Climate Cover-Up:The Crusade to Deny Global Warming
by James Hoggan with Richard Littlemore,
Greystone Books, $15
It is no accident that about 41 percent of our fellow Americans believe that the seriousness of global warming is being exaggerated. It’s hard to believe that there’s any doubt anymore—it’s like believing that smoking doesn’t cause health problems.
Climate Cover-Up, written by James Hoggan with Richard Littlemore, reveals, explains and systematically dismantles the public relations machine behind this politically debilitating confusion. Hoggan is a PR man himself and co-founder of DeSmogBlog. He has an old hand’s ability to delineate how industry groups have used think tanks, clever advertising, bogus “experts,” and corporately-funded “astroturf” groups to create the illusion of scientific uncertainty, a perception that an inexpert media has carelessly reported as real debate.
Climate Cover-Up offers a clearer understanding of how the other side operates. Hoggan calls on us to be well-educated and vigilant, but shouldn’t we also be learning something from our opponents? Winning requires savvy PR as much as the truth.
—Bernard Brown
