Half 1 from two years in the past.
Reposted from the Gelbspan Recordsdata
Russell Cook dinner,
At his October 18 video information convention announcement of his same-day submitting of Platkin v. ExxonMobil, New Jersey Lawyer Normal Matthew Platkin implied the science of catastrophic local weather occasions brought on by the burning of fossil fuels was settled, and that his seemingly stand-alone daring lawsuit motion to carry the fossil gasoline {industry} accountable for figuring out their hurt and disinforming the general public for many years was well timed and significant for New Jersey residents. And he thanked a number of attorneys for his or her assist in bringing this case, together with one specific regulation agency, “our outdoors council Sher Edling.”
To arrange the political suicide of this case – how it isn’t well timed in any respect, and the way he actually may have thanked simply the one regulation agency there – I paraphrase a scene out of a well-known film:
I’ve to say that’s essentially the most wonderful story I’ve ever heard. What amazes me most is that he was taken in by it. It’s apparent this fellow Platkin was impressed by the Sher Edling regulation agency. He hears their tales of woe about local weather and tries to cheer NJ residents up with this announcement. He’s younger, not terribly vivid. It’s not shocking he wouldn’t know what a state he places his supporters in.
It’s wonderful on the science degree – specialists throughout the vary of science involving “superstorm Sandy” can clarify at enormous depth how its measurement didn’t have a factor to do with “Clima-Change™” however was as a substitute a mix of things together with Sandy hanging an space the place the undersea geography had heightened its storm surge, and the way its in any other case Class 1 measurement (if even that huge) had merged with a big and coincidental inland storm space.
And it’s wonderful at an anti-intellectual degree, as a result of when AG Platkin claims the defendant power corporations and the American Petroleum Institute “have identified because the Nineteen Fifties that their fossil gasoline merchandise are a primary driver of worldwide local weather change … They knew that fossil fuels had been inflicting international warming, melting polar ice caps and triggering sea degree rise, it completely contradicts stories of local weather scientists predicting international cooling.
I depart the science angle of the problem for goal, unbiased scientists to elucidate all the huge faults with the concept “Exxon Knew” oil consumption was warming the planet.
What amazes me is AG Platkin’s technically disinformation bit about “at the moment we start to proper the wrongs” as if that is the primary such motion to carry power corporations chargeable for sinisterly aiming to declare ‘victory will probably be achieved after we reposition international warming as idea relatively than truth.’ And it amazes me that he basically dedicated the political suicide act of merely mentioning how he has Sher Edling as his outdoors council, as a result of that’s his supply for the composite ‘leaked {industry} memos smoking gun proof.’ Within the face of it not being attainable that ‘Large Coal & Oil’ may have identified with any certainty that burning fossil fuels brought about both cooling or heating or canceled out each, and within the face of the cornerstone proof on this submitting and the 15 prior Sher Edling boilerplate copy lawsuits being actually nugatory as proof proving industry-led disinformation campaigns exist, if any one among these lawsuits collapse because of lack of proof, it implodes all the others and leaves the general public, policymakers, and journalists no excuse to dismiss what skeptic local weather scientists say.
Much more wonderful is that in reply to a barely heard query about different comparable lawsuits, AG Platkin mentioned “Hoboken, a few dozen cities and counties which have introduced comparable, not similar, lawsuits to us together with Hoboken in about six states…” after which added that it was each well timed and can ship significant outcomes.
No, basically similar in both their primary enslavement to ye olde “reposition international warming” technique memo phrase, as in Hoboken v Exxon, or virtually actually similar within the particular paragraphs citing these memos. No, not well timed, he’s actually the final (thus far) of the johhny-come-latelies to the Sher Edling touring circus act. But when his lawsuit collapses, it’ll expose the place the true disinformation has apparently been the entire time within the local weather situation. From that potential consequence, least he can have gotten the “significant outcomes” half proper.
What’s one a part of AG Platkin’s cornerstone proof for his declare “they led a a long time lengthy disinformation marketing campaign”?
Can’t make this up, it’s the identical paragraph within the half decade-old Sept 2017 County of San Mateo v. Chevron Corp ….
