Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Senator Whitehouse has unveiled his “web of denial”, a vast conspiracy theory about why his side is losing the climate debate.
US senators detail a climate science ‘web of denial’ but the impacts go well beyond their borders
By the middle of this week, about 20 Democratic senators in the US will have stood up before their Congress to talk about the fossil fuelled machinery of climate science denial.
The senators are naming the fossil fuel funders, describing the machinery and calling out the characters that make up a “web of denial”.
“The web is so big, because it has so much to protect,” said the Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who bookended the first evening of speeches.
The Senate heard how fossil fuel companies such as ExxonMobil, Peabody Energy and the billionaire oil brothers Charles and David Koch had funnelled millions into groups that had spread doubt about the causes of climate change.
The following is a video of Senator Whitehouse’s presentation on July 7th;
Whitehouse’s conspiracy theory reminds me of some of the worst excesses of the anti-communist era, in which fantasies about shadowy conspiracies were used to ruin the lives of political opponents and innocent bystanders. But Whitehouse appears to mean every word of it. The Attorneys for Clean Energy effort appears to have faltered, for now, but who knows what the future holds? We can only imagine what will happen if people like Whitehouse win control of the US government, and are put in charge of a new era of “Unamerican Activities” style witch hunts.
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Seriously Rhode Island? Your Senator stands up, for the 143rd time now, and (after a healthy opening snort) quotes an environmental sociologist (whatever that is) to establish his bona fides to address this issue so that when future generations question what happened they will benefit from the insights of Sheldon? I think what happened will be quite apparent. “I happened to notice this because unlike most people I get my news clips…” Your state your representation, but sheesh!
FWIW, RI has been run into the ground by the Democrat Party since it took over in 1937. The unions own the legislature and people vote to protect their small interests. They tolerate the corruption and the malfeasance of public officials, occasionally seeing one sent to jail when the federal prosecutors get them. Sheldon will continue to be reelected because most citizens can’t see the damage he does and aren’t really interested. There aren’t enough right-thinking people left in the state to change things. RI is the prototype for what America is becoming.
There’s a lot of fuss being made about Exxon’s funding of evil deniers – Greenpeace has a website devoted to the topic. They claim $31 million in Exxon spending from 1998 to 2014.
Money talks! Just how high a priority is all of this to Exxon? In 2014 (latest year of Greenpeace data) Exxon earned $32.52 billion. That’s an astounding $61,872 net after tax profit per second! All sixteen years of Exxon’s $31 million ‘denial funding’ was earned in 500 seconds, or a little over eight minutes. Claimed donations in 2014 were $1,898,500, or 31 seconds worth of earnings. Notwithstanding Greenpeace efforts to hype the issue, so called ‘climate denial’ funding is obviously at the bottom of Exxon’s corporate priority list – amounts are less than a rounding error!
There’s a reason that they only give these speeches in the Senate chamber: they can slander people with impunity. Senators are protected from lawsuits for slander and libel for anything said in the Senate chamber.
McCarthy’s blacklist? Is that anything like a “no-fly list”?
Question- did the good Senator bike or ride a horse to the chamber, does he walk or ride
a bus home, Does he take the train back to his state or fly?
Does he show up at the latest luxury climate fest by taking a clipper ship?
I think I know the answer…
His display is a little frayed about the edges.
Senator Whitehouse is a dim bulb who never studied any science in his college days, so he knows nothing of any merit to anyone but another Lysenkoist know-nothing but can spout the Party line. But as is typical, he thinks he knows more than any architect about building construction, or more then any surgeon about heart transplants.
More fun with numbers!
Greenpeace is shocked, shocked about Exxon spending a couple of million dollars per annum funding ‘deniers.’ By the way, Greenpeace counts the Congress of Racial Equality, Independent Women’s Forum, etc. among the ‘denier’ organizations funded by Exxon – really! Look it up.
In the meantime, Greenpeace fundraising costs alone are about $130 million per year.
Hilarious!
Just went on the Senator’s Twitter feed and laid on C3’s historical climate graphs…let’m come for me!
