Climate denier group brings ‘hot air’ to Coonskin Park

I like hot air balloons as much as the next guy. But I’m not so sure about this one, which will be visiting Kanawha County’s Coonskin Park tomorrow, brought to our fair community by a bunch of industry-funded global warming deniers.

The press release reported that Americans for Prosperity is bringing its nationwide “Hot Air Balloon” tour to Charleston “to expose the economic costs of the Obama-Pelosi proposed cap-and-trade legislation.” It added:

There will be free hot air balloon rides which should provide great visuals and free food.

(And by the way, a day after we got that press release, those great folks at the Natural Resources Defense Council sent out a response, warning all of us hick reporters in West Virginia that we better call their experts and “make sure to get both sides of the story.”)

Sigh. Coal Tattoo has been trying very hard to encourage a reasonable discussion in the coalfields about global warming, controlling carbon dioxide emissions, and what it all means to folks in coal communities. But we’ve already had to deal with Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito joining in the GOP efforts to mislead the American public about the potential costs of a cap-and-trade bill and explaining that, despite all the science, she’s not convinced global warming is an urgent problem.

And now this …

I’d like to ignore the whole thing — the hot air balloon nonsense and the rapid response by Big Green in Washington … but alas, I feel some journalistic responsibility to tell you Coal Tattoo readers here in Charleston (and other future targets of this tour) exactly who these Americans for Prosperity folks are and what they are saying.

First of all, what are they saying? Well, take a look at the balloon: Global Warming Alarmism … what does that mean?

On its Web site, Americans for Prosperity describes global warming as a “highly speculative problem in the future” and questions the scientific consensus that the world is getting warmer because of human-induced emissions, mostly from fossil fuels, and that this warming is going to cause very negative effects for our society.

Global warming is not some problem out many years into the future that we can sit on our hands on not deal with, according to the world’s top experts in the field. As I explained in a previous post about some of Capito’s denying…

As I pointed out in today’s news story, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in its most recent assessment, published in 2007 that, “warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level.”

The IPCC added that the increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century “is very likely” — meaning scientists agreed they were more than 90 percent certain of it — to have been caused by increases in human-caused greenhouse emissions. These emissions increases, the IPCC said, “are due primarily” to fossil fuels, with land-use change “providing another significant but smaller contribution.”

And what about the impacts? One need look no further than the recent EPA “endangerment finding” to understand how pressing this issue is.  As I’ve pointed out, and anybody who reads a daily newspaper should know by now, EPA cited:

…A variety of impacts from climate change, including increased drought, more heavy downpours and flooding, more frequent and intense heat waves and wildfires, greater sea level rise, more intense storms, and damage to water resources, agriculture, wildlife and ecosystems.

But this isn’t the first global warming denier campaign that Americans for Prosperity has launched.  Here’s another one they did:

Over at Climate Progress, Joe Romm called these “the world’s dumbest global warming denier ads.”  Here’s part of the script:

Hey there, I’m Carlton, the wealthy eco-hypocrite. I inherited my money and attended fancy schools. I own three homes and five cars, but always talk with my rich friends about saving the planet. And I want Congress to spend billions on programs in the name of global warming and green energy. Even if it causes massive unemployment, higher energy bills, and digs people like you even deeper into the recession. Who knows, maybe I’ll even make money off of it!

But, as Brad Johnson pointed out on the Wonk Room blog:

In reality, it is the backers of Americans for Prosperity who are wine-sipping, ballet-loving trust-fund elites, a thousand times more wealthy than the likes of “eco-hypocrite” Al Gore. Charles and David Koch are the scions of Koch Industries, founded as an oil refining business by their father Fred Koch. Fred Koch also helped found the John Birch Society, an ultraconservative organization that believed the U.S. government was controlled by a traitorous cabal of Communist sympathizers.

And on one of NRDC’s blogs, the group’s climate campaign director, Peter Altman, explained more of the Koch family background:

David Koch, Executive Vice-President of family-founded multi-national conglomerate Koch Industries, is a founder of AFP and a financial supporter through the family-controlled and company-financed Claude R. Lambe Foundation.  Koch Industries, Inc. and its sister company, Koch Holdings, LLC, own a group of companies invested in refineries, chemicals, minerals and so on.

The Koch companies have an atrocious record of sloppy operations. According to the EPA, Koch Industries is responsible for over 300 oil spills in the US and has leaked three million gallons of crude oil into fisheries and drinking waters.  They were fined a record $35 million dollars and an additional $8 million in Minnesota for discharging into streams.  In Texas – a state not usually known for rigid enforcement of environmental laws - the company was held liable for allowing large amounts of carcinogenic benzene to leak from a Texas refinery.

Koch’s slack attitude has led to tragic losses of life. In 1996, a rusty Koch pipeline leaked flammable butane near a Texas residential neighborhood. Warned by the smell of gas, two teenagers drove their truck toward the nearest payphone to call for help, but they never made it.  Sparks from their truck ignited the gas cloud and the two burned alive. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that “the probable cause of this accident was the failure of Koch to adequately protect its pipeline from corrosion” and the ineffectiveness of Koch’s program to educate local residents about how to respond during a pipeline leak. 

OK … one last thing: What about the costs of dealing with climate change and global warming?

Yes. There will be costs. And there are serious discussions going on in Washington (and many other places around the country and around the world) about how to pay those costs.

I just can’t see how this staged PR event (even with free food) helps West Virginians or anybody else in coal country understand this issue any better.

OK, and I lied about that being one last thing. I can’t help but report this as well. Amercians for Prosperity did a similar “hot air” tour last year. But as Facing South reported at the time:

Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group that works to cast doubt on the scientific consensus around the reality and seriousness of manmade global warming, was scheduled to hold a town hall meeting today in Fort Myers, Fla. and another on Friday in West Palm Beach.

Ironically enough, the group was forced to postpone those meetings due to Tropical Storm Fay, which flooded Central Florida today. Scientists have warned that global warming is intensifying hurricanes and other storms.

AFP was established in 2003 with funding from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, which is run by the billionaire brothers behind Koch Industries — the nation’s largest privately held oil company. It’s currently wrapping up a “Hot Air Tour” designed to challenge what it calls “global warming alarmism.”