OMFG, so, I finally went and watched the TV ads to be aired by the Competitive Enterprise Institute a week before An Inconvenient Truth is released.
I'm not sure what I expected, but these things are genuinely funny. They look like nothing so much as a parody produced by Saturday Night Live. The tag line -- the last line of the ad, read dramatically as a little girl blows a dandelion -- is: "Carbon dioxide. They call it pollution. We call it life."
It's a pro-CO2 ad. Seriously. It turns out, we breathe CO2 out. And plants absorb it. It comes from animals! And oceans! Who could hate it?
As though there were a huge cabal of people out there who viewed this particular molecule as intrinsically evil.
Obviously, I'm not in the target audience. But I can't imagine anyone being persuaded by something so self-evidently absurd. I guess we'll see, though.
(One thing to note: It's "some politicians" and "global warming alarmists" making these claims about global warming. Not, say, scientists.)
Update [2006-5-17 15:48:57 by David Roberts]: Oh, I also meant to draw attention to a classic interview with CEI founder Fred Smith, from which this amazing passage is drawn:
Mr. SMITH: Look, the point - what we do know and don’t know, we know that carbon dioxide is increasing. We know carbon dioxide is a plant fertilizer which is a positive benefit to the peoples of the world. We know that there are these elaborate computer models that have never been right before, may be right this time, that suggest climate changes, possibly good, possibly bad. 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 -
KINSLEY: Wait a minute.
Mr. SMITH: We’re basically to a world now that’s a lot closer to heaven than hell.
Skeptics claim global warming is fake after top scientists’ emails hacked at CRU
Comments
View as Flat
LegumeSam Posted 2:30 am
18 May 2006
Venus has 90 atmospheres of "life." Balmy temperatures too -- 900 degrees Fahrenheit, day and night. They'd love it there.
http://ecosocialism.blogspot.com/
Permalink
Sir Oolius Posted 4:44 am
18 May 2006
Permalink
worstedwitch Posted 5:21 am
18 May 2006
Permalink
greenr Posted 12:50 pm
18 May 2006
If you look at it, there have been 4 cycles of cooling in warming of +/-5 degrees C over the past 450,000 years, and I'm betting there weren't CO2 humans to blame back then, so why should they be to blame now?
We are in the MIDDLE of a warming cycle, that still has +5 degrees C to go. Of course we are seeing global warming.
See my site for the full details.
Permalink
bookerly Posted 1:03 pm
18 May 2006
Dear David,
Who will believe such silly ads? Many many people who don't have other sources of information.
A lie repeated over and over again can easily overwhelm a truth infrequently heard.
And I suspect these folks will get the money they need.
It will be a long summer....
patrick
Permalink
socratesone Posted 10:28 am
20 May 2006
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Climate_Change_Attribution.png
Permalink
farnishk Posted 12:17 am
21 May 2006
//
var l=new Array();
var output = '';
l[0]='>';l[1]='a';l[2]='/';l[3]='';l[15]='\"';l[16]=' 103';l[17]=' 114';l[18]=' 111';l[19]=' 46';l[20]=' 105';l[21]=' 101';l[22]=' 99';l[23]=' 64';l[24]=' 114';l[25]=' 112';l[26]=':';l[27]='o';l[28]='t';l[29]='l';l[30]='i';l[31]='a';l[32]='m';l[33]='\"';l[34]='=';l[35]='f';l[36]='e';l[37]='r';l[38]='h';l[39]='a ';l[40]='';l[1]='a';l[2]='/';l[3]='';l[17]='\"';l[18]=' 103';l[19]=' 114';l[20]=' 111';l[21]=' 46';l[22]=' 105';l[23]=' 101';l[24]=' 99';l[25]=' 64';l[26]=' 111';l[27]=' 102';l[28]=' 110';l[29]=' 105';l[30]=':';l[31]='o';l[32]='t';l[33]='l';l[34]='i';l[35]='a';l[36]='m';l[37]='\"';l[38]='=';l[39]='f';l[40]='e';l[41]='r';l[42]='h';l[43]='a ';l[44]='
Permalink
rafael baptista Posted 11:06 pm
22 May 2006
//
var l=new Array();
var output = '';
l[0]='>';l[1]='a';l[2]='/';l[3]='';l[22]='\"';l[23]=' 103';l[24]=' 114';l[25]=' 111';l[26]=' 46';l[27]=' 105';l[28]=' 101';l[29]=' 99';l[30]=' 64';l[31]=' 110';l[32]=' 111';l[33]=' 115';l[34]=' 105';l[35]=' 114';l[36]=' 114';l[37]=' 111';l[38]=' 109';l[39]=' 114';l[40]=':';l[41]='o';l[42]='t';l[43]='l';l[44]='i';l[45]='a';l[46]='m';l[47]='\"';l[48]='=';l[49]='f';l[50]='e';l[51]='r';l[52]='h';l[53]='a ';l[54]='
Permalink
Storm Dragon Posted 1:12 am
23 May 2006
Permalink
gregmobile Posted 8:43 am
23 May 2006
//
var l=new Array();
var output = '';
l[0]='>';l[1]='a';l[2]='/';l[3]='';l[15]='\"';l[16]=' 103';l[17]=' 114';l[18]=' 111';l[19]=' 46';l[20]=' 105';l[21]=' 101';l[22]=' 99';l[23]=' 64';l[24]=' 114';l[25]=' 112';l[26]=':';l[27]='o';l[28]='t';l[29]='l';l[30]='i';l[31]='a';l[32]='m';l[33]='\"';l[34]='=';l[35]='f';l[36]='e';l[37]='r';l[38]='h';l[39]='a ';l[40]='';l[1]='a';l[2]='/';l[3]='';l[17]='\"';l[18]=' 103';l[19]=' 114';l[20]=' 111';l[21]=' 46';l[22]=' 105';l[23]=' 101';l[24]=' 99';l[25]=' 64';l[26]=' 111';l[27]=' 102';l[28]=' 110';l[29]=' 105';l[30]=':';l[31]='o';l[32]='t';l[33]='l';l[34]='i';l[35]='a';l[36]='m';l[37]='\"';l[38]='=';l[39]='f';l[40]='e';l[41]='r';l[42]='h';l[43]='a ';l[44]='
Permalink
David Roberts Posted 9:06 am
23 May 2006
your preferred policies would have severe effects on the Western economy
That is repeated frequently by conservatives, but frequent repetition doesn't make it so. Every new regulatory initiative has been met by cries of doom from conservatives, and those grim predictions never pan out. Among other things, it strikes me as a truly unflattering assessment of America's strength and ingenuity.
www.grist.org
Permalink
sunflower Posted 10:53 am
23 May 2006
Fossil fuels will continually cost more with time while new technology energy will continually cost less with time.
Always challenge the message that solving global warming is expensive and will make people poor. The opposite is true.
Permalink
LegumeSam Posted 11:48 am
23 May 2006
http://ecosocialism.blogspot.com/
Permalink