“So what does John Rustad think scientists are lying about?”

THE NDP said that on Friday morning when reporters questioned B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad about his belief that “the masses have bought into a lie” about the scientific consensus that carbon emissions drive climate change, he dodged direct questions and just repeated his old line about the carbon tax: “Where the lie comes in is [Premier] David Eby saying that taxing people into poverty is going to change the weather.”

The NDP noted that just like Rustad, Eby has said he will cancel the carbon tax for individual British Columbians if the federal government removes the backstop, and asked: “So what does John Rustad think scientists are lying about?”

The carbon tax is not mentioned at all in Rustad’s post about the “lie” of climate science. Instead, he claims scientists are wrong about trends in the earth’s temperature and that for over half the Earth’s existence, CO2 levels were over 1,600 parts per million and “it was a period of incredible vegetation.”

Carbon levels have not been that high for 50 million years, and the earth was 12 degrees hotter. Modern humans evolved 300,000 years ago.

“Mr. Rustad cannot sanitize himself during this campaign,” said NDP Candidate Niki Sharma. “Two weeks ago he mentioned that carbon is not a problem and two years ago he said British Columbians are being duped into believing in climate change. The question to Mr. Rustad is: who is behind this supposed lie? John Rustad, who wants to be premier, believes that British Columbians are fools for believing scientific experts and their own eyes.”