desmogblog.com — Despite the massive amounts of scientific evidence showing humans are to blame for climate change, a new poll finds that only about half of Americans (47%) say the earth is warming because of human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels.
May 9, 2008 View in Crawl 4
uglyfactsMay 13, 2008
Public opinion is important when it comes to climate change, not because it affects the science or mother nature, clearly it can do neither, but public opinion will drive or prevent preventative action being taken and that is important, both for life on earth and the fossil-fuel companies who can expect to lose-out if carbon taxes are introduced.There is ample documentary evidence to show that a vigorous disinformation campaign to undermine the public's perception of the scientific argument has been funded directly and indirectly by the fossil-fuel industry, aided and abetted by groups with a political ideology that predisposes them to align themselves with the fossil-fuel industry. Why? To postpone the feared carbon taxes and the hit on their profits. While the Fossil energy companies look to lose-out when carbon taxes are introduced, they've had plenty of warning, and the claims that carbon taxes will damage the US economy are a myth spread by the fossil fuel companies. For why this argument is flawed, look at the 'Economic Argument' lower down.For details of part of the disinformation industry, see below.<a class="user" href="http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warm">http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warm</a> ...If you are open minded, then visit www.RealClimate.org and click on 'Start Here' to learn about climate science from climatologists - a good start. From there you can look at common skeptical arguments – these are carefully crafted arguments intended purely to confuse and bewilder the scientifically naïve public. These arguments are not targeted at climate scientists, because they will see straight through them. These arguments are raised repeatedly in the media, political websites and anywhere where they can be used to deceive the public.Sadly most people who have made-up their minds that climate change is variously a hoax, an error, has stopped, or is a global conspiracy etc. & etc. do so without even looking at the scientific facts, they learn from people with political or financial reasons for denying the veracity of climate science.Since climate science is a scientific matter, isn't it a good idea to listen to what the climatologists are actually saying, rather than what others who may have an anti-science agenda tell us what the scientists are saying? It's hardy surprising that these two things are often quite different. So it would seem a jolly good idea to find-out from the climatologists first. This is where www.RealClimate.org will help. Because climate science is difficult for a layperson to understand well, but it is possible to understand sufficient science that reveals the skeptical arguments are merely cleverly constructed lies.Once you start delving, you will discover that not everything that claims to be climate science is exactly that. As soon as you read any mention of politics or the economy, be very cautious. Politics and the economy have no place in any scientific discussion.There are a great number of politically motivated individuals and their websites who argue that anyone who mentions climate change is anti-American, because reducing the availability of cheap energy, carbon taxes will harm the US economy.THE ECONOMIC ARGUMENTThere is evidence that the economic argument is not based upon economically sound reasoning.Unsurprisingly, the denial industry funded directly or indirectly by the fossil-fuel industry are aligned with those who deny anthropogenic climate change for political reasons. Their thinking being that the US economy relies upon copious supplies of inexpensive energy – therefore in their eyes, anyone who argues otherwise must be an anti-American 'watermelon' - green on the outside and red on the inside. This train of politico-economic thought has now been shown to be flawed and 25 of the world's top economists believe that the US economy will fare better if actions to reduce emissions are introduced, as compared with business as usual scenarios. <a class="user" href="http://www.climate.yale.edu/seeforyourself/">http://www.climate.yale.edu/seeforyourself/</a><a class="user" href="http://environment.yale.edu/news/5624/reducing-car">http://environment.yale.edu/news/5624/reducing-car</a> ...WHAT SCIENTISTS ACTUALLY SAY ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGEThe American Meteorological Society <a class="user" href="http://www.ametsoc.org/amsnews/2007climatechangere">http://www.ametsoc.org/amsnews/2007climatechangere</a> ...The American Institute of Physics <a class="user" href="http://www.aip.org/gov/policy12.html">http://www.aip.org/gov/policy12.html</a>The American Geophysical Union<a class="user" href="http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/policy/positions/climat">http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/policy/positions/climat</a> ...The American Association for the Advancement of Science<a class="user" href="http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2007/0218am_stat">http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2007/0218am_stat</a> ...THE SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGEA joint statement issued by the Australian Academy of Sciences, Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts, Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Royal Society of Canada, Caribbean Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, French Academy of Sciences, German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina, Indian National Science Academy, Indonesian Academy of Sciences, Royal Irish Academy, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italy), Academy of Sciences Malaysia, Academy Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Royal Society (UK)...,<a class="user" href="http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=1361">http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=1361</a> ...Joint science academies’ statement: Global response to climate changeThe national science academies of the G8 nations and Brazil, China and India, three of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the developing world, have signed a statement on the global response to climate change...,<a class="user" href="http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=2074">http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=2074</a> ...