When the facts change, I
change my mind—what do you do, sir?
(John Maynard Keynes)
A perpetual motion machine for sale
Snake oil salesmen
A number of years ago I was
at a global climate change conference in Washington, D.C. One day was
devoted to visiting the offices of various senators and
representatives. I ran into a cigarette lobbyist, a former
congressman from North Carolina, who was visiting the representative
from his old district who was a personal friend. We had a pleasant
chat before he was ushered into the office of his friend. While we
chatted, I wondered what he might have said if I'd told him he was
working for a criminal enterprise. Needless to say, back then, I
didn't. Probably today I would have.
The fossil fuel industry has
run a similar campaign to what the cigarette manufacturers once did.
It has worked for a very long time. It's about denial, deception and
a belief that the public in general is easily manipulated and by in
large not well informed.
How the good guys win
Believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right
(George Orwell)
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