BPSDB
Last week John Mashey did an excellent talk on “The Machinery of Climate Anti-Science” at the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions. John is an incurable geek (my highest praise) who has been a tireless bulldog in going after the power networks that support the professional world of climate change denial (and just a really nice guy).
The talk is well worth it, so watch it:
Video of John Mashey’s talk and the pdf of the presentation.
Thanks to Tim @ Deltoid and Deep Climate for the heads up.
Some things to watch for
1) This is not a summary and will not substitute for watching the presentation itself, it’s just a sampling of some of the things he talks about that I have my own agenda for drawing your attention to, so go watch it already ;-)
2) Note the gender/age/politics breakdown of the Denier petition signers. This will be discussed more in the series of posts about the politics of climate which has been started here.
3) In the same vein and for the same reasons, note that underpinning the anti-science Denialosphere is clandestine money from a small group of wealthy individuals and corporations.
4) Specific mention of Koch Industries, a very important player in climate change Denial about whom I have a post that I hope to get up this weekend, so watch for that.
5) Some good stuff on the Wegman controversy, and as John notes you really should check out Deep Climate for the updates on where that currently stands and where it is going.
6) He touches on another theme I hope to cover shortly, lawsuits and litigation … let’s sue the bastards [Aside for right wing Deniers … remember how much you love accountability, so I am sure you will be 100% behind the lawsuits to take down all the lies and liars]
7) Some good suggestions for how we move ahead both within the specific sphere of the 
Denial Machine and the broader issue of climate change.
8 ) The organizer mentions that they are going to have Oresekes on or about June 27th (he is not sure) so you probably want to book mark that site.
9) On March 22 they had “The Psychology of Climate Change” by Sabine Pahl which I also intend to talk about, so you may want to book mark that one as well (or watch it now).
To John
Many thanks for that, but next time you’re in BC be sure to touch base with Dan at Irregular Climate and maybe he can podcast a discussion with you.
Hopping down the bunny trail
Eli has been talking about The Rhetoric of Rejection which turns out to be almost as useful as advice for my personal life (well really, look at the subtitle for Pete’s sake … it sure sounded familiar to me):
- The Rhetoric of Rejection: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy
- The Rhetoric of Rejection: Part II
What particularly caught my attention was “… democracy requires opposing views, but also interchange among those holding those views. “How did they get to be that way?” is a sure sign that an honest dialogue has vanished.“, which is very much describes what I had to say in “Path of Resistance” and hence the need for us to substantially escalate the intensity of our grassroots actions.
The second post is particularly appropos of that theme and directs us to a much broader discussion which we will necessarily at least reference (along with Kantian Imperatives and what have you), so another one to both read and book mark.
We give our consent every moment that we do not resist.
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Thanks for the kind words.
I’m sorry to have missed Dan: for some reason I’d gotten in my head that he was in a province further East, and I thought I’d mentioned this around enough, but obviously not.
Note that the 4 Republicans named in the slide above are all examples of people considered to be supporters of science, or really strong defenders of it. This will get spelled out in the slide a bit more on next update. George Schulz worked for Reagan,and is at Hoover Institution (i.e., not a raving liberal), but was the spokesperson for fight against Koch/Valero/Tesoor-funded CA Prop 23 to undo climate legislation.
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This lurker feels it’s about time he spoke up and thanks John Mashey for his posts over the years in various places that have greatly helped this lurker in getting his head around the denial machine.
Thank you too Greenfyre for your blog
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Thanks for the kind words from both…
and some day, I may write “Why I don’t/didn’t start a blog of my own…” but it probably belongs at Tobis’ place, since he was bugging me to do one.
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“All of the bloggers understand why”
Well, if you’re thinking “it is much work to do a blog well”, that’s only one of the reasons, and not necessarily the most important. Like I said, some day, after the dust has settled on certain academic misconduct, funds mis-use and possible other legal actions…
Very informative post. The pictures are fine. Thank you for good writing.