The carefully planned and coordinated campaign to attack climate science, scientists and the IPCC is documented in detail in a compelling new report released today. Dealing in doubt [PDF], published by Greenpeace International, looks back at the history of the 20 year attack strategy, names the key players and outlines the techniques used. From the introduction:
The tobacco industry’s misinformation and PR campaign against regulation reached a peak just as laws controlling it were about to be introduced. Similarly, the campaign against climate science has intensified as global action on climate change has become more likely. This time, though, there is a difference. In recent years the corporate PR campaign has gone viral, spawning a denial movement that is distributed, decentralised and largely immune to reasoned response.
I shall be reading the report with great interest, and with my copy of John Mashey’s excellent dissection of the US campaign, Crescendo to Climategate Cacophony [PDF] close to hand. Solve Climate has a good overview of the report here. And if anyone wants to pretend that people like Michaels, Lindzen, Soon, Christy and Balling have any credibility left, take a look at this map (included in the report) of their ties to the think tanks coordinating the attack.
Here is an alternative view
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2010/03/group-th…
That kind of post is basically spam, John. A drive-by.
How about you actually discuss what Gareth has posted?
OK, I'll discuss. What Gareth has posted is complete bollocks. There is no "well-organised" attack on climate science. The diagram presented in the above post was undertaken by Profero, a marketing organisation that was commisioned to understand the "sceptic blogosphere"
Their "understanding" is so pathetically lame on all counts.
Anybody who thinks that there is a "well-coordinated" campaign on climate science is either a conspiracy theorist or is on drugs.
I hope that contributes to the discussion
Organised or not, it is interesting that the pattern is quite simple: a visiting "sceptic" trots out a lengthy series of long-discredited arguments and dodgy links – and after the sceptic has been hit over the boundary ropes a number of times, he/she generally vanishes, and is propmptly replaced by another repeating the same stuff. You are a bunch of dimwits, most of you "useful idiots" effectively manipulated by those setting the denialist agenda. The strategy as always is to waste as much of the opponent's time as possible, the equivalent of the politician's filibuster. It will fail.
No it doesn't. Why not deal with the detail – like the documented campaign started by the GCC in the early 1990s, or the Western Fuels campaign, Koch and Scaife funding of right wing thinktanks, etc etc.
By the way: "John" is posting from the same IP as "Dr Checkzor". I don't tolerate sock puppets. Either use one log in name, or stop posting. Your choice.
Ha!, I knew it was a sockpuppet, but I wasn't sure which one.
Gareth, perchance is it the same IP as "Socrates" used, and would you care to share it with us for further investigation?
It would presumably be useless cutting off one or two particular IPs – the zombies would start using another one. Whoever or how many the "originals" comprise, these people are worthy only of contempt.
My stats packages, being free services, don't hold full log data for long. I'd have to go to the server logs and dig, and frankly I can't be bothered. IP numbers are an imperfect tool, anyway. But I will be keeping my eyes open…
just because you aren't aware you're a pawn in the games of the powerful doesn't mean you're not one.
The strategy goes organise and fund some thinktanks and organisations to publicise manufactured dissent and wait for the stooges and cranks to pick up on it.
Given that in your super-secret identity of Dr Checkzorb, destroyer of the blog commenters you've actually espoused the conspiracy theory that scientists have made up global warming in order to pocket science grants it is pretty ironic that you choose to mock conspiracy theorists and drug users.
Do you have a costume when you log in as Dr Checkzor? I'm thinking Zorro hat… maybe a little moustache?
Forgot to add this link to Profero
http://www.profero.com/unsimplify/index.html
Basically, they want to "copy" the "deniosphere" as you so charmingly call it.
Which is why you will fail, as North has pointed out in his blog
Hey Gareth
I see you make the recommended reading list on "dealing in doubt" . Congratulations.
Perhaps c3 r2 and all the other bots have come to the right place.
Thanks Andrew. One of the authors has great taste… 😉