I’ve noticed increased activity in the “twittersphere” this week trumpeting many of the well-worn memes of climate denial, apparently due to Barack Obama’s mention of climate change action in his second inaugural address on Monday.
“Al Gore invented global warming in 2006;” “They changed the name from global warming to climate change;” “It’s cold outside where I live so global warming is a hoax,” and on and on. These memes come and go like the seasons (especially the one reacting to winter) and it’s ironic that often the folks citing them imagine they are the first to arrive at their earth-shattering conclusions.
An excellent post on Peter Sinclair’s Climate Denial Crock of the Week takes a historical look at our understanding and perception of global warming… opps, I mean climate change, back when Al Gore was a mere lad and scientists weren’t routinely subjected to political persecution. The first video comes from the anchor desk of Walter Cronkite (the most trusted man in American at the time) and the second reaches all the way back to the 1950’s.