THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 129, July 8, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
GREEN PR SUFFERS BLOWBACK
By Alan Caruba
THE PROPAGANDA OF POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS, AS REGARDS THE FUTURE OF HUMAN LIFE & CIVILIZATION ON
PLANET EARTH: PROPAGATION OF THE BOGUS THEORY OF HUMAN-INDUCED CATASTROPHIC GLOBAL WARMING --
WHY ENVIRONMENTALIST GROUPS & THEIR PUBLIC RELATIONS REPRESENTATIVES SPEND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO SELL
GLOBAL WARMING THEORY & INFLUENCE LEGISLATORS TO REGULATE EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF OUR LIVES & DENY
PEOPLE THE RIGHT TO MAKE MARKET-BASED DECISIONS -- THE CONSEQUENCES OF ENACTMENT & ENFORCEMENT OF
SUCH RESTRICTIVE & ALL-ENCOMPASSING REGULATORY LEGISLATION
FULL STORY:
In mid-June, the leading newsletter for the public relations profession, Jack O’Dwyer’s, reported on a speech
given to a Canadian Public Relations Conference by Jim Hoggan, a Vancouver PR practitioner. Reportedly, global
warming is the top public issue in Canada, even more than the economy and healthcare.
I have been a public relations counselor since the mid-1970s. Like many in the profession, I came to it after having been
a journalist. My advice to clients has always been to tell the truth.
To the extent that people are more concerned about a complete hoax than they are about the real critical issues affecting
their real lives tells you how successful has been the endeavor to sell the bogus theory of the Earth dramatically and
suddenly warming in a year, ten years, or a hundred years.
Is the Earth warming? Yes, it has been warming since the last mini-Ice Age ended in the 1800s. Since then the Earth has
warmed a fraction of a degree Fahrenheit or Centigrade. Big deal.
Mr. Hoggan, however, was worried. In a speech called, “You Can Spin Mother Nature,” he told attendees that a survey
he undertook revealed: “More than eighty percent of people believe environmentalist PR pros mislead the public for a
living.” Most of the 1,097 respondents said “they thought PR people were helping clients misrepresent their
performance.”
He said:
“There are climate quibblers in the energy industry. And the
auto industry is confused — actively campaigning against
climate change regulation, even while spending billions on
advertising concentrated on its largest, most profitable and
most environmentally damaging models.”
No, Mr. Hoggan, neither the energy industry, the auto manufacturers, nor their consumers and the general public are
“confused” about climate change, nor are they stupid.
About the same time he was giving his speech, the Associated Press reported:
“More people than ever are driving alone to work, as the
nation’s commuters balk at carpools and mass transit.
Regardless of fuel prices, housing and work patterns
make it hard for suburban commuters to change their
gas-guzzling ways.”
Oh, boo-hoo. Typical of such articles, the consumer is to blame, along with the awful energy and auto companies.
This is why the environmentalist groups and their PR representatives continue to spend millions to influence legislators
to regulate, regulate, and regulate every single aspect of our lives. Based on bogus environmentalist claims, the intent is
to deny people the right to make market-based decisions.
The result is policies that drive up the cost of basic commodities that include food, energy, and housing. Policies based
on “global warming” or “climate change” theory have no real basis in science. They are based on the hatred of free
enterprise and, indeed, the hatred of humanity that is endemic to environmentalism.
Who are some of the socalled “climate quibblers” that are casting doubt on Green claims? After a slow start, when any
legitimate climatologist or meteorologist who disputed the claims was attacked, the "climate quibblers" have been joined
by an impressive and growing list of world leaders.
Recently, Vaclav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic, wrote:
“We are living in strange times. One exceptionally warm
winter is enough -- irrespective of the fact that, in the
course of the 20th. century, the global temperature
increased only by 0.6 degrees Centigrade -- for the
environmentalists and their followers to suggest radical
measures to do something about the weather, and do it
right now.”
In April, Yuri Izrael, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Vice Chairman of the International Panel on
Climate Change, was interviewed by the Ria Novosti news agency. The IPCC Vice Chairman broke with the Panel's
much-vaunted “consensus” over global warming.
“I think the panic over global warming is totally unjustified.
There is no serious threat to the climate.”
Izrael is also Director of the Institute of Global Climate and Ecology, which is a part of the Russian Academy or Sciences.
Science is not about “consensus.” It is about provable facts. Everything else is a hypothesis.
Richard S. Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
who early and often debunked and rebuked the theory of global warming, has been at a disadvantage with the general
public because, not surprisingly, he cites some rather complex scientific data. As early as 1988 he began to speak out, and
that should give you an idea of how long the global warming hoax has been perpetrated. “The current evidence does not
warrant any drastic actions that cannot be justified independently of climate concerns,” says Dr. Lindzen.
As is often noted, the same environmentalist groups, during the 1970s, were aggressively pushing the notion of a new Ice
Age. Ironically, they were closer to the truth. The Earth is currently at the end of an 11,500 interglacial cycle and many of
the climate anomalies such as a June snowfall in Denver may well signal the advent of another Ice Age.
What we can do is insure that American politicians like U.S. Senator Harry Reid, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, U.S. House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. John McCain, and others do not force some truly horrible legislation through Congress based
on the global warming or climate change lie. There is no climate change crisis and, if there was, like all natural climate
phenomena, there would be absolutely nothing Americans, Canadians, and the rest of humanity could do.
What we do not need to do is turn essential food crops like corn into ethanol. We do not need to insist that auto
manufacturers squeeze a faction of additional energy out of a finite gallon of gasoline. In an economy based on the need
for electricity, we must resist efforts to thwart the building of more coal-fired and nuclear facilities to facilitate growth. We
should not deter the exploration and extraction of vitally needed, known energy resources off the shores of the North
American continent.
Mr. Hoggan ended his speech by tossing out the standard calumnies about those who cite real science. “The mainstream
media are presenting a controversy that doesn’t appear in science — usually without mentioning when skeptical experts
were unqualified or were associated with energy industry lobbying firms or Exxon-funding think tanks.”
What Big Oil is really trying to do is to insure you will have gasoline when you drive up to the pump or have a choice of
oil or natural gas to heat your home this winter. If Mr. Hoggan’s survey is correct — and I think it is — the public is
skeptical of PR professionals who tell them the Earth is dramatically warming or just about to.
So, whom do you trust? Jim Hoggan? Speaker Pelosi? Governor Schwartzenegger? Al Gore? Do you really believe that
“Live Earth” concerts have anything to do with science? I recommend you trust your own common sense.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2007
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity