CO2 is Green, a coal-money-funded global warming denialist media propaganda campaign with a message that almost might make you think you were reading a satire on denialism in The Onion, says that "plant and animal kingdoms, including humanity, [will be] harmed if atmospheric CO2 is reduced." This operation is running media ads in the states of certain key Senators, something perhaps worthy of noting. But how strange that the Washington Post’s 900-word article on this today is titled "New Groups Revive the Debate Over Causes of Climate Change." The Post thinks this has the status of a debate? Steven Mufson, your article is OK, but who wrote this dopey, misleading, and really irresponsible title? Shame on the Post for this.
The following could be a diatribe straight from the mouth of Stephen Colbert:
CO2 is not a pollutant. CO2 makes Earth green because it supports all plant life. It is Earth's greatest airborne fertilizer. Even man-made CO2 contributes to plant growth that in turn sustains humanity and ecosystems.
CO2 Is Green is working to insure that all federal laws or regulations are founded upon science and not politics or scientific myths. No one wants the plant and animal kingdoms, including humanity, to be harmed if atmospheric CO2 is reduced. The current dialog in Washington needs to reflect these inalterable facts of nature. We cannot afford to make mistakes that would actually harm both the plant and animal kingdoms.
Its sister group, an aspiring 501(c)(3), "Plants Need CO2" says things not even worthy of satire:
Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. We create it when we exhale. We breathe it when we inhale. Carbon dioxide is not the primary driver of global climate change.
Our organization wants to promote science and facts before politicians and regulators make hasty, ill-informed policy that ruins our health and our environment.
The CO2isGreen commercial running annoyingly too often on CNN is about as dopey as firing all of its reporters who actually know something about climate change (See Joe Romm at Climate Progress: CNN fires staff covering science and environment, hires psychic to cover climate change
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain," Mufson seems to be saying when he reveals the results of a simple background check on the Wizard of Odd behind the even odder denialist campaign, H. Leighton Steward:
The man behind the latest entry to the climate legislation wars is H. Leighton Steward, a veteran oil industry executive, co-author of the "Sugar Busters!" dieting books, and winner of an Environmental Protection Agency award for a report on damage being done to Mississippi wetlands. Now retired, he says he wants to "get the message out there" that carbon dioxide, which the Supreme Court has ruled a pollutant and which most scientists regard as a dangerous greenhouse gas, "is a net benefit for the planet."
Steward has joined forces with Corbin J. Robertson Jr., chief executive of and leading shareholder in Natural Resource Partners, a Houston-based owner of coal resources that lets other companies mine in return for royalties. Its revenues were $291 million in 2008. They have formed two groups -- CO2 Is Green designated for advocacy and Plants Need CO2 for education -- with about $1 million. Plants Need CO2 has applied for 501(c)(3) tax status, so that contributions would qualify as charitable donations, said Natural Resource Partners general counsel Wyatt L. Hogan, who also serves on the group's board.
The only debate worth having on this is, do Steward & Robertson think we're all a bunch of dopes?
Post by Rick Piltz and Anne Polansky