…. that’s basically similar to his personal paragraph – beneath – for the “reposition international warming” memos. Discover the “in addition to youthful, lower-income ladies” memo phrase in San Mateo is lacking in AG Platkin’s submitting. As I famous in my February 8, 2018 weblog publish dissection of the second trio of County / Metropolis of Santa Cruz / Metropolis of Richmond lawsuits, that omission began there and continued in each Sher Edling copy ’n paste submitting afterward. No cause for AG Platkin or his employees to deviate …. regardless of that secondary phrase being ok for Ross Gelbspan circa 1997, and ok for Gelbspan / Ozone Motion circa 1996, and ok for Senator Al Gore circa 1992.
AG Platkin provides to that ‘proof,’ following the template of County of San Mateo and all the remainder of the Sher Edling filings, an similar presentation of “newspaper adverts proof” which supposedly show disinformation campaigns exist ….
…. regardless of the Hen Little advert / Doomsday advert by no means being printed wherever and each having the unsolicited, never-used incorrect ICE label “Knowledgeable Residents for the Surroundings” — seen with a lot better readability inside the previous Ozone Motion/Greenpeace scans’ downloaded PDF file, pages 49 & 50. Did the “Most Critical Downside” advert comprise outright disinformation? You be the choose. Zoom in on the cropped-out textual content right here that AG Platkin can’t or received’t present you.
What’s the opposite cornerstone ‘leaked memos’ proof AG Platkin for his “they led a a long time lengthy disinformation marketing campaign” declare?
Ye olde “victory will probably be achieved” memos ….. with the similar innocuous-looking “documentcloud” supply for the memos that – as I coated in my dissection of Honolulu v. Sunoco – is definitely an add from Kert Davies when he nonetheless labored at Greenpeace.
That Kert Davies, as I’ve identified many prior instances at my GelbspanFiles weblog, the person whose header photograph at his Local weather Investigations Heart (CIC) “Local weather Watchdog” Twitter account is ye olde horribly degraded “victory will probably be achieved” photocopy scan, the identical Kert Davies whose office previous to Greenpeace was Ozone Motion, the place that was the primary to supply lasting, ongoing media traction to ye olde “reposition international warming” ‘leaked memos;’ the identical Kert Davies who runs the Local weather Recordsdata platform via his CIC web site, the identical Local weather Recordsdata apparently supplying the Sher Edling regulation agency with nugatory never-published newspaper advert “proof,” the identical Local weather Recordsdata cited a minimal of 13 instances inside AG Platkin’s lawsuit.
The numerous officers submitting these lawsuits apparently have some leeway on what they add to the Sher Edling template. Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations Inc. (PCFFA) v. Chevron was simply 94 pages lengthy. Delaware v. BP ballooned out to 222 pages. AG Platkin’s is 200. Credit score him or someone in his workplace for lastly altering the prior unbroken string of repetitions, although, of the primary web page Introduction sentence (#1 San Mateo to #15 Anne Arundel), a few planet warmed from burnt fossil fuels. Downside is, whether or not it’s “because the Nineteen Fifties” (which additionally means into the early Nineteen Sixties) or “almost half a century” (2022 – 48 = 1974), these lawsuits fatally plow right into a brick wall because the fossil gasoline {industry} couldn’t have identified their merchandise trigger warming ……. as a result of – once more – international cooling. Cooling. Cooling!
In the meantime, the fundamental Sher Edling boilerplate template remains to be however in place. There are the 2 situations above involving ye olde nugatory leaked {industry} memos. Then there may be:
✓ AG Platkin’s reference to the “Black Report” to assert Exxon knew again in 1977-’78 how the polar area temperatures had been going to rise. Similar to what’s within the two year-old Maui v. Sunoco submitting. All the way down to the identical quotation supply of Kert Davies’ Local weather Recordsdata website. Maintain scrolling up via each lawsuits beginning at that web page, the prior a number of paragraphs are virtually word-for-word similar.
✓ AG Platkin’s reference to a selected narrative about ‘Large Oil’ bankrolling skeptic local weather scientists. Nearly similar to what’s within the Charleston v. Brabham Oil submitting — he provides a few phrases and provides Dr Willie Quickly’s identify particularly, probably digging a libel gap for himself. Dr Quickly flatly denies the accusation, and in addition reveals how the Smithsonian quotation falls aside.
