[Vision2020] Dissenter on Warming Expands His Campaign

[Tom Hansen]

Proof once again that . . . for people to believe in something, THAT 
something does not necessarily have to be fact.  It can merely contain a 
negligible degree of . . .

Truthiness
http://www.tomandrodna.com/Sounds/Truthiness.mp3
 
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho



> Donovan,
> 
> I'd say it matters a lot. It matters that people have irrational  
> beliefs yet want to dictate policy. How can that not matter?
> 
> Joe Campbell
> 
> On Apr 15, 2009, at 7:59 AM, Donovan Arnold
> <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com 
>  > wrote:
> 
> > Ted,
> >
> > It doesn't matter what the science says, because people are going to 
> 
> > believe what they want to believe.
> >
> > Best Regards,
> >
> > Donovan
> >
> > --- On Tue, 4/14/09, Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > From: Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Dissenter on Warming Expands His Campaign
> > To: "Donovan Arnold" <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>
> > Cc: "vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> > Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 11:37 AM
> >
> > I agree that the lifestyle of many who are environmentally focused  
> > is hypocritical.
> > However, the topic of my post is misrepresentation and distortion of 
> 
> > information in science related public propaganda campaigns on  
> > climate change.  Any campaign that engages in these tactics should  
> > be viewed with skepticism.
> >
> > I find it surprising that these tactics are employed when this can  
> > damage the credibility of the campaign.  I suppose it is assumed  
> > most in the public won't read the fine print, nor will they research 
> 
> > the science.
> >
> > Ted Moffett
> >
> > On 4/13/09, Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > This isn't any more ridiculous than people in the US claiming they  
> > are "environmentalists" or they care about the environment.
> >
> > Anyone that lives in the Western Civilization is contributing to the 
> 
> > gross over consumption of resources and pollution of the  
> > environment. Anyone that drives a car, or lives in a modern US house 
> 
> > of apartment, shops at the local grocery store, is doing far more to 
> 
> > destroy the Earth than the recycling of all the soda cans and  
> > cardboard they use.
> >
> > It is laughable to see SUVs with "Earth Day" or "Don't Pave  
> > Paradise" bumper stickers. It is laughable to see two story houses  
> > with all the lights on inside the house, three automobiles in the  
> > driveway, three or four children, and an owner that claims to care  
> > about our planet.
> >
> > Unless you move away from civilization, live in a hut made out of  
> > manure, and eat the bare minimum to sustain yourself, like 70% of  
> > the world, you are a hypocrite in saying you care about the Earth  
> > and your impact on it, and look more absurd than a guy claiming the 
> 
> > global warming isn't real and the automobiles don't pollute.
> >
> > Best Regards,
> >
> > Donovan
> >
> > --- On Mon, 4/13/09, Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > From: Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com>
> > Subject: [Vision2020] Dissenter on Warming Expands His Campaign
> > To: "vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> > Date: Monday, April 13, 2009, 12:00 PM
> >
> >
> > Why do those who organize coordinated well funded campaigns that  
> > claim to demonstrate that anthropogenic climate change is  
> > exaggerated as a threat, or an outright hoax, engage in  
> > misrepresentation and what I would call "fraud?"  Wouldn't their  
> > campaigns be more believable if they vetted their lists of  
> > references to PhD. scientists who genuinely doubt the science behind 
> 
> > anthropogenic warming?  Of course, if they restricted their  
> > references to PhD. climate scientists currently publishing in  
> > legitimate peer reviewed scientific journals, their list would be  
> > shorter.  But nonetheless, if you claim a long list of PhD.s doubts 
> 
> > global warming is human caused, many in the public will find this  
> > credible, even if many of the scientists quoted are not specialists 
> 
> > in climate science currently publishing in this field.
> >
> > Just as with the campaign to shed doubt on the theory of evolution, 
> 
> > and promote creationism or intelligent design, with the lists of  
> > 100s of scientists who sign their names to this effort, you can find 
> 
> > hundreds of PhD. scientists who will sign their names to lists that 
> 
> > suggest that the science behind anthropogenic warming is doubtful.
> >
