Media Matters has another example of Fox News spreading misinformation. This despite the commitment to fight global warming made earlier this year by NewsCorp. CEO, Rupert Murdoch, whose company owns Fox News.
This latest example of global warming misinformation is the most blatant yet.
Media Matters reports that:
"[N]ew research by University of Washington mathematicians [that] shows a correlation between high solar activity and periods of global warming" as evidence to support his claim that "[global warming] skeptics are increasingly certain that the scare is vastly overblown."
But an August 9 New Scientist article on the mathematicians' research warned that "[c]limate-change skeptics may seize on the findings as evidence that the sun's variability can explain global warming -- but [the report's co-author] mathematician Ka-Kit Tung says quite the contrary is true."
The New Scientist reported that Tung says his finding, in the New Scientist's words, "adds to the evidence that mainstream climate models are right about the likely extent of future human-generated warming."
Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.
There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.
You don't see this every day. President Barack Obama used Twitter today to call out climate deniers in Congress who are blocking political action to address climate change. 
The tweet links to this video released by Organizing for Action, the 501(c)(4) campaign group that promotes the President's national agenda.
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Misinformation & Hypocrisy
It seems that corporate misinformation & hypocrisy are at an all time high right now. Recently I blogged about Starbucks promotion of Arctic Tale, (an eco-friendly film), while they still refuse to implement a serious recycling program in their stores.
More here:
http://robdubinski.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/starbucks-arctic-tale-global-warming-corporate-hypocrisy/
Artic tale cup sleeve
I was at Starbucks yesterday and the mixed message of advertising Arctic Tale on a coffee cup sleeve was definitely not lost on me!!
Kind of like a hybrid Hummer.
At least . . .
. . . most Starbucks coffee cups end up in waste bins. If I had a latte for every Tim Horton's cup I see by the side of the road I'd have died of clogged arteries by now. But Starbucks is one of the companies that ought to be targeted to get with the program. They have enormous sway, and have a responsibility to use their profile to promote good habits, sort of the way "celebrities" can attach themselves to causes that matter, or make the pages by leaving their panties at home, adopting babies at odds with the local laws, and/or checking themselves into posh rehabs.
Imagine the impact of getting Starbucks to take on the AGW cause! Bring your own cup, fair trade coffee, no "drive-thrus" -- well, okay. They probably don't have any now.
AND Tim Horton's ought to be targeted to repair the damage they have allowed to happen. The people we really need to reach are the folks who pour through the drive-thru's across the country and then toss their cups out the window.
There is a huge group there who are just trying to get by, keeping their jobs, making their way, for whom the blue box is a nuisance and global warming a distant question mark. The possibility that their actions might have an impact on a global scale doesn't enter into their day to day thinking. Why should it? Every Thursday when I walk my dogs, I pass a pile of stuff out for garbage pickup. The bags clearly contain tons of stuff that is recyclable. I want to stop and sort the bags out, but I can't do it every week. How do we get to these people?
It's a social issue as well as a scientific one.
The responsible action (the
The responsible action (the one that will decrease the odds of a human extinction event) is to sell NewsCorp stock/funds.
Or buy them
... and pass stockholder resolutions. Kind of like what they did with ExxonMobil.