BobHarris.com - Study: 92% of Books Skeptical of Environmental Threats Funded by "Conservative" Think Tanks

Books! Actual books!

"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... his comic timing never fails"

-- The Wall Street Journal

"Pulls you in like a good sports story"

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"

-- New York Newsday

"A surprisingly touching memoir"

-- Entertainment Weekly

"Snappy and informative"

-- Associated Press

"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."

-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."

-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."

— New York Observer

"Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”

— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

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Study: 92% of Books Skeptical of Environmental Threats Funded by "Conservative" Think Tanks

Tag it now -

Monday, 09 June 2008

Go read this.

Keep in mind that most "conservative"* think tanks receive major funding from oil companies, defense contractors, and the world's biggest polluters (along with stock brokers, drug companies, and other folks who stand to make even more money by getting rid of safety, health, and environmental regulations).

Go find the nearest dumbass who repeats their reassuring nonsense without understanding where it comes from.

Explain to them the global-warming-is-a-myth crap they spew is no more honest or respectable than tobacco-funded "science" claiming that cigarettes aren't proven to cause cancer.

It's the same thing.

It's even promoted by the exact same people -- the Competitive Enterprise Institute, for example, has often been home to the anti-science talking heads on Fox News, most notably Steven Milloy, whose career reads like a case study of the flip side of reality — disputing the banning of DDT, the effects of passive smoking, the effects of CFCs on the ozone layer, and (lately) the role of human activity in climate change.

Not surprisingly, Milloy and his own non-profits have received funding from Phiiip Morris and ExxonMobil, something Fox somehow has never gotten around to mentioning much.

Fifteen years ago, when the EPA linked passive smoking to lung cancer, CEI whipped up newspaper op-eds across America confusing the issue so badly that some people are still unclear on the overwhelming scientific consensus. Same people, same goals, same M.O.

CEI has received major funding from Amoco, Coca-Cola, CSX, ExxonMobil, Ford, Pfizer, Texaco, and Philip Morris, among others.

Dig into any of the big "conservative" think tanks, and you find pretty much the same thing.

Rule of thumb: if there's an emerging scientific consensus which means some powerful business is in direct conflict with the public welfare, and some suit on the teevee claims the scientists don't know what they're talking about — basically, the suit works for the business.

Or at least there's a 92% chance.

*I put the word "conservative" in quotes here because there's nothing conservative about abusing the planet to protect the edges of a profit margin while paying people to repeat carefully engineered falsehoods. Creating that false association is one of the more successful propaganda coups of the last fifty years.