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“There is no conclusive proof that cigarettes cause cancer”

-- Amanda Meade -- 10/03/2008

Seems that after 50 years of fighting to prove tobacco wasn't harmful the whole industry of deniers picked up and moved camp to employ the same tactics on global warming:

" Reviewing the continued campaign by climate change skeptics, David McKnight, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales (Australia), notes that there several reasons why companies such as Exxon have had some success playing the global warming denial card. "First, the implications of the science are frightening. Shifting to renewable energy will be costly* and disruptive. Second, doubt is an easy product to sell. Climate denial tells us what we all secretly want to hear. Third, science is portrayed as political orthodoxy rather than objective knowledge, a curiously postmodern argument," he writes. While the tobacco industry is often referred to as the template for the fossil fuel industry's campaign, McKnight argues that there is an important distinction. "There are no 'smoke-free areas' on the planet. Climate denial may turn out to be the world's most deadly PR campaign"  SourceWatch

With public relations created tactics continually placed alongside scientific proof, provided as ‘balance' , it's no wonder the environmental community has to fight two years to keep  miserly tax credit for renewable energy while oil and coal get billions. No wonder people overwhelmingly don't trust big oil and coal companies.  That's partly the reason why here in the U.S. there is such a struggle to be taken seriously while fighting for clean energy and against oil and coal's disastorous contributions to climate change. The fact that we have many problems right now is a proverbial understatement.  However, ranting gets us nowhere. It's time to work harder than ever and  keep fighting for change and help people understand clean energy is the solution. Its here, its cheap and it'll never runout. Why chose any other way?

*Costs have come down dramatically in the past few years thanks in part to the renewable energy tax credits.