On Wednesday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute – a front group funded by ExxonMobil and other big oil companies – launched two advertisements in response to Al Gore’s new movie about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth.
One of the advertisements attempts to show that the scientific evidence for global warming is in dispute, claiming a study found the “Antarctic ice sheet is getting thicker, not thinner.”
The primary author of that study, Curt Davis, has issued statement blasting CEI’s use of his study. Here’s an excerpt:
These television ads are a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public about the global warming debate. They are selectively using only parts of my previous research to support their claims. They are not telling the entire story to the public.
The whole story, according to Davis, is that increased precipitation in the interior of Antarctica is “predicted consequence of global climate warming.” Warmer temperatures mean more participation and more snow on the interior of the continent. Meanwhile, “Growth of the ice sheet was only noted on the interior of the ice sheet and did not include coastal areas. Coastal areas are known to be losing mass.”
The reality is, there are no legitimate scientists or scientific studies that support CEI’s views on global warming. So they are forced to grossly misrepresent scientific research. Unfortunately for them, the scientists don’t look like they are going to put up with it.
