Climate change is happening. The science is sound. But plenty of people and organizations with various motives (all dubious) are spending millions to sow seeds of doubt among the American public.
Following on our in-depth series, How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic, Grist will launch an occasional feature that tracks the latest global warming denialisms and skeptics garbage, making sure to point readers to the real story.
The Skeptics Are Saying…
Jeff Jacoby The conservative columnist for the Boston Globe coughs up a huge hairball of climate disinformation in his July 1 piece, citing real climate scientists who purportedly doubt that mankind’s reliance on fossil fuels is warming the globe.
The Reality Is …
The Boston Phoenix’s David S. Bernstein tears into Jacoby, noting that his column is full of the same horse manure being shopped around by the same small group of climate deniers, some of whom, it turns out, completely agree with the science of global warming. Go figure.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute claims that the EPA suppressed an internal report raising serious doubts about the science of global warming. The free-market think tank says longtime EPA staffer Al Carlin was told to shut up when his work cast doubts on the science used to justify the agency’s finding that CO2 emissions pose a threat and, therefore, should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Sadly, CBSNews.com and too many others picked the story up and ran rather one-sided reports. Now, unsurprisingly, conservative lawmakers are demanding an investigation.
Grist’s Jon Hiskes called up CEI to hear their side of things. Well, there’s nothing to it. Carlin is an economist, not a climatologist, and the EPA says its managers went out of their way to give Carlin a platform for his skepticism. In the end, he was told to butt out because, well, he’s an economist trying to weigh in on a scientific report. And as for the science in Carlin’s document, turns out it’s full of holes too, according to a detailed assessment by REAL NASA CLIMATE EXPERT Gavin Schmidt. Newsweek gets in on the debunking too, while Media Matters dissects the shoddy reporting of the CEI allegations. And don’t miss this great TPM piece.
