Climate change dispute a 'fake debate,' expert says

[kgrandia]

Confused by all the mixed messages about climate change? There's a good reason for that, says a public relations expert, who argues in a new book that the so-called global warming debate is a tug-of-war between clever PR tactics and sound science.

In 2006, Al Gore's Oscar-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth" catapulted the issue of human-caused climate change out of scientific journals and into the living rooms of average folks.

At the same time, then-president George W. Bush and his staff were touting research that not only questioned whether climate change was a man-made event, but whether it was happening at all.

But James Hoggan, a veteran Vancouver public relations executive, says many of the naysayers are groups with legitimate-sounding names that are actually funded by industries that would suffer economically by climate change legislation or other efforts to curb global warming.

"What I would call them is Astroturf groups," Hoggan told Canada AM earlier this week. "Basically fake grassroots groups of unqualified scientists saying that climate science is questionable."

More: http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20091018/Climate_Debate_091018/20091018/?hub=TorontoNewHome
Book details: http://www.desmogblog.com/climate-cover-up

[GMA]

1. So are you saying

that everyone, including Gore, on the side of man-made climate change, is pure and beyond reproach, and has indisputable data?

[Buzz Clik]

2. Why don't you quote where he said that, and we'll start the conversation from there.

[GMA]

7. Good point...

You and kgrandia both make good points. I've been listening to and reading as much as I can absorb on both sides, and I just don't think--and I believe this is a quote--"that the debate is over". Mostly, I suppose, I'm an optimist. I love George Carlin's take on this whole thing, that it's incredibly arrogant of us to think we have enough power (no pun intended) to ruin the earth, which has somehow managed to survive for millions of years. We're a speck. The earth is incredibly resilient, and we don't have the skill or data base to make the kind of forward--or backward--projections that are being made in the name of science. We're just babies in this universe, and arrogant babies at that.

[donco6]

9. Well, yeah, but Carlin's point is that -

- the EARTH will continue along - once it divests itself of US. It might be good to avoid that.

[kgrandia]

12. "Save the Planet"

That's what always gets me when people say we need to "save the planet" = it'll be fine, we shoudl be thinking about saving the human species - ironically from itself.

[Buzz Clik]

10. Cranking up the average global temperature by 5 degrees will not ruin the earth.

It will, however, make life miserable for a lot of humans and force other species into extinction. Anthropogenic climate change will not ruin the earth, I agree. But, I think we're focusing on more subtle changes that can be very important.

[Emillereid]

13. The planet will be fine -- it just won't be as hospitable to human life and civilization

as the past 10,000 years have been. Cities will be flooded. Agriculture will be severely impacted. Life will not be possible on much of the earth - the arctic will be one of the few remaining places that life will prosper. Many, many people will die -- but bacteria will do just fine!

[kgrandia]

3. Nope

Not at all. Where did he say that? Nothing in science is "indisputable" - gravity isn't, evolution sure as heck isn't, but at some point there is a weight of evidence pointing towards a sound solution, which in the case of climate change is to stop burning so much damn oil and coal.

[Gman]

6. Where TF did you come from?

You watch a lot of Fox News, don't you?

[GMA]

17. lol!

Sign of the cross! I do watch Fox, and MSNBC and CNN. And my husband is a computer scientist who's much deeper into the study of global climate change than I am.

[donco6]

8. Oh yeah, that's exactly what they're saying.

:eyes:

What, did Shawn Hannity pass this one directly to you? Or did he text it?

[Dogmudgeon]

11. Hey, folks ... you have to read ALL the words.

This is an ANTI-DENIALIST piece, NOT an anti-AGW-Science piece.

--d!

[Buzz Clik]

4. Interestingly, I see Gore's movie as the first popular info piece touting climate change.

I would also say that the arguments presented in The Skeptical Environmentalist to be something other than pure propaganda. Although the science he presented was not always sound, I believe his was not some odd mouthpiece for industry.

[Gman]

5. ,,

wrong reply

[applegrove]

14. Like Al Gore said they were just buying time to make more money like the Tabacco companies.

[jimlup]

15. Expect more astroturfing on Climate Change in the very near future...

Once health care settles down the crazies will make this their next target. We are well prepared for their stupidity because the science is so sound but it come at us thick and fast.

[kgrandia]

16. More astroturf

You're dead on - in some cases its the same groups running the anti-Obama health plan campaign and the anti-clean energy campaign. Namely these guys: http://www.freedomworks.org/