> > But to create a list of over 700 "scientists" who supposedly doubt  
> > human impacts on climate, as Marc Moreno has done and is discussed  
> > in the article below, and misrepresent by claiming someone is a  
> > meteorologist, when they are not, or including a scientist in the  
> > report who does not dispute anthropogenic warming, who later demands 
> 
> > his inclusion in Moreno's effort be retracted, undermines the  
> > credibility of these campaigns.
> >
> > Ted Moffett
> > -----------------
> >
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/politics/10morano.html?_r=1&hpw
> >
> > Dissenter on Warming Expands His Campaign
> >
> > By LESLIE KAUFMAN
> > Published: April 9, 2009
> > WASHINGTON — Marc Morano does not think global warming is
> anything t 
> > o worry about, and he brags about his confrontations with those who 
> 
> > do.
> > For example, Mr. Morano said he once spotted former Vice President  
> > Al Gore on an airplane returning from a climate conference in Bali. 
> 
> > Mr. Gore was posing for photos with well-wishers, and Mr. Morano  
> > said he had asked if he, too, could have his picture taken with Mr. 
> 
> > Gore.
> > He refused, Mr. Morano said.
> > “You attack me all the time,” Mr. Gore said, according
> to Mr.  
> > Morano.
> > “Yes, we do,” Mr. Morano said he had replied.
> > Mr. Gore’s office said Mr. Gore had no memory of the
> encounter. Mr.  
> > Morano does not care. He tells the story anyway.
> > As a spokesman for Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking 
> 
> > Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, Mr. Morano 
> 
> > was for years a ceaseless purveyor of the dissenting view on climate 
> 
> > change, sending out a blizzard of e-mail to journalists covering the 
> 
> > issue. Now, with Congress debating legislation to curb carbon  
> > dioxide emissions, Mr. Morano is hoping to have an even greater  
> > impact. He has left his job with Mr. Inhofe to start his own Web  
> > site, ClimateDepot.com.
> > The site, scheduled to debut this week, will be a “one-stop
> shop”  
> > for anyone following climate change, Mr. Morano says. He will post r
> 
> > esearch he thinks the public should see, as well as reported video s
> 
> > egments and ratings of environmental journalists.
> > Supporters see Mr. Morano as a crucial organizing force who has  
> > taken diffuse pieces of scientific research and fused them into a  
> > political battering ram.
> > “Before Marc, efforts to debunk global warming were scattered
> and di 
> > sorganized,” said John Coleman, a weather broadcaster who
> helped fou 
> > nd the Weather Channel and who has called global warming “a
> scam.”
> > And environmentalists and mainstream climate scientists, however  
> > much they disagree with Mr. Morano’s views, still pay
> attention to w 
> > hat he does.
> > Kert Davies, the research director of Greenpeace, said he would like 
> 
> > to dismiss Mr. Morano as irrelevant, but could not.
> > “He is relentless pushing out misinformation,” Mr.
> Davies said.  
> > “In denying the urgency of the problem, he definitely slows
> things d 
> > own on the regulatory front. Eventually, he will be held accountable
> 
> > , but it may be too late.”
> > In his work with Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Morano, whose thick build fills out 
> 
> > his suit like a bulldog in a restraining jacket, did not hesitate to 
> 
> > go after journalists he saw as biased. He promoted any study or  
> > statement that could be construed as cutting against the prevailing 
> 
> > view that heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide contribute to  
> > global warming. Peter Dykstra, a former executive producer for
CNNâ€> ™s 
> >  science, environment and technology unit, recently called him the
â€> œ 
> > drum major of the denial parade.”
> > Mr. Morano may be best known for compiling a report listing hundreds 
> 
> > of scientists whose work he says undermines the consensus on global 
> 
> > warming.
> > But environmental advocates and bloggers say that many of those  
> > listed as scientists have no scientific credentials and that their  
> > work persuaded no one not already ideologically committed.
> > Mr. Morano’s new Web site is being financed by the Committee
> for a C 
> > onstructive Tomorrow, a nonprofit in Washington that advocates for f
> 
> > ree-market solutions to environmental issues.
> > Craig Rucker, a co-founder of the organization, said the committee  
> > got about a third of its money from other foundations. But Mr.  
> > Rucker would not identify them or say how much his foundation would 
> 
> > pay Mr. Morano. (Mr. Morano says it will be more than the $134,000  
> > he earned annually in the Senate.)
