Global Warming Denier Talking Points Debunked

We’ve been seeing a lot of this lately: people who proclaim themselves ‘neutral’ on climate change issues who insist that they’re ‘looking past the hype’, who willfully ignore scientific evidence and simply repeat ignorant conservative talking points.  Grist notes the case of one Kenneth Green (ironic last name), resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, who recently said in a speech to the International Oxygen Manufacturers Association (what?) that technology to reduce emissions is “decades away, and extremely costly”.

From Grist:

Gristmill readers know that statement is utterly false. As do all those who believe in science. The latest multi-year synthesis of the peer-reviewed literature by the world’s top scientists and technologists — signed off by every major government including the Bush Administration — says that we have the needed technology today or are in the process of commercializing it and that the economic cost of strong action will be at most 0.1 percent of GDP per year, far less than the cost of inaction.

But Green asserts, “My science is value-neutral — I just try to figure out what the science really says, and look past the hype.” Actually, it is very easy to figure out what the science really says — just read the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But that, of course, would shatter his carefully crafted ideologically-driven worldview.

Green went on to perpetuate blatantly anti-scientific climate myths like “For the last decade, warming peaked, and recently declined”.  That’s just the beginning. Grist has been fantastic about providing clear, science-backed counter-arguments to this kind of b.s. in the past, and they’ve risen to the occasion once again by debunking this and several other boneheaded statements by Green. Check them out over at Gristmill.

Do you know someone who still clings to misinformation like this? Read up on Grist’s responses and also be sure to check out our two articles on John McCain and Sarah Palin’s environmental records – the election’s tomorrow, and you just might swing a vote in the right direction!

Link [Grist]
Photo credit: EarthFirst composite/Wikimedia Commons

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