bittersweet news

So you think Cameron Diaz is a "smart cookie".

Do you call the intelligent women who work at Vancity "smart cookies", or do they expect a little more respect than that? What would happen if you did refer to them as "smart cookies"?

The term "cookie" might even be called a bit derogatory, condescending or even chauvinistic, don't you think?
I assume you must mean that you think Diaz is intelligent and thoughtful.....are you surprised that that could happen, hence the term "smart cookie?

Hardly CEO talk....

Dave, you've done great work at Vancity and moved the company forward on every bottom line.  As a member, I couldn't have asked for more.  It sounds like a great opportunity you'll be taking at ATB, but you will be missed, by employees, members and the community.  Yours are some pretty big shoes to fill....

I can't wait to hear about how "The Inconvenient Truth" goes over in the oil patch.  Go get 'em, Dave!

P.S.  As a feminist, I must agree that Cameron Diaz is - indeed - one smart cookie with a well-known commitment to environmental issues.  Go, Cameron!

Dave, I just googled your name and see that you had a blog, and I figured that I would blog and say Welcome to ATB Financial, it is a great company that is very engaged in our customers and helping them out, as well as ourselves. I look forward to meeting you some time, as I am down in southern alberta, but from what I hear from whatI have read, you have a lot to bring to ATB. Again Welcome as I am sure you have heard that from several people. and look forward to meeting you soon.

Hi Dave, I'm a VC customer and just found your blog from the website. I applaud your efforts to make a difference for a cause you believe in. However, i urge you to be a rational critical thinker and view the counter side to the argument.

The highly acclaimed Channel 4 TV station in the UK has been airing a documentary challenging the orthodoxy of current climate-change thinking. They do NOT deny climate change is occurring; they simply challenge the causes.

You can view it on YouTube by searching for "The Great Global Warming Swindle (Complete)". It's 1 hour 15 long and is food for thought.

Just forthe record, just because I'm not completely sold on the "An Inconvenient Truth" school of thought does not mean that i think we should go on polluting the planet.

As it turns out, at least one of the scientists quoted in that "documentary" says his views were profoundly misrepresented and calls it "one-sided, anti-educational and misleading":

In the part of the "Swindle" film where I am describing the fact that the ocean tends to expel carbon dioxide where it is warm, and to absorb it where it is cold, my intent was to explain that warming the ocean could be dangerous---because it is such a gigantic reservoir of carbon. By its placement in the film, it appears that I am saying that since carbon dioxide exists in the ocean in such large quantities, human influence must not be very important --- diametrically opposite to the point I was making --- which is that global warming is both real and threatening in many different ways, some unexpected.

Many of us feel an obligation to talk to the media---it's part of our role as scientists, citizens, and educators. The subjects are complicated, and it is easy to be misquoted or quoted out context. My experience in the past is that these things do happen, but usually inadvertently --- most reporters really do want to get it right.

Channel 4 now says they were making a film in a series of "polemics". There is nothing in the communication we had (much of it on the telephone or with the film crew on the day they were in Boston) that suggested they were making a film that was one-sided, anti-educational, and misleading. I took them at face value---clearly a great error. I knew I had no control over the actual content, but it never occurred to me that I was dealing with people who already had a reputation for distortion and exaggeration.

I am a Vancity member and think it is a great credit union - good job.

I have a few questions

Are you able to setup programs that can help all home owners get funding help with low interest loans for making home repairs green?

How can we get the government to help the people go green by making it tax free to go green or giving tax cuts for going green on home repairs/improvements or for owning hybrids?

How can we make going green affordable to set up?

I have a question for YOU.

Can YOU handle the real TRUTH about climate change?

Find out at the real "an inconvenient truth" site

The Great Global Warming SWINDLE at

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4340135300469846467

Remember, the guy you so admire also claimed HE INVENTED THE INTERNET. Think about it! Good luck in Alberta

Update to April 5/07 I have a question for YOU

Hi Dave About.....
The Great Global Warming Swindle

Something very Important for you to Ponder……… another Video

Britain's Channel 4 has produced a devastating documentary titled "The Great Global Warming Swindle." It has apparently not been broadcast by any of the networks in the United States or Canada, for obvious reasons. But, fortunately, it is available on the Internet.

Distinguished scientists specializing in climate and climate-related fields talk in plain English and present readily understood graphs showing what a crock the current global warming hysteria is. Especially Al Gores version.

These include scientists from MIT and top-tier universities in a number of countries, including Canada. Some of these are scientists whose names were paraded on some of the global warming publications that are being promoted in the media -- but who state plainly that they neither wrote those publications nor approved them.

One scientist threatened to sue unless his name was removed. It was removed, but others remain!

Since you were apparently so captivated with Gores dubious spiel after spending several days in his hallowed presence you apparently forgot there are at least two sides to every story. You fell for one.

As a member of Vancity since 1963, I was surprised that someone of your stature could be so easily duped. In the interests of objectivity and the truth behind this issue, I feel compelled to inform you about this available “other side” which will take only about an hour of your time compared to the days you worshipped with Al.

It took a while to locate another site since the two that carried it originally, Google and You Tube, have both been shut down. Again for obvious reasons. This link was still working today. Try it, IT IS VERY, VERY INTERESTING!

http://www.archive.org/details/The_Great_Global_Warming_Swin...

IMHO, a credible decision on this hot issue can only be reached by gathering up all the facts, seperating the wheat from the chaff and then "objectively" applying even a modicom of common sense to what’s left. Who and what to believe, experts in the industry or politicans and pseudo- scientists with personal agendas.

I personally take consolation in this statement of fact backed by solid scientific historical records and charts that have withstood the tests of time and naturally occurring gobal seasons for thousands of years.

There is no question that the globe is warming but it has warmed and cooled before, and is not as warm today as it was some centuries ago, before there were any automobiles and before there was as much burning of fossil fuels as today. No panic.....

None of the dire things predicted today happened then.

I do applaud your success at Vancity and I wish you well in Alberta.

Chuck

Hello Dave,

Welcome to ATB Financial! I'm happy to read that we'll have a "Green" CEO. I really like the "Green" products that Vancity carries. I hope that you'll be able to carry this trend over to ATB Financial. There is a lot of room for improvement in environmental awareness here in Alberta.

Best regards,

Eduard Spelier