Recent posts about global warming
Organized Campaigns to Cyber-Bully Climate Scientists?
Steve Milloy on Fox NewsClimate scientists increasingly report that they have become targets of cyber-bullying, saying threats and hatred pour into their email inboxes whenever they appear in the press or media. The emailers call the scientists cheaters, frauds, scumbags and worse. Australian academic Clive Hamilton speculated in a news column that purpose of this cyber-bullying is to upset and intimidate the targets, making them reluctant to participate further in the climate change debate. Most of the e-mails seem to be the work of frustrated individuals who simply want to rant, but some appears to be coming from coordinated campaigns. Scientists say people appear to be taking cues from influential anti-climate change advocates like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the Web site ClimateDepot.com. Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research -- who has received 19 pages of hate email just since November -- says that the most dispiriting aspect of the e-mails is that facts seem to no longer hold any weight in the public debate. He observes that the nature of public discourse, be it climate change or health care, has changed; information that does not fit peoples' worldview is now discounted or rejected. Richard Littlemore of DeSmogBlog says the cyberbullying starts with paid campaigners like Marc Morano, Executive Director at ClimateDepot.com, and Steven J. Milloy of JunkScience.com. "They're the PR guys and they're in the game and taking money for what they do," he said.
Progress Energy Dumps Pro-Coal Front Group
Progress Energy is the latest in a growing number of energy companies abandoning the pro-coal industry front group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). ACCCE opposes President Obama's clean energy reform agenda, and was the group that ran ads at Christmas time, 2008 featuring animated lumps of coal called the "Clean Coal Carolers" cheerfully singing Christmas Carols like "Frosty the Snowman" with the lyrics changed to deliver pro-coal propaganda ("Frosty the Coalman is a jolly happy soul. He's abundant here in America, and he helps our economy roll. Frosty the Coalman's getting cleaner every day. He's affordable and adorable and helps workers keep their pay.") Progress Energy serves 3.1 million customers in Florida and the Carolinas, and it follows Duke Energy, Alcoa and other power generators in pulling out of ACCCE. Progress had been one of ACCCE's biggest funders, and had given the group $1 million in 2008. But Progress recently announced they were moving away from coal and shutting down 11 coal-fired power plants, in favor of moving towards natural gas -- a less greenhouse-gas intensive fuel source. ACCCE has been spending over $40 million a year to promote the myth of "clean coal." In August, 2009, ACCCE's Vice President of Communications even tried to portray mountaintop removal as a boon to rural communities because it solved the problem of a "lack of flat space" in Appalachia.
Oil-Funded Gov Joins with Oil-Funded Front Group to Appeal Greenhouse Gas Regs
Although it seems a bit like a dog-bites-man story, the New York Times reported that Texas Governor and 2012 presidential aspirant Rick Perry (R-TX) has joined with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) in challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to regulate carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. As the Center for Media and Democracy has documented on our SourceWatch site, CEI has been well-funded by Exxon and other oil companies, and is one of the main U.S. corporate front groups fighting efforts to address global warming and regulate the industry that feeds it funding. But, the courts are now stacked in Perry's favor, as noted below.
Oil-Funded Gov Joins with Oil-Funded Front Group to Appeal Greenhouse Gas Regs
Although it seems a bit like a dog-bites-man story, the New York Times reported that Texas Governor and 2012 presidential aspirant Rick Perry, a Republican, has joined with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) in challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to regulate carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. As the Center for Media and Democracy has documented on our SourceWatch site, CEI is well funded by Exxon and other oil companies, and is one of the main U.S. corporate front groups fighting efforts to address global warming and regulate the industry that feeds it funding.
Just this week, the Texas Oil and Gas Association endorsed Perry in his re-election bid, based on his opposition to carbon trading and regulation of the oil and gas industry. While this move is not surprising, it is very worrisome because the Bush Administration was so successful at packing the courts. The Perry-CEI petition for review has been filed with the D.C. Circuit, an eleven-judge court on which Bush was able to install four judges, in addition to the many right-leaning judges put on the court by his father and President Reagan. Six of the current appointees were chosen by Republican presidents, three were chosen by Democratic presidents, and Chief Justice John Roberts served on the D.C. Circuit before being tapped by Bush for the Supreme Court. So this move reflects hope on the part of those who want to throw a wrench in efforts to address global warming that they can win in the appellate court and prevail before the Supreme Court, which has strongly signaled its sympathy for the corporate "rights" agenda in the discredited Citizens United decision last month. (For more information, on that case, please check out our Corporate Rights clearinghouse.)
So, while the New York Times story does have a dog-bites-man feel to it, it forebodes a much bigger story in the making, given the direction of the five men in the majority in Citizens United and the right-wing domination of the federal appellate court. Chief Justice Roberts, by the way, has previously expressed great concern about how little old Exxon was being treated for its environmental damages, as noted in this article about the Exxon Valdez case. And, then voted in favor of cutting the damages award against Exxon in half, as noted in this story about the Supreme Court's decision in that case. --Lisa Graves
Oil Money Funds Climate Deniers and Attacks on Climate Scientists
The multinational energy company ExxonMobil has given hundreds of thousands of British pounds in grants to free-market, anti-climate change think-tanks to wage a coordinated, orchestrated campaign against climate change science, and undermine public acceptance of the idea that global warming has a man-made component. The campaign includes attacks against scientists who support the idea that climate change in man-made. Funding has gone to groups like the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in the U.S., and the International Policy Network in the United Kingdom, which have organized international seminars that pulled together climate change deniers from around the world.
