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Meeting Highlights
February 22, 2021 Edition 54.29
Together We Are People of Action - Building Community
February 22, 2021  Edition: 54.29  Reporter: Marie Ricard  Editor: David Williams
RCCW Zoom Meeting
 
President Bill Fitzsimmons welcomed all Rotarians and his own guest, Bob Acton, to the meeting today, and called on Ron Brookes to welcome guests.
 
Inspirational Moment:   Cory Tretiak offered a lot to evaluate new perspectives and here it is.
 
"As Rotarians, we are bound by the Four-Way Test, the first tenet of which is 'Is it the truth?'
 
"In everyday life this is quite easy to apply – but when it comes to evaluating new ideas, especially those outside our immediate experience it becomes a bit trickier.
 
"Given our recent slate of speakers dealing with various complexities, I thought it would be appropriate to offer you a framework with which to evaluate new ideas that are provided for our consideration.
 
"The framework is Carl Sagan’s “Baloney Detection Kit” and offers a down to earth way of bringing healthy scepticism into our everyday lives.
 
"Wherever possible, there must be independent confirmation of the facts.
 
"Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
 
"In science ,there are no authorities; at most, there are experts.
 
"Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it’s yours. It’s only a way station in the pursuit of knowledge. Ask yourself why you like the idea. Compare it fairly with the alternatives. See if you can find reasons for rejecting it. If you do not, others will.
 
"If there’s a chain of argument, every link in the chain must work, including the premise — not just most of them.
 
"Occam’s Razor. This convenient rule-of-thumb urges us when faced with two hypotheses that explain the data equally well to choose the simpler.
 
"There are several more, but in the interest of time I’ll part with this.
 
"We see too often news of a society that is shown to be divided, unable to meet in the middle. Instead choosing to cast labels and isolating in silos. We can blame social media for the divide, but I think there’s something else that is missing – And that’s empathy.
 
"If, as Rotarians, we are to search for the truth in a way that is fair, builds goodwill and benefits all, we can never lose sight of the fact that every one of us is trying to make sense of the world, but none of us has been given the same tools. When you meet someone with a viewpoint that differs from yours, remember they’re probably just as scared as you are."
 
Announcements
President Bill called for announcements:
 
Rotaract Pitch Night on Zoom – President Bill – February 26, 6 pm – Calgary West Rotary has supported this event financially and it would be great to have some members on the Zoom meeting. President Bill to send out link by email.
 
Final Survey and Strategic Planning – Marlene Doherty
1.Survey #4. International Service and Youth
- link for survey #4 and results of surveys 1-3 were sent last Monday - will be re-sent today
-deadline for submission is Friday February 26.

 
2. Upcoming - Strategic Planning Dates
- Wednesday March 3 at 7pm
-Zoom invite will be sent to all members to review survey #4

3. Club Strategic Planning Sessions - facilitated by Karen Blewett
Zoom invitations will be sent to all members
Club discussion is essential to move from data to plan
- Tuesday March 16, 6-7:30 pm
- Tuesday March 23, 6-7:30 pm
- Monday March 29, 12 noon
- Monday April 12 noon, Club Assembly for Strategic Plan Ratification
 
Finally, Marlene gave a shout out to Marie Rickard for her video presentation on The Rotary Peace Fellowship.  Go to DG Mary Turners February message on www.rotary5360.ca to hear Marie’s message.
 
Free Reading and Codingville – Judy Cochran
The Youth Committee has identified two new programs that are offered and available to our youth.
  1. Codingville.ca is sponsored by funding from the Canadian Government and is a fun, interactive way to learn about computer coding. Grades 1 to 12 will enjoy and there are challenges with prizes. (For those out of touch with the computer world, this is about programming in this techno world.) A valuable skill for the future.  Check out Judy’s recent email and go to www.codingville.ca.  This program is free and open to all so consider finding at least one person who would enjoy this.
  2. Also resident on our website, www.calgarywestrotaryclub.org, is the “FREE READING” program which is free for anyone and would interest children from kindergarten to grade 6. Go to our website to access at www.calgarywestrotaryclub.org
 
Celebration of Life at Discon – Gail Williams
The Rotary District will be celebrating the lives of children and grandchildren born this year into the Rotary family as well as the lives that passed away this Rotary year.  Please submit any photos and names to Gail for the presentation.
 
Celebrating Birthdays and Anniversary of Joining Rotary – Barb Hames
Another uplifting presentation.  See the members who are celebrating.
The birthdays for February are:
Linda Anderson - Feb. 5th
David Impey - Feb. 20
Tim Anderson - Feb. 28th
 
Anniversary of Joining Rotary:
Mike Carlin                        - Feb. 1, 1990 - 31 Years
Gerry Meek                       - Feb. 1, 1986 - 35 Years
Ron Staughton                  - Feb. 1, 1981 - 40 Years
John Bossuyt                     - Feb. 4, 2019 - 2 years
Marlene Doherty             – Feb. 13, 2015 - 6 years
Bill Fitzsimmons              - Feb. 19, 2016 – 5 years
Christopher Lee                               - Feb. 23, 2010 - 20 years
Sharon Fraiman                - Feb. 25, 2019 – 2 years
Robyn Braley                     - Feb. 26, 1999- 22years
Bill Lawless                        - Feb. 27, 2004 – 17 years.
 
