| May 19, 2010 |  |
Industry-Funded Think Tank CEI Launches More Misleading Ads About Climate Science
Freedom Action, a phony grassroots group started last year by the industry-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), recently bought airtime for two misleading radio ads about climate science.
Both ads repeat discredited assertions about emails stolen from climate scientists last fall. Over the last few months, a number of independent investigations have cleared the scientists of wrongdoing. Factcheck.org, for example, concluded that the allegations against the scientists misrepresented the content of their emails. Penn State University, exonerated scientist Michael Mann, whose work is referenced in one of the emails cited in the CEI ads. An investigation commissioned by the University of East Anglia found no evidence of fraud or deceit in the emails. And a British Parliament report concluded that the emails have no bearing on scientific understanding of climate change and that claims to this effect about the emails are misleading.
Given CEI's track record, no one should be surprised it has no qualms about publicizing false information. In September 2009, CEI produced a TV commercial that argued we should emit more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere because it makes things grow, while conveniently ignoring the deleterious effects climate change is having on forests and agriculture.
The first radio spot refers to comments in an email by scientist Kevin Trenberth regarding the need for better monitoring equipment to measure short-term temperature fluctuations. CEI cited part of Trenberth's email out of context to bolster their own unscientific "global cooling" claims. In fact, the Earth has just experienced the hottest decade on record and this year we experienced the hottest March and April in the modern temperature record.
The second ad refers to emails about Michael Mann's "hockey stick" graph, which shows that global temperatures have jumped dramatically over the past few decades. The hockey stick graph probably has been subjected to more scrutiny than any other climate science data—and it has passed the test numerous times. The National Academy of Sciences and other scientific institutions all have concluded that the hockey stick study is accurate.
CEI's radio ads, which were obviously designed to confuse the public, are fundamentally dishonest.
The Union of Concerned Scientists puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet's most pressing problems. Joining with citizens across the country, we combine technical analysis and effective advocacy to create innovative, practical solutions for a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.
