Trump EPA chief wants to enlist a “Red Team” to sow doubts about climate science
By Josh Voorhees
30 June 2017
(Slate) – Scott Pruitt is hatching a new plan to turn his personal and unreasonable denial of the accepted science on climate change into official federal policy: He’ll employ military tactics to review climate science to assess the “truth.” Or, as a new report in E&E News’ ClimateWire put it, Donald Trump’s EPA chief is “leading a formal initiative to challenge mainstream climate science:”The program will use “red team, blue team” exercises to conduct an “at-length evaluation of U.S. climate science,” the official said, referring to a concept developed by the military to identify vulnerabilities in field operations. “The administrator believes that we will be able to recruit the best in the fields which study climate and will organize a specific process in which these individuals … provide back-and-forth critique of specific new reports on climate science,” the source said.
“We are in fact very excited about this initiative,” the official added. “Climate science, like other fields of science, is constantly changing. A new, fresh and transparent evaluation is something everyone should support doing.” […]
At first blush, that sounds all well and good—what’s the harm? […] It sounds reasonable without actually being so. For one thing, there’s the issue of who Pruitt will pick to join the Red Team. As ClimateWire reported:
“The administrator believes that we will be able to recruit the best in the fields which study climate and will organize a specific process in which these individuals … provide back-and-forth critique of specific new reports on climate science,” the source said.
Should we trust the selection of a politician who has been steadfast in his refusal to accept scientific consensus and one whose career has been funded heavily by the petro-interests that benefit most from our carbon status quo? He’s already cleared his organization of academic scientists in an admitted attempt to clear the way for more industry representatives. [more]
EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Wants to Enlist a “Red Team” to Sow Doubts About Climate Change
I'm old enough to have seen this right-wing rigged debate tactic several times before. Science has already won in writing, but a 'debate' can be rigged so many ways, especially a televised event. The only winning move is not to play:
— Limit the time. Quick now, explain the Stefan–Boltzmann law in 30 seconds. Science takes longer to explain than mythology.
— Limit the media available to debaters. No graphs or charts, now.
— Increase the questions. Industry spin doctors have created hundreds of schizophrenic anti-climate science delusions. You have less than half of an hour live TV show to debunk all of them.
— Select the debaters. Pit your average science illiterate climate protester against professional Carbon industry spin doctors.
Meanwhile, the EPA takes no action on climate change. Climate activists are learning to play Tic Tac Toe, while the other side is playing masterful chess.