From Andrew Montford, who points out the obvious (at least obvious to everyone else) when it comes to the “big oil” and “big coal” meme.
It’s extraordinary how this “massive campaign” by fossil fuel interests has gone almost entirely undocumented. There is, to the best of my knowledge, virtually no evidence to support the claim at all. It is something of an indictment of the standards in academia that this kind of conspiracy theorising goes unremarked and entirely unchallenged.
See: Oreskes and Conway do the end of the world
S. I. Hayakawa said this in 1972 during his presentation to the cadets at the Air Force Academy:
“The new left liberal is right by definition, therefore no amount of arguing from the facts will ever convince them they are wrong.”
Then, during the debate concerning the Panama Canal he said: “Why should we give it back? After all we stole it fair and square.”
How I miss his honestly and humor.
This probably Off-topic, but I don’t know where else to ask it:
Suppose, just for the sake of the discussion, that the following are true:
1. Some place some where has developed the means to generate most of its survival and growth energies from windmills and solar panels.
2. The current crop of forecasts are correct and we go on into a protracted cold spell.
3. The products of the protracted cold spell are (among others) airfoil icing on the windmill blades and snowcover on the solar panels.
What will happen, do you think?
“Psychological projection was first conceptualized by Sigmund Freud as a defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously rejects his or her own unacceptable attributes by ascribing them to objects or persons in the outside world instead. Thus, projection involves projecting positive or negative qualities onto others, and is a common psychological process.[1][2] Theoretically, projection and the related projective identification reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted unconscious impulses or desires through displacement.[3]”
Even if the nefarious Koch brothers were to deploy every last dime of their personal fortunes to the fight against anti carbon hysteria it would still amount to spitting in the ocean in comparison to the vast propaganda machine that has been promoting it for decades. Just the funds the U.S. government has deployed to the cause are well north of $100 BILLION. Other governments of most nations and at all levels, the UN, NGOs, corporations (including BIG OIL) and other entities have probably tripled to quadrupled that amount. Harder to precisely account for, but much more significant in terms of human perception, is the free in kind propaganda provided by any movie made in recent decades, as well as any piece of episodic television, news reports (print or electronic), “documentaries”, the pontificating of celebutards, etc. which have made CO2 into a problem that “needs” to be addressed in the minds of most of the population of the developed world, including many of those who are otherwise skeptical of the science and solutions offered.
I have no idea how much income Anthony gets from running this blog, whatever it is it’s not enough, but I strongly suspect that, if he had invested similar hours and effort to what he has in this site behind the counter at the local MacDonald’s, he would be ahead of the game financially. I also suspect that if you had the interest paid on the WWF’s endowment for less than a week you could cover Anthony’s, and every other skeptical blogger on the planet’s total blog returns for the duration, with more than enough to cover the world’s biggest beerfest-pig roast parties at multiple sites across the globe. You could probably serve Champagne, cavier, truffles, lobster, and Wagyu steaks and still cover it.
If I had a pound for every time I’ve seen someone commenting here saying that they’re not paid by Big Oil … I’d have nearly as much as if I were paid by Big Oil.
Well, conspirancy theorists and projection. Each and every aspect of the global warming dogma is based on half truth, a bit of truth, unproven assumptions, appeal to emotion, saving the world meme. Would not be such a headache if it would not have so much collateral damage to the society that these clowns accept so nonchalantly.
Hey Dave, in that list of “free in kind propaganda” don’t forget textbooks. From elementary through university level the “CO2 is a pollutant” meme has infiltrated them all.
I’m being paid by Big Oil. At my local Stop & Rob (gas or petrol station), I buy 6 cups of coffe and get the seventh cup free. Over a lifetime, that $.99/cup adds up, eh?
Will someone call Exxon and tell them that this geologist’s monthly check is late? They must have forgotten that I am a shill.
“Far from Big Oil and Big Coal supporting the skeptics, they’ve actually been supporting the AGWers through, inter alia, their pushing for cap-and-trade. BP and Shell have been the biggest contributors to the hoax, because they (and Enron, which initiated the cap-and-trade concept) expected to make money from it – in effect by raising the cost of energy to consumers and then skimming off the excess. Paul Driessen’s book, “Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death,” and Deneen Borelli’s book “Blacklash” describe this in detail, pointing out the crony capitalism behind it (Obama’s good billionaire buddies George Soros, Jeff Immelt and Warren Buffett). ”
No, no, no. Nothing to do with the saintly capitalists. AGW is a Marxist plot to turn the world into North Korea. Haven’t you read the Reds-under-the-beds rants in the comment sections of sceptic blogs?
Robert says:
April 30, 2013 at 5:31 am
Hey Dave, in that list of “free in kind propaganda” don’t forget textbooks. From elementary through university level the “CO2 is a pollutant” meme has infiltrated them all.
Along those lines I would highly recommend this piece from the invaluable Thomas Sowell
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/05/01/is-thinking-obsolete-n1581910/page/full
“It is always amazing how many serious issues are not discussed seriously, but instead simply generate assertions and counter-assertions. On television talk shows, people on opposite sides often just try to shout each other down.
There is a remarkable range of ways of seeming to argue without actually producing any coherent argument.
Decades of dumbed-down education no doubt have something to do with this, but there is more to it than that. Education is not merely neglected in many of our schools today, but is replaced to a great extent by ideological indoctrination. Moreover, it is largely indoctrination based on the same set of underlying and unexamined assumptions among teachers and institutions.
If our educational institutions — from the schools to the universities — were as interested in a diversity of ideas as they are obsessed with racial diversity, students would at least gain experience in seeing the assumptions behind different visions and the role of logic and evidence in debating those differences.
Instead, a student can go all the way from elementary school to a Ph.D. without encountering any fundamentally different vision of the world from that of the prevailing political correctness.”
Read it all and anything else from Dr. Sowell that you can find.
This is one of the many lies repeated by the left wing folks.
One of the many other big lies is that the big oil companies receive enormous subsidies from the government. Any time you ask for specifics “they” roll out tax rules that are enjoyed by every business or the fact that Clinton administration gave a reduction in Royalties to incentivize expensive off shore drilling in deep water.