Big Tobacco’s tactics

The writer citing “the acid rain scare of three decades ago” to support his argument that climate change is a scam probably has a sense of irony equal to his understanding of science.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s acid rain program is a good example of a successful strategy to combat a serious problem. This program has achieved its goals of reducing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides through a cap-and-trade system on primarily coal-burning power plants. Since its implementation in the 1990s, it has successfully reduced acid rain levels by 65 percent at a cost much less than forecast.

As for global cooling, this was the brief darling of the pop press in the 1970s and was never taken seriously by the scientific community. It is in no way comparable to the present widespread scientific consensus that climate change is real and mostly due to human activities.
Regarding the “650 respected scientists” dismissive of global warming: There was also a time that the online tobacco
industry could muster many “respected scientists” to dispute that cigarettes cause cancer.

In fact, the strategies used then are now employed by climate change polemics. That is, recruiting just enough naysayers to confuse and instill doubt, despite the preponderance of evidence and expert opinion to the contrary, so those currently benefiting by the status quo can continue to profit to the detriment of everyone else. taxes