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Spencer Black: Spending orgy funds fight against climate science
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Desertphile
May 15, 2013, 3:29:48 PM5/15/13
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Spencer Black: Spending orgy funds fight against climate science
http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/spencer-black/spencer-black-spending-orgy-funds-fight-against-climate-science/article_4290ef21-5efa-5614-8cb7-0000b5eeaaa7.html
Question: How do you get policymakers to ignore the strong scientific
evidence and consensus warnings of the scientific community regarding
global warming?
Answer: You spend a lot of money.
Every month when I was in the Legislature, I received a slickly
produced newsletter called Climate News published by the innocuous
sounding Heartland Institute. Each issue of the newsletter contained a
dozen or more attacks on climate science. The newsletter was self-
contradictory. One article would claim that the world was actually
getting colder and then the next would proclaim, "Yes, it's getting
warmer but humans are not the cause of warming." Yet another article
would claim warming was a good thing, even going so far as to credit
global warming with an increase in the lobster catch. Tales of the
tasty crustacean aside, the purpose of the newsletter was not to make
a cogent argument but to spread doubt about climate science. In
debates on the Assembly floor, I would hear Republican "climate
experts" quote verbatim from this newsletter.
Turns out that newsletter is only the tip of the iceberg (at least
until it melts). The fossil fuel corporations, such as ExxonMobil,
have waged an extensive and expensive campaign to mislead the public
about global warming and to hinder the development of wind and solar
energy. All told, they have poured hundreds of millions of dollars
into front groups that attack climate science and fight policies that
would promote clean energy — policies that might reduce the sales and
profits of energy corporations. For example, the billionaire brothers
Charles and David Koch, who made their fortune selling oil and gas,
have dumped over $60 million into a wide range of think tanks and
lobbying groups to mislead the public. The top recipients of Koch
money include Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, the
Cato Institute, and the Manhattan Institute. Not surprisingly, the
Heartland Institute, which also sponsors a conference of climate
science deniers, was funded by Exxon and the Kochs.
Much of the funding for the anti-science campaign has come from a
secretive group known as the Donors Trust. According to the Guardian
newspaper, Donors Trust has distributed $118 million to more than a
hundred think tanks such as Heartland Institute that oppose efforts to
control global warming. The trust is set up to launder and hide the
original source of the funding.
The Koch brothers, ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute and
coal companies have also been funding the few scientists they can find
who will dispute the reality of global warming.
Scientists have extensively researched and overwhelmingly concluded
that human activity is causing a significant increase in the
temperature of the Earth and we will experience harmful disruptions as
a result. The current anti-science campaign against climate science is
eerily reminiscent of the anti-science campaign once waged by tobacco
companies to discredit the scientific conclusion that smoking is
unhealthy.
The fossil fuel industries do not like the obvious conclusion that we
must reduce our use of oil, gas and coal to head off cataclysmic
disruptions of our climate — the kind of disruptions that have led to
harsher storms and more extensive droughts. They fear that greater use
of renewable energy and controls on the greenhouse gas pollution that
causes global warming might eat into their record profits.
Spencer Black represented the 77th Assembly District for 26 years and
was chair of the Natural Resources Committee. He currently serves on
the Sierra Club’s national board and teaches at UW-Madison.
--
"Desertphile isn't dead..... darn." -- Rawbush (YouTube)
http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/spencer-black/spencer-black-spending-orgy-funds-fight-against-climate-science/article_4290ef21-5efa-5614-8cb7-0000b5eeaaa7.html
Question: How do you get policymakers to ignore the strong scientific
evidence and consensus warnings of the scientific community regarding
global warming?
Answer: You spend a lot of money.
Every month when I was in the Legislature, I received a slickly
produced newsletter called Climate News published by the innocuous
sounding Heartland Institute. Each issue of the newsletter contained a
dozen or more attacks on climate science. The newsletter was self-
contradictory. One article would claim that the world was actually
getting colder and then the next would proclaim, "Yes, it's getting
warmer but humans are not the cause of warming." Yet another article
would claim warming was a good thing, even going so far as to credit
global warming with an increase in the lobster catch. Tales of the
tasty crustacean aside, the purpose of the newsletter was not to make
a cogent argument but to spread doubt about climate science. In
debates on the Assembly floor, I would hear Republican "climate
experts" quote verbatim from this newsletter.
Turns out that newsletter is only the tip of the iceberg (at least
until it melts). The fossil fuel corporations, such as ExxonMobil,
have waged an extensive and expensive campaign to mislead the public
about global warming and to hinder the development of wind and solar
energy. All told, they have poured hundreds of millions of dollars
into front groups that attack climate science and fight policies that
would promote clean energy — policies that might reduce the sales and
profits of energy corporations. For example, the billionaire brothers
Charles and David Koch, who made their fortune selling oil and gas,
have dumped over $60 million into a wide range of think tanks and
lobbying groups to mislead the public. The top recipients of Koch
money include Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, the
Cato Institute, and the Manhattan Institute. Not surprisingly, the
Heartland Institute, which also sponsors a conference of climate
science deniers, was funded by Exxon and the Kochs.
Much of the funding for the anti-science campaign has come from a
secretive group known as the Donors Trust. According to the Guardian
newspaper, Donors Trust has distributed $118 million to more than a
hundred think tanks such as Heartland Institute that oppose efforts to
control global warming. The trust is set up to launder and hide the
original source of the funding.
The Koch brothers, ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute and
coal companies have also been funding the few scientists they can find
who will dispute the reality of global warming.
Scientists have extensively researched and overwhelmingly concluded
that human activity is causing a significant increase in the
temperature of the Earth and we will experience harmful disruptions as
a result. The current anti-science campaign against climate science is
eerily reminiscent of the anti-science campaign once waged by tobacco
companies to discredit the scientific conclusion that smoking is
unhealthy.
The fossil fuel industries do not like the obvious conclusion that we
must reduce our use of oil, gas and coal to head off cataclysmic
disruptions of our climate — the kind of disruptions that have led to
harsher storms and more extensive droughts. They fear that greater use
of renewable energy and controls on the greenhouse gas pollution that
causes global warming might eat into their record profits.
Spencer Black represented the 77th Assembly District for 26 years and
was chair of the Natural Resources Committee. He currently serves on
the Sierra Club’s national board and teaches at UW-Madison.
--
"Desertphile isn't dead..... darn." -- Rawbush (YouTube)
gordo
May 15, 2013, 6:46:02 PM5/15/13
to
denialists, in this newsgroup.They are confused, completely at odds
with published science. They get their science from the sources that
get the funding to keep then confused.
Dawlish
May 16, 2013, 2:47:52 AM5/16/13
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*Anything*.
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