Going Green and Going Broke?

By Alan Caruba

The news item in a public relations newsletter reported that the Glover Park Group was providing PR support "to the Alliance for Climate Protection", the Al Gore-backed group which is breaking a $300 million marketing campaign this week."

It is worth taking a moment to parse this bit of news. (1) It is a marketing campaign intended to sell the idea that global warming is an imminent threat and that greenhouse gas emissions must be drastically reduced; (2) it requires the services of a public relations agency to disseminate its theme; and (3) it is about something for which nothing exists, "climate protection."

There is no "protection" against the climate. When blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and other natural weather phenomena occur, the only thing humankind can do is brace themselves against it, hope to survive it, and clean up after it.

The climate—something that is literally measured in hundreds of years—has been going on for all of the Earth’s 4.5 billion years. The weather is what is happening outside right now. It is variable and some say the best description of weather is "chaos" because some of the many factors involved include the Sun, the oceans, clouds, and volcanic activity.

The essence of the global warming theory is that carbon dioxide (CO2) has built up in the Earth’s atmosphere to the point where it will generate a "warming" of several degrees that will threaten all life. The problem with this assertion is that CO2 constitutes only 0.038% of the Earth’s atmosphere. Moreover, climatologists will gladly tell you that a buildup of CO2 always follows a major climate change as opposed to initiating one.

Real science does not support "global warming." Indeed, the Earth has been cooling slightly since around 1998. The current La Nina, a cyclical weather event, causes extensive cooling in the Pacific Ocean that, in turn, causes more thunderstorms for about a year until La Nino returns. It has been doing this for millennia.

Moreover, Josh Will of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently revealed that the oceans, which contain 80 to 90 percent of the planet’s heat, have stopped warming. Finally, add to this the fact that the sun’s normal sunspot activity has greatly diminished for several years. Less activity means less solar radiation means a cooler Earth.

What does this have to do with my industry or business you may ask? Everything! If Al Gore’s $300 million campaign succeeds, it will cause Congress to pass even more legislation to curb energy use and impose more environmental restrictions and mandates.

Energy is called "the master resource" because without it everything stops.

A campaign that would generate a mandatory cap-and-trade program to reduce CO2 emissions will increase the cost of doing business for everyone. The recent legislation mandating the inclusion of ethanol as a gasoline additive has driven up the cost of corn and, by extension, the cost of all food products and the many other uses of corn. It has contributed to a diminishing wheat surplus. Globally we are seeing food riots.

Campaigns against coal, often supported by state governors, have killed projects to build coal-fired electricity generation plants needed to keep up with the nation’s growing population. By Congressional mandate, 85% of the nation’s continental shelf is off-limits to exploration and extraction of oil and natural gas. Billions of barrels of crude oil lie untapped beneath ANWR. Congress has even passed laws to ban the purchase of incandescent light bulbs!

A nation that consciously denies energy to its business, industrial, and agricultural community is putting them at risk of being unable to compete in the global marketplace.

As all this has been going on, more and more corporations have, largely for public relations reasons, "gone green" seeking to portray themselves as responsible corporate citizens. They have been responding to the advocacy of environmental programs financed largely by a network of 115 foundations active in political, social, and environmental issues whose combined assets exceed $90 billion.

At the core of the environmental movement is the belief that there are too many people on Earth and that they are consuming too much. Reducing the Earth’s population and its ability to consume goods and services call for harsh measures designed to drive up the cost of food, the cost of energy, and protection against diseases like malaria, among other efforts.

In an October 2007 cover story, "Little Green Lies", Business Week’s Ben Elgin looked at the benefits of participating in environmental programs, concluding that what has actually occurred has been "a searing refutation of the belief that green corporate practices beget green (earnings) of the pecuniary variety."

For example, buying "carbon credits" is the equivalent of having bought the "indulgences" the Church offered until Martin Luther started the Reformation. You can’t buy your way into Heaven anymore than you can buy anything that has a scintilla of effect on the climate.

I have been a public relations counselor to corporations and trade associations for decades and I have consistently argued that the so-called "science" of global warming, based largely on flawed and often deliberately false computer models must be resisted.

With the advent of Al Gore’s campaign, business and industry in America must change direction and begin to serve its own, its investor’s, and the nation’s best interests. What the economy most needs now is growth.

What it needs is sufficient energy to underwrite that growth. It needs fewer regulatory restraints on growth. It needs to take the steps necessary to respond to the "global warming" propaganda that will undermine future growth.

Business and industry in America needs to support those think tanks that can counter the misrepresentations that will ensnare them in legislation harmful to their own and the nation’s economic growth. It needs to find public relations agencies that can help them fight the fear-mongers who drive up their cost of business and who get between them and the consumers of their goods and services. It needs to support those voices of reason and real science that can change the public’s understanding of climate and energy issues.

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