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The Competitive Enterprise Institute, which widely publicizes its belief that the earth is not warming cataclysmically because of the burning of coal and oil, says Exxon Mobil Corp. is a "major donor" largely as a result of its effort to push that position.

...even I would be supportive of the CEI. Once again, such an "independent think tank" (CEI seems copy-pasting Exxon's policy straight from the higher ups) is releasing an extremely misleading and dishonest description of the worries of millions of people. The key word here is "cataclysmically" - try to define that. It's a pretty honest description I could agree with and I have actually posted diaries in the same vein: battling some of the exaggerations that are rampant in climate science. The CEI, however, pushes an agenda that is without "cataclysmically" entirely. Bah.

From CEI:

Among numerous recognitions, Greenpeace featured Mr. Ebell and three of his CEI colleagues in "A Field Guide to Climate Criminals" distributed at the UN climate meeting in Montreal in December 2005. Rolling Stone magazine in its November 17, 2005 issue named Mr. Ebell one of six "Misleaders" on global warming in a special feature, along with President Bush, Senator James Inhofe, and Michael Crichton. In November 2004 as a result of a BBC Radio interview, seven members of the British House of Commons from all three major parties introduced a motion to censure Mr. Ebell "in the strongest possible terms." In its May 22, 2004 special Issues and Answers issue, National Journal profiled Mr. Ebell as one of ten people who would lead the global warming debate during the next presidential administration. The Clean Air Trust in March 2001 named Mr. Ebell its "Villain of the Month" for his role in convincing the Bush Administration not to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

Just have a look at their guy... Pictures, thousand words.


by Nomad (Bjinse) on Sun May 21st, 2006 at 03:37:23 AM EST
what's the point?  that villains can't look like Poindexter?  as I recall, George Joseph Smith was quite respectable looking and mild of manner...

Crichton's a piece of work.  Actually he wouldn't be so dangerous if he didn't have the ear of the "decider in chief" who seems to prefer Crichton's Greens-R-Turrists fiction to reality.  As we saw a couple of decades back, Science Fiction Writers Can Be Dangerous when mixed with Presidents of weak intellect:

In 1980, Jerry Pournelle talked me and Marilyn into hosting a gathering of the top minds in the space industry in an attempt to write a space program for the Reagan government, with goals, timetables, and costs. The Citizens Advisory Council for a National Space Policy met four times during the Reagan Administration, and twice since, for harrowing three day weekends. Attendees have included spacecraft designers, businessmen, NASA personnel, astronauts, lawyers. Adding science fiction writers turns out to be stunningly effective. We can translate! We can force these guys to speak English.

We've had some effect on the space program. SDI (Space Defense Initiative, or Star Wars) was drafted at our house in Tarzana. In '93 we watched the DC-X1 fly. It was a toy version of a single-stage ground-to-orbit spacecraft, and the Council generated it. Our design lost out to the current Skunk Works X-33, but the Council caused the revival of the X Program itself.

And how much did that little sci-fi sales pitch cost the taxpayers...?  I remember seeing a video interview with Niven during which he bragged about having "created" SDI, and thinking it was a very strange thing to be bragging about...

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...

by DeAnander (de_at_daclarke_dot_org) on Sun May 21st, 2006 at 04:17:34 AM EST
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I long lost my respect for ties. It began when I realised that men are voluntarily wearing inverted gallows around their necks. The picture of Mr. Ebell emanates the arrogance of black suited commerce to me adhering to an ideology that is as tunnel-visioned as creationist "science".

And George Joseph Smith who? Don't know the chap. Wikipedia gives an entry on the Brides in the bath murderer, which seems to fit the profile...

by Nomad (Bjinse) on Sun May 21st, 2006 at 04:39:37 AM EST
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