Successful Liars

My most troubling revelation is that I am naïve. Because my parents, neighbors, teachers, workmates, fellow soldiers, and leaders were upstanding human beings, I was blind to the dark side of history.

History teaches us homo sapiens are capable of evil. Our own American History identifies the evils of slavery. We know we stole and cheated the American Indian. And, if we could not steal or cheat the Indian, we killed him.

We did these things, or let them happen, because someone could make a lot of money. If you do not have to pay for labor, (or pay little); or if you steal land rather than give payment, you make a lot of money. In my naïve dreamworld, I thought we had moved past these evils.

Then I started to study climate change and a host of other science problems plaguing us. The ugliest, prior to the corruption of climate science by Big Oil, Gas, and Coal, was the corruption of science by Big Tobacco.

Big Tobacco knew as early as 1953 the use of their product had serious consequences for their customers. The use of tobacco, on average, will shorten your life 10 years not to mention the misery the user and their loved ones will endure as a smoker’s health deteriorates and the user eventually checks out.  Big T knew this. They acted….to protect their profits.

Any good science has what is called “normal scientific uncertainties”. If you hire a creative liar, that liar will find ways to create doubt manipulating these “uncertainties”. If I had naively smoked and died of smoking, I would have been just another acceptable casualty in Big Tobacco’s pursuit of profit.

Lucky for us, thorough science, good government, and an honest and independent judiciary prevailed. We have warning labels, and advertising regulations. Massive lawsuits decimated the ill-gotten profits of the corrupt tobacco industry.

The bottom line is what should have happened, in a concept called common decency, took years of work and billions of dollars to see justice. Oh yeah, millions of people died or suffered greatly in the struggle.

This is playing out again with oil, coal, and gas. Big Energy’s scientists were mobilized after President Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee informed us we were altering the atmosphere.  By 1978 Big Energy knew their product would inevitably alter the world’s climate because their own scientists told them.

What did Big Energy’s Leadership do? They mobilized. They hired the same Machiavellian psychopaths Big Tobacco had hired to sow doubt. They, again, manipulated the “normal scientific uncertainties” to make us think solid science was weak. They were ready with their propaganda machine when the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute, James Hansen, testified to congress in 1988. By 1989 they had influence in the White House.  President George Bush Senior directed his Chief of Staff, John Sununu, to torpedo the world-wide scientific effort to find solutions.

With the advent of anti-social media, the 50 or so propaganda organizations employed by Big Energy, the ones who label themselves as “think tanks”, have been wildly successful. We continue to ignore the entire scientific community despite the danger of slipping into the sixth extinction.

Determined investigatory journalists from papers and schools like the Columbia School of Journalism, the Los Angeles Times, and Inside Climate News have unearthed Big Energy’s coverup in such detail that New York is considering prosecution.

The facts are in black and white. We know there was and continues to be a climate coverup.

  But we also know something else. We know that PT Barnum was correct when he said, “There is a sucker born every minute.” Unfortunately, that sucker is you and me.

A few references:

“Climate Cover-up” James Hoggan

“Merchants of Doubt” Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway

“The Disinformation Handbook” The Catalyst, The Union of Concerned Scientists. Winter 2018.

“The Historical Jigsaw of Climate Deception” Mat Hope at DESMOGBLOG.com

“What the Oil Companies Knew: The Great Climate Coverup” a podcast by the Guardian Newspaper.