Hot Air Confuses the Climate Debate [1]
Submitted by John Stauber [2] on
Reporter Dave Maza looks at Arthur B. Robinson [3] of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine [4], a man long "in the vanguard of a small but vocal and persistent collection [5] of scientists, industry advocates and commentators who dismiss human culpability for climate change [6]. ... Robinson's critics say his analysis is simplistic, but it remains persuasive a decade later with powerful policymakers like U.S. Senator James Inhofe [7] (R-Okla.), a visible and effective player in blocking a bill to limit greenhouse-gas emissions last fall. 'The influence Robinson and the others have is to muddy the waters and delay action on global warming,' says Sheldon Rampton [8], research director for the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit organization that promotes media literacy. 'I thought he was thoroughly discredited years ago,' Rampton says. 'But the global-warming skeptics certainly haven't given up. And they seem willing to promote anyone who can be half-plausibly sold as an expert.' Robinson's views have been cited on Fox News [9], MSNBC and other national newscasts, such as Exposed: The Climate of Fear [10], an hourlong special report in 2007 by CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck [11]. The report relied heavily on Robinson's findings to attack former Vice President Al Gore [12]'s An Inconvenient Truth [13]."