It is pretty clear to me that the globe is warming! Vast majority of scientists around the world agree. Most of the governments in the Western world agree and are taking steps to mitigate it. However progress against global warming has been slowed by the lack of action taken by the world's largest polluting country, the United States.
It is human nature that before we take any action that we believe might be difficult, we want to make sure there is no reasonable doubt that it is the correct action, and that there are no other "easy alternatives" to solve the problem. To stop, or slow down the effects of global warming will require significant investment and tightening of our carbon diet. So before national leaders take those actions, they want to make sure that global warming is happening, and that the investments that will be made will be successful.
Seeds of doubt can poison, or stagnate any decision. An article (by Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtsson) in "The Guardian" today reported that some "secretive donors" have donated $125M to pay a bunch of seemingly "independent think tanks" to promote those "seeds of doubt."
Secretive donors gave US climate denial groups $125m over three years | Environment | The Guardian
It appears that the funds were effective in that the findings from these several "right-wing" think tanks gave the appearance of independent thought. Their pronouncements were presented by the press as "equal" to the global warming advocates, so they effectively stopped important legislation. A very small investment was able to pay off, for the anti-global warming group. I have very little respect for scientists who publish information they know is incorrect just to get paid. However, I someone came to me and offered to pay me a million dollars to publish some technical lies, it would certainly be tempting! So it might be easy to get 125 scientists to write BS with $125 million!
These reported payments have only been for a three year period, however I suspect that the payments have been made, in one way or another, to these organizations, and others, for as long as 20 years. The funds are clearly linked, in some way, to the coal industry, which has something to lose in the long run if actions are taken to slow global warming. The source of the funds is still anonymous, but I think there would be little doubt that the source of the funds is the Koch Brothers.
It is human nature that before we take any action that we believe might be difficult, we want to make sure there is no reasonable doubt that it is the correct action, and that there are no other "easy alternatives" to solve the problem. To stop, or slow down the effects of global warming will require significant investment and tightening of our carbon diet. So before national leaders take those actions, they want to make sure that global warming is happening, and that the investments that will be made will be successful.
Seeds of doubt can poison, or stagnate any decision. An article (by Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtsson) in "The Guardian" today reported that some "secretive donors" have donated $125M to pay a bunch of seemingly "independent think tanks" to promote those "seeds of doubt."
Secretive donors gave US climate denial groups $125m over three years | Environment | The Guardian
It appears that the funds were effective in that the findings from these several "right-wing" think tanks gave the appearance of independent thought. Their pronouncements were presented by the press as "equal" to the global warming advocates, so they effectively stopped important legislation. A very small investment was able to pay off, for the anti-global warming group. I have very little respect for scientists who publish information they know is incorrect just to get paid. However, I someone came to me and offered to pay me a million dollars to publish some technical lies, it would certainly be tempting! So it might be easy to get 125 scientists to write BS with $125 million!
These reported payments have only been for a three year period, however I suspect that the payments have been made, in one way or another, to these organizations, and others, for as long as 20 years. The funds are clearly linked, in some way, to the coal industry, which has something to lose in the long run if actions are taken to slow global warming. The source of the funds is still anonymous, but I think there would be little doubt that the source of the funds is the Koch Brothers.
No comments:
Post a Comment