Christopher Horner on the Daily Show

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Posted on February 14, 2007
Filed Under Global warming/Climate change, Deep ecology, Greenhouse gas emissions, Ecological hope, Earth spirituality

Fostering Ecological Hope
Tonight from Margaret Swedish:

Just watched Jon Stewart’s ‘Daily Show.’ His guest tonight was Christopher Horner, author of the book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism). Sorry Stewart gave this guy the air time. He has no credentials.

But everyone is entitled to their 15 minutes. It’s just that, given the seriousness of the issue, more should be said about who the global warming debunkers are. So, this is who he is.

Horner is an attorney and senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) — right, not a scientist, not an expert. From the text of the book jacket, it appears that Horner thinks global warming is “the Left’s last best chance to gain a stranglehold on our political system and economy.”

Wow! so the Greenland ice sheet and the Arctic Ocean and the glaciers are not melting, and global temperatures are not rising and the weather is not changing and we have nothing to worry about.

But thank goodness Horner has come along to save us:

[Horner] reveals the full anti-American, anti-capitalist, and anti-human agenda of today’s environmentalists, dubbing them “green on the outside, red to the core.”

You see, it’s all a vast communist conspiracy to achieve world government!

Tell that to Stephen Hawking and James Hansen and the thousands of scientists involved in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

By the way, the CEI has been generously funded by Exxon Mobil. For a quick check on their anti-Earth history and who funds them, go here. Among these facts: “Competitive Enterprise Institute has received $2,005,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998.”

But last year, even Exxon Mobil had had enough when CEI carried out an ad campaign that argued that all the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was good for us. Yes, some of us call it pollution, “we call it life.”

So, let’s see, hmmm….. Hawking…Horner… Hawking….Horner. Hansen… Horner… IPCC… Horner… Hard choice, isn’t it when it comes to choosing an expert.

Come on, Jon Stewart. If you have a guy like this on your show, say who he is. Make sure you are not contributing to the misleading of your 2 million fans.

Comments

2 Responses to “Christopher Horner on the Daily Show”

  1. Pat on February 14th, 2007 8:01 am

    I don’t know, I thought Jon did a pretty good job of debunking this guy, for someone who isn’t a scientist himself. (Look here for a breakdown of how I saw it: http://demosthenes.blogspot.com/2007/02/useful-object-lesson.html).

    I think the Daily Show is obligated to present competing viewpoints in its interviews, regardless where Stewart’s sympathies lie. For him to finger Horner as bogus before he even hit the stage wouldn’t really have worked, as it would make it look as though Horner was brought on explicitly to be challenged. Jon tried to give him a chance to present his argument, and Horner hanged himself.

  2. ecologicalhope on February 14th, 2007 9:50 am

    Dear Pat,

    Thanks for the comment. Yes, Stewart had fun with the guy. And of course there’s nothing wrong with opposing viewpoints. But I think Stewart would have more effectively nailed him if he had clarified who he is. Would have been an interesting moment, to ask him about his role at the CEI, Exxon Mobil’s and other corporate funding of CEI, etc. Would love to have seen how Horner responded to that.

    A little truth in advertising, so to speak — just say who these people are.

    Nice post on the show, by the way.

    Margaret

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