Climate Cover-Up [Paperback]

 

 

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I like this book for several reasons. First, it documents the increasing threat of climate change. That's nothing new to the majority of Western adults who believe in climate change. Scientists have stopped arguing over this idea long ago. The world is warming, and CO2 emissions from humans is the major culprit. The need to act is clearer than ever, but people aren't. The majority of us (Canadians for sure) believe in climate change. Yet Harper isn't doing anything to change it, and we voted against Dion (admittedly not the strongest candidate) who ran on a plan to change it. Why?

Well, the bigger evil seems to be corporations. Just like they're doing to the US Health Care debate, corporations have thrown a lot of muscle (i.e., money) into buying politicians and confusing voters. You have to respect how well they understand psychology and how poorly the public understands themselves. By hiring scientists to speak their party line, they are able to create "credible" doubt. By putting a microphone (i.e., throwing money and attention at) anyone who speaks up against climate change, they are able to disguise just how much of a minor the dissenting voice is. By having scientists cry foul over how they get blacklisted for disagreeing with the majority, they conveniently cover-up the opposite- scientists can make a TON of money (personal or grant money) from willing corporations who want to keep the status quo.

This is further fed by an anti-science agenda that leads people to mistrust science. I mean, when you don't believe in evolution, how hard is it to disbelieve global warming? The debate within science, that science is based on, is flagged as uncertainty. Theory is touted as "guessing" (instead of meaning a coherent explanation for the real world- the scientific definition of a theory). Instead of telling the public that all theories should be continuously challenged (including things like gravity), they suggest that the absence of agreement means the problem is unresolved. They suggest we should wait until it is resolved, knowing full well that science doesn't work that way. We can be 99.999999% sure, but never 100% sure of anything.

As you can see from my review, this book is less about climate change than it is about public relations. The big companies (and to a lesser extent, Conservatives) have paid brilliant attention to the psychology of marketing and advertising. They really know what works. They really know how to sway the public. They really know how to keep politicians in line. Which makes this book very much worth reading. Even if you aren't convinced by the huge amount of evidence for human-caused global warming, you should be aware of how blatantly and brazenly corporations are manipulating the free flow of information in order to further their profit margins. The bottom line of this book is a very serious warning- not just about climate change, but about the very way in which we are being given the information that we need to vote, thrive, and survive.

I'm fairly new to the issue of climate change, and even newer to the politics surrounding it. I've spent the past four years reading about climate change causes, impacts, projections, myths, media blunders, and public misconceptions.

I knew that vested interests, such as the fossil fuel industry and political lobby groups, had played a part in the widespread public confusion. However, I naively assumed that they had simply taken advantage of said confusion ' that the public was already unsure, so the vested interests decided to jump in and prolong it.

How wrong I was. How very, very wrong I was, as Jim Hoggan and Richard Littlemore proved to me in their new book, Climate Cover-Up.

Example after example, and story after story, showed that vested interests didn't just take advantage of public confusion surrounding climate change. They created it. They deliberately constructed the so-called 'debate' in an effort to ' what? Earn more money? Fight socialism?

Take the Information Council on the Environment, one of the first climate change lobby groups. They were established in 1991, right after governments first started to respond to climate change ' Thatcher, Bush Sr, and Mulroney all made promises to reduce emissions. The ICE flat-out stated that their objective was 'to reposition global warming as a theory (not fact)' and 'to supply alternative facts to support the suggestion that global warming will be good'.

The American Petroleum Institute was even more blatant. A leaked email contains a list of objectives for their PR campaigns:

"Victory Will Be Achieved When

-Average citizens 'understand' (recognize) uncertainties in climate science; recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the 'conventional wisdom'

-Media 'understands' (recognizes) uncertainties in climate science

-Media coverage reflects balance on climate science and recognition of the validity of viewpoints that challenge the current 'conventional wisdom'

-Industry senior leadership understands uncertainties in climate science, making them stronger ambassadors to those who shape climate policy

-Those promoting the Kyoto treaty on the basis of extant science appear to be out of touch with reality."

Everything that we've been bemoaning for years now. Misplaced public doubt, artificial balance in the media, Bush and Harper's ties to the oil industry. It didn't just happen by accident.

The email goes on to discuss strategies to achieve these objectives, including plans to produce and distribute 'a steady stream of op-ed columns and letters to the editor' doubting climate change. So all those skeptical editorials in the popular press might not be written by journalists that have been taken for a ride. They might actually be by people with ties to lobby groups like the American Petroleum Institute.

You could look at Frank Luntz's plans to capitalize on uncertainty. Or the American Enterprise Institute's offer of $10 000 to any scientist who wrote a critique of the IPCC. Or how The Great Global Warming Swindle, a documentary oft-cited by YouTubers, creatively took statements from its interviewees out of context.

Climate Cover-Up made me so angry. I remember not being able to fall asleep the night I finished it. Then telling everyone I could about it. I had been immersed in the issue of climate change for two years, and yet I had failed to grasp the scope of vested interests' influence on the public.

Please visit my blog, [...], for more articles about climate change, including many book reviews.

This book explain how a widespread and well funded public disinformation campaign has created confusion and uncertainty in the minds of the public, while the informed scientific consensus that humans are creating climate change has actually become virtually absolute.

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1.0 out of 5 stars A good laugh
If you are one of the many still fooled by all the climate alarmists then you will love this book. Unfortunately, there is a climate cover-up and it is not the one that James... Read more

Published 8 months ago by Audrey

5.0 out of 5 stars The invention of LYING about climate change
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"[T]he people who are blocking or delaying action on climate change are putting the whole human population at risk. Read more

Published 23 months ago by Stephen Pletko

1.0 out of 5 stars Contributes nothing to the debate
I haven't made up my mind one way or the other about human-caused global warming....and this book didn't help at all. Read more

Published on Dec 30 2009 by D. Carlson

5.0 out of 5 stars George Monbiot calls Climate Cover Up "Brilliant"
Very nice kudos for Climate Cover Up, from the highly respected Guardian columnist and author, George Monbiot. Read more

Published on Nov 26 2009 by K. Grandia

5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking and informative
I love that this is Canadian and looks at policies and various players in Canada as well as other countries. The analysis is reasoned and backed by many examples. Read more

Published on Nov 21 2009 by G. Raposo

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