Merchants of Doubt

 

Merchants of Doubt Ply Their Trade, Paid to Spin the Facts

A Global Battle between Climate Science and Climate Science Deniers

An existential struggle, life on earth at stake

'Losing Earth' Explores How Oil Industry Played Politics With The Planet's Fate

Climate change is often thought of as a partisan issue in the United States, but New York Times journalist Nathaniel Rich says that wasn't always the case.

Rich says that from 1979 until 1989, climate change was viewed as a bipartisan problem — then the the oil industry "descended and bared its fangs" and everything changed.

Via Fresh Air - NPR

In his new book, Losing Earth, Rich writes that in the late 1980s, the American Petroleum Institute began paying scientists to write op-eds questioning climate science. He describes the effort as a campaign to "sow propaganda [and] disinformation, to buy off politicians and scientists, and, ultimately, to convert an entire political party to denialism."

Rich says the campaign paid off. No longer was climate science accepted as fact: "All of a sudden," he says, "you have a number of pieces that start to appear that say maybe there's not scientific consensus about this problem."

As a result, the Republican party began to shift its stance on climate change: "It's become a starkly partisan issue," Rich says. "And it seems like we are much further from a solution than we were 30 years ago..."

"Losing Earth" ... How the Oil Industry Played Politics With The Planet's Fate

Transcript of the Interview by Terry Gross with Nathaniel Rich

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Drilled - Website

• https://www.criticalfrequency.org/drilled

Drilled - Podcasts

Three Seasons | 31 Episodes | 2018 - 2020

• https://fanlink.to/drilled

• https://twitter.com/WeAreDrilled

The Madmen of Climate Denial

Apple Podcasts

Apple Podcasts-2

Google Play

Pocket Casts

RadioPublic

Stitcher

Spotify

TuneIn

Drilled: A True Crime Podcast about Climate Change

Drilled is a limited series investigative true-crime podcast about the crime of the century: the creation of climate denial.

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Money in Politics

Exaggeration, Misinformation, PoliticoPay

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Money_in_Politics

• https://www.politicopay.com

"They are going to take your Hamburgers away...."

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Political Spin, Disinformation / Misinformation, Social Media Bots, Operatives & Oppo Politics

Global Warming or Climate Change?

Who is Frank Luntz?

Luntz is famous for a 2002 memo to George W. Bush telling Republicans how to talk their way around environmental issues. The advice, talking points for the party, contains this passage:

"Voters believe that there is no consensus about global warming within the scientific community. Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate."

Since then the term 'climate change' has grown in political debate and common usage.

The focus group testing of understanding (and misunderstanding) and emotional (versus disengaged reactions) were a Luntz provided political tactic to slow and block climate action.

"We found that the term global warming is associated with greater public understanding, emotional engagement, and support for personal and national action than the term climate change."

"For example, the term global warming is associated with greater certainty that the phenomenon is happening, especially among men, Generation X (31-48), and liberals. "

In The Guardian, Susan Goldenberg summed up the results of the Luntz survey and his deep involvement in the Republican Party:

George W Bush swapped the term climate change for global warming in 2002 on advice of Republican political consultant, Frank Luntz.

In the secret memo before the mid-term elections, Luntz warned that Republicans – and Bush in particular – were singularly weak on the environment. He advised a Republican party strategy of disputing climate science, and of avoiding the term "global warming' because of its highly negative connotations.

“It's time for us to start talking about 'climate change' instead of global warming … 'climate change' is less frightening than 'global warming',” said the memo obtained by the Environmental Working Group.

The word confusion stuck. Luntz' work carried on...

This is telling. The term climate change was pushed by politicians who didn’t want Americans to demand action.

Update: August 2019

Luntz: ‘I was wrong’ on climate change

Politico

Frank Luntz, a veteran Republican pollster, disavowed work in the early 2000s to cast doubt on the science behind climate change...

He has changed his position and now says America, on the whole, wants the federal government to "do more, right now, to address it."

"I was wrong in 2001," Luntz told an ad-hoc Senate Democratic climate panel. "I don't want credit. I don't want blame. Just stop using something that I wrote 18 years ago because it's not accurate today."

We are left with the consequences of Luntz, his focus groups and politico word spin. His for-hire word play has ongoing real-worl impact...

>Republican political strategist Frank Luntz in a controversial memo advised conservative politicians on communicating about the environment:

>It’s time for us to start talking about “climate change” instead of global warming and “conservation” instead of preservation.

>“Climate change” is less frightening than “global warming”. As one focus group participant noted, climate change “sounds like you’re going from Pittsburgh to Fort Lauderdale.” While global warming has catastrophic connotations attached to it, climate change suggests a more controllable and less emotional challenge.

• https://skepticalscience.com/climate-change-global-warming.htm

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Step Up and Lean In: Politics is Tough

Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway Say Watch Out for the Dis/Misinfo

Merchants of Doubt -- Documentary Trailers

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ii9zGFDtc

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmMP9hXxIo0

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRenGy0cg5s

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchants_of_Doubt

• http://merchantsofdoubt.org/

More on the Progress and Setbacks of Climate Action @GreenPolicy360

Climate News

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Climate_News

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Earth_and_Space,_Politics

GreenPolicy360 & Science

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Good_science_needs_good_data_.png | GreenPolicy360, Facts & Data
• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Stats_-_Green_Research_%26_Science | GreenPolicy360, Our Policy on Science
• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Climate_Change_-_Global_Warming_Keyword-Terms | Global Climate Keywords
• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:You_can_manage_only_what_you_can_measure_Dr_David_Crisp,_OCO-2,_June_2014_m.jpg | Measure-to-Manage
• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Merchants_of_Doubt | Merchants of Doubt
• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Science_denial_graph.jpg | Techniques of Science Denial (Graph)
• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:FLICC_techniques_of_science_denial.png | Techniques of Science Denial (Video)
• http://www.nature.com/news/wikipedia-shapes-language-in-science-papers-1.22656 | Wiki Community Science

Environmental-Climate Deregulations (U.S.)

• https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/2018/07/tracking-the-trackers/ | A List of Organizations Tracking US Environmental 2016-2020 Rollbacks
• https://www.brookings.edu/interactives/tracking-deregulation-in-the-trump-era/ | Brookings - Deregulatory Tracker
• https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/12/15/the-trump-administrations-major-environmental-deregulations/ | Brookings on Trump's Environmental Deregulation Record
• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Environmental_Laws | Category - Environmental Laws
• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Climate_Change_Litigation_Databases_Climate_Law.png | Climate Litigation Database
• http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/resources/climate-deregulation-tracker | Climate Deregulation Tracker
• http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/ | Columbia Law School - Climate Change Laws
• http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/resources/silencing-science-tracker/ | Columbia Law - 'Silencing Science' Tracker
• https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/regulatory-rollback-tracker | Harvard Law - Trump Environmental Law Rollbacks
• https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html | NYT - Trump Environmental Rollbacks

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