[Note: Please see the comments section below this post for replies from Khristine Brookes from the Cato Institute, Bill Patzert from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Ben Sullivan, founder and editor of ScienceBlog.]
Today's Los Angeles Times (Page A-17 in the print edition) carries a full page ad purchased by the Washington D.C.-based Cato Institute (Motto: Individual Liberty, Free Markets, and Peace.)
The ad is an open letter to President Obama. It opens with the following two-sentence quotation attributed last November to the then President-Elect:
"Few challenges facing America and the world are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear."
Then, in a large font, the ad says:
"With all due respect Mr. President, that is not true."
And then features a paragraph that begins:
"We, the undersigned scientists, maintain that the case for alarm regarding climate change is grossly overstated."
Here's the pdf of the ad, from the Cato website: cato_climate.pdf
By TTLA's count, 115 people are named as signatories. 25 are listed as being retired or emeritus. None are immediately identifiable as holding Southern California institutional affiliations. Almost all are PhDs.
Why sponsor this ad? Why select the L.A. market? What's the local (and beyond) reaction? We'll check around and plan to post a follow-up. In the meanwhile, your comments are encouraged.
**updated: the NYT dot earth blog on the ad; Washington Post.comon related matters; and Cato books, chapters, and studies about energy and environment.
Subscribe to Think Tank LA's feed.
**11:49am: TTLA heard back via email from Khristine Brookes, the Cato Institute's Vice President for Communications.
TTLA asked a half-dozen or so questions; Brookes indicated some of the answers aren't yet fully analyzable -- for example, how does Cato's web traffic compare today to other Mondays; how much money has today's open letter brought in; what's been the general reaction to the letter.
Brookes did respond immediately to the following basics:
TTLA: What is the Institute's goal or goals in sponsoring (and coordinating signatures for?) this ad?
Cato: The Cato Institute's goal with the ad we ran today on global warming was to encourage debate on an important issue. President Obama has stated that the science is "beyond dispute" and that the facts are clear concerning global warming, thus denying the fact that many prominent scientists do disagree and attempting to shut down an important debate. The Cato Institute sought to demonstrate that there is indeed a debate to be had on the issue, and we gathered over 100 respected scientists who do not subscribe to the President's point of view in order to promote that debate.
TTLA: Why was the Los Angeles Times selected as a place to run the ad?
Cato: The ad an in 5 newspapers today -- the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Washington Times, and New York Times. We wanted the highest number of readers from different parts of the country to see the ad. The Los Angeles Times has the highest circulation of any west-coast based paper, so it was a natural choice.
1:19pm:
TTLA asked friend of this blog Bill Patzert, from JPL, for his comments on the Cato ad. Patzert didn't bring the poetry today (http://kcet.org/local/blogs/think_tank_la/2009/03/spring-special-with-jpls-bill-patzert.html), instead he came with the hard prose. From Patzert:
"Come on, give us a break. The LA Times must really be hard up for revenue. The Cato Institute is a blatant creature of conservative corporations and foundations. The major purpose of the Cato Institute is to provide propaganda and sound bites (not scientific facts) for conservative and libertarian politicians and journalists. Their ads and propaganda are conveniently free of reference to their primary funders such as tobacco, fossil fuel, investment, media, medical, and other governmental regulated industries. Cato is one of the most blatant examples of propaganda spewing "think tanks" that aim at misleading the general public about the advances in our scientific understanding of a broad range of issues from the dangers of tobacco to the dangers of human-caused climate change. These folks are misleading the general public; they are flat out dishonest. -- Bill Patzert"
Cato does some interesting stuff, but on climate change their efforts are off the mark. The convincing scientific argument is that human activity does impact climate. Also, many of the suggested steps to limit greenhouse gases likewise help reduce plain old pollution. I suggest there is health care and quality of life value in that justifying the price of adjustments businesses, governments and consumers will have to make.
A related link sent via email, from a friend of TTLA:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/04/libertarianisms-existential-crisis.html