Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming

PRAISE FOR
CLIMATE COVER-UP

“Absolutely superb—one of the best dissections
of the climate information war I have ever
seen. This is one terrific piece of work!”

ROSS GELBSPAN
author of
The Heat Is On

“Through impeccably documented analysis,
Climate Cover-Up
exposes the well-oiled propaganda campaign designed
to manufacture dissent and uncertainty about the science
of global warming. It is essential reading for anyone
who cares about the future of democracy.”

ANDREW WEAVER
author of
Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World

“A clear and courageous battle cry against
those who, for profit’s sake, would lead us to
environmental and, ultimately, economic ruin.”

LESTER R. BROWN
author of
Plan B 3 .0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

“An important and disturbing book about the lies and
corrupt language that government and industry
still employ to dismiss the facts on global warming.”

ANDRE WNIKIFORUK
author of
Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent

“To those of us who have been unknowingly made
to turn a blind eye to the terrifying and true facts about
global warming, there’s no time left for ignorance. Please
read this shocking and incredible book, learn how
we’ve been manipulated, get angry, and take action.”

NEVE CAMPBELL
actress and producer

“
Climate Cover-Up
reveals how strategic corporate public relations,
an unwitting media, and feckless scientists have created a
rhetoric-driven public conversation about climate change that
defies logic and reason. If you are interested in positive social
change on climate issues, this book is a must-read.”

FRANKLIND. GILLIAM JR
.
dean, School of Public Affairs, and professor of public policy
and political science, University of California, Los Angeles

“Jim Hoggan in this essential book illuminates
our folly, even as he points a way forward with hope.”

WADE DAVIS
author of
The Serpent and the Rainbow

“
Climate Cover-Up
clears the way for a
new era of honesty and climate progress.”

TZEPORAH BERMAN
campaign director and founder, Forest Ethics

CLIMATE COVER-UP

THE CRUSADE TO DENY
GLOBAL WARMING

JAME SHOGGAN
with RICHARD LITLEMORE

CLIMATE
COVER-UP

D&M PUBLISHERS INC.
Vancouver/Toronto/Berkeley

Copyright © 2009 by James Hoggan with Richard Littlemore

09 10 11 12 13 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a license from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For a copyright license, visit
www.accesscopyright.ca
or call toll free to 1-800 -893-5777.

Greystone Books
A division of D&M Publishers Inc.
2323 Quebec Street, Suite 201
Vancouver BC Canada V5T 4S7
www.greystonebooks.com

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Hoggan, James, 1946-
Climate cover-up : the crusade to deny global warming/
James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore.
Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-55365-485-8

1. Climatic changes. 2. Climatic changes—Government policy.
I. Littlemore, Richard II. Title.

QC903.H63 2009 363.738’74 C2009 - 903508-1

Editing by Susan Folkins
Copy editing by Eve Rickert
Cover design by Martyn Schmoll
Cover illustration by Martin Barraud/Getty Images
Text design by Naomi MacDougall
Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens
Printed on acid-free paper that is forest friendly (100% post-consumer
recycled paper) and has been processed chlorine free
Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax Credit, and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing activities.

In thanks and as a tribute to ROSS GELBSPAN,
whose early scoops and dedicated journalism exposed the
climate change denial campaign and inspired this book.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

one
LEMMINGS AND LIFEGUARDS
Keeping humankind from crashing on the rocks

two
THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Who says climate change is a scientific certainty?

three
FROM BERNAYS TO TODAY
A brief history of private prophets and public lies

four
THE AGE OF ASTROTURFING
In which industry steals credibility from the people

five
INTERNATIONALIZING UNCERTAINTY
Taking the doctrine of doubt on the road

six
MANGLING THE LANGUAGE
Making doubt reliable and science unbelievable

seven
THINK TANK TACTICS
Moving public policy into private hands

eight
DENIAL BY THE POUND
Many wrongs don’t make a right,
but they sound better

nine
JUNK SCIENTISTS
An expert for every occasion;
an argument for every position

ten
FROM DENIAL TO DELAY
A more reasonable—and more dangerous—
trend in obstructing action on climate change

eleven
SLAPP SCIENCE
Using courts and cash to silence
critics of climate confusion

twelve
MANIPULATED MEDIA
An industry overwhelmed in the age of information

thirteen
MONEY TALKS
Calculating the heavy weight of political capital

fourteen
WHITEWASHING COAL
In coal country, cleanliness is relative,
but profit is absolute

fifteen
LITTLE COAL
Salvaging a future that’s stuck in the tar sands

sixteen
NOBODY WANTS TO BE A CHUMP
How the debate cripples public policy
and paralyzes private action

seventeen
SAVING THE WORLD
Tactics for turning back the clock on global disaster

Notes

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I
t is a rare privilege to have a friend like John Lefebvre, without whose courage, insight, and generosity this book could never have come to pass. We are all deeply indebted to John for his guidance, his constant encouragement, and his ongoing support for the operations of
DeSmogBlog.com
.

