Red Herrings and Meat Dresses on the Pennsylvania Turnpike

By Neil Bhaerman, Crew Coordinator, Pittsburgh Phone Canvass - Follow Neil on Twitter (@neilanalien) If you’ve driven the Pennsylvania turnpike, especially the stretch between the state capitol in Harrisburg and the coal and gas rich southwestern counties, you’ve probably seen some eye catching billboards. One, featuring Lady Gaga with a raw steak on her head, asks, “Would you take energy advice from a woman wearing a meat dress?” Another, with Yoko Ono, asks, “Would you take advice from the woman who broke up the Beatles?” A third, with Robert Redford, shouts out: “Demands green living. Flies on private jets.” There are a lot of problems with these ads. For example, why wouldn’t they keep the message structure the same and title the Redford billboard, “Would you take energy advice from a man who turned down the lead role in The Graduate?” The bigger problem of course, is that these billboards are the very definition, writ large on our highways, of an argument ad hominem- when rather than debate a point on its merits, you attack the deliverers of the message. These billboards are paid for by a group called Big Green Radicals, which is a project of the Environmental Policy Alliance, which itself is a project of the Center for Organizational Research & Education. According to their website, “The Center for Organizational Research and Education (CORE) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to research and education about a wide variety of activist groups, exposing their funding, agendas, and tactics.” CORE is a shadowy front group, funded by industry lobbyists and run by Rick Berman, a lawyer and lobbyist, who according to CBS News, “takes a certain pride, even joy, in the nickname ‘Dr. Evil.’ …. He's against Mothers Against Drunk Driving, animal rights activists, food watchdog groups and unions of every kind.” Would you take energy advice from someone who’s proud of the nickname “Dr. Evil?” Who do I take energy advice from? Scientists. If Lady Gaga, Yoko Ono and Robert Redford get their opinions on energy from scientists also, then I’m in agreement with them, no matter how many meat dresses they wear. What are scientists saying about our biggest energy issues? Every survey of climatologists, or reviews of their academic literature, show overwhelmingly that the scientists most familiar with the issue believe that climate change is real and observable, and that human behavior is a large contributor to the change. Scientists, using carefully constructed climate models, predict that not acting immediately to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will threaten entire island nations, along with coastal cities- like Miami, New York City and New Orleans- all over the world. Scientists have proven that exposure to heavy particulates emitted from power plants and diesel engines can cause or exacerbate asthma, and other illnesses involving the heart and lungs. Scientists don’t just identify problems, they work with engineers to come up with solutions, like developing cleaner energy sources and technology to reduce harmful emissions from existing power plants and to slow down climate change. So, all things considered, I’ll keep taking my energy advice from scientists, and not from “Dr. Evil.”