It finally dawned on me–Senator Barbara Boxer is Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in drag. 97% of all scientists agree that two people can’t be that stooopid.
Mr. Worall about all those conspiracies of the communist era. From the time of the October revolution the West was full of useful idiots, fellow travelers, socialists, communists, and traitors. All were cultivated by the Soviets to be activated when their position made them useful. The damage they inflicted was immense.
Today there is no need for the Comintern but the US is full of useful idiots, fellow travelers, socialists, communists and traitors. The feeble minded politically correct intellectuals populating academia and the political world are even more susceptible. Why one of them from the prehistoric times was even running for president recently.
Thanks for posting Sen. Whitehouse’s speech. Hopefully more people will see and hear it.
My prediction; It will take a few years,but eventually all of this will be looked back upon exactly like the big tobacco scam. Or are some of you still claiming that they didn’t lie either? Ha!
Enjoy your downward spiral into the ‘Embarrassments in US History’ file.
My prediction is that, in another 20-25 years when Armageddon fails to materialize – again – the alarmists will change their story – again – and repeat the same propagandist process all over.
“Or are some of you still claiming that they didn’t lie either? Ha!”
No, Jerry, the thinking public is ever more conscious of the lying (see USGS falsifies data) which has taken place….. and continues.
Thus explains the general publics bursting distrust with big politics on noth sides and the creation of an entirely new conservative party.
You’re right that the mythical menace of global warming will wind up another entry in the dustpile of failed causes.
No, Duke, the science will prevail,as it always does (e.g. evolution) ,and the deniers of science will be relegated (e.g.creationism).
So let’s compare so-called ‘conspiracy theories’: 1.All scientific institutions on Earth falsely claim that greenhouse gas emissions from humans are warming the Earth…(for the last 50 years&for their own personal gain).All so leftists can rule the world.
2.Gas&oil companies realize(decades ago) that they will lose profits if word gets out about the deleterious effects of their product,so they try to hide and obfuscate the evidence.
Who is being more logical?
Okay, Jerry, you understand that all these energy companies are huge green investors, right? And you know they have incestuous connections to most major media outlets.
We also have Climategate (and other examples) as a smoking gun. See, the exact same mechanisms that you claim are motivating the skeptic camps are exactly what’s motivating the warmist camps. See, if you genuinely followed the money, you would discover that these ‘scientific institutions’ which you hold above reproach, are subject to the exact same depredations as any other group – more so, in fact, since they produce nothing, generate no income of their own, and are completely dependent upon outside funding – which they get from government and activist donations – all with no oversight.
Try this out: If Global Warming is revealed – as the last quarter century have fairly conclusively shown – to be no kind of ’emergency’, a non-crisis, and even fraud – a small, mostly non-detrimental effect with only a minor human influence – a multi-billion dollar cashcow dries right up, the credibility of these prestigious institutions are compromised – goodbye funding, jobs, cushy career academic and government appointments.
Your logic is not logic – it is rationalizing backwards from an ideologically biased conclusion.
Deny this: incomplete sentences and incomplete theories based on incomplete data and incomplete models do not magically combine to formulate logical conclusions even if an incomplete historical anecdote is thrown in for good measure.
Tell me Jerry, why is the “solution” always socialism? Why is the “problem” always not just humans but capitalism?
Why is it that EVERYTHING is proof of global warming? What does no warming look like?
People who come to this site don’t take anyone’s word for things. We are not told what to think or who to believe. Most came to their own conclusion that things were not right. CAGW science isn’t science, not because someone says so but because the “facts” don’t stack up.
What’s your excuse for believing in CAGW?
Jerry,
You demonstrate the sort of simple reasoning a simple mind can generate rather well.
Thanks for playing.
Joel-the best you have is ;Climategate and grant money? -read any news in the last 8 years?
A.D. Everard – who said anything about socialism or your made up word CAGW?
Do any of you guys want to talk about what the senator said in his speech in this video? Or have none of you watched it?
hunter – here’s a ‘simple’ question for you; Who is being more logical? the person who believes #1or#2;
1.All scientific institutions on Earth conspire to falsely claim that greenhouse gas emissions from humans are warming the Earth…(for the last 50 years&for their own personal gain).All int the name of global governance.
