Climate change news: API and cronies lied

It's hard to keep up with climate change news, these days, and I think that's a good thing. It used to be that you could write a blog about climate change and comfortably cover the main points on many fronts; we are at a critical mass. I feel like the strength of Local Warming is the focus on how individuals can save energy, money and greenhouse gases. I have also volunteered to help a local church with an energy audit so that I can become better versed in this topic to share with many of you who run commercial/institutional facilities.

But I still love the news. I especially love reading about climate news on the front page of the New York Times website:

First, NYT reports that a document filed in a lawsuit has produced "Predicting Future Climate Change: A Primer," an internal document written for the American Petroleum Institute and its cronies in the Global Climate Coalition. This document shows that in 1995, GCC was fully aware that humans were increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases that would cause global climate change, though they debated if such climate change was already occurring. The report states unequivocally that:

“The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied.”

Why does this matter? It matters because people who stood to make a profit from the consumption of fossil fuels lied to the public and to regulators about the risks from greenhouse gases. It also diminishes the standing that groups like API and the GCC have now that allow skeptics and deniers to continue to prevent us from acting on our own behalf.

Some environmentalists have compared the tactic to that once used by tobacco companies, which for decades insisted that the science linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer was uncertain. By questioning the science on global warming, these environmentalists say, groups like the Global Climate Coalition were able to sow enough doubt to blunt public concern about a consequential issue and delay government action.

In other words, the obstruction of action in regards to climate change was a jaded ploy to make money at the expense of the public and the health of the planet, and it continues today. Let's change this sooner rather than later.