The Heartland Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute are oil-funded think-tanks dedicated to turning out academic-appearing reports that have successfully confused Americans about global warming. The result has been that oil companies have successfully delayed renewable energy development in this country.

Like Americans For Prosperity and FreedomWorks, which was behind the firing of Van Jones, the Green Jobs Czar; these organizations are funded by Exxon and David and Charles Koch (Koch Industries oil empire).  Freedom works is currently sponsoring astroturf townhalls to fight energy legislation.

The plot thickens…they now have Steven Chu in their sights.

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Coleman’s arguments rest on the tired arguments that global warming is a ‘left-wing conspiracy’ made up by the UN and the environmental movement to justify a world government and a massive redistribution of wealth [yawn]. Unfortunately, Coleman’s scientific credibility is overwhelmed by his political bias.

Needless to say, conservative media outlets had a field day with the news, reporting it as if Coleman had already found a court to hear his dubious legal challenge.

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So, what ever happened to that lawsuit anyway? To the best of my knowledge, nothing.

]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/07/17/what-ever-happened-to-the-lawsuit-brought-by-weather-channel-founder-against-al-gore/feed/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/07/12/inspired-economist-pick-of-the-week-8/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/07/12/inspired-economist-pick-of-the-week-8/#comments Sun, 12 Jul 2009 08:17:02 +0000 Reenita Malhotra http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/07/12/inspired-economist-pick-of-the-week-8/  

This column highlights the top economic stories of the week.

Hopes for an accelerated recovery during the second half of 2009 were diminished this week as most of the economic headlines turned negative after several months of encouraging signs. Job losses exceeded economists’ expectations, with the nation’s unemployment rate now standing at a new 26-year high. More on this story here.

Obama Administration Readies $3 Billion for Renewable Energy. The $3 billion in grants are designed to temporarily replace the production tax credit that has been a critical factor in the growth of renewable energy capacity in U.S. More on this story here.

Just months after the swine flu pandemic panicked the world, varying strains of the Ebola virus have been discovered in pigs, and they may be jumping between swine and humans effortlessly. More on this story here.

San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom passed into law an ordinance that requires all residential and commercial building owners sign up for recycling and composting services.  More on this story here.

There has been some controversy this week over whether global warming is an actual phenomenon or whether it is simply propaganda pushed by the liberal media. On Wednesday, Fox hosted Alan Carlin, a “legendary” EPA official and co-author of an internal document disproving global warming. The document was subsequently “suppressed,” by the EPA. More on this story here.

Have you heard of the “agritainment industry?” According to the Economist, it has taken off with a bang. The UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) says that a tenth of farms have diversified into a variety of sports and recreation activities to supplement their earnings. A growing “agritainment” sector includes bed-and-breakfast accommodation, wedding venues and shooting ranges (both real and paintball). 

‘Former Clinton adviser’ clings to his 15 minutes

Apparently Fox News tele-pundit and GOP cheerleader, Dick Morris, thinks the only way people will consider him relevant is if he tells everyone that he was once an adviser to President Bill Clinton. What Morris—or anyone introducing him at Fox News—fails to mention, is the reason his stint as a top Clinton adviser ended so abruptly; he was involved with a D.C. prostitute and even (allegedly) let her listen-in on private conversations he was having with President Clinton.

I am not denying that Morris at one time held a very important position and had a tremendous amount of influence. Rather, I am suggesting that Mr. Morris should stick to what he knows best; bashing Bill and Hillary Clinton. In stead, Morris has now transposed his hatred of the Clintons and his apparent need for retribution onto President Obama, whom he attacks in his new book, Catastrophe (a book that is being sold at Amazon for almost half-off its cover price just one week after being published).

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MJG #55: Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity and Beck Environmental Superheroes
MJG #52: Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, and Beck: Environmental Superheroes

At 8:30 PM local time on Saturday night, people around the globe celebrated Earth Hour by turning out the lights at home and on such landmarks as Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium and Water Cube, the Empire State Building in New York City, Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue, and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, to name a few.

But as the hour-long public display of unity cascaded through the timezones, not everyone was buying-in and Fox News was determined to give facetime to anyone who wasn’t.

