shutterstock_48011344.jpg How do you sell a rotten bag of goods? Rule number one of effective propaganda: repackage it into something seemingly less grotesque. In that spirit, the Houston Chronicle recently reported the American Petroleum Institute (API) has created yet another front group, this one to promote tar sands crude, one of the dirtiest sources of fuel in the world, as a
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CANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Harper’s Canada “Making Up Terror Identities”
In Stephen Harper’s Canada, we’re all potential terror threats. Until proven otherwise. So suggests a recent study by Queens University’s Jeffrey Monaghan and Kevin Walby, published in the journal Policing and Society. Welcome to Multi Issue Extremism (MIE), Canada’s new classification of so-called domestic terror threats. We saw it coming.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Will Dismal Jobs Report Give New Life To Keystone XL Plan?
boehnerand pipelines.jpg While the debate over the Keystone XL pipeline might have disappeared from the front pages in the last few weeks, the battle is still raging. And a grim jobs report for the month of May might just be the catalyst that Keystone proponents have been looking for to
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Is BP’s Attempted Climategate Strategy To Attack Scientists Ethical?
fish oil.jpg In late 2009, climate change deniers thought they had found the Holy Grail in terms of climate denial – a collection of more than 3,000 hacked emails that they took out of context to “prove” that scientists were lying about human-driven climate change. This so-called scandal became known
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: States Continue To Push For Anti-Climate and Anti-Evolution Curriculum Laws
confused-child.jpg It looks like Tennessee can add another dumb law to join the ranks of other special ones such as being able to shoot whales out of a car, marrying your cousin, and not being allowed to carry skunks into the state or electrifying your trash. It now joins Louisiana
Continue readingsomecanuckchick dot com: It’s the tar sands, stupid!
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; Act II, Scene ii, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare The Athabasca tar sands have always been, are now, and will always be known as… the Athabasca tar sands. Why? Because the tar
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Public Accountability Initiative Produces New Report on SUNY Buffalo’s "Shill Gas Study"
PAI Logo.jpg The Public Accountability Initiative (PAI) has upped the ante on DeSmogBlog's reporting on what we coined a "Shill Gas Study" recently conducted by SUNY Buffalo. In our critique of the "study" we pointed out the fact that all of the authors and nearly the entire peer review board of the
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: New Shill Gas Study Published by SUNY Buffalo Institute With Heavy Industry Ties
shutterstock_15465343.jpg When does a study on the unconventional shale gas industry become a "shill gas study"? The quick answer: when nearly everyone writing and peer reviewing it has close ties to the industry they're purportedly doing an "objective" study on. The newest kid on the block: a recent study published by
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: The Guardian Exposes Fossil Funded Groups Coordinating Renewable Energy Attacks
shutterstock_90778001.jpg Ever wonder why a blooming green energy industry has faced such harsh opposition? Now, as the old adage goes, "the cat's out of the bag." The Guardian today revealed the network of fossil-funded groups coordinating the ongoing onslaught of attacks on renewable energy, particularly wind power. A memorandum passed to The Guardian from
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Gerald Caplan looks at the principled leadership which Stephen Harper embarrassingly made into an attack on the NDP as an example what Canada desperately needs now: Repeating that war settles nothing, Mr. Woodsworth declared: “I rejoice that it is possible to say these
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Dirty Energy Industry Front Groups Launch Misleading PR Blitz Against President Obama
gas price screenshot.jpg The American Energy Alliance (AEA) isn’t pulling any punches with their new advertising campaign, spending millions of dollars to air 45 million ad spots on Pandora Radio. They are attempting to hang the high cost of gasoline around the neck of President Obama, using a series of
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Institute for Energy Research Launches “Save Oil Tax Breaks” Offensive
IER.jpg In late March, Senate Republicans torpedoed an effort by Democrats to repeal the $4 billion a year that is flowing to the oil companies in the form of subsidies. The Obama Administration had proposed ending the subsidies so that this unnecessary money for the oil industry could instead be
Continue readingPolygonic: The emperor’s new clothes: North Korea keeps on marching
Sometimes, you just want to give them a hug. Pyongyang put on this earnest show of transparency around its rocket launch, inviting foreign journalists into the heart of their futuristic Space Control Centres (SCCs). Witness the marvels of our microcomputers and our, umm, extraordinarily large antennae! It was one part
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Cry Wolf: An Unethical Oil Story
Picture 4.png Over the last several months, Alberta has killed more than 500 wolves using aerial sharpshooters and poisoned bait in order to conceal the impact of rapid industrial development on Canada’s iconic woodland caribou. Independent scientists say that declining caribou health stems chiefly from habitat destruction caused by the encroachment
Continue readingRusty Idols: Damn Peasants!
The Globe and Mail sniffs in outraged offense at the peons daring to inconvenience or insult their betters. Consider contacting the Globe and Mail and expressing how you feel about this display of patrician disdain. Try to avoid any tempting four letter words. Hat tip to Dawg sdnxry5z7g
Continue reading350 or bust: I ♥ Climate Scientists
A fun video from Granada, Spain, in honour of World Meteorological Day last week. What could be better than sending some love to hardworking climate scientists, with the Alhambra in the background? Support Climate Scientists in their struggle against denialist propaganda and disinformation and in their suffering from constant cyberbullying,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fact Checking The New Paul Ryan Budget on Energy and Environment
ryan_620x350.jpg Representative Paul Ryan (R–WI) has released his budget for fiscal year 2013. To almost no one’s surprise, his outline is filled with too many falsehoods and outright lies to count. After analyzing just one section of his proposal – the section on energy and the environment – more than
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: U.S. Chamber Front Group Holds “Whine And Blame” Facebook Party – Nobody Shows Up
American_Free_Enterprise_logo1.jpg American Free Enterprise, a front group of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, held a complaint session on Facebook on Tuesday afternoon to let Americans vent about “who is to blame” for rising gas prices. Unfortunately for the group, few people attended their virtual party. The pity party was an attempt
Continue readingExcited Delirium: Stephen Harper, Fascist?
Is Stephen Harper a Fascist? You take the survey and judge for yourself.
Continue readingExcited Delirium: May 2011 Federal Election Cheaters? I Want A Re-Call.
I want a recall of the May 2011 Federal Election and I want the UN to supervise election activity when we finally get a chance to go to the polls again (assuming we do).
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