Firstly, Dan Doherty wanted to welcome on the call PDG Neil Berg from Red Deer, and a possible new member to Calgary West, but not Rotary, Rob Rakochey.
 
Guest Speaker
To introduce the speaker, Dan Doherty provided the following information about our speaker:
Ron Barmby is a professional engineer with both a Bachelor and Master’s degrees.  His career has taken him to over 40 countries on five continents investigating geosciences and working with local cultures.  His most recent adventures included running the Boston marathon twice, climbing Kilimanjaro and crossing Canada by motorcycle.  A proud twelfth generation Canadian, Ron and his wife, Lysle, divide their time between Celista, British Columbia, and Calgary, Alberta.  And as a side note, wife Lysle was a member of Calgary West; and Ron’s other Rotary connection is through his brother and sister-in-law Andrew and Tracey Bitcon.
 
Ron is fondly referred to as Ronapedia since like Wikipedia, he shares vast amounts of information on many subjects.  He is the author of Sunlight on Climate Change, which is the book chosen for the first Calgary West Rotary Book Club meeting.
 
Ron opened his talk with an interesting viewpoint. He will try and make us Climate Change Heretics!
He says he will answer only two questions in this talk.
  1. Is climate change caused by humans, or not?
  2. Is climate change catastrophic, or not?
 
Firstly, the reporter confesses to being overwhelmed with all the science, so I have copied information directly from Ron’s presentation to make sure that it is correct.  I, the bulletin reporter, however, have not captured in writing the whole flavour and substance of the talk.  So, please go online to the Zoom link and listen to the original presentation for Rotary Club of Calgary West meeting, February 22, 2021.  There you will find Ron’s explanation, using well-presented scientific principles about a contrarian’s opinion on climate change.
Ron has used all data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN) abbreviated to IPCC.
Question 1: Is climate change caused by humans, or not?
Ron provides the following info:
  1. The Earth is not a greenhouse.
  2. There is a limit to the greenhouse gas effect.
  3. Variations in the Sun affect our climate by the amount of energy released and the strength of its magnetic field.
 
There is a thorough explanation on the above points including or not the proof of climate change as follows.
In the last 540 million years we have had up to 12 times the CO2 in the atmosphere with no runaway global warming.
Increased sunspots mean more energy is being released by the sun and less cloud coverage on Earth, therefore more energy is absorbed on Earth resulting in global warming.
These two factors, energy released and cloud coverage, could easily explain all the global warming from 1880 to 2000.
Sunspots are ignored by the IPCC forecasts, and they admit they have difficulty forecasting the formation and affects of clouds.
Summarizing, Ron adds to the question of “Is climate change caused by humans – or not?”
Yes, humans have added a lot of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere But there is a limit to the greenhouse gas effect of carbon dioxide and therefore human-caused global warming.
Variations in the Sun affects our climate. We will observe next that this has been a significant climate change driver in recorded human history.
Question 2: Is climate change catastrophic – or not?
Ron opens with these comments:
  1. Over 95% of the last 10,000 years were warmer than today.
  2. What is a realistic range of temperature forecasts?
  3. Has global warming stopped?
 
Ron looks at the data and provides a thorough explanation over time that shows that the range in temperatures varied over long time periods and that the interpretation taken in the media and by the IPCC is not correct when you view global warming over time.
The conclusions: after looking at Question 1) Is climate change caused by humans – or not?
Most climate change is naturally occurring and has been recorded extensively for the last 10,000 years.
Humans can cause global warming by the greenhouse gas effect with emissions of carbon dioxide, but the laws of physics backed up by 540 million years of history dictate that carbon dioxide has a limit as a greenhouse gas.
We may have reached that limit.
Question 2) Is climate change catastrophic – or not?
20th century climate change is less dramatic than many other climate changes in the last 10,000 years.
For 95% of the last 10,000 years, it has been globally warmer than today.
Raw global temperature data over the last 2+ decades does not support catastrophic global warming.
Ron has upcoming articles in the Schachter Energy Report, and go to  www.ronaldbarmby.ca for his current writings. To reach Ron for more information, use his email: ronbarmby.author@gmail.com
Ron’s talk ended in a lively question and answer session which ran overtime.  This is all captured on the Zoom recording.  It covers everything from why oil companies like Shell are leaving Canada, to melting of the polar ice caps.
President Bill paused the discussion long enough for Joe Klassen to give the thanks from the club to Ron for this thought-provoking analysis of climate change, global warming which was discussed from a scientific point of view, not a political one.
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