Friday, May 19, 2006

Carbon Dioxide

If you are looking for slick “Toxic sludge is good for you” type organizations, I’ve found the latest.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is running a new campaign to counter claims about Global Warming where they tell the viewer about the “benefits” of CO2. What’s interesting is the way they spin the argument, calling CO2 “life.” Of course, CO2 is necessary to life on earth; however, they are making claims that depict it as some threatened species. The images used in the campaign are terrible. They show a girl blowing a dandelion, families getting into cars, and the lights in Times Square as if they are all under threat from environmental movements. What they don’t show is the scientific evidence about the perils of increased greenhouse gases. Now, of course, we would expect an advertisement like this to be partial to one side. The problem that I have is the possible effects of global warming on populations world wide.

Ask yourself: What would environmentalists have to gain by sounding the alarm about global warming? Do they profit from a healthy environment? Make lots of money?

Now, given the list of investing companies for an organization like the CEI (Amoco, ExxonMobil, Ford Motor Company, Philip Morris, Pfizer, Texaco, Dow Chemical, General Motors… according to wikipedia), what would this “non-profit public policy organization” have to gain from making arguments like this?


(BTW, the salary for the president of CEI is $175,000…non-profit, eh?)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home