climate denial

Exposed!

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Science Historian Naomi Oreskes writes:

When I wrote the book Merchants of Doubt in 2010, I only wanted one thing: to uncover the truth about who was behind the widespread, and sadly effective, campaigns to undermine the established science of climate change, and why they were doing what they were doing.

I never imagined that, a few years later, Sony Pictures would release Merchants of Doubt, a captivating feature film that exposes the ugly world of climate denial like never before.

Thousands are about to see this movie, and when they do, they’ll be fired up and anxious to take action — let’s make sure they do. Together, let’s create a surge of people power strong enough to bring down climate denial.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/j8ii9zGFDtc]

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Forecast the Facts.org

Merchants Of Doubt

 

Hurricane Sandy Reminds Us We’re All Paying The Price For Politically-Created Climate Of Doubt

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Image credit: Earth – The Operator’s Manual

The PBS Frontline program “Climate of Doubt” masterfully exposed the strategies and tactics that climate denialists have used to delay, if not undermine meaningful action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change in the US. Perhaps the #1 strategy they have pursued involves denying the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming.

The number one strategy this shadowy, well-financed group has pursued involves denying the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming.  As Myron Ebell of the right-wing think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) put it,

“We felt that if you concede the science is settled and that there’s a consensus…the moral high ground has been ceded to the alarmists.”

Republican Congressman from Wisconsin and climate denialist James Sensenbrenner explained the importance of the public awareness of the scientific consensus:

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:Do you think this will ever be settled scientifically, if 97 percent consensus doesn’t settle it for you?

Rep. JAMES SENSENBRENNER:Well, I — you know, I think that it’s up to the scientists and their supporters to convince the public that this is the right thing to do. And the supporters of that side of the argument in the Congress have been a huge flop.

Driving the climate denialism movement are some of the same people who over the last four decades have greatly benefited from the reversal of the “New Deal” and astronomically rising economic inequality. Thanks to what political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson describe as “Winner-Take-All Politics” financial markets were deregulated leading to the Great Recession of 2007/2008, while environmental deregulation and inaction on climate science led to aggravated droughts and hurricanes, which climate scientists like NASA’s James Hansen has been warning of for many years:
“My projections about increasing global temperature have been proved true. But I failed to fully explore how quickly that average rise would drive an increase in extreme weather. In a new analysis of the past six decades of global temperatures, which will be published Monday, my colleagues and I have revealed a stunning increase in the frequency of extremely hot summers, with deeply troubling ramifications for not only our future but also for our present.” Dr. James Hansen, Washington Post, Aug. 3, 2012
I don’t know about you, but I’m really hoping that Fred Singer, Myron Ebell, and James Sensenbrenner, and James Inhofe and the rest of the “free-market conservatives” all have sea-front homes on the U.S. East Coast. What complete a**h%%*&s!!
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source: 350.org

Koch Industries: The Dirty Business Of Climate Denial

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A short animation by by Australian filmmaker Taki Oldham which details the efforts of billionaire oil barons Charles & David Koch to undermine belief in climate change and prevent legislation that threatens their profits. By pouring money into bogus scientific studies and funding third parties such as Think Tanks and Front Groups (posing as everything from Seniors groups to Women’s groups), the public is led to believe a genuine scientific debate is raging. In truth, as one climate denier candidly admits, those doubting the science are just a small, if brilliantly coordinated, minority.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaKm89eVhoE&feature=player_embedded]

Oldham incorporates footage from his 55 min. documentary The Billionaires’ Tea Party (2011).

More links:

The Billionaire’s Tea Party

Koch Industries: Still Fueling Climate Denial

The Expanding Sahara, UK Pushback on Deniers, Misquotes, And Other Links

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Here are some links to what’s being said around the blogisphere:

  • The nef (new economics foundation) triple crunch blog describes itself as offering “new economics solutions for the interlinked credit, climate and energy crises“. In “Denying the Evidence” blogger Karen Schucan-Bird discusses UK Minister for Climate Change and Energy Ed Milliband’s recent “declaration of war”  on climate change skeptics. Milliband recently said:

“It’s right that there’s rigour applied to all the reports about climate change, but I think it would be wrong that when a mistake is made it’s somehow used to undermine the overwhelming picture that’s there.

