How did it happen and whos behind it . Tonight, climate of doubt. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major funding is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. Additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. And by the frontline journalism fund. With grants from scott nathan and laura debonis, and millicent bell, through the millicent and eugene bell foundation. Major funding for this program is provided by the kendeda fund. Chicago is now under full National Security. A nofly zone is in effect, except for the World Leaders who are landing at ohare, as president barack obama and a number of World Leaders. Hockenberry it was a big weekend in chicago. Last spring, the president was in town, along with the leaders of nato, to discuss threats to Global Security and nuclear proliferation. At a huge convention center, the eyes of the world were watching. That demands glol solutions. We came to chicago. Police Whistle blows hockenberry but across town in a small hotel ballroom, the te of the world was also on the agenda. Everything will be revealed in the second term. Hockenberry the eyes of the world might have missed this gathering. Get ready for your al gore snow job. Hockenberry the message here is that manmade Global Climate change is a myth, a hoax. This conference is an annual pilgrimage for the key skeptics. We came here to understand how they have made their views a mainstream fact of american politics. applause they think of themselves as rebels, up against the biggest players in science, government and the media. Whole industries, wind and solar, are based on public fear of Global Warming, and the Mainstream Media has pretty much given up its role as an independent reporter on these things and has become an advocate. If you add up all of the resources of our side of the debate and all of the resources of the other side of the debate, this is a david vs. Goliath story. Hockenberry youre doing pretty well. There are holdouts among the urban bicoastal elite. But i think weve won the debate with the American People in the heartland, the people who get their hands dirty, people who dig up stuff, grow stuff and make stuff for a living, people who have a closer relationship to tangible reality, to stuff. We need to keep banging away on the science. Hockenberry myron ebell chairs a group called the cooler heads coalition, one of a team of skilled policy advocates driving a remarkable turnaround that has already changed the u. S. Political landscape. Warming isnt, in fact, accelerating. In fact, theres been none for 15 years. Hockenberry theres Christopher Monckton, a big draw at these meetings, who brings the skeptics to their feet every time. God bless america. Hockenberry republican congressman James Sensenbrenner of wisconsin, vice chairman of the use science committee. Paul krugman accused my colleagues and me of treason against the planet. laughter hockenberry theres chris horner from the competitive enterprise institute. Economic salvation. This is our way out. Hockenberry and james taylor, senior fellow at the Heartland Institute, organizer of this gathering. The debate indeed is over. In the years prior to 2007, the 2008 elections, we actually heard from many folks that we should tone it down on Global Warming, we should not talk about the issue, because the court of Public Opinion had already decided and we were on the losing end. But we believe that if we present the case to the American People and it resonates, if they get it, then thats going to work its way up the political stepladder. Hockenberry youve really changed the game on Global Warming. Oh, i certainly hope so. Hockenberry these political messengers rely on a small group of outspoken scientific contrarians, like climatologist pat michaels of the libertarian Cato Institute. Every paragraph can be contended. Hockenberry willie soon is an astrophysicist who studies the sun and stars. A mechanism to transport anything from the tropics to the arctic. They cannot fit Northern Hemisphere and southern hemisphere. Hockenberry and fred singer, the veteran scientist at these proceedings. Hes a retired physicist once responsible for government weather satellites, who tells people the climate needs no help from worried humans. Climate, to me, has become a nonissue. Its a phantom issue. Theres nothing wrong with climate. It will change no matter what we do. Itll get colder, itll get warmer. We just have to wait a little. Hockenberry singer says hes dedicated to explaining his theories about Global Warming. What keeps you going . Whats your motivation . Basically i like to see good science being done and protected. I think im fighting here for scientific truth. Thats important to me. Hockenberry do you think the science is being hyped on Global Warming . Oh, very definitely, yes. Hockenberry armed with that conviction, this team of skilled political messengers and contrarians has certainly changed the game. In just four years, the number of americans who agree Global Warming is manmade has dropped to about half. Its a message that is inspiring a new generation of skeptics. I would like to really listen to these scientists, who came and talk and have dedicated their lives to debunking this fallacy, so to speak. Hockenberry once upon a time, what these people call a fallacy had another name the truth. Youve heard of off the charts. Within