{"id":354,"date":"2013-06-10T19:23:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T02:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?p=354"},"modified":"2021-09-17T15:02:34","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T22:02:34","slug":"if-an-ironclad-accusation-repeatedly-quotes-specific-evidence-why-take-22-years-to-finally-show-the-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?p=354","title":{"rendered":"If an Ironclad Accusation Repeatedly Quotes Specific Evidence, Why Take 22 Years to Finally Show the ‘Evidence’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The accusation that skeptic climate scientists are paid by the fossil fuel industry to “reposition global warming as theory rather than fact<\/em>” has two parts: the 1991-’95 span when it got little public interest, and late 1995 to the present, when it became far more widespread. During this entire 22-year stretch of time, I’m the only one<\/strong> quoting that fragment coal association memo sentence who told\u00a0where the public could view that phrase and the rest of the ‘leaked memo set’. Among all the promoters of global warming out there, not one<\/strong> ever had a web link straight to the ‘leaked memo set’.<\/p>\n

Until last Thursday.<\/p>\n

The first web link in the “ICE” (Information Council for the Environment) section of Desmogblog’s piece last week<\/a>*<\/strong><\/span> (*<\/strong><\/span>screencapture here<\/a>) is the only direct link to Greenpeace’s ICE memo scans of the I’ve ever seen in 3+ years of looking into the smear of skeptic climate scientists. *<\/span><\/strong>[Author’s 9\/17\/21 edit:<\/span> Desmog subsequently altered that page to add a link to their own page about ICE before the link to Greenpeace’s scans page, thus my edit here to the Internet Archive version link of the original Desmog page, and my addition of the screencapture of that Desmog original page version.]<\/em><\/p>\n

The overall problem here is elemental:\u00a0 Ordinary internet searchers would not find the ICE memo set Greenpeace unless they knew<\/strong> to look for them there.\u00a0 When I began extensively looking into Ross Gelbspan’s accusation after November 2009, those scans never came up in my searches. It took me 7 months<\/strong> to find the memo set after sifting through huge amounts of material quoting Gelbspan’s and Gore’s favorite accusation phrase but never showing it in its full context. The tip for me came when I was finally able to understand the significance of occasional old references to the otherwise forgotten enviro-activist group Ozone Action, and then I discovered how to see their old web pages via an internet archive search site<\/a>. The following quote was the critical bit I found in Ozone Action’s March 1996 “Ties that Blind” report, seen<\/a> near the middle of this page<\/a> [**<\/strong>11\/16\/13 Author’s note: see info at bottom<\/em>]<\/span>:<\/p>\n

According to documents obtained by Ozone Action and by Ross Gelbspan<\/strong>, several ICE strategies were laid out including: the repositioning of global warming as theory, not fact; …<\/p>\n

Media strategies included:<\/p>\n

* targeting “older, less-educated males from larger households who are not typically active information seekers<\/span>” and “younger, lower-income women.<\/span>\u201d\u00a0 (the reason for the red highlighting here is further down)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’d never heard of Ozone Action. But in short order I discovered that Ozone Action’s founder John Passacantando became the director of Greenpeace USA in 2000, and merged his little group into it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gelbspan’s associations around the time when his accusation was gaining media traction is a topic for future blog pieces here. But the “According to documents obtained by Ozone Action and by Ross Gelbspan<\/em>” sentence prompts a simple question arises:<\/p>\n

Obtained ……… from whom?<\/p>\n