The British government report on global warming– warning that climate change could create catastrophic conditions in the not-so-distant future– has been criticized by (surprise) the head of the Oganization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
OPEC’s Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said:
“The mitigation and adaptation to climate change can only be accomplished on the principles of common responsibility and respected capabilities and not by scenarios that have no foundations in either science or economics as we had yesterday from London.”
Oh. Okay, then.
I’m reminded of a TV advertising campaign here in the US last spring, apparently timed to coincide with the release of Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” (on DVD later this month).
The ads were sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, funded in large part through the astronomical profits of companies like Exxon Mobil. (In September, Exxon Mobil announced it would stop funding the CEI.)
Here’s one of the ads. Try to remember that it is not a parody.
As the Think Progress website pointed out:
There are plenty of things that are healthy and essential in reasonable quantities but harmful in extremely large quantities. (For example, drinking a few glasses of water is beneficial. Drinking 10 gallons of water can kill you.) We need some carbon dioxide, but too much causes global warming.
