Letters: Oil companies’ disinformation campaign; Letter sent wrong message

Oil companies’ disinformation campaign

While the planet continues to heat up, oil companies flood the airwaves with TV ads touting their green credentials in a disinformation campaign designed to mislead Americans about the risks of climate change.

The truth is that the oil companies have long known their product would cause great harm to the planet.

In the early ‘70s, Exxon Mobil’s scientists predicted exactly what today’s climate scientists have found: The planet is heating up, and burning fossil fuels is the cause, putting our way of life in great peril.

Instead of acting on this knowledge, Exxon attacked its own scientists, discrediting their work and spent the next 50 years disputing the science behind climate change.

A 1998 strategy memo developed by Exxon Mobile, Chevron, and the American Petroleum Institute (among others) claimed “victory will be achieved when ... the average citizen and the media understands there are uncertainties behind the science.”

Four years later, Republican communication strategist Frank Luntz (who has since accepted the science of climate change) advised Republicans: “Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate.”

Both strategies were taken directly from the playbook of the tobacco industry.

This disinformation campaign has done enormous damage to our country by causing us to delay acting on climate change so that today, extremely costly catastrophic weather events have become the new normal.

Letter sent wrong message

A letter in the CDT on Feb. 9 seems to suggest that anger toward law enforcement for murdering people has something to do with a decline in organized religion. It then says, “from the center of time salvation is created, and this brings peace and joy.” I’m not sure exactly what that is supposed to mean but it is somehow claimed to better than “going out to smash something in rage.” I will bet a kidney that the murderers of Tyre Nichols all identify as members of an organized religion, most likely Christian. This country needs more rage and fewer religious platitudes meant to pacify victims of a brutal system.

Republicans play part in public education crisis

Want to hear one less-than-well-known reason why we have a crisis in public education in the U.S. and outrageously high turnover among teachers in today’s public schools? Answer: Republicans hate unions, and they especially hate teacher unions. The reason: unions traditionally back Democratic candidates for all public offices. Why do teacher unions back democratic candidates? Simple: Democrats, unlike Republicans, typically support union efforts to increase teacher salaries, reduce class size, and generally improve teachers’ working conditions. (For Republicans, keeping property taxes low outweighs the public interest of having good, because adequately-funded, schools.) Democrats, unlike Republicans, typically do not want to police what teachers say in classrooms or ban books like the Holy Bible from school libraries. Despite smoke and mirrors to conceal the facts, Republicans pretend that the solution to America’s educational problems is to give all students a voucher that can be redeemed either at public schools or at charter or religiously supported schools. The reason Republicans like charters and religiously supported schools is that they are not union schools. Don’t believe me? Ask your Republican representatives and senators. See how they wriggle around like politicians typically do when they do not want to give a direct answer.

Many reasons to oppose casino

I strongly oppose the development of a casino in Centre County for all the reasons that have been presented previously. Hopefully the voices of those who have been opposing this project will finally be considered.

Watch for candidates with strings attached

I was trying to understand what the Win4Bellefonte organization was up to when it endorsed five candidates for the five seats in the Bellefonte Area School District race. The group had successfully installed its four candidates in the last election and now wants to control all nine seats. Then it came to me: It’s a puppet show.

I didn’t fully appreciate it until I started to watch school board meetings on C-NET. That’s when I realized that some board members were having trouble articulating a position because somebody was pulling their strings. Among the most contorted is Jeff Steiner, vice puppet of the board and chair of the branding committee. He seems to have a difficult time when giving his report and I think it’s because he knows the branding committee is a waste of time but he needs to please the puppet master.

I would urge voters in the school district to learn as much as they can about all candidates, not just the latest Win4Bellefonte puppets. Choose people over puppets.