I am also grateful to everyone involved in the DeSmogBlog, especially Richard Littlemore and Kevin Grandia, for their efforts and their research. Many of the details in this book were reported originally on the blog.

The whole community owes a vote of thanks to the scientists and advocates who have worked so hard to catch our attention and build our understanding on the topic of climate change. The Nobel Committee has already offered appropriate praise for former U.S. vice president Al Gore and the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But some of those scientists have taken a particularly public position and have endured unconscionable abuse as a result. Brave and outspoken scientists such as NASA’s James Hansen, Penn State’s Michael Mann, UC San Diego’s Naomi Oreskes, Stanford’s Stephen Schneider, and the University of Victoria’s Andrew Weaver are among those we know best and respect the most.

There are also scientists and journalists who deserve credit and acknowledgment. Ross Gelbspan, formerly of the
Boston
Globe
, was among the first reporters in North America to uncover the extent of the climate cover-up. ABC’s Bill Blake-more and the
New York Times
’s Andrew Revkin reported the climate change story accurately when many others were getting it wrong.

In the online world, John Stauber’s SourceWatch.org is an encyclopedic font of information, as is Kert Davies’s Exxon Secrets.org. Joe Romm has done great work at ClimateProgress .org, and the DeSmogBlog team has long been a fan of Australian online journalist and scientist Tim Lambert, whose Deltoid blog has been a solid source of scoops and thoughtful reporting on the science and politics of climate change.

In the process of assembling the material in this book, the DeSmogBlog received solid support from a host of online sources that also do a great job covering this issue. I’d like to thank and acknowledge Richard Graves of ItsGettingHotIn Here.org; Jesse Jenkins of
WattHead.blogspot.com
; Pete Altman of
Switchboard.nrdc.org
; Alex Stefan of WorldChanging.com; Brad Johnson, Faiz Shakir, and Amanda Terkel at ThinkProgress .org; Page van der Linden at DailyKos.com; Drew Curtis at Fark .com; and Andrew Sullivan at
AndrewSullivan.TheAtlantic.com
.

Given the rigors and distractions that are inevitable in putting together this kind of book, I want to extend a special thanks to some of the people who had to pick up the slack during the long process of research and writing. The whole Hoggan staff has been endlessly supportive, but the greatest thanks must be offered in return for the patience shown by my wife, Enid Marion, and by Richard Littlemore’s whole family, including his wife, Elizabeth, and his three boys, Ted, Avery, and Llewellyn.

Finally, I would like to offer a more specific thanks to Richard Littlemore. I have said before that Richard has a knack for writing down the things I say in the way I wish I had said them. But his contribution to this book went much further. He brought passion, energy, and extensive knowledge of climate change, politics, and journalism. In the earliest days he was the lone pen on the DeSmogBlog, and throughout he has been a tireless researcher and a conscientious reporter. Collaborations of this scope are likely to either ruin friendships or cement them forever. In this case I am delighted to say that I have found and forged a good and lasting friendship.

Jim Hoggan

PREFACE

T
his is a story of betrayal, a story of selfishness, greed, and irresponsibility on an epic scale. In its darkest chapters, it’s a story of deceit, of poisoning public judgment—of an antidemocratic attack on our political structures and a strategic undermining of the journalistic watchdogs who keep our social institutions honest. It is ultimately a story that drove me and those closest to me to outrage and to activism. And although it is not my purpose to make you angry, I hope that you may, through the coming pages, come to understand the sense of indignation and injustice that brought me to write this book.

I didn’t go looking for this trouble. I don’t think of myself as an activist, and I don’t fit the stereotypical description of an environmentalist. I have a decent wardrobe that doesn’t include a single hair shirt. I spend too much money on art, fine wine, skis, and high-end bicycle parts, and I am in recovery from my habit of buying luxury cars.

Nor do I bear any grudges against “the establishment”—and particularly not the public relations industry. As the owner of a successful Vancouver public relations firm, I think that PR is a good thing. It connects people and builds understanding, and I generally have a high regard for my professional colleagues. It’s true that there have always been bad actors in my business—the tobacco apologists and the partisan political spin doctors—but I have always regarded them as obvious exceptions. In my career, examples of spin-doctoring seemed episodic, not epidemic.

Or that’s what I thought before I started looking closely at the climate file. That too began in relative innocence, and only three or four years ago. I was thinking about adding a community service element to the Hoggan & Associates Web site, and somebody suggested a public information section on climate change. I liked the idea immediately. I knew the topic was controversial, and I knew that in a controversy people sometimes oversell their position. I thought it would be useful to introduce an objective viewpoint.