Climate Science; Winning The Science Battle, But Losing the Policy War

[John Reece]

From Watts Up With That?

Climate Science; Winning The Science Battle, But Losing the Policy War

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Guest Blogger

Essay by Dr. Tim Ball (Elaboration of my Heartland Climate Conference Presentation)

We’re drowning in information and starving for knowledge. Rutherford Rogers

So-called climate skeptics, practicing proper science by disproving the hypothesis that human CO2 is causing global warming, achieved a great deal. This, despite harassment by formal science agencies, like the Royal Society, and deliberate neglect by the mainstream media. It combined with an active and deliberate Public Relations campaign, designed to mislead and confuse. Most people and politicians understand little of what is going on so the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) strategy of using created science for a political agenda moves ahead.

Emails leaked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in 2009, exposed the practices of the scientists controlling the IPCC. They also exposed the supporters and acolytes of their deception. ....

Read the whole post here.

[firstfloor]

Timothy Francis "Tim" Ball is a credential-fudging denialist crank:
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tim_Ball
http://www.desmogblog.com/tim-ball
How the denialists operate:
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global...%20Machine.pdf

[DLAbaoaqu]

Really? Using Rationalwiki as a source?
That's pathetic!

[Jedidiah]

Really? Using Rationalwiki as a source?
That's pathetic!

A reflection of ff's level of reason. Attack the author, ignore the information.

[John Reece]

A reflection of ff's level of reason. Attack the author, ignore the information.

[firstfloor]

The GOP is beginning to shift its ground.
This is an extract from “Dealing in Doubt” (link above)
Quote -
2013: Republican denial:
Polling in the US has consistently showed a lower level of concern about climate change compared with the rest of the world. A Pew Global poll in June 2013 found that “Concern about global climate change is particularly prevalent in Latin America, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Asian/Pacific region, but majorities in Lebanon, Tunisia and Canada also say climate change is a major threat to their countries.
In contrast, Americans are relatively unconcerned about global climate change.” While there has been no conclusive research to show that this is due to climate denial campaigns, a closer inspection of the research is revealing. The polling in the US consistently shows a party political divide on concern about global warming. And a June 2013 study published in the journal “ Public understanding of science” concluded that a key link between climate change denial and conservative outlets like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh was an inherent distrust of scientists. “Conservative media use decreases trust in scientists which, in turn, decreases certainty that global warming is happening,” stated the authors. But nowhere is the denial in the US more prevalent than in its leadership. The fossil fuel industry and the think tanks running climate denial campaigns, such as the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity (that founded the Tea Party movement) spent huge sums of money around the 2012 Presidential election. With their pressure on candidates to ditch any climate policies, and their catchcry that Obama was running a “War on Coal” they had the White House scared, resulting in little to no mention of climate change from either candidate in the run-up to the 2012 elections and no questions at any of the Presidential debates on the subject.

The Washington Post noted that the Republican election platform had almost no mention of climate change, a marked contrast to its 2008 election platform for the McCain-Palin ticket. Post elections, the results were clear. According to the Center for American Progress “almost 55 percent — 127 members — of the current Republican caucus in the House of Representatives deny the basic tenets of climate science. 65 percent (30 members) of the Senate Republican caucus also deny climate change.”
But this strategy may be beginning to backfire. In July 2012 a poll by the League of Conservation Voters found 80 percent support among under 35 year olds for President Obama’s climate policies. But even among the minority who were unfavorable to Obama, 56 percent supporting climate action and just 38 percent opposed. And in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, and widespread droughts, floods and wildfires across the US that, in turn, led to a rise in public concern the White House itself has finally begun to take notice. In May 2013, the National Journal’s Coral Davenport reported what she called “The coming GOP civil war on climate change,”

“Already, deep fissures are emerging between, on one side, a base of ideological voters and lawmakers with strong ties to powerful tea-party groups and super PACs funded by the fossil-fuel industry who see climate change as a false threat concocted by liberals to justify greater government control; and on the other side, a quiet group of moderates, younger voters, and leading conservative intellectuals who fear that if Republicans continue to dismiss or deny climate change, the party will become irrelevant.”
– End of Quote.
http://www.theguardian.com/environme...ublicans-obama