December 5, 2006

Stop Dangerous “Global Warming Deniers”

The Wall Street Journal has re-printed a letter from Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) to ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson.  It warns ExxonMobil to stop financial support to ALL scientific and public interest groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who say that the Global Warming scare is a lot of hype.

You would think from the tone of the letter that the senators were talking about holocaust deniers. Some excerpts:

“…we must request that ExxonMobil end any further financial assistance or other support to groups or individuals whose public advocacy has contributed to the…climate change denial myth.

 “…we are persuaded that the climate change denial strategy carried out by and for ExxonMobil has helped foster the perception that the United States is insensitive to a matter of great urgency for all of mankind, and has thus damaged the stature of our nation internationally. It is our hope that under your leadership, ExxonMobil would end its dangerous support of the ‘deniers.’"

“…we share the goal…that ExxonMobil "come clean" about its past denial activities…”

The Wall Street Journal editorial staff fired back with their piece, Global Warming Gag Order.  They write, “Washington has no shortage of bullies, but even we can't quite believe (the) letter… Its message: Start toeing the Senators' line on climate change, or else.” They add…“Every dogma has its day, and we've lived long enough to see more than one ‘consensus’ blown apart within a few years of ‘everyone knowing’ it was true. In recent decades environmentalists have been wrong about almost every other apocalyptic claim they've made: global famine, overpopulation, natural resource exhaustion, the evils of pesticides, global cooling, and so on. Perhaps it's useful to have a few folks outside the ‘consensus’ asking questions before we commit several trillion dollars to any problem.”

On Wednesday, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) will hold a hearing on Global Warming hype in the media.