Don't be misled, global warming is settled
contracostatimes.com
WILLIAM McKILLOP of Walnut Creek wrote a letter to the Times that appeared on Jan. 2 alleging that human activity is not to blame for greenhouse gases, which are causing global warming.
As evidence, he pointed readers to the Web site www.friendsofscience.org. The Friends of Science (FoS) defines itself as a group of retired engineers and scientists who reject the need for the provisions of the Kyoto Accord.
However, a very small amount of research reveals that (FoS) is really a front for Canadian energy interests that stand to lose billions of dollars if the Kyoto Protocol is implemented worldwide. Only the United States and Australia have failed to sign the Kyoto Accord.
In an Aug. 12 article in Canada's national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, journalist Charles Montgomery reported that FoS had received funding from Alberta Oil and Gas and the money was laundered through the University of Calgary.
Some of these funds were used to produce a video challenging global-warming theories. The school ordered FoS to remove any representations of association with the University of Calgary.
The mainstream scientific community is unequivocal that global warming is real. Last year was the warmest on record, and the national academies of science of all the G8 nations, representing most scientists in the developed world, sent a joint message to their leaders urging prompt action.
But the Bush administration and the oil lobby have been adamant in opposition to the existence and causes of global warming. Bush is an oil man and his administration has consistently taken the side of Big-Oil interests. Adoption of the Kyoto Protocol would mean reduction of our demand for oil and the profits flowing to Big Oil.
Creating a climate of doubt about the issue of global warming has become big business for spin doctors. ExxonMobil gave more than $8.6 million to think tanks, consumer groups and policy organizations engaged in undermining the tenets of the Kyoto Accord.
The supported groups promote the extreme minority of scientists, who dispute the U.N. and the World Meteorological Society's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
In a now-infamous 2003 memo, U.S. pollster and consultant Frank Luntz advised Republican politicians to cultivate uncertainty when talking about climate change: "Voters believe that there is no consensus about global warming within the scientific community. Should the public come to believe the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate," wrote Luntz. He goes on to note, "The scientific debate is closing (against us) but not yet closed. There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science."
To read the entire disturbing memo from the Luntz Research Companies, go to www.luntzspeak.com/graphics/LuntzResearch.Memo.pdf and look at page 137 and following.
If this sounds depressingly similar to the arguments coming from the tobacco companies about how the science was unclear as to the damaging effects of smoking, or from the asbestos companies about the lack of scientific evidence linking asbestos exposure to mesothelioma and lung cancer, you are absolutely right.
The debate now seems to focus on contrived spin instead of science. The time has come for action. The Bush administration needs to do what has already been done by seven northeastern states, California and Oregon -- adopt the protocols of the Kyoto Accord and work with the rest of the world to deal with the mounting threat of a global environmental crisis.
Mullin is a Concord resident and attorney. He is the former mayor of Concord and a columnist for the Concord Transcript/ Pleasant Hill-Martinez Record. |
