rebuttal to: save the rainforest, buy a hummer

by Shane Nicholson

Published: January 19, 2008

Graham Bradley’s original article: “save the rainforest: buy a hummer“

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When it comes to discussion of global warming, the right just isn’t playing with a full deck. They trot out a lineup composed of former industry execs backed by the likes of John Coleman, a man with five decades of experience as a TV weatherman and not one day of experience as a climatologist.

And therein lies the problem behind their arguments refuting the human impact on global warming: the only information available to combat the overwhelming scientific consensus is from fringe scientists, many of whom don’t actually work in fields relative to the discussion, many of which are backed by corporate think tanks, and all experts of forgery and fiction - masters of the false document.

To point, Mr. Coleman tells us there’s nothing to worry about. “Global Warming; It is a SCAM,” he writes, and boy does he provide the evidence to back it up. “I have read dozens of scientific papers,” he says. “I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct.”

No scientists named, no papers cited� well, I’m convinced. Thank you, John Coleman. Thank you. You may now return to your state of exile from The Weather Channel.

It’s a good thing these people have media types like Glenn Beck around to help them broadcast their message to the masses because the types that absorb this information could care less that Mr. Beck has the same qualifications in the field of climate change as the average eleventh grade student.

The simple fact of the matter is that not a single national or international scientific body rejects the common argument that humans are responsible for a significant portion of the planet’s warming over the past 50 years. Even the American Association of Petroleum Geologists has come around, and guess what their interests are tied up in?

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not arguing against the skeptics. It’s not their fault we have an administration and media that actively blocks scientific data related to the human causes of global warming from reaching the public as a whole. Only in America.

Literally.

It’s the denial groups out there, the CEI’s and AEI’s and even our own executive branch, the ones who see massive and deadly changes in weather systems and simply write it off. Of course tornado outbreaks have occurred in the Upper Midwest during January for ages, previously there was just no one there to see it. Also, dinosaurs weren’t mentioned in the Bible so we can go ahead and scrap them from the record. Oh, and the Grand Canyon’s only 6500 years old. Got it.

The weather systems argument has obviously become more difficult for these groups to refute, mainly because it’s on our televisions almost every day. People can see the change and once they realize there are sound scientific explanations for it all, then it just kind of clicks.

So denial specialists have turned to the economic effects now, driving home this point that changing existing industries to fit requirements imposed by new laws or treaties will have a massive negative effect on the United States and its economy. Basically, somehow your gallon of milk will become even more expensive than it already is.

The problem at the root of this argument is that while adjusting to these technologies will affect many industries which currently rely on the ability to heavily pollute the planet, it will create a wealth of industries that have to design, construct and employ these new technologies. Yes, the negative impact on the existing industries and their lobbies will be substantial, but it will be offset by the positive impact of industries that don’t even truly exist yet. (One wonders if Henry Ford faced this kind of fight from the horse lobby a century ago.)

If America were to step up, take the lead in this endeavor, embrace this cause, it would bolster our economy and standing in much the same way as The Industrial Revolution, which defined the US as a world power in the first place. We would be at the forefront of the premier social, scientific, economic and industrial effort of the 21st century, once again leading the way for the rest of world.

Groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute have done an excellent job going on TV and convincing Americans that developing these new technologies in the fight against anthropogenic climate change would have adverse and insurmountable effects on our economy. Getting them to openly discuss that a large portion of their operating revenue comes from Exxon-Mobil and Ford is another story.

And that is what it will really come down to, whether Americans can begin to zone out all of the crap flowing down the pipe from these “think” tanks into mouthpieces like Beck, people and organizations whose interest in this fight begins and ends with their shared financial backers and sponsors. Because until that happens, well, let’s just say I hope you don’t have your retirement funds wrapped up in coastal properties.

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Read Graham Bradley’s original article: “save the rainforest: buy a hummer“

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