A Convenient Fiction?

AEI brings us the good news on climate 9

How about that fascinating ad in Gristmill today for the new video courtesy of the American Enterprise Institute! An Inconvenient Truth ... or Convenient Fiction? aims to present us with an alternative to the "climate extremism" that is "popular with Hollywood and other pessimistic enclaves" and seeks to assure us everything is A-OK. They're even doing screenings around the U.S. In, uh, three locations. Anyone else give this AEI spin project a spin yet?

[editor's note, by David Roberts] This seems like a good time to draw attention to Grist's advertising policy, to wit: we don't screen ads for political or ideological content. If we did that, every ad that did appear on our site would carry an implied endorsement, and we don't want to get into that briar patch. The main thing to note is: advertising is advertising, editorial is editorial, and never the twain shall mess with each other.

Erik Hoffner is the coordinator of the Orion Grassroots Network which supports the work of hundreds of grassroots groups and which connects the green leaders of tomorrow with good work today via the Grassroots Jobsource. Based in Massachusetts, he is also a freelance photographer.

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  1. Erik Hoffner's avatar

    Erik Hoffner Posted 3:51 am
    20 Apr 2007

    AdsYes, thanks, David. I was not surprised to see this ad in Grist, and I think it quite belongs. It's part of the discussion that is "Gristmill." Anyhow, if ads keep Grist humming, amen.
    So to the topic...I think it's great that AEI feels they need to respond to the "let's do something about climate change" grassroots movement. Even if it's clumsy.

    The Orion Grassroots Network: 1000+ grassroots groups working for conservation & more

  2. GreenEngineer Posted 4:01 am
    20 Apr 2007

    HeheIf AEI wants to support Grist, that's great. It's not like they're going to persuade any of your regular readers.
  3. GreyFlcn Posted 4:35 am
    20 Apr 2007

    Oddly thoughEven though it was put together by AEI, they didn't actually say much which was that disagreeable.
    But of course they didn't cover everything I would have liked to have seen.
    For instance, that solar forcing is rather obviously causing warming previous to 1970, but has very little effect afterwards.

    http://www.greyfalcon.net/solar.png
    It also tends to confuse the issue on whether artic ice is melting or not.

    (Which should be more clear cut that it is a "net" melting.)

    It isn't so much an issue for sea level rise purpose.

    But because it's removing massive reflective surfaces in an area which gets 24/7 sunlight half the year.
    Or that an average 2-3° rise in temperatures isn't "no big deal"

    Since between now and the little iceage was less than 2° C

    http://www.greyfalcon.net/moberg2005.png
    Not to mention, I prefer the updated IPCC forcing chart.

    Since it's pretty easy to see that aerosols (airborn dust) is the only major uncertainty.

    http://www.greyfalcon.net/forcing3.png
    _
    So is there any big details I missed on this video on what we know not to be true?
  4. David Roberts's avatar

    David Roberts Posted 4:42 am
    20 Apr 2007

    Story on the slideshowIt's not really a video, it's just a half-ass Gore-is-fat style slideshow from AEI's Steve Hayward. There was a story in the NYT about it a little while back.

    www.grist.org
  5. GreyFlcn Posted 7:13 am
    20 Apr 2007

    WellYou do have to admit that the weakest points (and the ones which Skeptics use to distract from real arguement)
    Are that the science isn't so certain about the severity of the Fallout the global warming would cause.
    Which is besides the point of whether or not warming is happening, and whether we are causing it.
  6. Grevangelical Posted 9:07 am
    20 Apr 2007

    Happy thoughts!Wow, until it got to global warming the whole pdf report felt like it was saying that everything was better now then before. That's almost exclusively due to environmental efforts to get clean air, water and soil protection in place (of course, it clearly ignores that part of the truth). It makes me feel like the whole thing is more possible. I can't believe that a skeptics report has cheered me up this much.
    Then there was the climate change aspect, again almost everything was true (with a few exceptions and a Science "citation" that doesn't seem to exist) but they deliberately left out elements of the truth to support their viewpoints.
    Meh.
  7. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 11:42 am
    20 Apr 2007

    It is an interesting situationAdvertisers like that are bound to get nailed by commenters and are unlikely to return as a result. Can you imagine a for profit publication allowing its writers to bash its advertisers? Grist rules.

    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
  8. Billhook Posted 1:46 am
    22 Apr 2007

    Propaganda for GenocideAnd yet the AEI has done exactly what it has been paid to do, and what it has paid Grist to allow.
    which is to keep the focus of discussion on the utterly spurious issue of whether Climate Destabilization is manmade,

    as a means of continuing the last 15 years deferrement of discussion

    of just what is the form of international treaty that will allow us to deal with the problem.
    Loss of profits deferred is loss of profits avoided.
    So why is Grist taking money from big oil -albeit via the AEI ?
    The staff are plainly fully capable of sorting candidate ads into endorsable, no comment and unacceptable.
    If Grist doesn't spurn the AEI's dirty money, who will ?
    Regards,
    Bill
  9. SolarWolfe Posted 4:11 am
    25 Apr 2007

    Inconvenient FictionLook, the science debate is over. People cause global warming, it's real, and it's becoming severe. Yes, scientists are still debating global warming, the finer points. That's what scientists do, keep debating the issue until everything is known about it, which takes a very long time. But the agreement in the scientific community is unprecedented that we are causing global warming. What they are debating is:

     - how fast will we heat up?

     - are there tipping points for the climate and what are they? (Like will the north Atlantic Conveyor, "Gulf Stream", stop?)

     - how fast will the Greenland and West Antartic Ice Sheets melt? (They thought that the Larson B ice shelf in Antarctica was good for another hundred years. Then it broke up (it was the size of Rhode Island / Belgium) in 35 days. Oops. So maybe Greenland and the WAIS are melting faster than we think too?)

     - how are species affected by the changing climate (when the caterpillars hatch earlier, the birds don't necessarily have their young earlier, so the food supply that used to be there is not, etc. complex.)
    If you think some claims are true, or are not sure. go to http://www.RealClimate.com They review a lot of the stuff that gets issued, including Gore's movie. They are not associated with Gore.
    Let's stop avoiding the issue, hoping that thousands of scientists are wrong, and start putting our efforts into solving this!
    Enough electrons...



    Jeff



    groSolar

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