We know there’s a physical effect of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leading to higher temperatures, that’s a question of physics; we know CO2 concentrations are at their highest for 6,000 years; we know there are observed increases in temperatures; and we know there are observed effects that point to the existence of human-made climate change. That’s what the vast majority of scientists tell us.”

  • “Opinion Nigeria” talks about the very close-to-home issue of the encroaching Sahara desert:

Soon Nigeria will be part of the Sahara Desert Heritage if the desertification being experienced in Northern Nigeria is not tamed. The Sahara is entering our country at the rate of 0.6 km per year! Now that is problem. That is 600 metres. Walk this distance every day reflecting on the problem everyday, I bet the CC worry will catch you.
You should be actually. Because the adaptation of Northern Nigerians’ to water scarcity will be so stressed that they will reach breaking point. The resulting problem, people trooping into the South because their lands would have become almost uncultivable, hunting impossible, fishing in dried-up rivers or streams a tall dream etc. A living testimony is the Lake Chad, shrinking by the day.

Latif pushed back hard against the Mail, saying that the tabloid took his comments out of context to make an editorial statement. “It comes as a surprise to me that people would try to use my statements to try to dispute the nature of global warming. I believe in manmade global warming. I have said that if my name was not Mojib Latif it would be global warming,” he said. “There is no doubt within the scientific community that we are affecting the climate, that the climate is changing and responding to our emissions of greenhouse gases.”

  • Okay – here’s a link to a Huffington Post article: “Obama Hatred: Large Number of Republicans Think President is Racist, Socialist, Not U.S. Citizen“. I’m including it here because it’s in my “Wow? Really??” category.  Apparently, according to a recent poll, 36% of Republicans believe that Obama wasn’t born in the United States, 63% think he’s a socialist, and 31% of them believe he is a “racist who hates white people” (ala Glenn Beck). The article quotes Markos Moulitsas, founder and publisher of Daily Kos, who conducted the poll (the Daily Kos headline on this reads “New Daily Kos Poll Reveals Insane Attitudes of Republican Voters“):

“This is why it’s becoming impossible for elected Republicans to work with Democrats to improve our country. They are a party beholden to conspiracy theorists who don’t even believe Obama was born in the United States, and already want to impeach him despite a glaring lack of scandal or wrongdoing. They think Obama is racist against white people and the second coming of Lenin. And if any of them stray and decide to do the right thing and try to work in a bipartisan fashion, they suffer primaries and attacks. Given what their base demands — and this poll illustrates them perfectly — it’s no wonder the GOP is the party of no.”

It should be no surprise, then,  to hear that fifty-seven percent of Republicans surveyed say there is no solid evidence of global warming (up from 31 percent in early 2007), compared to 75% of Democrats who recognize the reality of global warming. If these people don’t believe their president was born in the United States – even though he has produced a birth certificate from Hawaii – how can they be expected to understand an issue like climate change where there is a concerted and deliberate attempt on the part of vested interests to misinform the public? Okay, I guess that last statement might be true regarding President Obama as well (ala Glenn Beck and Fox “News” again – check out this link to “Glenn Beck Update: The Back-Pedaling Begins” on his outrageous and inflammatory statements – that he is now denying – that Obama and his administration were going to “slaughter” people). Anyway, kudos to Ed Milliband across the pond for tackling the climate skeptics head on – it will be interesting to follow how this story develops. May sanity prevail!

Here in Canada, if you are on Facebook, you can now join “Canadians Against Canada’s Climate Plan” , if you haven’t already. Join the discussion with other concerned citizens!