Gordon E. Swaters

Swaters regrets signing "that damn petition"

Dr. Gordon E. Swaters, a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Alberta, says that he was told he was signing a petition asking the federal government to devote more energy to research on climate change. Instead, the letter - given prominent play in the National Post - suggested that climate change is unproved and that any effort to create policy to address the problem would be "irrational."

"I regret signing that damn petition," [1] Dr. Swaters said (April 18, 2006). The accomplished mathematician said he believes that "[t]here are still a lot of mechanics and dynamics about climate change that we don't know about and a lot of subtleties that we need to unravel." But, "signing this petition should not be seen as an attempt to indicate that climate change is not occurring."