Natural Resources Stewardship Project
The Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP) was a Canadian nonprofit organization founded in 2006 that focused on promoting a skeptical viewpoint regarding climate change. It challenged the prevailing consensus on global warming, describing it as a "hypothesis" and asserting that current climate changes were part of natural variations rather than an urgent crisis. The NRSP aimed to advocate for responsible environmental stewardship through various means, including media outreach, public education, and the promotion of private property rights and market-based solutions.
This organization emerged during a time when there was a growing sentiment that environmental care was shifting away from individual responsibility towards actions taken by larger, often unaccountable organizations, which they believed negatively impacted economic stability and citizen initiatives. The NRSP defined responsible stewardship as the prudent use of natural resources, minimizing pollution, and fostering local regulation. They critiqued major environmental policies, including the Kyoto Protocol, and emphasized grassroots campaigns for what they considered more sensible climate policies. Ultimately, the NRSP’s approach to climate issues diverged significantly from more mainstream environmental groups, focusing instead on the impact of natural factors and advocating for economic freedom as a pathway to responsible environmental action.
Natural Resources Stewardship Project
- DATE: Established October 12, 2006
Mission
As a skeptic organization, the Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP), now defunct, casted doubt on groups that view global warming as an issue that demanded immediate attention, calling this stance a “hypothesis” and arguing that “current climate change is within natural variations.” The NRSP was a Canadian, federally incorporated, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that claimed to promote responsible environmental stewardship through media and public relations; consumer education; promotion of private property rights; market-based approaches; and efficient and sensible regulatory and legislative frameworks, particularly at the federal level.
Significance for Climate Change
The NRSP was established when there was a perception that caring for the natural environment had changed from being about individual responsibility to being about nonaccountable actions of transnational and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), with negative economic consequences. This perceived change resulted in lessening citizens’ initiatives and undermining private property rights. Members felt that many governmental and NGO initiatives followed an agenda not based on science or on rational economics. Overall, they felt that the situation was damaging the economy more than it was helping the environment.
The NRSP defined “responsible environmental stewardship” as prudent use of all resources, minimizing unnecessary pollution, transforming waste into resources, and improving material conditions; formulating practical environmental policies based on logic, scientific objectivity, and an understanding of risk; individual rather than governmental action as the preferred means to achieve goals; an understanding that private property encourages private responsibility; a recognition that regulation of resources is best at the most local level possible; and an understanding that more economic freedom allows more responsible individual action.
A top-priority initiative of the NRSP entitled “Understand Climate Change” used proactive grassroots groups to campaign against the Kyoto Protocol and other greenhouse gas emission reduction schemes and to promote sensible climate change policy. Another project, “The Science Centre,” established a credible independent auditing mechanism to review scientific studies before they were used as a basis for widespread environmental decisions.
The NRSP addressed climate issues differently from less skeptical groups. They applauded the Canadian government’s moving toward reducing greenhouse intensities over the short term rather than in terms of absolute emission caps. Believing that carbon dioxide is “almost certainly not a significant driver of global climate change,” they devoted time and effort to studying natural factors, such as changes in the Sun’s output.