Creating a controversy

The effort to discredit climate teaching seems to have worked, at least with Rickie Santorum.  He was going on this past weekend about how global warming was a political ploy.

Documents leaked from the “Heartland Institute” revealed that the climate skeptics are planning a campaign to undermine the teaching of global warming in public schools.  The Heartland Institute did admit that some of its documents were stolen, and it apologized to the donors whose names became public as part of the leaked material.

Interestingly, the organization planned to spend over $600,000 to influence the outcome of the recall election in Wisconsin.  Among the donors to the “Heartland Institute” was  one of the Koch Brothers, noted for their support of right-wing causes.  

Those of us who are old enough to remember the fight against scientific evidence that smoking causes cancer know how this works.  Opponents claimed there was no absolute proof that smoking was harmful, and that this was a controversy best avoided.

It is depressing that approximately half the people of the U.S., including Republican candidates for president, are willing to reject scientific evidence on global warming.  We are rather quickly becoming a nation of stupid people.

Information on the leaks and the Heartland Institute was taken from an article by Justin Gillis and Leslie Kaufman in the Feb. 16 issue of the New York Times.  If you are a climate “skeptic” [i.e., dumb as a box of rocks], you already are of the opinion that the New York Times is a liberal propaganda mouthpiece, and you are already a Santorum supporter.