Going Green: Film 'Everything's Cool'

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

By Nancy Taylor

I had the recent privilege of seeing the documentary film “Everything’s Cool,” at the Sundance Film Festival. The great irony of the title is that many Americans believe, or have been led to believe, there is no such thing as global warming and that everything really is cool.

The film illustrates a well-orchestrated campaign to debunk and censor the scientific evidence that documents global warming. ExxonMobil and the Peabody Coal Company have poured money into organizations that hire lobbyists who cleverly discredit scientific evidence and testify before Congress and on TV that global warming doesn’t exist.
The same lobbyists were responsible for the campaign that tried to debunk the connection between tobacco and cancer.

Rick Piltz, featured in the film, was in charge of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, which compiled and reviewed scientific documents on climate change. As Piltz compiled research documents for the White House, Philip A. Cooney, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, watered down, changed and censored scientific evidence in the studies that made global warming appear less dire. Piltz became fed up and quit his job last March. Next week he will testify before Congress about his experience with White House censorship. Cooney resigned but two days later and took a job with ExxonMobil.
The saddest part is that Americans have been deliberately misled about a phenomenon that will affect everyone. The millions spent by industry to protect themselves from carbon regulations will ultimately cost us trillions to find a remedy for global warming.


PERMALINK:
Going Green: Film 'Everything's Cool' | Planet JH News Article: Going Green

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