James Hoggan, author with Richard Littlemore of “Climate Cover-up” and president of the public relations firm James Hoggan and Associates, appeared on the Thom Hartmann show in November of 2009 to discuss the climate change denial industry. Mr. Hoggan is also president of The David Suzuki Foundation and one of the founders of DeSmogBlog.com.
Here is the video of that interview:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcAePLs3O2c]
This is a reposting – it was originally published on December 1, 2009.
Have a great weekend!
A recent response to one of my posts questioned my statement that there were fewer trees in the world than 200 years ago, saying I had provided no proof. This same person questioned why it was important to point out that trees breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen when discussing global warming.
This is amusing, on the face of it. Except that there is a relentless disinformation campaign going on, funded by the companies that have the most to lose if our economy switches from fossil fuel-based to greener, less polluting energy sources. Lest you think I’m just a paranoid conspiracy theorist, let me remind you of the tobacco companies’ example. For years, they poured millions of dollars into denying that cigarette smoke is linked to cancer, paying scientists and PR people alike to muddy the waters. Can we really assume that the oil, coal and gas companies are any different? They have taken a page out of the tobacco companies’ book, and are trying to divert a solutions-focused climate change discussion.
Exxon Mobile is the largest and wealthiest corporation in the world. Rather than retreating in the face of mounting evidence of global disaster, there is evidence that it continues to put money and effort into denial of global warming. In 2006 Exxon was called to account before the Royal Society of London scientific body for its funding of so-called “think tanks”, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). CEI produced commercials extolling the virtues of carbon dioxide; set to the background of sunrises and little girls blowing dandelions, the commercials state boldly “Carbon dioxide. They call it pollution. We call it life.” (Click here to view video).
Obviously, carbon dioxide is a part of life. But the CEI ad – and similar denial claims – ignore that fact that it is not carbon dioxide itself that is inherently harmful, but it is excessive discharges of the gas that scientists argue is harmful to the atmosphere. And excessive discharging of carbon dioxide is what we humans, mostly in Europe and North America, have been doing with our increased rate of fossil fuel consumption since the Industrial Revolution over 200 years ago.
In “Climate Change Cover-Up”, James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore offer this analogy:
Behind us is a considerable crowd, 6.7 billion people and counting, and below is a beckoning pool. Some people say that you can jump into that pool without risk. They say that humans having been doing so for ages without any problems. But others say that waves have been eating away at the foot of the cliff, causing big rocks to fall into the water. They say that the risk of jumping grows more frightening by the day. Whom do you trust?
Hoggan and Littlemore then point out that some of the lifeguards on the climate change cliff just aren’t that qualified, and some of them seem quite willing to sacrifice the whole swim team if there are profits to be made.
Would you trust an unqualified lifeguard, or one with vested interests, with your life, and that of your children and grandchildren?
A recent response to one of my posts questioned my statement that there were fewer trees in the world than 200 years ago, saying I had provided no proof. This same person questioned why it was important to point out that trees breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen when discussing global warming.
This is amusing, on the face of it. Except that there is a relentless disinformation campaign going on, funded by the companies that have the most to lose if our economy switches from fossil fuel-based to greener, less polluting energy sources. Lest you think I’m just a paranoid conspiracy theorist, let me remind you of the tobacco companies’ example. For years, they poured millions of dollars into denying that cigarette smoke is linked to cancer, paying scientists and PR people alike to muddy the waters. Can we really assume that the oil, coal and gas companies are any different? They have taken a page out of the tobacco companies’ book, and are trying to divert a solutions-focused climate change discussion.
Exxon Mobile is the largest and wealthiest corporation in the world. Rather than retreating in the face of mounting evidence of global disaster, there is evidence that it continues to put money and effort into denial of global warming. In 2006 Exxon was called to account before the Royal Society of London scientific body for its funding of so-called “think tanks”, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). CEI produced commercials extolling the virtues of carbon dioxide; set to the background of sunrises and little girls blowing dandelions, the commercials state boldly “Carbon dioxide. They call it pollution. We call it life.” (If I can find a current link to them, I will post it.)
Obviously, carbon dioxide is a part of life. But the CEI ad – and similar denial claims – ignore that fact that it is not carbon dioxide itself that is inherently harmful, but it is excessive discharges of the gas that scientists argue is harmful to the atmosphere. And excessive discharging of carbon dioxide is what we humans, mostly in Europe and North America, have been doing with our increased rate of fossil fuel consumption since the Industrial Revolution over 200 years ago.
In “Climate Change Cover-Up”, James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore offer this analogy:
Climate change deniers are getting a lot of press out of hacked emails from East Anglia University’s Climate Research Unit last week. They claim that the leaked emails are evidence of collusion among scientists to suppress evidence that global warming isn’t really occurring.
The timing of the illegal email hacking is very interesting, coming as it does days before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Most of us won’t read the 13 years worth of emails that have been released, but there are several of the emails in particular that the skeptics are jumping on as “proof” of this world-wide conspiracy of scientists. To read more details, check this link or this one, or to read the emails themselves click here.
As anyone who has ever written an email will know, publicized and taken out of context, we all have emails that could damage our professional and/or private reputation. Although the emails do not provide any scientific evidence that would counter the scientific consensus that human emissions are altering the climate system, because they suggest the appearance of impropriety in the scientific process, they may be politically damaging. This is ironic, because the deniers have been subverting and distorting the scientific and public debate on this issue for years. As James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore write in “Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming”, the story of denying man-made climate change is
..a story of deceit, of poisoning public judgement- of an anti-democratic attack on our political structures and a strategic undermining of the journalist watchdogs who keep our social institutions honest.
The perilous situation that we are in is too important to let the deniers sidetrack us at this point. As Greg Craven asks in “What’s the Worst That Could Happen: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate” : What is the wisest thing to do, given the risks and consequences of this question?
In other words, what mistake would you rather risk, the possible harm to the economy that the skeptics warn us about, or the possible global disaster and upheaval that scientists warn us about? What is the more acceptable risk – the risk of not taking action or the risk of taking action?
To take action now, check out the 10:10 Campaign,which is encouraging citizens to show governments by example and cut their personal emissions by 10% in 2010. Read more here and here about this UK initiative that is going global!
Queen Elizabeth II addressed the Commonwealth leaders meeting in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday by urging the heads of state to lead on climate change. She told the delegates:
“The threat to our environment is not a new concern but it is now a global challenge that will continue to affect the security and stability of millions for years to come.”
Not known for her fanatical, unconventional ideas, it seems that even the Queen of England can be duped by the lefty, liberal, radical, nazi, communist, terrorist, world-wide conspiracy of scientists trying to fool everybody into believing that the burning of fossil fuels is affecting our environment, and that the window of opportunity we, as a global community, have to act is swiftly closing. Those lefty/liberal/nazi/communists/terrorist scientists are obviously in it for themselves. And the corporations that make money from all of us burning those same fossil fuels are pure as the driven snow, wanting nothing but to save us from these nasty people trying to gain financially from pulling the blinders over our eyes and getting us to swallow anthropogenic climate change whole. These corporations want to help us out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s not like they having anything – like billions of dollars in profits every year – to gain by continuing along this path that we are currently on. Nope, not them. It’s those nasty scientists getting rich off of us suckers.
Want to learn more? Check out James Hoggan’s book Climate Cover-Up – The Crusade to Deny Global Warming. Or go to the DeSmogBlog website, whose mission is to clear “the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science“.