The REAL Climate Change Conspiracy

Note: This was written in 2008, but links have been updated.

Those who deny climate change allege that the claims made about climate change by scientists are part of a great conspiracy to defraud. These people point to various “facts” and sources.” Yet, very close to the totality of scientists in the world with expertise in climate agree that human-caused climate change IS happening.

So what are we to believe?

Well, yes, Virginia, there is a real conspiracy. But it’s among the climate change DENIERS, not those who claim that it’s real. The national naysayers are associated with one particular man and two particular corporations, as explained below. The local naysayers are currently concentrated in the Ron Paul camp, the same presidential candidate who wants big corporations to be entirely free of government interference.

Yes, that's relevant. Most of the "overwhelming evidence against global warming," it turns out, emanates essentially from one source and one coordinated effort. The principal source of "information" is www.junkscience.com. This site is run under the tutelage of one Steven Milloy. He has long-time ties to both the tobacco and oil industries as well as Fox News and the Cato Institute (which already tells us much about him), and part of his personal platform is "debunking" the "myth" that smoking tobacco causes health consequences.

Two of the specific ties I mentioned -- tobacco and oil -- are important. They're important because those are the two exact industries that are sponsoring one of history's most sordid disinformation campaigns. Theirs is an effort that would put the "NewSpeak" of George Orwell's 1984 to shame. In fact, the coordinated effort comes from two specific corporations, Exxon-Mobil and Philip-Morris. Their "junkscience" effort is not all about the truth, nor the public good, nor public health, nor about good public administration. It is about one thing, and one thing only: corporate profits. In other words, the junkscience.com website really is about junk science -- this web site is what is, in fact, creating the junk science.

Many of the references in the website's "documentation" are circularly self-referential, ultimately deriving from other claims made by the same people, based on more claims made by the same people, and so on, and never derive from actual science. In one extreme case, a cited article contains what appears to be a link to the United Nations World Meteorological Organization -- but this, when clicked, actually leads to a link that leads back to the same article, and does not include any link to reach the actual organization! That article, headlined on the JunkScience site, by the way, is from -- get this -- a Las Vegas newspaper. The correct URL for the World Meteorological Organization is http://www.wmo.ch/pages/index_en.html

That Las Vegas article notes that the WMO reports that 2008 temperatures are expected to be cooler than 2007, and offers that as evidence against global warming. Reading the actual WMO report, we find that 2008 temperatures are still expected to be substantially warmer than the average, and that the cooling effect is expected to be relatively minor and temporary, due to an el nina event. In other words, there is no cooling trend, despite Junkscience's distortion.

Philip-Morris began their massive disinformation campaign in order to try to throw public doubt on the claims that tobacco causes cancer and other health problems. In order to support this effort, they literally asked themselves, "What other public issue would be easy to distort through propaganda?" and their answer was: Global Climate Change.

Exxon-Mobil quickly became involved since they were able to see that any rational effort to create renewable energy, reduce pollution, mitigate climate change, better people's lives, and create a sustainable world would be damaging to their short-term profits.

The Bush administration has been heavily invested politically in this concept, eager as they are to preferentially serve corporate interests. Theirs is the principle, as with the "junkscience" program, that any outrageous lie repeated frequently enough becomes accepted as the truth by at least some people. Recently, political pressure has forced George W. Bush to pay lip service to the truth of global climate change, but it is no more than appearances.

Yes, Virginia, there is a boogyman, and it is greed. Junkscience.com reflects greed and its ensuing corruption at its worst. And, yes, Virginia, there is global climate change, and no amount of lying will change that. Only our responsible action as citizens will change that.

For information on real debunking of global climate change "debunking", check out:


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