Reflections on COP15, Looking Ahead to COP16
Copenhagen Out of the Frying Pan, Part 8
Publisher's Note: I asked our guest blogger, Alex Carlin, to send along a wrap-up blog reflecting on his experience at COP15, and looking ahead to COP16 later this year. He graciously agreed, and here are his reflections on the conference and climate change. --Lisa Graves, Executive Director
PR Exec Tells How Industry Manipulates Public Opinion
James Hoggan, the director of the James Hoggan & Associates public relations firm, has authored a book titled Climate Cover Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming, in which he describes PR techniques that industry groups use to create the impression of a scientific controversy about climate change. Industries set up front groups, Hoggan says, like the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, which tried to convince Americans in electoral swing states that coal is clean. Front groups like Americans for Prosperity, which organized the disruptive August, 2009 town hall meeting protests, started out by paying for protesters. Hoggan reports seeing documents that show PR firms charged $1800 per protester. "Companies can buy protesters, and if you are clever with your framing of the issue, these paid protesters attract real protesters," Hoggan explains. His book also reveals the strategy of framing global warming as a United Nations scheme, or a scam by international scientists, to appeal to people who "don't like being told what to do by the UN or some foreigners." The most powerful tools used to manipulate public opinion, Hoggan says, are focus groups, which help PR companies understand how people think on certain issues. Another is the creation of "echo chambers," that involve generating favorable news reports that are repeated over and over by media outlets until the public finally starts repeating it back. "Get Dick Cheney and George Bush and Fox News and the Competitive Enterprise Institute to talk and then just keep repeating what they say -- 'the science is not settled, the science is not settled, the science is not settled' -- until the public starts repeating it back. It’s a frightening phenomenon," Hogan says.
Johann Hari on Propaganda and James Hansen's New Book--Both Worth Reading!
by Lisa Graves
Check out Johann Hari's review of James Hansen's terrific new book, "Storms of My Grandchildren." Both describe the Bush Administration's efforts to distort public opinion about global warming and climate change through hiring flacks and hacks from coal to suppress science and truth. You've read the dry versions of the story in news clips, but the book itself is so thoughtfully and powerfully written, it's definitely worth picking it up at your local bookstore.
Hari's take is insightful and crisp: "[N]otoriously, the second Bush administration started to appoint former employees of Big Coal to run NASA's communications. They blocked press releases warning about global warming and tried to stop Hansen from giving interviews. One of the appointees explained his job was to "make the President look good." When Hansen argued back, they cut his research budget by 20 percent. Hansen said he had a duty to speak out because the first line of NASA's mission statement is a pledge "to understand and protect our home planet"—so the Bush appointees deleted the commitment. Yes: They erased the commitment to protect planet Earth. (An independent investigation by the Inspector General later confirmed all this.) Most scientists would have backed down or given up. Hansen didn't—and from his prickly prose, you can tell why."
U.K. Police Lobbied Power Company to Sue Protesters
Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that the chief constable of Kent police, Mike Fuller, lobbied the power generation company E.ON UK to seek injunctions to counter protests against the proposed Kingsnorth power station. In a letter to the head of security at E.ON, Fuller wrote that he was "surprised" that the company had not used injunctions to "restrain" protesters and urged the company to initiate legal action "in advance of protests, where possible, and if not as soon as possible after" they start. "My concern was that E.ON should improve their own site security, which if neglected could cause unnecessary costs for the policing of protests, not that individuals who wished to protest should be prevented from doing so," Fuller told the Guardian. However, in an earlier report the Guardian had revealed that the police had also lobbied "the local council to assist with automatic number plate recognition cameras to track protesters. When the council voiced objections, officials were told that senior officers were 'less than impressed, given the importance of this operation as the new power station build is likely to create a considerable number of jobs'."
Energy Lobbyists Help Draft Polluter-Friendly Amendment
Juliet Eilperin reports that "two Washington lobbyists, Jeffrey R. Holmstead and Roger R. Martella, Jr., helped craft" the original version of an amendment proposed by Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski which would "bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act." Holmstead, who heads the Environmental Strategies Group at Bracewell & Giuliani, confirmed that last September he worked with Murkowski's staff on the wording of the amendment. Both Holmstead and a Murkowski aide confirmed that Martella, a partner at Sidley Austin, also worked on crafting the amendments. Holmstead's client list on climate issues includes Southern Company, Duke Energy, Progress Energy and the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council on climate matters while Martella is the registered lobbyist for the National Alliance of Forest Owners and the Alliance of Food Associations on the same subject. Brendan Demelle notes on DeSmog Blog that Murkowski "has received $470,000 in campaign contributions from dirty energy and mining interests since 2005, according to the Center for Responsive Politics."
