More here:
http://wuerthner.blogspot.com/ 2009/ 06/ beetle-hysteria-strikes-again.html

[JR: "Beetles are not destroying our forests, rather are creating new ecological opportunities, increasing biodiversity, and creating greater ecosystem health"? Seriously? Climate change is great because it helps invasive species? We should all welcome that with open arms? Not!]

Last winter was one of the warmest since I moved here, but each one is warmer than the last. In the winter of 2008-09 we rarely had highs in the teens or twenties and lots of highs in the 30’s. We got lots of snow, which melted off quickly here in the valley, although the mountains retained enough to have a normal snowpack at the end of April. We make jokes about climate change here all the time, but underneath it we all know that it is happening and the foresters I know understand this more than anyone else.

What exactly is your point? Although he doesn’t work for free, the information he dispenses us undeniably not fed by his ‘employer.’ Or I suppose if it is, it is essentially mirroring the findings of disinterested scientists around the world. It seems like you are a member of the very club you seem to be warning us of.

Limbaugh? Do I understand you right?

Whoa. Limbaugh’s message is very carefully crafted, and he actually has very little latitude to change it.

How long do you think he would make his 50 million dollars per year if actually changed his mind, and started badmouthing corporate America?

Disinterested scientists? There might be a few. But many of the people he quotes from are actually paid by a network of fossil fuel and right wing foundation funded think tanks like the George C. Marshall institute, which has accepted over $600,000 directly from ExxonMobil, and over six million dollars from a network of right wing charitable foundations including those run by Richard Mellon Scaife.

Leland

You call me brain damaged because I point out there are factors other than climate change that relate to the pine bark bettle infestation. There must be a lot of brain damaged forestry people out there because if you google pine bark beetle you’ll see more than a few references to factors contributing to this problem other than climate change.

Yes, but the infestation is mostly happening in high altitudes in remote areas, far from human influence and fire prevention efforts.

In order to ignore these millions of acres of dead trees, the deniers you listen to need to implant false or misleading ideas into your head about how these millions of acres of dead trees, and all of the other myriad effects of global warming came about.

I guess “information damaged” or “heavily propagandized” might have been a better choice of words. I apologize for the “brain damaged” remark, it is just frustrating to deal with someone whose mind appears to be closed, likely from heavy exposure to paid propaganda.

I don’t really blame you, I blame the corporate interests that duped you.

I apologize, for the wisecrack.

Irony: google this:
“careful not to repeat themselves” site:climateprogress.org

One of the things that the denier sites sell you is the idea that you are one of the special people, and not a fool.

Televangelists do the same thing. They tell their flock that they are special people, endowed with a special wisdom or common sense.

They do this mostly so that they can get their money.

In the case of the deniers you listen to, likely they are not after your money, unless you really want to throw it away. The money to run these sites is provided by a network of right wing “charitable” foundations and corporate contributions and advertising.

What these sites want is your mind and your political support. They want this so that their corporate sponsors can go on selling fossil fuels and fossil fuel generated electricity.

Needless to say, I think that you are a rather foolish victim of paid propaganda. Admittedly, it’s very good, well done propaganda, which does indeed bolster your sense of self worth and does indeed build a sense of group solidarity within the denier movement.

We’ve put up with this sort of paid propaganda in the past, but we are reaching a point where we cannot tolerate it any more. Rush Limbaugh’s last contract, for example, was for 400 million dollars – 50 million dollars a year, directly from corporate America.

Joe, buddy, you’ve been duped. You don’t have any special wisdom, they just tell you that because they want control of your mind. You are a heavily propagandized ordinary person, and, as such, you are a very scary phenomenon indeed, I think.

Best,

D

By the way, do you stop making jokes about global warming when it is unusually hot?