Christopher Horner, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute [no, no! He works at the Competitive Enterprise Institute -- very different thing. Jon Stewart got it wrong too. My apologies. See comments.], has a book out called The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism. He appeared on The Daily Show last night. He seems like a genial guy, and he did OK as a guest, but were these really his leading talking points?
Did you know in the '70s scientists thought the climate was cooling? And some guy in the German Green Party once said something crazy? And lefties hate progress? It's true! Clearly the whole thing is a hoax.
If this is the best the skeptics can do, we really have turned a corner.
Video below the fold:
Comments
View as Flat
Steve Bloom Posted 5:37 am
14 Feb 2007
Rings a bell...
AEI, AEI... let's see, where have I heard that name recently? Oh yes, right here on Grist earlier today, where certain parties seemed to think that AEI might be given the benefit of the doubt as to whether it has changed its denialist ways.
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KenGreen Posted 5:57 am
14 Feb 2007
Acronymic Dyslexia?
Come on guys, figure it out.
You were happy to poke fun at me for using FAR rather than AR/4 to refer to the IPCC report...the least you could do is figure out who works for AEI, and who works for CEI. You can look this stuff up on the net, you know. But to save you the trouble, Chris Horner works at CEI, not AEI.
I work at AEI, not CEI.
Ken Green
Kenneth Green Resident Scholar American Enterprise Institute kgreen@aei.org
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Ana Unruh Cohen Posted 6:09 am
14 Feb 2007
Comedy Central got it wrong...
Ken, you are right to be upset that AEI and CEI keeps getting confused. Dave probably should have checked, but Jon Stewart is usually such a reliable source. He said in his intro of Chris that he was from AEI and Chris did not correct him. Maybe he didn't hear it...
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Steve Bloom Posted 6:42 am
14 Feb 2007
The difference
Just bear in mind that AEI is anti-competitive and CEI is un-American. Otherwise you might get confused!
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Pathos Posted 9:45 am
14 Feb 2007
This has nothing to do with anything, but...
You know, I actually like that guy. He's witty, which you rarely see in climate skeptics, and he doesn't act like you're brainwashed or an idiot if you disagree with him. Even Stewart seemed to like him too much to cut into him the way he usually does to people he doesn't agree with. You don't see too many friendly, jovial debates on climate change.
I still think he's wrong and all, but that aside, he's pretty cool.
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egbooth Posted 12:31 pm
14 Feb 2007
Ughh...the global cooling myth, again
I would've expected Jon Stewart to have a little crib-sheet to guide him through all of the standard skeptic fare (aka BS), such as the global cooling myth. This guy even had the audacity to say that it was a "consensus". This is absolutely, unequivocally untrue! The global cooling scare was completely driven by the media who took a phrase in a NAS report completely out of context. For more on this unbelievably recycled skeptic argument, go here:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/01/the ...
The next time the Daily Show has a skeptic on like this, I would hope they do at least a little bit of homework to detect BS.
I was also really annoyed by the Stewart bit, that has been used many times before, about how he knows nothing about science. He makes it sound like it's almost cool to know nothing about science. I strongly believe this sort of sentiment could very well be our downfall. Science and math education is severely lacking in this country and it certainly does not help to have cool, hip people like Jon Stewart push forward the idea that it's okay to be a complete idiot when it comes to science. It will not be acceptable in the future as we face more dire and complex problems related to natural resources.
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amazingdrx Posted 4:51 pm
14 Feb 2007
AEI/CEI
AEI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Enterprise_Institut ...
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) is a conservative think tank, founded in 1943, whose stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism--limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and responsibility, vigilant and effective defense and foreign policies, political accountability, and open debate." AEI labels itself as an independent nonprofit organization. It is supported primarily by grants and contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals.
Like most think tanks that maintain non-profit status under the federal tax code, AEI is officially nonpartisan and takes no institutional positions on pending legislation or other policy questions.
AEI has emerged as one of the leading architects of the second Bush administration's public policy. More than two dozen AEI alumni have served either in a Bush administration policy post or on one of the government's many panels and commissions. AEI, along with the more conservative Heritage Foundation, is often cited as a center-right counterpart to the center-left Brookings Institution. In 1998, AEI and Brookings established the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies.
CEI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_Enterprise_Insti ...
Environmental Policy
According to CEI, the Wall Street Journal has called it "the best environmental think tank in the country."[1] CEI says it promotes "free market environmentalism" and says market institutions are more effective in protecting the environment than is government.
Among other things, CEI has been an outspoken opponent of government action on global warming that would require limits on greenhouse gas emissions. In March 1992, CEI's founder Fred Smith said of global warming: "Most of the indications right now are it looks pretty good. Warmer winters, warmer nights, no effects during the day because of clouding, sounds to me like we're moving to a more benign planet, more rain, richer, easier productivity to agriculture". [2]
One of CEI's projects is the Cooler Heads Coalition, which operated the website globalwarming.org. Myron Ebell is the chairman of CHC, and the Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the CEI.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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amazingdrx Posted 4:54 pm
14 Feb 2007
Good for you
"I work at AEI, not CEI."
