The IPCC, the UN body responsible for collating
climate data and research, which comprises 640 of the worlds’ top scientists
from across 40 countries, states in its fifth assessment report that the
warming of the climate is unequivacol.
The
temperatures in our atmosphere have increased, the
oceans have warmed, snow and ice have diminished,
sea levels are rising and the concentrations of greenhouse
gases have increased. None of these things is in any doubt.
All are born out, repeatedly, by extensive scientific research by the very best
people in their field.
And human influence on the climate, which has lead
to these changes, is evidenced by steep rises of carbon dioxide, methane and
nitrous oxide in the atmosphere – a result of the industrialization of richer
nations. In other words, when we started to burn fossil fuels, mechanise
agriculture and chop trees down, we, humans, started to change the climate.
So
the foremost climate scientists in the world agree, to a ‘very high level of
confidence’ (that means they are at least 95% certain of the causes and
outcomes of climate change), that climate change is happening
and the effects of climate change will be catastrophic.
Just think about that 95% statistic for a moment. If
you are a parent and 640 of the worlds’ most respected doctors told you your
child had a 95% chance of getting cancer, what would you do? Ignore
it and hope for the best? Hope that technology and innovation at a later date
would save the day? Hope they were wrong?
The IPCC has achieved a scientific consensus that
is trusted and accepted by ALL governments around the world, with the exception
(until recently) of the US.
In fact, it was interesting to hear Obama’s State
of the Union address this morning in which he said ‘the debate is settled.
Climate change is a fact. And when our children’s children look us in the eye
and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world… I want
us to be able to say yes, yes we did’
Not to rain on his parade but it shouldn’t really
be big news when the President of the US, the self-appointed Leader of the Free World, just reaffirms basic scientific facts
that the rest of the world acknowledged and have been acting on for several
years. Keep up Obama!
But
I digress. So why do recent opinion polls show the public of the US lagging
behind the world in its acceptance of almost unprecedented scientific
consensus?
Well
consider this. The Tea party and the Republican right believe that climate
change is a sinister conspiracy, cultivated by menacing environmental
lobbyists. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? and why would anyone believe them
anyway, when respected scientific consensus tells us different? The answer is
quite simple but stomach turning. It’s money.
The
Tea party, while presenting itself as a grass roots movement which began with
popular anti-tax protests in 2009, was actually the creation of the billionaire
brothers and owners of Koch Industries. In fact, the lobbying power of the oil
and gas sector has ‘tripled since 2004 reaching nearly $170 million in
2009’. The chief lobbyists last year were Exxon Mobil ($10.6m), Koch
Industries ($7.9m), Chevron Corp ($7.5m), American Petroleum Institute ($6.6m),
Royal Dutch Shell ($6.4m) and BP ($5.5m).
So
how much influence does 'Big Money' from the Oil and Gas industry have on American climate
policy? A dangerously frightening amount given what is at stake. The oil and
gas industry within the US have successfully constructed and promoted a
discourse of denial which has spread globally.
The
extent of their influence is demonstrated by Exxon Mobil who have been active
in undermining climate science by funding a number of reports and publications
that deny human induced climate change. So powerful were Exxon Mobile that a
leaked fax in February 2001 showed that they were responsible for the then
chairman of the IPCC having to step down. In a fax sent directly to the
Bush administration they asked ‘Can Watson be replaced now, at the
request of the US?’. They wanted Watson replaced because they didn’t like
the findings of the IPCC report which stated that the burning of fossil fuels
was responsible for global warming.
But it gets worse. The Bush administration itself
played a major role in undermining climate science. Yes, the actual US
government itself. In 2007, a House of Representatives committee heard that
the White House had ‘systematically altered established scientific conclusions
before issuing White House statements’. The House of Representatives committee
found that the White House, under the remit of the Bush administration, had
made 294 edits to ‘de-emphasise the role of humans in climate change’.
Seriously?? The US government edited a scientific research paper? The legacy of
this, is profound.
In
another shocking example, the Bush administration was given the following
advice from their PR department when they were asked how to respond to
questions about global warming in a debate ‘voters currently believe
there is NO CONSENSUS about global warming. If the public knows that scientific
consensus is settled, their view about global warming will change
accordingly. You need to continue to make the lack of scientific
certainty a primary issue in your debates’.
In a recent study undertaken by Pew Research,
it found that climate change was considered a major threat by the majority
of the populations of Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and
Canada – but not the US. They found 70% of Tea party and Republican voters
believed there was no solid evidence to support climate change, and a whopping
40% believed it is ‘just not happening’.
I
want to tear my hair out when I read stats like that. Climate denial has
fundamental effects right across the political spectrum. It can leave policy
makers and the general public with the impression that the science is more
obscure than it really is. The thing that bothers me the most, is
that it’s not the likes of Bush or Exxon Mobil execs that are going to feel the
impacts of climate change. It’s our children. It’s my children and even they
aren’t going to feel it’s devastating effects as much as children who will be
growing up in Asia or Africa.
The legacy of the discourse of denial, propagated
by oil and gas lobbyists and the Bush administration has probably put back the
climate agenda, globally, by 20 years or more. I wonder what response Bush will
give his grandchildren when asked if he did everything he could to provide a
safer and more stable world, while he was president?
Sources
‘A
Warming World’ David Humphreys and Andrew Blowers
http://iacknowledge.net/the-billionaires-paying-to-make-you-doubt-climate-change-and-the-scientist-taking-them-to-court/
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