✓ AG Platkin’s reference to the “Richard Lawson” memo, which begs for bother with its quotation of Naomi Oreskes. Identical as in the almost 4 yr previous PCFFA v. Chevron submitting — plus/minus a few phrases.
✓ AG Platkin’s reference to President Lyndon Johnson that follows the Sher Edling template which began with the 2 year-old Delaware v. BP submitting. He added two phrases there and a hyphen.
No quantity of fidgeting with the wording will save AG Platkin from his self-inflicted political suicide, although. After listening to AG Platkin thanking so many attorneys with Sher Edling on the very finish, one is left to marvel if all these others solely contributed the little phrase tweaks, whereas the massive thanks nonetheless goes to Sher Edling for the core template.
Why are all these repetitions massively problematic for AG Platkin? They’re a fairly good indicator that his workplace did no primary due diligence to see if the Sher Edling submitting template was above reproach.
- Each the “reposition international warming” memos and the “victory will probably be achieved” memos had been by no means carried out, as I detailed right here and right here. It doesn’t matter what motion is proposed to any entity wherever, the mere existence of the proposal isn’t proof that the really helpful motion ever came about. In case your accusation contends shill scientists knowingly unfold disinformation for his or her fossil gasoline {industry} benefactors, you’d higher precise proof proving they lied, not some unused memo proposals that virtually no one contained in the {industry} noticed.
- Exxon couldn’t have identified that polar area temperatures had been going to rise way back to ’77-’78 … as a result of international cooling. Cooling, cooling, cooling!
- The “Richard Lawson” memo is sourced to Naomi Oreskes’ obscure 2010 e book chapter contribution, which amongst different enormous faults, claims ye olde “reposition international warming” memos and different paperwork are archived in a spot that the group archivist flat contradicts, and the paperwork themselves are apparently sourced from an individual with direct ties to Al Gore. Oreskes, a historical past professor, has enormous issues retaining her tales straight of how she turned concerned within the “crooked skeptics” a part of the local weather situation.
- Previous to the Delaware v. BP submitting, the Sher Edling boilerplate filings featured an extra paragraph about President Johnson, with a massively suspect three-dot ellipsis within the quote out of his speech. These three dots are traceable on to Naomi Oreskes’ basically disinforming 2007 slide presentation, as I detailed within the latter 2/3rds of my dissection of Rhode Island v. Chevron. Add the three lacking phrases to the place the ellipsis is, and it torpedoes the whole notion that President Johnson and the fossil gasoline {industry} knew something about international warming as the only real results of burning fossil fuels. His speech solely mentions air pollution, and his reference to carbon dioxide, which isn’t a pollutant, might nicely have been a typo for carbon monoxide, which most definitely is a lethal pollutant.
- Then there’s the “Local weather Recordsdata”/Kert Davies sources. With all the above deadly faults, it shifts the main focus away from AG Platkin’s claims that the fossil gasoline {industry} created disinformation campaigns to guard their earnings, and shifts the main focus as a substitute onto to the plausibly severe state of affairs {that a} core clique of enviro-activists, together with Davies, apparently created disinformation campaigns designed to vilify the fossil gasoline {industry} and undercut the credibility of skeptic local weather scientists, funded via darkish cash channels, with the intention to shield the multi-billion greenback international warming {industry}’s earnings, and the folks . whose . reputations . rely . solely on ye olde nugatory leaked {industry} memos being the smoking gun proof they declare them to be .
Level being, AG Platkin’s submitting was not well timed within the least, and if he actually wished to carry significant outcomes to the residents of New Jersey, he and his employees would have questioned the core accusation materials within the Sher Edling template and uncovered this lawsuit effort for what it apparently is, as a substitute of exacerbating the state of disinformation surrounding all these meritless “Exxon Knew” lawsuits.
Effectively, to repeat on the prime ..…. however it isn’t us who query the ‘certainty’ of man-caused international warming or the ‘certainty’ that industry-led disinformation campaigns using ‘liars-for-hire scientists’ who’re being obtuse right here, it’s guys like AG Platkin who’re both oblivious to the deadly faults inside each angles of that aspect of the problem, or who merely don’t do their job to see if there are crippling faults inside compelling ‘shiny object lawsuit proposals‘ proven to them.
