Freeman Dyson: Patron saint of climate skeptics
Officials at climate-change-skeptical think tanks, including the founder of one, responded earlier this week to my Mother Nature Network column on such think tanks. The column argued that they’re closer to PR organizations than research institutions.
First up was David J. Theroux, founder and president of the Independent Institute, a free-market oriented think tank has published the work of skeptic S. Fred Singer:
You fail to even mention, much less examine, the empirical findings discussed at [last week's Heartland Institute] conference that indicate that climate alarmism is unfounded and has far more to do with environmental religion and interest-group politics than science. Instead, your article is just more dismissive punditry, with the obvious point that while Lord Monckton may not be a scientist, neither are you or Al Gore.
In contrast, here is a new interview with Nobel Prize Laureate physicist Freeman Dyson that actually discusses some of the pertinent matters that you will not address: http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2151 As for the matter of corporate interests determining the debate, perhaps the following will be useful regarding what is now the eco-corporatist Climate-Industrial Complex: http://www.independent.org/blog/?p=2217 David J. Theroux Pres[i]dent The Independent Institute
Anti-environmental polemicists have been bringing up Dyson a lot recently. Read more
Earth 2100: Two views of the TV screen
Last night’s ABC News’ documentary/graphic novella on climate change — Earth 2100: Civilization at Crossroads — elicited very different reviews, depending on which side of the TV the critic sat on.
Earth 2100 was hosted by real-world reporter Bob Woodruff. But it starred a fictional anime-style character named Lucy.
Grist.com was ga-ga about the show: “Hurray for the mainstream media exploring the worst-case scenario aka Hell and High Water!”
But the “Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow” at the free-market oriented Business and Media Institute called the show “a two-hour, left-wing, Obama commercial.” Read more
