Ventura's Show Goes Off the Deep End

Besides this new “conspiracy” show being very badly made, it’s full of lies, misleading statements and insinuations.   No climate skeptics have been threatened by anyone.  No climate skeptics are afraid for their safety.  This is a total myth spread by a silly tv show hosted by Minnesota’s former governor, Jesse Ventura.

Richard Lindzen, the MIT professor,  is apparently funded by oil and energy companies.

Dr. Lindzen is one of the highest prolife climate skeptic scientists, arguably because he has been a member of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and contributed to the Second Assessment Report. He regularly takes issue with the general conclusions drawn from the IPCC’s reports and has been at the forefront of the consistent attacks on the IPCC since the early 1990’s. His prolific writings assert that climate change science is inconclusive. His opinions are cited throughout the ExxonMobil funded groups and he regularly appears at events organised by them.

Ross Gelbspan reported in 1995 that Lindzen “charges oil and coal interests $2,500 a day for his consulting services; his 1991 trip to testify before a Senate committee was paid for by Western Fuels, and a speech he wrote, entitled ‘Global Warming: the Origin and Nature of Alleged Scientific Consensus,’ was underwritten by OPEC.” (“The Heat is On: The warming of the world’s climate sparks a blaze of denial,” Harper’s magazine, December 1995.) Lindzen signed the 1995 Leipzig Declaration. (More quotes from Lindzen below)

The “hidden” scientist says the earth is warming because of the sun.  Of course the sun is the originator of the heat.  What else would it be?  What causes earth’s global warming is that CO2 traps the heat and doesn’t allow it to escape into space, so the earth warms more and more as more CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere, which in turn traps more heat (radiation).  The heat source is the sun, no one is disputing that.  But the greenhouse effect causing the steadily rising global temperature is mainly because of six greenhouse gases that people are responsible for adding to our atmosphere.  If the sun was responsible, all by itself, for increasing warming, then we’d be in very serious trouble, because there would be nothing we could do about it.  Luckily, we can do something about our own GHG emissions.

The last decade was the warmest in history, based on measurements taken by scientists at several different institutions.  No one is getting rich off global warming.  In fact, the last time I checked at Amazon.com, there were many more books on climate change skepticism and denialism than are written about climate change.  I know this because I check often.  So who’s making money from this?  Well, we know Ventura and Lindzen are.

The “religion” is climate change Denialism, because it fits the definition of a religion:  no facts, based on faith, based on myth.  There is no funding and no money in writing papers on global warming unless you actually have a job as a professor, author or with the EPA.  In fact, James Hansen has written in his new book that he lost money and funding when he spoke out about global warming early on.

Perpetrating lies like this one-world government nonsense and the “global warming might be a hoax” mentality is having a negative impact on everyone on earth.  300,000 people die per year due to climate change, so it’s far from being a joke.  If one of those people had been in the family of these skeptics, they wouldn’t make such a pathetic, desperate tv show.   This is making a mockery of a very serious phenomenon that is killing people every day.

Ventura  used to be governor of my state, but now he is milking conspiracy theories for his own personal gain, to the detriment of everyone else.  This is hugely irresponsible and as a Minnesotan I’m embarrassed I ever voted for this dimwit.   You’re no journalist, Jesse, so stop spreading this nonsense, pretending that you’re some investigative reporter.  The only way this show would be worse is if Sarah Palin hosted it.

And Alex Jones is simply a loudmouth fraud bent on sensationalism.  Very little he writes about is credible, if anything.  To use him as a source for anything is a mistake.

Another quote from the professor Lindzen:

Lindzen described Exxon Mobil as “the only principled oil and gas company I know in the US.” “They have a CEO who is not going to be bamboozled by nonsense,” he adds. Professor Lindzen wants the debate on global warming kept alive. He also describes the Royal Society letter as a “disgrace,” adding “they don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Source: BBC News, “Science Climate Conflict Warms Up,” April 26, 2007