A little over two years ago on November 21, 2015, I wrote a blog post about Ross Gelbspan’s most visible recent activity, which concerned a couple of less-than-well-ought-out Facebook comments on his part. Time for an update about this same ‘most visible’ public efforts of his, where it serves as one more example of how people always need to do more digging into the things he says. Continue reading
Author Archives: Russell Cook
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations Inc. v. Chevron Corp. et al.
News of this PCFFA lawsuit filing came up two weeks ago at Energy in Depth: “Latest Sher Edling Climate Lawsuit Further Exposes Anti-Energy Activist Network.” Others, such as Climate Liability News (CLN: “Commercial Fishermen Sue Fossil Fuel Industry for Climate Impacts“) covered it differently without mentioning any questionable items about the situation. What are the problems with this particular boilerplate lawsuit? Let me count the ways: Continue reading
Why am I Here?
Stepping outside of my usual blog posts to offer a bit of history which some of my readers may not know much about. It was ten years ago today that my first-ever online article appeared, and it had nothing to do with the false accusation about ‘Big Coal & Oil’ paying skeptic climate scientists to spread lies undercutting Al Gore’s ‘settled global warming science.’ Continue reading
“Inside Track: Sowing Seeds of Doubt in the Greenhouse”, Part 3: ‘Leaked by Industry Executives?’
In Parts 1 and 2 here and here, I detailed how the re-emergence of the old Greenwire news brief really doesn’t help the long-term talking point about ‘industry-paid skeptic climate scientists,’ despite being apparently the initial seed for that ongoing accusation which centers around a particular set of memos supposedly leaked out of the Western Fuels Association’s “Information Council for the Environment” (ICE) campaign. Now, let’s briefly examine how its re-emergence undermines the credibility of one of the current figures who pushes that accusation. Continue reading
“Inside Track: Sowing Seeds of Doubt in the Greenhouse”, Part 2: troubling connections
Part 1 described how Phil Shabecoff’s June 1991 Greenwire electronic news brief was the first news item to directly quote a set of worthless ‘leaked memos’ which supposedly revealed how the fossil fuel industry aimed faulty climate science assessments at ignorant people in order to spread misinformation about the issue. The old Greenwire brief also quoted a spokesperson for an electric utility trade organization who categorically stated his organization was not participating in a public relations campaign of which those memos were supposedly guided by, which undercuts current accusations about that organization spearheading the PR campaign. But wait, there’s more. Continue reading
“Inside Track: Sowing Seeds of Doubt in the Greenhouse”, Part 1
Greenwire’s old dawn-of-the-internet age June 20, 1991 electronically shared news brief, which could not be easily found by the general public …. has been found. Now, let’s see what’s in it. Continue reading
The Citation Cascade Fatal Problem
You can either accept what reporters say without question, or you can look more deeply into what they say to see if it all lines up in a nice straight problem-free line, or if it ultimately takes on the unavoidable appearance of being an agenda-driven narrative based on disingenuous false premises. The following illustrates how this kind of examination works, on an article which purports to be a criticism of another article but actually turns out to be complementary to it in a rather suspicious way. Continue reading
Truth Tellers vs Arctic-area Refrigerator Salesmen
While today’s blog post – which also serves as an entry into a writing contest titled “You are Enough” – is not my usual focus on particular details which implode the notion that the fossil fuel industry ‘pays skeptic climate scientists inject misleading lies into the settled science certainty of man-caused catastrophic global warming,’ it will nevertheless illustrate one of the core problems with that particular political angle of the issue. Specifically, writers who believe in themselves and their ability to write effectively enough… or the lack thereof … to successfully promulgate Al Gore’s side of the issue. Continue reading
My Funding Update — the “Paypal Donate” Button Addition
Regarding the Donate button now prominently displayed at the top right of my Home page (which takes donors to Paypal where they can contribute whatever amount they wish to me), the following is a message not only for friends, it’s also a challenge aimed directly at my fiercest critics along with anyone else who firmly believes that prominent opponents of Al Gore’s version of man-caused global warming are industry shills who are paid to lie. My challenge right here is a golden opportunity for Gore’s followers to put that accusation to the ultimate test. Continue reading
Background: The WORTHLESS “reposition global warming as theory” ‘leaked memos’
Al Gore and the people supporting and following him all but plead with the public to have total trust in this: the only opposition to the idea of harmful man-caused global warming is a handful of shill ‘experts’ who receive fossil fuel money in exchange for lies downplaying that harm. The industry corruption accusation sounds plausible enough all by itself, but if anyone innocently asks what evidence exists proving it true, they are often met with sweeping generalized references to reports of ‘Exxon knowing’ about the harm, or to books such as Naomi Oreskes’ “Merchants of Doubt.” But when inquisitive people point out that no such evidence of pay-for-performance arrangements are seen in those writings, Gore & crew might go one step further to say “journalists and academics” show how a deliberate sinister misinformation effort was exposed in leaked memos, where the strategy goal was to “reposition global warming as theory rather than fact,” which targeted “older less-educated men and young low-income women”. For the benefit of newly arriving readers here, and for those who haven’t yet comprehended just how damaging those worthless memos are to Al Gore and others who push them, allow me to explain: Continue reading