2.Gas&oil companies realize(decades ago) that they will lose profits if word gets out about the deleterious effects of their product,so they try to hide and obfuscate the evidence.
Jerry Cook “Who is being more logical?”
I am. But “logical” and a dollar will get you a cheap burger at mickey d’s.
Jerry,
Your reliance on straw man false choices is simply a manifestation of your inability to reason beyond the level of superstition.
Thanks for playing.
Better luck next time.
hunter- I’ll put you down as conspiracy #1 then?
This post should contain a poll that lets us vote on which of the two hairdos we prefer.
It’s political science vs. sound science. Sound science always wins because it is factual.
Watching the good Senator go on about his obsession reminds me of this for the striking similarities:
And being accused by this small pathetic excuse for a Senator of being a conspiracy inspires me to give to Senator Whitehouse the same answer Woody Allen gave in “The Front” to an out of control Senate.
Torquemada– Let’s face it, you can’t Torquemada anything. Sorry, it was there. I had to use it.
And the response good Senator Whitehouse deserves is best summed b y woody Allen, in “The Front”.
Carbon dioxide from fossil fuels use does not materially affect climate. Maybe climate is warming. It is supposed to be warming, because earth is in an interglacial period. Which begs the question why some scientists and government agencies try to pad the record by
“adjusting” prior-period temperature data.
Nature does an excellent job of converting ambient CO2 to limestone. Carbonates form in seawater and soils through biological and chemical calcification processes (ie. cyanobacteria and coccolithiphores). The simplified formula is CO2 + CaO => CaCO3.
Anyone can make calcite quickly in a kitchen by mixing carbonated water with quicklime.
Its very simple. Nature sequesters CO2 as limestone (calcite). The higher the atmospheric CO2 partial pressure, the faster it becomes limestone. 99.84% of all carbon is sequestered in sediments. Earth absorbs ambient CO2 quickly.
Climate change results from a combination of (non-CO2) causes, such as sunspots, solar orbital variations, cosmic rays’ effect on clouds, and plate tectonics (well documented elsewhere). But it cannot be caused by CO2 arising from fossil fuels use, because
nature efficiently recycles CO2 as carbonate minerals (limestone) through numerous calcification processes.
Only 3% of CO2 emissions come from fossil fuels use. Most of the rest arises from rotting vegetation in swamps and jungles. Carbon dioxide emissions and fossil fuels use are beneficial, and climate change is a false premise for regulating them. See http://www.thegwpf.com/28155/.
There is no empirical evidence that CO2 from fossil fuels affects climate. Human activities cause only about 3% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to the atmosphere. The rest arise from rotting vegetation. Changes in temperature cause changes in CO2 emissions from these sources, and are not caused by them.
CO2 is in equilibrium. Mineral carbonates are the ultimate repository of atmospheric CO2. Anyone who passed 10th grade chemistry can know this using public information. Limestone and marble are familiar forms of mineral carbonate. CO2 is an essential component of mineral carbonate (CaCO3, for calcium). See the paper http://bit.ly/1NziTF4 by Norwegian researcher Tom Segalstad.
The theory of human-caused climate change is based on a false premise. Energy policy as fashion goods. The dead hand of the state, airheads picking winners & losers.
So all the cost and hysteria of the global warming movement is a colossal waste, and results in poor economic growth. Tens of trillions of dollars wasted on foolish superstition, when ordinary people can’t make ends meet.
THe Pathocracy’s main method to stifle dissent is through adverse psychiatric evaluations. I recommend everyone read the book POLITICAL PONEROLOGY by Andrew Lobaczewski
He looks so much like patient character Elliot Carlin from the Bob Newhart Show.
It is hard to understand him with his lisp, but what a moron.
A Hydra, eh?
Wen you cut the head off of a Hydra, two grow back its place. So the senator is attempting to burn each head as it s cut off, like in the myth.
What did you do for work Grandpa Whitehouse ? Well er I .. I explained to people that climate changes .
Could I have more Jello Grandpa Whitehouse ?