> > Public tax filings for 2003-7 — the last five years for which
> docume 
> > nts are available — show that the Committee for a Constructive
> Tomor 
> > row received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the ExxonMobil Fo
> 
> > undation and from foundations associated with the billionaire Richar
> 
> > d Mellon Scaife, a longtime financer of conservative causes best kno
> 
> > wn for its efforts to have President Bill Clinton impeached. Mr. Ruc
> 
> > ker said Exxon had not contributed anything last year.
> > Mr. Morano grew up in a conservative household in Northern Virginia 
> 
> > with an affinity for nature and animals — his basement was
> home to a 
> >  menagerie of reptiles, including a boa constrictor.
> > “I used to tell people I was Republican except on the  
> > environment,” he said.
> > After college, Mr. Morano worked as a reporter for Rush Limbaugh,  
> > where he said he had learned the satisfactions of poking at the
“> lib 
> > eral establishment.” He made a documentary on the Amazon rain
> forest 
> > , he said, because it annoyed him that celebrities like Sting could 
> 
> > dictate what people think about the issue. They vastly exaggerated t
> 
> > he problem of deforestation, he concluded.
> > He then jumped to Cyber News Service, where he was the first to  
> > publish accusations from Vietnam Swift-boat veterans that Senator  
> > John Kerry of Massachusetts, then the Democratic presidential  
> > nominee, had glorified his war record. Many of the accusations later 
> 
> > proved unfounded.
> > Mr. Morano is proud of his work, which he says is not advocacy but  
> > truth seeking.
> > “Even in the Senate, I’d put up any of the stories we
> did against  
> > any pablum Time or Newsweek has put out on global warming,” he
> said. 
> >  “We’d link to the other side; we’d present
> their arguments.  
> > They do one-sided screeds.”
> > In 2007, he points out, the Republican Web site of Mr. Inhofe’s
> comm 
> > ittee won an award from the independent Congressional Management Fou
> 
> > ndation.
> > But some scientists and environmental advocates who have made it  
> > their business to monitor Mr. Morano see his reports — the
> most rece 
> > nt was titled “More than 700 International Scientists Dissent
> Over M 
> > an-Made Global Warming Claims” — as far from balanced.
> > Kevin Grandia, who manages Desmogblog.com, which describes itself as 
> 
> > dedicated to combating misinformation on climate change, says the  
> > report is filled with so-called experts who are really weather  
> > broadcasters and others without advanced degrees.
> > Chris Allen, for example, the weather director for WBKO-TV in  
> > Kentucky, is listed as a meteorologist on the report, even though he 
> 
> > has no degree in meteorology. On his Web site, Mr. Allen has written 
> 
> > that his major objection to the idea of human-influenced climate  
> > change is that “it completely takes God out of the
picture.â€>  Mr.  
> > Allen did not respond to phone calls.
> > Mr. Grandia also said Mr. Morano’s report misrepresented the
> work of 
> >  legitimate scientists. Mr. Grandia pointed to Steve Rayner, a profe
> 
> > ssor at Oxford, who was mentioned for articles criticizing the Kyoto
> 
> >  Protocol, the 1997 international treaty on curbing carbon dioxide e
> 
> > missions.
> > Dr. Rayner, however, in no way disputes the existence of global  
> > warming or that human activity contributes to it, as the report  
> > implies. In e-mail messages, he said that he had asked to be removed 
> 
> > from the Morano report and that a staff member in Mr. Inhofe’s
> offic 
> > e had promised that he would be. He called his inclusion on the list
> 
> >  “quite outrageous.”
> > Asked about Dr. Rayner, Mr. Morano was unmoved. He said that he had 
> 
> > no record of Dr. Rayner’s asking to be removed from the list
> and tha 
> > t the doctor must be “not to be remembering this
clearly.”> 
> > Many scientists, Mr. Morano said, are afraid that appearing on the  
> > list will have political fallout.
> > And political fallout, for him, is the point.
> >
> > -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
> >
> >
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> >                http://www.fsr.net
> >           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> >
========================> =========================> ======
> > List services made available by First Step Internet,
> > serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> >               http://www.fsr.net
> >          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> >
========================> =========================> ======
> 



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