FRONTLINE: Climate of Doubt

Professional contrarians are attacking science again, and they are doing it for the carbon-fuel industries. Your local utilities could be their funders. Watch this FRONTLINE documentary and vote.

Watch Climate of Doubt on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

"In 50 years, 100 years, when we look back, I want to make sure that nobody can say we didn't warn them." -

Andrew Dessler: Science and the Politics of Climate Change

If you are in Fred Upton's (R-MI) district, recall him. Fred is Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, he is in the pocket of the Koch Brothers gas lobby.

If you are in Frank James (Jim) Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI) representing Wisconsin's 5th congressional district. Get him out of office. He is in the pocket of the carbon-fuels Corporations. 


American Politics is now under control of the huge sums of money that come from every carbon-fuel lobby from GM to BIG Oil, Auto Insurance to Gas Refiners like the Koch Brothers, from "Clean Coal" to your local utilities, they are all terrified of CAP & TRADE laws to limit carbon pollution.

Where they can't buy an election, they delay and obstruct. Where they can't fool the adult voters, they change the textbooks, eliminate words like "Sea Level Rise", which they deem to be 'left wing vocabulary'.

These nefarious forces rely upon their ignorance as an argument, counting upon the limited education of their constituants to sell their radical skepticism. It's not just the fact that they fail to use science or facts, its that they obviously have a direct conflict of interest with the fossil fuel industries, and they willingly take that funding, but don't recuse themselves from the policy debates. This is unethical.

This level of corruption, that attacks science and scientists, changes textbooks, and pays for elections, is all for profit, is no different than the tabaco industry fraud, or the O-zone debates, or any of the issues where Corporate interests are threatened by government regulations and policy changes. These people are always on the side of the dollar.

They buy up talk-radio stations and talking heads by the dozen. They fund "Americans For Prosperity"and other ideologically motivated foundations through secret organizations such as "Donors Trust". This anonymously funds these fraudulent projects, seeking to avoid transparency and responsibility for corrupting the political process.

If they are wrong, they will help cause the suffering and death of millions of people and perhaps hundreds of thousands of species. For their own financial interests they are attacking generations yet unborn, hoping they will be long dead and beyond accountability as the world burns. This is pure evil.

Learn more ...

Steve Coll: How Exxon Shaped the Climate Debate

Moral Questions

A Moral Question from Sustainable Man on Vimeo.

"Externalities" (prepare to cry)

READ THIS, IT'S IMPORTANT:

"Externalities" from Sustainable Man on Vimeo.

"Economists say, if you clearcut the forests and put [the money] in the bank, you could make 6 or 7 percent. If you cut down the forests and put it into Malaysia or Papua New Guinea, you could make 30 or 40 perc

ent. So, who cares whether you keep the forest, cut it down [and] put the money somewhere else! When those forests are gone, put it in fish; when the fish are gone, put it in computers. Money doesn't stand for anything, and money now grows faster than the real world.

Economics is so fundamentally disconnected from the real world, it is destructive. If you take an introductory course in economics, the professor—in the first lecture—will show a slide of the economy, and it looks very impressive. They try and impress you, because they know damn well that economics is not a science, but they're trying to fool us into thinking that it's a real science; it's not.

Economics is [just] a set of values, and [they] use mathematical equations and pretend that it's a science. But, if you ask the economist, 'in that equation, where do you put the ozone layer? Where do you put the deep, underground aquifers? Where do you put top soil or biodiversity?', their answer is 'oh, those are externalities.' Well, then you might as well be on Mars! That economy's not based [on] anything like the real world. It's life, the web of life, that filters water, it's microorganisms in the soil that create the soil we can grow our food in…insects fertilize all of the flowering plants…nature performs all kinds of services…these services are vital to the health of the planet. Economists call these externalities; that's NUTS."

—David Suzuki

(★★★★) Must Watch Video ft. above quote:
http://vimeo.com/49953262