Step Right Up and Listen to My Lies!

Fill in the parentheses with: ozone hole, acid rain, or global warming. This is the playbook of science deniers.

“There is no ( ).”

“OK. There is ( ) but it is natural and is not caused by humans.”

“OK. There is ( ) and humans are causing it BUT ( ) will not be bad.”

“OK. There is ( ) caused by humans but we will ruin the economy if we try to fix it.”

The above lines show how science deniers have shifted their arguments against taking action on a variety of environmental issue as more and more evidence against their claims came in.

Of course, humans caused the ozone hole and we fixed it with financial benefit.

Of course, humans caused acid rain and we passed a sulfur cap and trade market that fixed it with little cost. The Dept. of Energy estimates that the cost to limit emissions ended up being a mere 0.6 percent of the polluters operating expenses.

Of course, humans are causing global warming and the costs of inaction could be many trillions and what price do we put on our children and their children? Addressing climate change now secures our economic, health, and national security. Mitigating heat-trapping carbon saves us money in the long run! Waiting increases risks across many sectors of society and increases costs considerably.

I recommend reading Merchants of Doubt by Oreskes and Conway. You will see that the same handful of paranoid science deniers are using the same playbook that Big Tobacco used so effectively for many years to confuse the public about important issues such as ozone depletion, acid rain, and now human-caused global warming.

Do not buy the snake oil. Listen to what the overwhelming majority of climate scientists, health experts, insurers, and the military are telling you. We need to take action now.

I do not like being lied to and I bet you do not like it either.