The Warming Science Commentariat - 15

Skeptical of Pseudo Skeptics

In the post The Exceptional American Denial (almost nine years to the day ago) I pointed out that denialists were being given a biased representation in the news media.

Prof. Naomi Oreskes was featured in that post for her seminal work, by the use of a video made when she was at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD).

She is now at Harvard, as is Prof. Jerry Mitrovica (see videos at the end of this post).

Anyway, quite recently in Nature Communications (also almost nine years to the day after my post mentioned above) an in-depth comparison of this media failure in today's world, shows that the monkey business as usual (MBAU) is still taking place in The Warming Science Commentariat (The Warming Science Commentariat, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14).

The paper published in Nature Communications points out the ongoing MBAU of the Warming Science Commentariat:

"Since the early 2000s there has been little disagreement among scientific experts over the fundamental evidence supporting the existence, origin, and societal significance of anthropogenic climate change (CC). Yet, while an anthropogenic cause is supported by an overwhelming majority of climate change scientists (CCS), climate change contrarians (CCC) have successfully organized a strong voice within politics and science communication in the United States."

(Discrepancy in scientific authority and media visibility of climate change scientists and contrarians, PDF). As Prof. Oreskes points out in the video, the fossil fuel and tobacco industries are behind this offense against the public (which has given new meaning to "political science").

Yes, Humble Oil-Qaeda spends a fortune in order to try to keep or make you and I ignorant, and has been doing so for decades.

The previous post in this series is here.

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Prof. Oreskes video ("The American Denial of Global Warming") copied from The Exceptional American Denial:

"... use the video below to enjoy a free class lecture at a very well respected American university, or, read the history here.

Key times in the video (Note: GW = global warming; GG = greenhouse gas, CC = climate change):

00:40 - Schwarzenegger: no debate, GW is happening.
06:20 - Proper amount of GG is good, keeps us warm.
07:00 - Too much GG is a bad thing.
07:09 - Tyndall in mid 1800's began research into GG.
07:45 - Arrhenius did first degree calculations re: CO₂ content.
08:25 - Callendar discovered GG increases in 1930's.
09:02 - Hulburt accord in 1930's.
09:43 - Depression / war stopped GG research.
10:00 - Gilbert N. Plass developed CO₂ atmospheric calculations.
10:49 - Suess & Revelle do paper in 1957 warning of GW dangers.
12:30 - Dr. Revelle warned of polar ice cap melt in TIME interview.
13:25 - CO₂ levels discovered to be high.
16:30 - Lyndon Johnson in 1965 says fossil fuels causing GW.
17:00 - GW, CC not political originally.
18:20 - White of NOAA, 1978, warns of GW dangers.
20:52 - Polar Areas to be impacted 4 times more than other areas. 
24:20 - IPCC formed in 1979 with consensus on GW.
26:00 - Bush I signed GW treaty.
26:45 - Denial of GW begins.
27:40 - Luntz injects GW denial propaganda into political debate.
[2019 - Luntz now admits that he was wrong on GW]
28:25 - Oil baron Cheney propagates GW denial.
29:00 - Oil companies do massive scale denial propaganda.
29:30 - Marshall Institute
30:30 - Marshall Institute formed to support Reagan SDI (star wars)
32:50 - Marshall Institute "cigarettes not related to cancer".
36:50 - Marshall Institute does GW denial campaign.
42:54 - Marshall member Seitz worked for big tobacco.
47:20 - Singer of Marshall Institute politically attacks GW.
53:35 - Cigarette smoking is ok rhetoric applied to GW science."

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Prof. Mitrovica takes Woodward (1888) to a new level:

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