Industry Ignored Its Scientists on Climate
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.
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. ( http://documents.nytimes.com/global-climate-coalition-aiam-climate-change-primer#p=1 )
“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
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George Monbiot, a British environmental activist and writer, said that by promoting doubt, industry had taken advantage of news media norms requiring neutral coverage of issues, just as the tobacco industry once had.
“They didn’t have to win the argument to succeed,” Mr. Monbiot said, “only to cause as much confusion as possible.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/science/earth/24deny.html?_r=1&em
Nightwind: Show me one well established scientific organization that thinks man-made global warming is a fraud.
June 4th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Global warming is bunk. Invented by Al Gore. Now move on.
June 5th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Thats capitalism! It is more important to keep the profits coming rather than worry about silly things like the human race. If you don’t like it do something you wimp.
June 7th, 2010 at 7:48 am
It’s not profitable. They may make .001% less on their bottom line & we all know that money is much more important than the stupid planet anyway.
June 8th, 2010 at 6:47 am
The same reason they ignored their own scientist linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer….
The same reason right-wingers deny anything and everything as a liberal conspiracy to tax people more….
The same reasons why many right-wingers only take parts of their bible literally and reinterpret the rest…
Because the it isn’t convenient.
June 10th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
1995 huh? That is interesting since 1997 was the hottest year on record and the climate has cooled since then. I wonder what a similar study by the same authors would say today.
June 11th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Pickens plan, regardless climate change, we need to get off foreign oil.
June 11th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
To date, there is not proof of Global Warming. The whole notion is so dumb now days that those that stood for global warming are now calling it “climate change”. Because we can look around and see the coldest temperatures in decades. We saw it snowing in Las Vegas and record lows in Chicago. The evidence was there if you opened your eyes. But now, by calling it climate change, you can complain if the temperature goes up or down.
It all boils down to the fact that anyone claiming global warming or otherwise is arrogant, because the earth is supposed to be millions of years old, and we, as a species haven’t been on this planet that long, we have little over 240 years of data to base anything on and most of the temperatures recorded were inaccurate due to the bad locations of the thermometers…like next to black top parking…..AC exhaust vents…..by vehicles radiators.
So what do we do when we have a theory that needs commentary ? We turn to scientists…but instead of facts, we got politicization instead.
Hansen from NASA said we had 20 years left……20 eyars came and went with no change. Another scientist said we had 10 years for the ocean….twice that has passed and nothing. We have seen more and more scientists proven to have lied or influenced by politics and still the GW eco freak crowd persists in trying to ruin people’s lives by forcing change on them based on something that hasn’t happened and in all this time hasn’t been proven.
Now they are conveniently saying that the heating trend will be interrupted by a decade or more of cooling. How convenient for them since the whole global warming thing didn’t go their way when you compare it to reality.
The greenhouse effect hasn’t manifested itself in the real world, it was only under a controlled laboratory experiement that it did.
It doesn’t matter what “government” does…they’ve lied at every turn to the people, and people are fool enough to beleive them on this ?
Its your pocket that they will steal from to enforce changes, and in the end, its just going to upset the apple cart, increase our cost of living and for what ? Some whacko leftists emotional response to his opinions ? These eco freaks need to get out more and get a life so they have more attachment to their own species than some dumb ideology
June 15th, 2010 at 5:05 am
First, of course, one must ask why is it that people keep demanding more and more products and comforts?
Why does any industry exist? Supply and demand.
AlGorian thinking is so, you know, Sci-Fi.
June 16th, 2010 at 5:21 am
here’s something i found just this morning(i hope the Polish Academy of Sciences counts), i have said before…until there is a TRUE CONSENSUS from ALL scientists…i personally will never be convinced that man has the power to cause global warming. just articles like this and hundreds of other scientists saying there is no such thing as “man-made” global warming will do nothing more than cause this debate to go on forever. and i can still assure you, i will still be unconvinced !!!