ARE THE OIL & GAS LOBBIES AT THE ROUTE OF THE GLOBAL WARMING MIS-INFORMATION CAMPAIGN? – by Catherine Morgan

I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately, about the fact that there is so much “mis-information†on the web and elsewhere about Global Warming. Even with so much evidence to the fact that we are contributing greatly to this problem â€Someone†wants us to believe otherwise. I would suggest the “someone†may be the the “companies†that are profiting from our continuing to ignore this problem. (ie: THE OIL & GAS LOBBIES) These are very big, very well financed, and very motivated lobbies.

I would liken this to the cigarette lobby, who for nearly forty years attempted to produce “scientific†facts that smoking wasn’t bad for you. Simply to promote their own agenda, they falsified research to “mis-inform†the public. Now, think about the all powerful OIL AND GAS LOBBY. Much larger, better financed, and more powerful than the cigarette lobby. The Oil and Gas Industry has contributed over 179.8 MILLION dollars to federal candidates and political parties (74% going to the Republican Party). So we should not be surprised one bit at the length this multi-billion, dollar industry is willing to go in order to protect their bottom-line. They report to their share holders ONLY. As long as these industries have the money. As long as they can control the government (especially a Republican controlled government). You can be very certain that this “mis-information” campaign will continue on and on. We as the voting public, and the consuming public, are going to have to be the ones to finally say…ENOUGH. When we do this, we will be looking at the “evidence†that is being produced by scientists and people that are NOT profiting from the very industries that are contributing to this problem. Much like when we finally had to admit that “Yes…cigarettes DO cause cancerâ€. How many people had to die before the “mis-information†being put out by the cigarette lobby, was finally “ignored†by the government and the public??? I would say too many. We are now looking at a greater problem, with a greater and more powerful lobby. IT IS MY BELIEF THAT WE ARE IN MUCH GREATER TROUBLE.
– I decided to write this post after getting several responces to an earlier post on global warming where many comments seemed to indicate a belief that global warming is a “hoax”. I am including in this post, another response that I think also goes a great way to explain the subject of “mis-information” as it relates to global warming.

ADDITIONAL POST WITH MANY LINKS TO GET MORE INFORMATION ON GLOBAL WARMING.

THIS IS FROM http://tamino.wordpress.com/ — (also has a great site to check out for more information on global warming and other interesting topics) “tamino” wrote: I’m a natural-born skeptic. I’m also a scientist. So I was mildly interested in, and skeptical of, global warming for a long time.

A few years ago I heard of a paper on the subject of global warming published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal by two Harvard astronomers, one of whom was a “colleague of a colleague.†This piqued my interest, so I read the paper. This further piqued my interest; to make a long story short, I’ve spent the last few years studying the scientific literature in depth on this issue. Global warming is real. It’s dangerous. It’s caused by human activity.

I can also tell you that I too am “old enough to have seen first hand these doom and gloom stories,†and this one really is different. Past doom-and-gloom warnings of scientific topics came from a single, or a handful, of scientific research teams, with the mainstream urging caution (but caution rarely gets reported in the press!), and their false alarms fizzled out quickly as new scientific evidence emerged. The global warming warnings come from the vast majority of climate scientists, in fact the concensus is frighteningly close to unanimity. Furthermore, since the alarm was first raised nearly 20 years ago, a vast array of new evidence has emerged, and rather than defusing concern, it has made the scientific case so strong that only those in denial fail to see that the danger is so real, we would be fools to ignore it.

Urging readers to seek out more detailed information is sound advice. But urging them to seek only websites found by searching for “global warming hoax†or “global warming fiasco†will turn up mostly the warped misinformation, often crafted with extreme cleverness, which literally floods the web, as denialist forces have taken to the internet to spread doubt.

I’m sure you’ve spent at least “a couple of hours expanding your mind.†I’ve spent years studying the scientific literature, and that’s after all the years I spent becoming and working as a scientist in the first place, to acquire the background knowledge necessary to appreciate some of the subtleties involved. Perhaps you’ll understand that a couple of hours perusing websites run by denialists is a pathetic reason to doubt, when faced with the combined efforts of thousands of scientists over decades.

To all readers: spend more than just a couple of hours researching the science, and don’t get your information from what turns up in a google search for “global warming hoax.†Those who create most such sites are either abominably naive, or outright liars.

Jan 23, 11:15 PM

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