A Fox News’ “business show” used the resignation of a climate-change skeptic from academia as an excuse to pretend that global warming is some kind of liberal conspiracy.
On today’s Forbes on Faux, supposedly a business show, the totally fair and balanced panel of four conservatives and one liberal, plus conservative host David Asman, discussed the resignation of climatologist Professor Judith Curry from Georgia Tech. According to a quote from Fox, Curry quit her job because of “the craziness in her field” where funding and rewards are being given to projects “only if they are channeled in certain directions approved by a politicized academic establishment.”
In other words, it seems her employer is not interested in funding climate-change denial projects. That makes Curry a martyr, to the Fox News crowd. And, of course, they spent most of the time demonizing everyone who disagrees with them.
As the Washington Post noted (but host Asman did not), “There is a broad scientific consensus that human activity — including the burning of fossil fuels for transportation, heating and industrial manufacturing — is driving recent climate change.” 2016 is already being called
But, apparently, this group of business experts knows better.
Asman turned to panelist Steve Forbes first: “You say this just proves that climate science is more about money and politics than it is about science.”
“Absolutely," Forbes said. "More and more they’re relying on models that don’t predict the future very well, so they can’t win politically. They couldn’t get their energy taxes through, so now they’re engaging in the equivalent of a Spanish Inquisition or Mao’s cultural revolution.”
Guest Bruce Japsen was the lone dissenter. “I don’t even know if we need any of these academics because we have a president who believes it’s a Chinese hoax. Listen, climate change is real and glaciers are melting, waters are rising, and if I were living in Miami, I would head to higher ground.”
Panelist John Tamny was another "expert." He said, “Can all of the world’s combined knowledge be that slim and a few scientists that smart? The very notion’s ridiculous. It is not a Chinese hoax, it’s much worse than that.”
Guest Elizabeth MacDonald made a stupid comparison. “If she questions the use of computer models or saying that weather’s a big complex system, then you’re called what’s called a climate change denier. And watch the terminology there, that’s the same as being called a Holocaust denier. It’s very nasty.”
“Bingo," Asman said. Then he said to guest Mike Ozanian, "Mike, that’s the point. They’re looking for ways to get you without dealing with some of the science that contradicts their views.”
“I’m so tired of this save the planet garbage," Ozanian responded. “We’ve only been here 200,000 years, is a little C02 really going to damage the Earth? No!”
Talk about politicization of science! Watch it below, from the January 7, 2017 Forbes on Fox.
David, we can wish it on Fox News pundits and Fox News at large though, can’t we?
Many of these panelists demonstrate a serious lack of knowledge on this subject. Just one example: The existence of climate change is established via historical data, not models. And, public opinion does not conflict with the experts: According to a recent global Pew survey, most respondents believe climate change is “a very serious problem”, and 78% support actions to reduce GHG emissions. http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/11/05/global-concern-about-climate-change-broad-support-for-limiting-emissions/
Well, Steve, are you really saying that the amount of pollution and emissions over the last “200,000 years” have been equivalent to the emissions of the last 4 decades?
If you are really saying that, then you are either A) an apologist lying for the oil and factory industries, or B) really, really dumb.
Besides — I thought the earth was only 6,000 years old? Isn’t that what your aging Bible-thumping audience believes? Maybe you can toss that 200,000 down the Memory Hole and just start over, right?
Faux viewers = dupes and rubes, one and all…
Fox News knows that the Pence Administration is taking its cues from them, so the network is feeling extra strident these days. They know that Trump doesn’t understand these issues and that the Pence group is hostile to most scientific research in the first place. Which means they’re free to try to bully anyone who doesn’t toe the line for them.
In the case of the actual EPA and the Energy Dept under Pence, we can expect to see the accumulated research tossed in the trash within the next month – which is why actual climate researchers have been frantically archiving everything they can of the materials from the past 8+ years. It’s a good thing they did this, as without their efforts, the Pence people would succeed in destroying a decade of knowledge. As it is, the Pence group will in fact succeed in essentially shutting down the EPA and the Dept of Energy in short order, not to mention multiple other Depts that actually used to provide services to everyday people.
This will be a truly unfortunate time for the people who live in places like Flint, Michigan. One can only hope they can hang on for another 2 to 4 years until saner people can get back to work in DC. And we have to hope that the maximum damage that Pence does to the Supreme Court will be limited to replacing Scalia with another young Far Right voice.
If our hopes are not met here, you could easily see a scenario where companies rampantly pollute without restraint (and without an EPA or Energy Dept or Interior Dept to handle them), where the workers of those companies are shamelessly exploited (and without a Dept of Labor that cares to hear what is happening), and where any lawsuits to challenge those companies are batted away by Right Wing judges and a Far Right Supreme Court that doesn’t want to know about it.
Well Mike, if you’re that tired, and you think a little CO2 doesn’t hurt, feel free to stand in a sealed room full of it.
CO2 displaces oxygen — so you won’t be tired much longer.
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These fools never tire with their dire predictions on marriage equality, universal health care, increasing the minimum wage and so on and so forth.
So I’ll make a dire prediction of my own. If global warming continues unabated then prepare for the seven seas to be filled with nasty tiny box jellyfish that are filled with badass toxin. A world devoid of natural ice.
A world you would not wish on your worst enemy unless you hated all humanity.
