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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
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Searching... | 30000010235533 | QC903 H63 2009 | Open Access Book | Advance Management | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Talk of global warming is nearly inescapable these days -- but there are some who believe the concept of climate change is an elaborate hoax. Despite the input of the world's leading climate scientists, the urgings of politicians, and the outcry of many grassroots activists, many Americans continue to ignore the warning signs of severe climate shifts. How did this happen? Climate Cover-up seeks to answer this question, describing the pollsters and public faces who have crafted careful language to refute the findings of environmental scientists. Exploring the PR techniques, phony "think tanks," and funding used to pervert scientific fact, this book serves as a wake-up call to those who still wish to deny the inconvenient truth.
Author Notes
James Hoggan is president of the award-winning PR firm Hoggan and Associates and a leading authority on public perceptions of environmental issues. He is chair of the David Suzuki Foundation and the Canadian chapter of A1 Gore's The Climate Project.
Richard Littlemore is a strategist and senior writer at Hoggan Associates and editor of DeSmogBlog.
Reviews 2
Publisher's Weekly Review
Canadian environmental activists Hoggan and Littlemore pull no punches in this spirited indictment of global warming deniers. Their well-sourced research spotlights premeditated prevarications about the threat of greenhouse gas emissions by the oil and coal industry, in league with "junk" scientists, compliant conservative politicians and unsavory public relations practitioners. Persistent obfuscation of science by these anti-environment players is further abetted, say the authors, by a manipulated media that, in a misguided effort toward journalistic balance, pairs scientific certainty about an encroaching climate crisis with quotations from people "who make a living denying" it. Readers predisposed to believe the worst about the oil, coal and electric industries will find their fears buttressed by the book's detailed overview of an orchestrated climate coverup by Astroturf (fake grassroots) organizations, right-wing think tank echo chambers, the tens of millions of industry dollars poured into primarily Republican campaign coffers and the PR profession's Orwellian use of language. But global warming skeptics might also be swayed by the detailed dissection of an ongoing campaign to convince the public that "climate change is still unproven." (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Choice Review
Hoggan, a CEO of a Canadian public relations firm, became aroused by the exposes of Ross Gelbspan, Richard Littlemore, Max Boykoff, and other writers about "climate denial" campaigns. Hoggan and his partners created the Web site DeSmogBlog.com to track the "denial" movement. Here, in collaboration with Littlemore (journalist), Hoggan compiles the most detailed and probing analysis to date of the interrelations between business organizations and conservative think tanks in campaigns to question global warming. The author relentlessly scrutinizes the credentials of scientists and experts cited as questioning global warming. Additionally, he does not spare Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is accused of dismantling Canada's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol. The sleuthing is sophisticated and impressive, though documented by only 44 references. Cited facts are largely corroborated by this reviewer's work, The Conflict over Environmental Regulation in the United States (CH, Dec'09, 47-2242), which covers similar ground. Climate Cover-up has one critical caveat: it totally ignores the fact (documented in The Conflict over Environmental Regulation) that the more radical environmentalists mirror the same willingness to subordinate facts to beliefs as do the committed global-warming skeptics. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers. F. T. Manheim George Mason University
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. xi |
| Preface | p. 1 |
| 1 Lemmings and Lifeguards: Keeping humankind from crashing on the rocks | p. 7 |
| 2 The Inconvenient Truth: Who says climate change is a scientific certainty? | p. 16 |
| 3 From Bernays to Today: A brief history of private prophets and public lies | p. 23 |
| 4 The Age of Astroturfing: In which industry steals credibility from the people | p. 31 |
| 5 Internationalizing Uncertainty: Taking the doctrine of doubt on the road | p. 49 |
| 6 Mangling The Language: Making doubt reliable and science unbelievable | p. 61 |
| 7 Think Tank Tactics: Moving public policy into private hands | p. 73 |
| 8 Denial by the Pound: Many wrongs don't make a right, but they sound better | p. 88 |
| 9 Junk Scientists: An expert for every occasion; an argument for every position | p. 99 |
| 10 From Denial to Delay: A more reasonable-and more dangerous-trend in obstructing action on climate change | p. 118 |
| 11 Slapp Science: Using courts and cash to silence critics of climate confusion | p. 134 |
| 12 Manipulated Media: An industry overwhelmed in the age of information | p. 151 |
| 13 Money Talks: Calculating the heavy weight of political capital | p. 168 |
| 14 Whitewashing Coal: In coal country, cleanliness is relative, but profit is absolute | p. 190 |
| 15 Little Coal: Salvaging a future that's stuck in the tar sands | p. 206 |
| 16 Nobody Wants to be a Chump: How the debate cripples public policy and paralyzes private action | p. 215 |
| 17 Saving the World: Tactics for turning back the clock on global disaster | p. 227 |
| Notes | p. 237 |
| Index | p. 241 |
