Balance: Sort Of
070813_Cover.standard.jpgNewsweek is a reliable left-wing spin machine, and not surprisingly, the cover this week discusses--not the evidence against anthropogenic global warming, but the motivations of those who dare challenge the anti-globalist (i.e. socialist) propaganda.
Its a pretty typical logical fallacy--ad Hominem--kill the messenger.
Since the late 1980s, this well-coordinated, well-funded campaign by contrarian scientists, free-market think tanks and industry has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change. Through advertisements, op-eds, lobbying and media attention, greenhouse doubters (they hate being called deniers) argued first that the world is not warming; measurements indicating otherwise are flawed, they said. Then they claimed that any warming is natural, not caused by human activities. Now they contend that the looming warming will be minuscule and harmless. "They patterned what they did after the tobacco industry," says former senator Tim Wirth, who spearheaded environmental issues as an under secretary of State in the Clinton administration. "Both figured, sow enough doubt, call the science uncertain and in dispute. That's had a huge impact on both the public and Congress."
You have to admire the subtle propaganda.
"Well-funded."
"Well-coordinated"
"Patterned after the tobacco industry..."
oooh. Scary. Also untrue.
This is pretty much par for the course, but there is something extraordinary in this issue, perhaps even unprecedented--a serious rebuttal. Granted, its a column, not a cover and feature article, but the article does have a link to the column and vice-versa. Robert Samuelson eschews the grandiose claims and dark allusions of Sharon Begley's article.
The story's thrust: discredit the "denial machine," and the country can start the serious business of fighting global warming. The story was a wonderful read, marred only by its being fundamentally misleading.
Samuelson points out that the story is "...peripheral and highly contrived" In fact, the allegation that climate-change dissenters are a well-funded bunch is completely ludicrous is light of the billions being spent to promote global-warming alarmism. ExxonMobil contributed $240,000.00 to the American Enterprise Institute--less than 1% of their total budget.
Senator Inhofe's blog points out that total budget for climate change dissenters is about 19 million as compared with 50 billion spent on establishing global warming claims...
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