Ever wonder how these guys can sleep at night?
In what seems a redux of Ronald Reagan’s famous “trees cause pollution” quote, the National Association of Manufacturers has a new ad claiming that new pollution regs would put the Grand Canyon in violation of the Clean Air Act.
A powerful organization representing industrial polluters launched a misleading new television ad last week with images of pristine national parks that are, in fact, experiencing dangerous levels of air pollution caused by its own members.
The ad is part of a multi-million dollar campaign by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) against a proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce ozone pollution, which causes breathing problems, aggravates lung diseases, and contributes to premature deaths. The TV ad claims that the proposed regulations are so strict that even America’s “pristine” national parks would fail to comply.
“Our National Parks: vast, untouched, pristine, no industrial activity for miles,” the narrator says in the ad over images of Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks. “But under new ozone rules out of Washington, these national treasures would actually violate clean air laws.”
What the ad doesn’t say is that industrial air pollution in national parks, including these three, is already so bad that air quality frequently fails to meet public health standards. According to the National Park Service, air quality and visibility at the Grand Canyon is declining because the park “lies downwind of polluted air from coal-fired power plants in the Four Corners region, nearby mining, and urban and industrial pollutants from Mexico and California.”
Yosemite National Park’s air quality is regularly so poor that it is unhealthy for park rangers and visitors, according to a new report by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).
In a press release announcing the ad, NAM President and CEO, Jay Timmons, also misleadingly claims that “the new proposed ozone standard is so over the top, even places with no industrial activity for miles around will be considered noncompliant.”
In fact, many national parks are surrounded by industrial activity that contributes to air pollution and other environmental problems. For example, the Alton Coal Mine in Utah is just over 10 miles from Bryce Canyon National Park, and a proposed expansion of the strip mining operations would further threaten the iconic park and contribute to air pollution.
This ad is simply mindblowing. The lying POS’s behind it should be tarred and feathered. How the NAM people can sleep at night is a very good question. Reagan was just ignorant—-these guys are deliberately misstating the facts.
The ad has been playing non-stop on the DC area TV stations, and every time I see it I want to smash the TV or kick the dog—-since TV’s are expensive and I don’t have a dog, I just cuss instead.
Anyone who has been paying attention over the years is familiar with the air quality problems at many of our national parks—-all due to the encroachment of industries as the Climate Progress article states. This ad is jaw-droppingly duplicitous.
I wonder if this ad was tested with focus groups. My first reaction was that it was complete BS, and I’m sure most people would see it for what it is. The only group that wouldn’t would be the Fox News watching true believers, and they’ll believe anything.
Long article out today, fairly rambling, but it describes the mentality of huge sections of our country:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/03/opinions/sutter-climate-skeptics-woodward-oklahoma/index.html
A more than “fairly” rambling article, but interesting, and after reading it, I nominate Woodward County to be the poster child location for extreme weather due to AGW.
Send it all there—-flood, drought, heat, cold, wind, fire, hail—-maybe as a poster child they will be of some use to the rest of the country, and just maybe they’ll start to pay attention.
Of course, maybe I’m just being too hard on them—OK ranks nine from the bottom in the educational level of its residents, so maybe the schools have let them down and they’re ignorant of science. Or maybe they’re just dumb? Eight of the ten states on the bottom of the education list are RED states, and OK voters DID elect Inhofe. Hmmmmm.
They’re not dumb. Statistically speaking, they’ll have about the same amounts of above average, average, and below average intelligences as most of the rest of the country. They’re also not “bad people”. They’re just people.
I think what the article is illustrating, and what the author is unsuccessfully trying to grasp, is the affect of social conditioning on the individual, and how that leads to a combination of motivated reasoning and structural ignorance.
I know nothing about this website as a whole, but this is a great post:
http://growchangelearn.blogspot.com/2007/03/different-kinds-of-ignorance.html
“Adult ignorance is usually highly motivated. The desire to remain ignorant is far stronger than the desire to become knowledgeable, skillful, informed or aware.”
Understanding these things is the only way to successfully fight them. Even with the knowledge, it’s an uphill struggle, but without it, we’re just beating our heads against the wall.
Back to the CNN article, there’s a notable story that relates:
‘One was a 12-year-old girl who I found spinning with her sister on a merry-go-round on a sweltering afternoon. The girl, who I’m not identifying because she’s a minor, told me that climate change was a no-duh sort of thing for her. She learned about it in science class, and immediately told a bunch of her friends.
“They said, ‘We don’t have anything to do with that.’ ”
“They didn’t make fun of me,” she said. “They just didn’t talk to me for a while.”
“Nobody talks about it here,” said the girl’s sister, age 14.’
That’s the social conditioning at work. The majority of people (I seriously doubt Woodward County only has 30% who don’t think climate change is happening), or at least the strongest group within the population, enforces a belief that becomes a part of one’s social identity. It starts with the young, and by the time they are an adult, they form their own firewalls of motivated thinking and continue the pattern of conditioning to others.
We can’t break these firewalls with threats. We can’t beat them in politics, as the way politics work is the particular area elects their own representatives, who inevitably reflect their beliefs. The only way is to try and understand them and relate to them where they live.
That’s why I think people like Katharine Hayhoe and the Pope are the bright spots in the current dialogue. They are talking to them in their language. They’re also very brave, in that they are willing to break with socially accepted norms (don’t talk about it) within their own social groups. It might not blow open doors at first, but it at least cracks them a bit to let some air in.
Lots of ignorance displayed in this article. Dinosaur bones are fossils that don’t contain much carbon. They’re actually rock. So why would anyone try to radio carbon date them?
Why would anyone try to radiocarbon date dinosaur bones? In the ignorant hope that they might get results that proved man and dinosaurs walked the Earth together. That’s what they want to believe, and the fact that it’s impossible won’t deter them. The Creation Museum should have been located in Woodward County. Check out the pics.
https://www.google.com/search?q=creation+museum+images&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CB4QsARqFQoTCMLNw9CFkccCFYlWPgodwTIJtA&biw=1280&bih=867
Try this video from potholer54.
It’s a clear explanation of how these people work, and how carbon dating does and doesn’t work, and it’s funny into to the bargain.