I Miss the Guy

Commentary from Al Gore about the resitance to change.

Because it would cut into their profits?
I think there are three reasons. One is they genuinely believed that in the past there has been hyperbole used to stampede the Congress or the people to adopt some measure that later turned out to be excessive—they fear that might be happening again—so there’s a reflexive us and them. I’m trying to give them credit.

Secondly, though, I think that it’s an example of the Upton Sinclair quote that “It’s hard to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding.” The behavior of ExxonMobil is disgraceful. They finance in whole or in part 40 organizations that put out disinformation on global warming designed to confuse the American people. There has emerged in the last couple of decades a lobbying strategy that is based on trying to control perceptions. In some sense it’s not new, but it’s new in the sophistication and the amount of resources they devote to it. It’s not new in the sense it’s the same thing the tobacco industry did after the surgeon general’s report of 1964, and that is a major part of the reason why the Bush administration doesn’t do anything. The president put their chief guy in charge of environmental policy in the White House.

We made a stop somewheres in Turkey at a glass shop and this is the oven where the glass is melted down.