http://members.greenpeace.org//blog/greenpeaceusa_blog en-US http://backend.userland.com/rss 60 mikeg http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2010/07/29/oil-industry-funded-flak-plugs-ears-sing Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:42:01 +0000 Global Warming Online Actions Activist Network Top Stories PolluterWatch The Dirty Lie 12749@http://members.greenpeace.org/gpblog The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has just issued a report declaring 2000 to 2009 to be the hottest decade on record and the evidence of man-made global warming to be "undeniable." Around 300 scientists from nearly 50 countries contributed to the NOAA report, which tracked 11 different indicators of climate change and found that seven of them - including air temperature over land, sea-surface temperature, sea level, and humidity - are indeed rising.Moreover, according to Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring at the UK's Met Office, one of the agencies participating in the NOAA study, “The glaringly obvious explanation for this is warming from greenhouse gases.”Yet within this context, a flak from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Myron Ebell, still has the gall to say, "It's clear that the scientific case for global warming alarmism is weak. The scientific case for [many of the claims] is unsound and we are finding out all the time how unsound it is."This is what the climate deniers' tactics basically amount to: Covering their ears and singing. “La la la I can't hear you everything is fine we need oil and coal lalala.” The worst part is, it works. That's why we have to push back.The science is settled: Global warming is happening and human activities are causing it. But the reporter who wrote this article on CNN's website didn't bother factchecking Ebell whatsoever, meaning Ebell got away with repeating the Dirty Lie. We need you to help set the record straight.Why would Ebell be willing to go on record ignoring hard scientific data with blatantly false talking points? Hm, let's see… His employer, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has taken buckets of money from oil companies like Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, and Texaco. CEI has also hosted events sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute and Arch Coal. Think that maybe has something to do with Mr. Ebell's skepticism? At the very least, these egregious conflicts of interest should be pointeded out to readers, as they should invalidate any “impartial” or “expert” opinion Ebell may have been able to provide. Here are a few links you can drop in the comments of the article on CNN to make sure future readers know the full story about Myron Ebell and the Competitive Enterprise Institute:Competitive Enterprise Institute - Koch Industries Climate Denial Front GroupExxonSecrets.org Factsheet: Competitive Enterprise Institute, CEICompetitive Enterprise Institute on SourceWatch.org]]> http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog?p=12749&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#comments kert_davies http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2010/07/27/david-koch-in-ny-magazine-tea-party-wall Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:05:40 +0000 Global Warming GP in the news Activist Network Top Stories PolluterWatch The Dirty Lie 12721@http://members.greenpeace.org/gpblog Check out today's New York Magazine article on the second richest man in New York, and richest climate denier on the planet, David Koch:The Billionaire's Party: David Koch is New York's second-richest man, a celebrated patron of the arts, and the tea party's wallet.The best pull quote is this: Global warming could be good for the planet, Koch says. "A far greater land area will be available to produce food."...from this paragraph, which shows Greenpeace got his billionaire attention this spring: David Koch is deeply antagonistic to the Obama administration. He fought the health-care bill, and the financial-regulation measure that was passed last week ("Everyone I know in the financial world is terrified by the powers it gives the federal government"). He also opposes the president's climate-change proposals. In his office, Koch showed me a photocopied flyer Greenpeace had produced with sketches of him and Charles below the words wanted for climate crimes and shook it in the air. Koch Industries' emissions, Koch told me, are far less than legally required. "And yet they're attacking us as environmental criminals," he said. "Wanting to put me and Charles in jail." Koch says he's not sure if global warming is caused by human activities, and at any rate, he sees the heating up of the planet as good news. Lengthened growing seasons in the northern hemisphere, he says, will make up for any trauma caused by the slow migration of people away from disappearing coastlines. "The Earth will be able to support enormously more people because a far greater land area will be available to produce food," he says.Wow. What a load of... And it goes uncontested by the NY Mag author, Andrew Goldman, who seems to write mostly "people" pieces for the magazine - on Bette Midler, Martha Stewart's daugher, Annie Leibovitz - so he can't be expected to know a big ol' global warming lie when he hears it. But we know it's a Dirty Lie - and if you want to do something about it, please go to the article right now and call Mr. Koch out for his attempts to downplay the seriousness of global warming just so he can keep raking money in hand over fist. Here's a video about the Greenpeace campaign Mr. Koch was referring to: Greenpeace issued a report on the Koch Brothers in March 2010 (Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine) and another report last week on Bill Koch, David's twin brother who is waging a campaign to kill Cape Wind, which will be the first offshore wind farm in the nation, just because he doesn't want to look at it from his mansion. By the way, Greenpeace has relaunched our PolluterWatch website with profiles of all