less than 50 years, itll be here. Socalled skeptics. Hockenberry in 2006, the film an Inconvenient Truth told a disturbing story and galvanized Public Awareness about the climate. To a new report on Global Warming from a Prestigious Panel of scientists convened by the un. A new grim report out today from. Hockenberry this comprehensive report in 2007 took it to another level. Scientists from 30 nations concluded that Global Warming is unequivocal and that human activity is mostly the cause. It is the definitive report on Global Warming, and its frightening. I call upon the peace prize laureate for 2007, al gore, to come forward. Hockenberry the un scientists and former Vice President al gore would share the nobel peace prize. The cause had a consensus and a credible leader. The skeptics would take on both. I think al gore was probably the best thing that could happen to Global Warming skeptics. From my perspective, al gore was the perfect proponent and leader of the Global Warming alarmists, because hes very politically divisive and controversial. I think it was his tone and manner. He did, at a certain point, come across as holier than thou. And thats another thing about americans. They are not really big on holierthanthou. Now that is a g2v aircraft. Hockenberry personalizing the attacks was part of an approach that was immediately embraced and amplified by friendly media. And that is the former Vice President getting off that plane and into a town car by the way, not a hybrid. He equates the failure to recycle aluminum cans with the holocaust. He wants to be a super hero action figure, and. Hockenberry myron ebell was acting on a broad strategy he helped create more than a decade ago. In this 1998 action plan, victory will be achieved, it said, when the public recognizes uncertainties in Climate Science. Today at the washington, d. C. , headquarters of the competitive enterprise institute, a free market think tank, you can see myron ebells philosophy proudly displayed on the walls. Theyre all cei authors. What were fighting is the expansion of government. And there are many pretexts for expanding government. Hockenberry opposing Government Action on Climate Change to defend American Freedom is a perfect fit. We felt that if you concede the science is settled and there is a consensus, you cannot. The moral high ground has been ceded to the alarmists. Hockenberry so you had to go to work and break down this consensu yes. And we did it because we believed that the consensus was phony. We believed that the socalled Global Warming consensus was not based on science but was a political consensus, which included a number of scientists. Hockenberry in 2009, agreement on Global Warming seemed part of the solid wave of enthusiasm that elected barack obama. With the changing of the guard in washington, there was a bipartisan call to action, a sense of inevitability. Madam speaker, the president of the United States. Hockenberry an idea that for years had struggled for attention in congress would get its moment of truth. So i ask this congress to send me legislation that places a marketbased cap on carbon pollution. Hockenberry the president backed the socalled capand trade approach, a system of regulations and financial incentives to eventually reduce the emission of carbon into the atmosphere. It seemed there s consensus on Climate Change. There was an uneasy consensus. But the people who have always objected to change had not yet really engaged. And because of the consensus, because there was a sense that there was going to be movement, that galvanized the action of the people who oppose it. The American People hadnt focused on these issues until it actually came to a vote in congress on a bill to implement these policies. Todays hearing is on. Hockenberry the soft consensus for taking action ran into the bitter partisan divisions in congress. Congressional hearings on capandtrade would become a stage where opposing views would get equal time. Professor schrag, you just heard. Hockenberry pro capand trade lawmakers would call leading climate scientists and policymakers to make the argument for action now. Its very clear from that estimate that in fact were in for bigger trouble. One of the things that weve already seen is many observed changes in the climate. Global Climate Change is a serious threat to our National Security. Hockenberry the skeptics had their own witnesses. They testified that nothing was settled and that Global Warming might actually be good for the planet. Say that again. Carbon dioxide is what . Is plant food. Its plant food yeah. Hockenberry the testimony of the skeptics argued for a time out. There was enough uncertainty, they said, to justify delay. The right response to the nonproblem of Global Warming first slide, please is to have the courage to do nothing. That the fear of catastrophic manmade Global Warming is mistaken. This demonstration shows that oftreported mantra in washington, quote, the science is settled, is not true at all. Hockenberry skeptics had found a seat at the table, but the Scientific Consensus still had the momentum. When capandtrade came up for a vote in the house in 2009, it passed, with eight republicans on board. The nays are 212. The bill is passed. The waxmanmarkey capand trade bill passed the house very narrly, 219 to 212. Thmembers of the senate who were going to take it up in july