary, research chair first of its kind dedicated to holistic cancer care

EnCana donates $50,000 to Northern Medical Program Trust

Enbridge Donates $500,000 to the Alberta School of Business

June 2013 Cenovus $3 million endowment to University of Alberta to assess energy and environmental options for industry and government

CAPP-funded Big Propaganda Project to tour Canadian schools with Canadian Geographic (to try to give CAPP some credibility)

Canadian Geographic accused of spreading CAPP oil and gas ‘propaganda’ in schools, including to Grade 3′s

2013 11 13 Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers pushing propaganda on grade 3s

Alberta Petro State: Cenovus (split from Encana), Syncrude and Suncor and other oil and gas companies “helping draft” curriculum for students from kindergarten to Grade 12!

U of Calgary, U of Alberta get $75 million *each* from Canadian taxpayers to legitimize (synergize) and spread AER/CAPP/petroleum industry propaganda, to enable continued devastation and harms to Alberta’s environment, communities and people and spread them across Canada

2008: This is what the frac’ers really think of us, our loved ones, home, health and communities; Encana contractors give press the finger:

Frac Fraud Academia? How University of Calgary’s Enbridge relationship became controversial, “Most damningly it smacks of us being apologists for the fossil fuel industry.” Is that why Alberta government switched labs to U of C after U of A isotopic fingerprinting analysis of gases in Rosebud drinking water matched those from Encana gas wells?

CAPP/Kenney’s $2.5 Million “McCarthy style witch hunt” of courageous concerned citizens, to help polluting, job-decimating, billion $ profit-taking, largely foreign-owned multinationals. The Inquiry lies, says not linked to Kenney’s war room even though inquiry is reportedly paid for out of war room’s budget! Inquiry Commissioner Steve Allen is industry-biased of course: Was Director of Compton Petroleum, chaired Compton’s Audit Committee (company with a greedy sordid sour history)

This entry was posted in Global Frac News. Bookmark the permalink.