of the Kochs. New York Magazine got trusted inside access to David Koch (who rarely gives interviews), and provides a detailed biography of the three twisted billionaire Koch brothers. Allowing the magazine such access may have been a PR attempt to do some damage control and fend off the increasing attention the Kochs are receiving for their association with Americans for Prosperity and the radical Tea Party movement. Rachel Maddow has driven this story hard for months. Koch fought back with preemptive press releases that they have nothing to do with the Tea Baggers, but it just got them more bad press on Maddow. Its great. The Koch legacy of shrouded political action, global warming denial and free-market, anti-government, anti-regulatory radicalism is finally, slowly being dragged out into the sunlight... Accountability is a wonderful thing, especially when it involves the filthy rich.This post originally appeared on Huffington Post.]]> http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog?p=12721&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#comments mikeg http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2010/07/26/help-call-out-the-dirty-lie Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:05:02 +0000 Global Warming Online Actions Activist Network Top Stories Energy [R]evolution PolluterWatch The Dirty Lie 12711@http://members.greenpeace.org/gpblog We've all heard the arguments from Big Oil and King Coal: “Without coal and oil, energy and gas prices would go through the roof;” or “We have to use domestic coal and oil reserves to ensure our energy security;” and “Renewables can't do the job, so we have to keep using fossil fuels.”That's the Dirty Lie: The idea, heavily promoted by coal and oil industry lobbyists and their friends in Congress, that there is no remedy for our addiction to fossil fuels. But the truth is that with today's technology, we can continue to grow our economy while phasing out fossil fuels altogether. Our Energy [R]evolution report lays out a roadmap for achieving a clean energy economy. It also shows that we could create over a million American jobs in the renewable energy sector alone by 2030.So if we have the means for kicking our dirty energy habit and moving to clean, green energy, and most Americans are more than supportive, why isn't it happening? The reason is simple: Big industry has an incredible amount of influence over our energy policy, thanks to decades of campaign contributions to the politicians who make the rules. These companies and politicians defend their planet-killing actions by saying that we need coal and oil. It's time to call out the Dirty Lie, and break their stranglehold. That's where you come in. We need help watchdogging the politicians and talking heads who take money from the fossil fuels industry and then push the Dirty Lie on the American public. Whenever you catch the Dirty Lie being promoted without challenge, or find a case where someone is regurgitating fossil fuels lobbyist talking points as if they were fact, let us know. In turn, we'll let you know when and where to help set the record straight.There are a variety of ways you can plug in to our work to call out the Dirty Lie:3 Ways to expose the Dirty LieFacebookIf you have a Facebook account you can immediately mobilize your friends to expose the dirty lie. When you find an article that repeats the lie, post it to your Facebook with a status message that says something like:“This article claims that we can't live without fossil fuels. That is a dirty lie! Please go to the article and leave a comment saying so.”TwitterIf you spot the Dirty Lie in the media and want to report it via Twitter, just use the hashtag #dirtylie and make sure you link to the news piece in question. We'll be searching for this hashtag regularly, so we'll be sure to find it. You can regularly search for tweets with this hashtag as well, we'll use it to let you know how you can help call out the worst offenders.DeliciousDelicious is a Social Bookmarking service that allows you to bookmark and save web pages online, share them with other people, and see what other people are bookmarking. It's perfect for the work before us of calling out the Dirty Lie! Delicious also allows you to tag your bookmarks with a keyword. That makes it a great tool for collaboration because we can easily look up all web pages tagged with the key word “DirtyLie.” Here's how to help:1) If you're new to Delicious, the first thing you need to do is create an account. Go to https://secure.delicious.com/login and follow the instructions. If you have a yahoo account you can use that to quickly create one. If not you'll need to create one of those too.2) Add a bookmarklet button to your browser's bookmark bar. This way you'll be able to bookmark and tag articles anywhere on the web with just a click. Go to http://delicious.com/help/bookmarklets and follow the instructions for your web browser. 3) Now it's time to start exposing the Dirty Lie by bookmarking and tagging articles. When you read articles that repeat junk science like “We'll never have enough renewable energy to replace oil,” click your “Bookmark on Delicious” bookmarklet button you added to your browser. A pop-up window will appear. Add the tag “dirtylie” (important: keep “dirtylie” as one word) and any other tags or info you think is appropriate and click save.4) Find other articles tagged with “dirtylie” at http://delicious.com/tag/dirtylie. You can read and comment on these articles and find other Delicious users that are exposing the Dirty Lie.Greenpeace staff and volunteers will be keeping an eye on all of these social networks for the instances of the Dirty Lie you report. We'll prioritize the worst offenders and let you know how you can help set the record straight.Of course, you can also stay tuned right here on this blog to find out when and where you can help push back on the Dirty Lie. Stay tuned.]]> http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog?p=12711&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#comments