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Well, these ‘green machines’ are at it again. This time doing what they can to help Mother Nature fight climate change…

MJG #52: Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, and Beck: Environmental Superheroes

“It’s an immensely destructive gesture,” Rosett said. “The U.N. has been busy manipulating and politicizing the science on this for years…. The whole climate obsession has the potential to make Oil for Food look like a drop in the ocean.”

Pardon me if I hadn’t noticed the U.N. manipulating and politicizing the science of climate change, I was too busy watching that same phenomenon take place at the White House for eight years.

Lomborg argues that Earth Hour emits more carbon dioxide

Another nay-sayer that was given a chance to spout his rhetoric was the Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg, who argued that the event could actually increase emissions.

“When asked to extinguish electricity, people turn to candlelight,” Lomborg wrote in an op-ed in The Australian.

“Candles seem natural, but are almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light globes, and more than 300 times less efficient than fluorescent lights. If you use one candle for each extinguished globe, you’re essentially not cutting CO2 at all, and with two candles you’ll emit more CO2,” wrote Lomborg.

But what if you don’t light one candle for each “extinguished globe,” as Lomborg assumes. Personally, I turned off four lights and lit two candles. But for all of those lights that were shut off on bridges, public buildings, skyscrapers, etc., candles were not lit at the 1:1 or 2:1 ratio that Lomborg suggests. The number would probably be closer to 0:1.

I understand some of the critiques that Earth Hour might be a little soft on action once 9:30 local time rolls around. However, movement politics are not neat and tidy. Generating the kind of public support needed to address climate change requires lots of public (political) efforts. That is the way collective action problems are often solved.

If you don’t want to turn out your lights for one hour, once a year, that is fine, no one is going to make you. But for Fox News to try and label Earth Hour as a UN-driven ploy to push an agenda and redistribute wealth, is a strategy straight from the failed Karl Rove playbook. A playbook that has only served to increase the level of ideological divisiveness in American politics.

Images: NASA; Earth Hour

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“It’s an immensely destructive gesture,” Rosett said. “The U.N. has been busy manipulating and politicizing the science on this for years…. The whole climate obsession has the potential to make Oil for Food look like a drop in the ocean.”

Pardon me if I hadn’t noticed the U.N. manipulating and politicizing the science of climate change, I was too busy watching that same phenomenon take place at the White House for eight years.

Lomborg argues that Earth Hour emits more carbon dioxide

Another nay-sayer that was given a chance to spout his rhetoric was the Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg, who argued that the event could actually increase emissions.

“When asked to extinguish electricity, people turn to candlelight,” Lomborg wrote in an op-ed in The Australian.

“Candles seem natural, but are almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light globes, and more than 300 times less efficient than fluorescent lights. If you use one candle for each extinguished globe, you’re essentially not cutting CO2 at all, and with two candles you’ll emit more CO2,” wrote Lomborg.

But what if you don’t light one candle for each “extinguished globe,” as Lomborg assumes. Personally, I turned off four lights and lit two candles. But for all of those lights that were shut off on bridges, public buildings, skyscrapers, etc., candles were not lit at the 1:1 or 2:1 ratio that Lomborg suggests. The number would probably be closer to 0:1.

I understand some of the critiques that Earth Hour might be a little soft on action once 9:30 local time rolls around. However, movement politics are not neat and tidy. Generating the kind of public support needed to address climate change requires lots of public (political) efforts. That is the way collective action problems are often solved.

If you don’t want to turn out your lights for one hour, once a year, that is fine, no one is going to make you. But for Fox News to try and label Earth Hour as a UN-driven ploy to push an agenda and redistribute wealth, is a strategy straight from the failed Karl Rove playbook. A playbook that has only served to increase the level of ideological divisiveness in American politics.

Images: NASA; Earth Hour

Children who are generally concerned about our planet’s health and climate change do not deserve to be denigrated by Fox’s idiot Greg Gutfeld, who would actually punish his kids for being green!

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On the O’Reilly Factor, Fox News’ Carl Cameron reported that a McCain-Palin rift was due in no small part to Gov. Palin’s lack of knowledge of basic civics, politics, and geography - and her unwillingness to prepare in light of those those deficiencies. Reportedly, McCain aides said Sarah Palin had:

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