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Smells like menthol to me

In the House Oversight Committee's hearing on political interference with the scientific evidence of climate change, Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) proclaimed in disbelief and frustration that, "Today we have a planet that's smoking!" He, like many before him, likened the campaign to cast doubt on global warming with the tobacco industry's campaign in the 1990s to distort information on the health impacts of smoking cigarettes.

In early 2007, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a report along those same lines, exposing the disinformation campaign by ExxonMobil which used tobacco industry-like tactics. They also published an online periodical table that serves as an A-Z Guide to Political Interference in Science, which one of the witnesses to the House hearing brought up in her testimony.

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Another ‘Proper Education’ video

Below the fold, a response to the “Proper Education” remix video we mentioned in Grist List last month. Instead of one long storyline, this one features clips from a number of sources including a Blair speech, An Inconvenient Truth, and the "Tick" global warming video from the Ad Council. It’s a bit long, but worth […]

Inside the mind of the skeptics

Matt Yglesias flags a … novel argument about energy from Michael Novak and says this: It’s interesting how money impacts political ideas. One doubts that any of these various rightwingers were actually humming along and then got bribed by energy companies to come up with the outlandish conservative arguments you hear on this score. Rather, […]

More Cloud Cult obsession

… not to be all obsessive, but why isn’t everyone on the planet listening to this new Cloud Cult album? I’m afraid if I keep playing it around the clock my wife is going to strangle me. Here’s another good song off it, called “Alien Christ”: Here are the lyrics: You’re invited to the party […]

Dearly Befuddled

With green weddings a growing trend, Church of England offers eco-tips Dear Mr. Potsworth, I’m writing this email to formally ask for your daughter’s hand in marriage. As you consider my request, there’s something you should know: We’re planning a green wedding. Rita and I feel, like many other couples today, that our Big Day […]

Sending Out an SOS

Protesters ask whalers for help in missing-persons search The bone-chilling waters of Antarctica are seeing heated conflict as the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society tangles with Japanese whalers. The protesters, upset over a 1,000-whale hunt they deem illegal — but which was OK’d by the International Whaling Commission as a scientific pursuit — have dumped […]

Roger Pielke Jr. is at it again

Based on a bit of methodology that sounds like a bad joke — only he never tells us the punch line — Roger Pielke Jr. ventures the "hypothesis" that An Inconvenient Truth is "alarmist." Perhaps Republicans will call him to testify about it.

And no, global warming doesn’t change that

As far as I can tell, there are precisely three environmentalists of any note who have come to support nuclear power: James Lovelock, Stewart Brand, and Patrick Moore. It’s become something of a parlor game for journalists to mix and match those three names in an effort to claim that there’s a "growing debate" among […]