Must make you very proud Ken! Congratulations.
When will you be signing up to fight in Iran?
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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caniscandida Posted 6:38 pm
14 Feb 2007
"democratic capitalism"?
Thanks, Amazing, it was helpful of you to supply those excerpts.
Is there such a thing as "democratic capitalism"? One could argue that a free marketplace requires that all who participate in it have the same rights and freedoms and access to public discourse. But does that situation ever really exist?
In a game of Monopoly, all players begin with the same amount of spending money, and their markers -- the iron, the thimble, the Scottish terrier, the Spanish-American War battleship -- are all in the GO square. But as soon as the order of play is determined, by chance, there is an element of unequal advantage. At the end of the game, one player has all the wealth, and the others are penniless.
In America, and anywhere else for that matter, there has historically never been an opening situation in which everyone is perfectly equal, with regard to wealth, power and prestige. To say that there has been in the past, and is now; and to wrap capitalism in the rhetoric of democracy; is misleading, even deceptive, and therefore wicked. The more the operation of a capitalist system works to concentrate wealth, power, influence and prestige in the hands of a small number of citizens, the less does it deserve to be called democratic.
On the CEI: I am puzzled by this sentence: "According to CEI, the Wall Street Journal has called it 'the best environmental think tank in the country'." Well, is CEI telling the truth, or not? Did the WSJ actually say that, or is CEI making it up?
And to follow up, what are the characteristic virtues appropriate to environmental think tanks, such that CEI is "the best"? Here I was, believing that Grist was the best environmental think tank in the country!
Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!
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amazingdrx Posted 1:46 am
15 Feb 2007
We are Canis!
"Here I was, believing that Grist was the best environmental think tank in the country!"
I think it's because Gristmill makes us all part of Grist. It's a dialectic think tank.
The comedy of Ken's pride at being an AEIer instead of a CEIer is truly precious, hehey. I wonder if the CEIers were insulted? That would be a shame.
But on the bright side, a hissy fit between these two groups might boost adult diaper sales and maybe revive the US economy? Or are all the diapers now imported from China? Typical, NASA invents the super diaper (the MAG) and China makes the money from it.
When The Wall Street Journal calls them "the best environmental think tank in the country", it is from their somewhat skewed, next quarter, bottomline perspective.
Translated into normal non-propagandist lingo, that would read "the most effective think tank at using the big lie technique to undercut environmentalism".
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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amazingdrx Posted 2:04 am
15 Feb 2007
Starting out equal
I think we all ought to start out with equal opportunity Canis. In some parts of the country, public education still makes that the case. But the assault on public education by the administration and faithbased fundamentalist political groups has destroyed that ideal in most areas.
As far as monopoly goes, I think that simply enforcing anti-trust and insider trading laws would get a level enough playing field to restore enough economic democracy for reform on the energy/environmental front to go forward.
But I think the emergency of GHG climate disaster warants the extra step of cutting subsidies to energy monopolists and giving them over to individual tax credits for consumers of renewable energy and renewable energy and conservation systems, like plugin cars, solar panels, wind power systems,and geothermal heating/cooling systems.
Do this for 10 years, then eliminate all subsidies.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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akbeancounter Posted 6:45 am
15 Feb 2007
Worst. Interview. Ever.
I was willing to listen to what Horner had to say. There are still plenty of people out there who think it's all in our heads, or that making the Earth seven degrees warmer isn't such a big deal, so I was prepared to hear him out.
When he first came out, he made his point with creative historical analysis, vague factiods, and random speculation. After that, he started going downhill. The NYT found a scientist who would tell them what they wanted to hear about icebergs: CONSPIRACY! Some guy from the German Green Party (did he even have a name?) said that he envisions a communist society, and apparently wants more young boys in brothels: COMMUNISM!
It was almost as if he had copied his arguments from How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic,, but couldn't be bothered to read the rebuttals.
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Taking accounting to the extreme since 2004.
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akbeancounter Posted 6:55 am
15 Feb 2007
Horner's Charm
You know, I actually like that guy. He's witty, which you rarely see in climate skeptics, and he doesn't act like you're brainwashed or an idiot if you disagree with him.
This is true. He respects other peoples' freedom to disagree, which I think is sorely lacking in America today. And he's charming and quick with the comebacks, which makes him perfect for his job, namely, going onto cable news shows and chucking out "facts" that nobody will attempt to check. He's charming enough (when he's not threatening to kill you) that you want to believe what he says. So in the eyes of John Q. Public, who doesn't know/care enough about climate change to go online and investigate for themselves, he makes some very good points.
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Taking accounting to the extreme since 2004.
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