( – promoted by buhdydharma )
Oh, the charm of the fossil fuels industry. In an effort to prevent public awareness of the growing climate crisis they do so much to create, they concocted an astroturf front with the Orwellian moniker Global Climate Coalition. The purpose of which was, of course, to deny its industry’s role in creating climate change. Thereby exacerbating the problem of climate change. Which does, actually, make it a coalition on global climate. A coalition determined to recklessly play a giant chemistry experiment with the climate, as long as its industry can make massive profits off it.
According to today’s New York Times:
For more than a decade the Global Climate Coalition, a group representing industries with profits tied to fossil fuels, led an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign against the idea that emissions of heat-trapping gases could lead to global warming.
“The role of greenhouse gases in climate change is not well understood,” the coalition said in a scientific “backgrounder” provided to lawmakers and journalists through the early 1990s, adding that “scientists differ” on the issue
And it should come as no surprise, then, to learn that this astroturf front was so determined to deny its industry’s role in causing climate change that it actually engaged its own scientists. Who engaged in acts of science. And determined that, um, well, the fossil fuels industry does actually contribute to climate change. Oops.
But a document filed in a federal lawsuit demonstrates that even as the coalition worked to sway opinion, its own scientific and technical experts were advising that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted.
“The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied,” the experts wrote in an internal report compiled for the coalition in 1995.
But the lies work. As reported by New Scientist, in February:
Who understands the probabilities of climate change? Certainly not the general public, if psychological tests on volunteers in the US are to be believed.
The public, it seems, thinks climate scientists are less certain about their conclusions than they actually are. The results could explain why the minority views of “climate sceptics” get proportionally more attention from the general public than those of climate scientists.
It’s easy to fool a lot of the people a lot of the time, when you have the money and media to play psychological games. Of course, anyone actually paying attention knows that there is literally no honest debate about climate science. In fact, there’s this international panel of scientists which has been conducting comprehensive investigations, and making regular reports. They’re called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They can be found here. Their most recent report was summarized by the BBC:
Billions of people face shortages of food and water and increased risk of flooding, experts at a major climate change conference have warned.
The bleak conclusion came ahead of the publication of a key report by hundreds of international environmental experts.
Which sounds bad, if you actually care about things like the lives of billions of people. Or war. But who actually cares about such trivialities? Certainly not the fossil fuels industry. You know what they care about? Try this, from CNN, from a couple days ago:
Exxon Mobil shoved aside Wal-Mart Stores to retake the top place on the Fortune 500, proving that Big Oil was king of the economy last year.
And what about the billions of people whose lives may be destroyed by climate change? Let them eat astroturf!
3 comments
This is such sad stuff. Greed has no conscience and, in this case, not only does it not have a conscience, the whole world could go to hell because of it. We knew fulwell the oil and energy companies would vigorously fight our efforts to reduce global warming. What? See a reduction of their profits and, maybe, an extinction of their greedy companies? No, no, they are at the top in profit making and that’s where they want to stay and the reason for two wars of aggression. So, of course, with all their money, they can do everything to rebuke even the existence of global warming — I’ve seen many an ad by this oil company or that, more or less, saying that global warming is malarkey, and offering counter attacks to its existence to the general public. Disgusting! Depraved! Unconscionable! They feel no culpability, when it is they who have had a huge part in contributing to the global warming situation — and, they successfully lobbied, and avoided EPA laws, to boot. The future of our children, apparently, has no meaning in the face of obsessional greed.
There is NO such thing as CLEAN coal — that is a myth that Americans need to get through their heads.
I don’t completely agree with Obama are every single issue, but I empathize with the position he is in, I mean the serious, grave issues he is dealing with are an awesome task — spelled out: the wars, the economy, global warming, jobs, creation of jobs, education, healthcare, foreclosed homes — it is f..king endless.
It is so hard to keep on top of all these major issues, so, thanks, for your efforts — very much!
It works. Most people have no interest in being informed at all let alone well-informed. Catch jay-walking on len’s show sometime to see just how incredibly ignorant people can be in this country.
Don’t forget that McCain-Palin got 43% of the vote last year. And that was just the people who bothered to vote. Think about it.
The rest of this century will be about survival and adaptation. It’s too late for climate change; it’s already happening and accelerating. There’s no going back.
The ultra-rich will survive just fine in their gated and guarded enclaves. They’ll just helicopter and private jet over the devastation to their gated and guarded destinations.
We’re all in the Ninth Ward now. Most of us haven’t admitted it yet.