PrintSeptember 15, 2010
Warmist Slander of Scientific Skeptics
Warmist true believers bitterly cling their mantra that only the corrupting influence sinister money could possibly explain skepticism toward the theory they embrace as gospel truth.
In case anyone is unfamiliar with the simplicity of the man-caused global warming idea: overwhelming scientific conclusions say we are causing floods / droughts / blazing summers / intense winters, and don't listen to any skeptic scientists -- they're corrupt.
This mantra is fine until you start asking questions. On the so-called consensus of "numerous" IPCC scientists, it appears Donna Laframboise has now exposed a rather troubling set of problems with the IPCC's 1995 Health Chapter authors, and John O'Sullivan has just recently pointed out some details the NOAA would rather not have you know about, while Steve McIntyre continues to tear down the ClimateGate scandal with ever finer levels of detail.
Considering how Exxon, Chevron, and others have climbed on the CO2 reduction bandwagon, believers of man-caused global warming may have realized the "skeptic scientists corrupted by big oil" idea is rapidly losing credibility. Skeptic populations are increasing; somebody must be funding them.
Of course, the fundamental premise of "big coal/oil funding = corruption" has never been proven; the lack of such evidence becomes quite obvious when reading Ross Gelbspan's 1997 book The Heat is On. As Gelbspan is the most widely acknowledged promulgator of this accusation, it becomes quite a challenge to find people whose accusations against skeptic scientists aren't rooted in his 1997 book.
But if those big industries are politically correct now, meet the replacement: the Koch brothers and their foundation. The most prominent mention of them recently was Jane Mayer's New Yorker article, "Covert Operations, The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama." I'll leave the accusations of the Kochs fighting Obama to others and concentrate on Mayer's contention that "... organizations fighting legislation related to climate change [are] underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups." In a nutshell, "deniers" know we're causing global warming, but they are paid to lie about it being naturally caused.
On whom does she rely on to make this point? Greenpeace, Naomi Oreskes, Joe Romm, and the Center for Public Integrity. I've already detailed Greenpeace's / Ozone Action's ties to anti-skeptic book author Ross Gelbspan and how they appear to be the epicenter of successful efforts to spread the corruption accusation starting in 1996. Regarding Naomi Oreskes, I detailed the strange two-step she took to cite Gelbspan's 1997 book in a response arising from one of my American Thinker pieces being reproduced at a different website.
Joe Romm is easily seen to be a Ross Gelbspan worshiper, where among the nine search results at his blog are two where he mistakenly calls Gelbspan a Pulitzer winner and a third where he recites a Gelbspan funding accusation verbatim. In a bit of closure, a circular reference in a Gelbspan book review goes right back to Romm.
Finally, we have the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), which Jane Mayer describes as "a nonpartisan watchdog group." A July 2008 "Denying Global Warming with John Stossel" blog piece at their website by Lisa Chiu leaves little doubt about their viewpoint on global warming. In her September 30, 2008 article, "Global Warming: Heated Denials The Organized Effort to Cast Doubt on Climate Change," she says,
In 1991, a group of utility and coal companies created the Information Council on the Environment to lead an advertisement and public relations campaign to "reposition global warming as theory rather than fact," as author Ross Gelbspan wrote in his book The Heat is On.
A few paragraphs later, she quotes Greenpeace's Kert Davies. In 1998, Davies was the Science Policy Director of Ozone Action -- small world. Speaking of that, CPI's Chief Operating Officer Ellen McPeake is also a current Greenpeace Fund board member, along with being its former Chief Operating Officer.
If one circular reference involving Joe Romm weren't enough, there is this CPI page with a direct link to his dire blog "Memo to enviros, progressives: The deniers and dirty energy bunch are ‘full of passionate intensity' -- and eating our lunch on the climate bill!", while he cited CPI last December, and the prior February.
What's the common theme, from Mayer's New Yorker article to the 1991 NY Times article that was one of the first to report the "reposition global warming" phrase that Gelbspan adopted six years later? Industry funding = corruption. What's been the constant problem with that theme? No proof that skeptic scientists fabricated science conclusions or assessments because of the money. Borrowing a standard challenge seen in internet forums, "Show us photos, or it never happened."
In the seventh paragraph of his 9/7 U.K. Telegraph blog, James Delingpole says,
How many times do I have to explain why the "funded by Big Oil" meme is little more than black propaganda put about by green activists? (For chapter and verse on this, read Russell Cook's superb piece of investigative journalism at American Thinker).
I'm flattered and embarrassed. I'm no investigative journalist, I've never taken a journalism class, and I don't want to be a journalist when I grow up. I'm just a semi-retired idiot graphic artist who keeps asking how policymakers, environmentalists and mainstream news outlets justify their demand to regulate CO2 and why skeptic scientists should be silenced. I am persistent -- my question about that now appears for the third time at the PBS ombudsman's page, this time relative to the Koch accusation, under the heading "More on Koch." How will they be able to hold back a rising tide of people asking the same question?
(Note: I wrote to the ombudsman entirely on my own. Joe Romm has considerably more influence; he twice encouraged his blog's readers on Sept 7 to bombard the ombudsman with letters.)
