Bad Deeds for 10-16-2007

The Man Behind the UK Court Attack on Al Gore’s Film is a Fuel and Mining Magnate – The school governor who challenged the screening of Al Gore’s climate change documentary in secondary schools was funded by a Scottish quarrying magnate who established a controversial lobbying group to attack environmentalists’ claims about global warming. Stewart Dimmock’s high-profile fight to ban the film being shown in schools was depicted as a David and Goliath battle, with the Kent school governor taking on the state by arguing that the government was ‘brainwashing’ pupils. Dimmock’s case was supported by a powerful network of business interests with close links to the fuel and mining lobbies. He was also supported by a Conservative councillor in Hampshire, Derek Tipp.

Conservatives Ignore UK Court’s Finding That Al Gore’s Film is Very Well Supported by Scientific Research – Those who use the nine errors and exaggerations the judge found in the film to slam Gore have a responsibility to be fair and say what the judge found before he cited the nine instances.
From the judgement:

“17 ii) As Mr Chamberlain persuasively sets out at paragraph 11 of his skeleton:
‘The Film advances four main scientific hypotheses, each of which is very well supported by research published in respected, peer-reviewed journals and accords with the latest conclusions of the IPCC:
(1) global average temperatures have been rising significantly over the past half century and are likely to continue to rise (“climate change”);
(2) climate change is mainly attributable to man-made emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (“greenhouse gases”);
(3) climate change will, if unchecked, have significant adverse effects on the world and its populations; and
(4) there are measures which individuals and governments can take which will help to reduce climate change or mitigate its effects.’
These propositions, Mr Chamberlain submits (and I accept), are supported by a vast quantity of research published in peer-reviewed journals worldwide and by the great majority of the world’s climate scientists.”

Attack on Al Gore’s Electricity Usage is from a Right-Wing Group That Misrepresents Itself as “Non-Partisan” – The attack originated from the Tennessee Center For Policy Research. TCPR claims “to be non-partisan, but only link(s) to far-right and conservative groups so regardless of what their status is with the IRS, this is a conservative, strongly-leaning Republican organization.” The “non-partisan” TCPR web site links only to right-wing groups such as the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Tennessee Center’s President Drew Johnson comes straight out of the right’s network, coming from Exxon-funded American Enterprise Institute and the right-wing-funded National Taxpayers Foundation. The Tennessee Center For Policy Research is part of the right’s State Policy Network. “SPN is a national network of state-based right-wing organizations in 37 states as well as prominent nationwide right-wing organizations. Through its network SPN advances the public policy ideas of the expansive right-wing political movement on the state and local level.”

The Tennessee Dept. of Revenue has actually termed the TCPR as “not a legitimate organization.” The Tennessee Center for Policy Research claimed to have gotten its figures for Gore’s electic usage from Nashville Electric Service. But company spokeswoman Laurie Parker said the utility never got a request from the policy center and never gave it any information.”
Gore’s family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology. Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon offsets to offset the family’s carbon footprint. Keith Olbermann at MSNBC reported that the Gore home includes offices for both Gore and his wife and ‘special security measures’ making it unrepresentative of what the average US home consumes. Additionally, the green power purchased by the Gores increased the cost of their electricity by “$5,893, more than 50 percent, in order to minimize carbon pollution. Zoning rules in Al Gore’s upscale neighborhood kept the former vice president and environmental activist from installing solar panels on his roof. The rules were changed in April. The Gore family is “in the midst of installing solar panels on their home, which will enable them to use less power.” They also use compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy efficiency measures and then they purchase offsets for their carbon emissions to bring their carbon footprint down to zero.

NTUF

State Policy Network

Tennesee Valley Authority

Community Television Weakened by the FCC – Congress didn’t act on legislation that would have severely weakened or eliminated local video franchising for telephone companies and put community television in danger — but the FCC did.

Dow Jones Drops Paid-for CNBC Ads From Web Sites in Favor of Fox Links – On the day they had contracted to run advertisements placed by CNBC, two Web sites owned by Dow Jones & Company instead ran ads for that cable business channel’s new competitor, the Fox Business Network. Both MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal’s Web site, WSJ.com, filled up the exact spaces CNBC had purchased with rotating ads that included some for Fox Business Network. These were accompanied by links to foxbusiness.com, the Web site of the Fox Business Network. The ads for Fox started running soon after midnight. CNBC, which is owned by NBC Universal (both are units of General Electric), had concluded a deal with Dow Jones more than a month ago to secure those locations for ads supporting CNBC. CNBC paid about $87,000 for the ads.

Regards,

Jim