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Chill Out on Climate Change, Tank's Ad Tells Obama

By Jeremy Rosenberg
March 30, 2009
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[Note: Please see the comments section below this post for replies from Khristine Brookes from the Cato Institute, Bill Patzert from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Ben Sullivan, founder and editor of ScienceBlog.]

Today's Los Angeles Times (Page A-17 in the print edition) carries a full page ad purchased by the Washington D.C.-based Cato Institute (Motto: Individual Liberty, Free Markets, and Peace.)

The ad is an open letter to President Obama. It opens with the following two-sentence quotation attributed last November to the then President-Elect:

"Few challenges facing America and the world are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear."

Then, in a large font, the ad says:

"With all due respect Mr. President, that is not true."

And then features a paragraph that begins:

"We, the undersigned scientists, maintain that the case for alarm regarding climate change is grossly overstated."

Here's the pdf of the ad, from the Cato website:

cato_climate.pdf

By TTLA's count, 115 people are named as signatories. 25 are listed as being retired or emeritus. None are immediately identifiable as holding Southern California institutional affiliations. Almost all are PhDs.

Why sponsor this ad? Why select the L.A. market? What's the local (and beyond) reaction? We'll check around and plan to post a follow-up. In the meanwhile, your comments are encouraged.

**updated: the NYT dot earth blog on the ad; Washington Post.comon related matters; and Cato books, chapters, and studiesabout energy and environment.

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