Every day people on both sides of the political spectrum use products derived from the scientific method. 

Yet we are told scientists can not be trusted to speak the truth about Climate Change; they are money-grubbing, self-interested hacks perpetrating the greatest hoax in the history of humanity in order to destroy the Capitalist System and get government grants. Is that a convincing narrative? 

The Greenhouse effect was first identified in 1824 by French physicist Joseph Fourier. In the 1950's, Charles Keeling proposed that CO2 in the atmosphere was warming the planet. In 1988 climate scientist James Hansen testified before congress on the need to limit carbon emissions. The same year Exxon Mobile began a disinformation campaign that has lead one political party to assert that Global Warming is a Hoax.

Since Rachel Carson published SILENT SPRING in 1962 (which challenged Pesticide Producers), industry has been at odds with environmental scientists. The existence of Global Warming calls into question the basic assumptions of a capitalist agenda with increased urgency. To admit there is Climate Change is to admit we need to acknowledge and curtail the effects of industrial pollution by reimagining the economics of carbon based energy systems. Is that so hard?

Science has delivered: A man on the moon, the combustable engine, the Industrial Revolution, guns and ammunition, the extraction industries, racing cars, monster trucks, the internet, cell phones, video games and hi-definition TV; Science has given us modern medicine, life saving drugs for high blood pressure, cholesterol, cancer, obesity, as well as viagra, birth control, liposuction, plastic surgery. Every known enterprise is based on knowledge and the scientific method. 

However, scientists can not be trusted to speak the truth about Climate Change, Evolution, or the age of the earth. Does this contradiction make sense? Or is there a different motive behind the assertion that Climate Change is a hoax?

BOOKS
The War on Science: Who's Waging It, Why It Matters, What We Can Do About It by Shawn Lawrence Otto
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth by Tim Flannery
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

AUDIO CLIPS
How to turn Climate Change Skeptics into Activists: Jerry Taylor 4/5/17
Neil DeGrass Tyson on Brian Leherer 4/4/17