The CEI ads 13

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.

David Roberts is staff writer for Grist. You can follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/drgrist.

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  1. LegumeSam Posted 2:30 am
    18 May 2006

    They should all move to Venus"Carbon dioxide -- they call it pollution, we call it life."
    Venus has 90 atmospheres of "life."  Balmy temperatures too -- 900 degrees Fahrenheit, day and night.  They'd love it there.

    http://ecosocialism.blogspot.com/

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  2. Sir Oolius Posted 4:44 am
    18 May 2006

    Hot chicks dig CO2everything can be parodied

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  3. worstedwitch Posted 5:21 am
    18 May 2006

    *headdesk*Dear God, what's next? Fresh air: scourge of humanity?

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  4. greenr Posted 12:50 pm
    18 May 2006

    Global Warming Is A Natural CycleI've posted a full commentary about these ads and the internet frenzy surrounding them at greenr.
    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.

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  5. bookerly Posted 1:03 pm
    18 May 2006

    Who will believe them?

       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
         

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  6. socratesone Posted 10:28 am
    20 May 2006

    Are you serious, greenr?I completely understand your point. I understood it 10 years ago when people just like you were saying the same thing. However, this "post hoc fallacy" of correlation=causation is shared by the overwhelming majority of climatologists. The data that has been gathered over the past 10 years has shown that the models put in place that accounted for human CO2 emmisions were more accurate than those that didn't.
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Climate_Change_Attribution.png

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  7. farnishk Posted 12:17 am
    21 May 2006

    You Call It Life?I have sent this to the CEI, and blogged it, so others can see the absurdity of their idiotic work. Interestingly they have set bounces on their (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    //
    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]='

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  8. rafael baptista Posted 11:06 pm
    22 May 2006

    I just emailed this to them:The contact guy for the ads is Richard Morrison. ((JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    //
    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]='

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  9. Storm Dragon Posted 1:12 am
    23 May 2006

    Too much of a good thingYou can't live without water, but you can drown in it, too.  Nobody's saying that CO2 is "evil"-it's simply that we can have too much to be healthy.

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  10. gregmobile Posted 8:43 am
    23 May 2006

    Bouncing e-mailInterestingly they have set bounces on their (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    //
    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]='

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  11. David Roberts's avatar

    David Roberts Posted 9:06 am
    23 May 2006

    Greg,First of all, what's "free market" got to do with anything? We don't have one of those. Particularly when it comes to energy, land use, and agriculture.
    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

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  12. sunflower's avatar

    sunflower Posted 10:53 am
    23 May 2006

    TimeViable carbon-neutral energy will always be less expensive than the consumer cost of fossil fuels, otherwise fossil fuels will be used.  
    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.

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  13. LegumeSam Posted 11:48 am
    23 May 2006

    Try a group effortAlways challenge the message that solving global warming is expensive and will make people poor.  The opposite is true. Capitalism is expensive, and makes people poor.  The message that "solving global warming is expensive" is a reflection of the individual costs of individuals "solving global warming" separately.  

    http://ecosocialism.blogspot.com/

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