Thanks to Junk Science for finding this tidbit, as Professor Brendan Nyhan admits the truth in the NY Times
For years, activists and scholars have contended that groups who reject the scientific consensus on climate change are employing tactics once used to create doubt about the dangers of smoking.
Now environmentalists are taking a page from tobacco opponents by suggesting oil companies misled investors and the public about the risks of climate change. The first step toward a legal inquiry came Wednesday evening when the New York attorney general subpoenaed records from Exxon Mobil.
While this tactic helped tobacco opponents win over regulators and the public, it may be a less effective approach to addressing political opposition to climate change — an issue on which both elites and the public are deeply divided.
All this division shows that it is a political issue. Make sure to read the rest, as we head to the last paragraph
The risk for environmentalists is that this legal strategy may play out differently in a polarized age. With the issue and Congress more divided, lawsuits and investigations could provoke further conflict between liberals who distrust oil companies and conservatives who are skeptical of interventions in the free market. Though investigating Exxon is a creative tactic, it may end up reinforcing polarization on climate change rather than removing it.
Here’s the thing: they aren’t environmentalists, most seem to care little about the damage they themselves do to the environment. They are hardcore leftists. And, this is simply a tactic to push their far left political policies.