went home for the fourth of july recess. And they got an earful from their constituents. You dont trust me . audience shouting no lets talk about some of your other votes, such as capand trade. people cheer we are not for more government hockenberry the tea party saw a frightening expansion of government in the Health Care Plan and the push for capand trade. Youre a traitor, lindsey graham. Youve betrayed this nation and you betrayed the state. The people of this country were really not concerned one way or the other on this issue until the economy started going south in 2008. Hockenberry was that an opportunity to push back on Climate Change, the recessio it sure was. Im tim phillips, president of americans for prosperity. Were here in billings, montana. Hockenberry what part did you play . We certainly did tv ads, radio ads, social media. We did rallies, events, we launched something we called hot air. And were sending a message to senator baucus and senator tester to vote no on this jobkilling, taxincreasing capandtrade. We got a hotair balloon, put a banner on the side of it that said, capandtrade means higher taxes, lost jobs, less freedom. And we went all over the country doing events and stirring up grassroots anger and frustration, concern. Capandtrade will slow the economy and cost american jobs. Hockenberry americans for prosperitys wellfinanced campaign was an aggressive one. Ads that went after capand trade policy. America cant afford the capandtrade tax. Hockenberry and said the science was a hoax. Congress should stop wasting our money and focus on real problems. Isnt it Time Congress listened to the rest of us . Hockenberry in the tea partys antitax, antibig government message, you could now hear the skeptic mantra, attacking Climate Science and capandtrade. Capandtrade and taxing americans. Hockenberry at some tea party events, Global Warming skeptics were a big draw. Gives me great pleasure to welcome lord monckton audience cheering hockenberry introduced like a professional wrestler, Christopher Monckton is a former british journalist who admits he has no scientific qualifications. Now we are met on a great battlefield of a new civil war. Hockenberry but here, whipping up the crowd is his indisputable expertise. Now i know that in american speak you have a word for Global Warming. Can someone tell me what it is . All together. Global warming is. Bull bleep hockenberry events like these fertilized the growing public doubt about Climate Change that was beginning to register with senators. With widespread anxiety over a shrinking economy, capandtrade was tabled in the senate. The momentum towards action on Global Warming was vanishing. I often say, if you ever wonder as an activist on our side, are you making a difference, just look at capandtrade. January of 09, we had a president with 60 votes in the senate. And then Speaker Pelosi with a 50plus seat majority. And capandtrade was at the top of their agenda. And in the end they were beaten. Hockenberry youve said, if we win the science argument, i think itsame, set and match. Mmhmm. Hockenberry why do you want to win the science argument . If the science argument is won, i do think it would, you know, pull out the final underpinning of this legislative effort and this regulatory effort the left is undertaking. Hockenberry diminish the credibility of the Scientific Consensus and action on Climate Change grinds to a halt. At a conference in long island, we witnessed how these skeptics build their message of doubt. We once again saw fred singer. This is a conference mainly for medical doctors. Hockenberry delivering his message to a group of physicians who seemed eager to hear it. Tell me that there hasnt been any perceptible trend. You essentially get no warming trend. In the last ten years, there hasnt been a warming. We dont know why that is. But one doesnt see any warming in the observations. There simply is no trend. Hockenberry no warming in the last ten years . No longterm trend . Climate scientists would say thats playing games with the data. You can, if you want, very carefully select the end points of your time series, the starting month and the ending month, and you can come up with. Maybe you can come up with something that shows no warming. Hockenberry in a sense, what dessler is saying is that you can do this at home. On a complex chart depending on the beginning points x and ending points y, you can select a trend line that does indeed show temperature going down. Hockenberry could i pick ten years of World History and show a climate cooling . Oh you could totally do that. In fact, you could take the entire climate history that we have in the instrumental record and you could find cooling trends every ten years. Hockenberry cooling trends between 1958 and 1969, 1969 and 1978, 1978 and 1987 and so on. Scientists have a name for this. They call it going down the up escalator. You pick the end points and you could find any particular year as part of a cooling year, but actually the whole thing has been moving up. If you look at all of the data, its quite clear that the warming is continuing. So the 2000s was the warmest decade on record, the 1990s was the waest decade before that, the 1980s bere that, and most of us in the field of Climate Science expect, but we cant be sure, we expect that the 2010s will be warmer than the 2000s. Hockenberry against the