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Tom Zeller Jr.

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Amid Heat Records, 'Exxon Hates Your Children' Ad Hits TV

Posted: 01/09/2013 4:41 pm

How relentlessly are global average temperatures rising? Try this for an indicator: Australia's Bureau of Meteorology recently had to add two new colors to the upper range of the temperature scale used on its forecasting maps, which were previously capped at 50-degrees Celsius, or a whopping 122-degrees Fahrenheit.

The scale now runs to 54-degrees Celsius, or 129.2-degrees Fahrenheit. The move comes as climate models suggest approaching heat patterns that will rival the existing record of 50.7 degrees.

This colorful tidbit of news comes on the heels of data in the United States showing 2012 to have been the hottest on record -- by a staggeringly wide margin. According to the media watchdog group Media Matters, the news was spread far and wide -- except, perhaps not surprisingly, on Fox News, which all but ignored the milestone.

Amid the bleak optics, meanwhile, the climate-action advocates who brought you the humorously blunt and ultimately viral mock-advertisement called "Exxon Hates Your Children" are set to give the video its television debut on Friday. For those hoping the campaign might counter the Fox News blackout and reach the climate-ambivalent, well, that seems unlikely. The ad will only air on left-leaning MSNBC, and during the already very climate-conscious programming headed up by Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes.

Still, as outgoing EPA administrator Lisa Jackson sees it, most folks are getting the message. "Americans are back to believing that something is happening with our climate and that mankind has a role to play in that," she told USA Today. "These are not natural phenomena."

 

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How relentlessly are global average temperatures rising? Try this for an indicator: Australia's Bureau of Meteorology recently had to add two new colors to the upper range of the temperature scale use...
How relentlessly are global average temperatures rising? Try this for an indicator: Australia's Bureau of Meteorology recently had to add two new colors to the upper range of the temperature scale use...
 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Allen Staves
10:03 AM on 02/16/2013
Exxon and Fox and Friends can't handle the truth. Tune in to MSNBC Monday night for Hubris.
07:34 PM on 02/15/2013
Pretending to be an Exxon CEO and saying "We hate your children" is a far more juvenile tactic than Clint Eastwood talking to an invisible Barack Obama. And a lot less funny.
01:15 AM on 02/16/2013
I thought it was funny. And 100% true.
09:17 AM on 01/13/2013
What's funny is I just finished reading the article calling for us to find a middle ground so we can work solutions for climate change. I guess if your 14-15 this might be funny. Otherwise it's just a gross simplification of the lies (at worst) or misconceptions (at best) of the most ardent environmental groups. In fact, if an answer is to be found Exxon will need to be a major part of it. In fact, Exxon and every other "big bad corporation" is made up of people with families and kids. They want the best for them. However, thier idea of best differs from the foks who give us this kind of garbage. Are all those ideas good--not hardly, but then neither are all of the ideas of the Greens. We need to try listening to the other side seriously to understand and solve the problem This does not help and doesn't even get me a chuckle. I prefer John Stewart for my humor.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Janalyce2
10:11 AM on 01/13/2013
There's a word for folks like you.

Complacent.

You don't say "Let's all sit down and share ideas with the arsonists" when your house is catching fire. And in this case, the "house" is the whole planet.

We are running out of time. Please try to understand that.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
10:49 AM on 01/13/2013
Hmmm, perhaps you should visit some of the wonderful lands in 3rd world countries where companies like Exon are allowed to operate with virtually no regulations or restrictions.

They must really care about families when they literally destroy entire ecosystems and leave people with oil laden water to drink and bathe in.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Zariana
For SCIENCE!!!
10:44 AM on 01/12/2013
While the clip was humorous, the sad truth is that oil companies aren't putting all these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We are. I sometimes get the feeling that those who rail at Big Bad Oil are just trying to assuage their own guilt.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Janalyce2
10:16 AM on 01/13/2013
Big Bad Oil and Coal are both deliberatly lying to keep their profit margins high.

We SHOULD feel guilt. Because we've been buying the lies. Because it's comfortable. Because we don't like being "scared" even when the danger is real.

But we're being criminally foolish. WE HAVE NOWHERE ELSE TO GO. And if you think that we can't end up with mass starvation and the end of civilization as we know it, you have no knowledge of history....and how often smug complacency has destroyed civilizatons all over this world.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MrBIgp
If I'm wrong, please show me
02:51 PM on 01/11/2013
Before oil, 20-30 percent of all Children died before their fifth birthday. Today, in the US, its about 0.6 percent. This improvement would not have been possible without fossil fuels. Today, countries with high fossil fuel use have much lower child mortality than countries with low fossil fuel usage. Oil companies SAVE lives.
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ILoveFiction
That's unbelievable!
10:01 PM on 01/11/2013
Why didn't they just use their solar panels?

Duh.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MrBIgp
If I'm wrong, please show me
11:06 PM on 01/11/2013
Solar panel could not have been developed without fossil fuels. In addition, they are no where near being able to power the global economy.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
cabinetmaniac
Think for yourself. Question authority.
08:59 AM on 01/12/2013
MrBigpetroleum

:-]
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MrBIgp
If I'm wrong, please show me
02:05 PM on 01/12/2013
Actually, the P for progress would better describe my view. I advocate moving beyond fossil fuels by using nuclear power to generate electricity and synthesize the fuels we need from water and air. No need for oil, gas, coal. No resource wars over energy.

http://coal2nuclear.com/Repairing%20the%20Air.pdf
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
sylvia wadlington
Kindle Writer
09:06 AM on 01/11/2013
EXCELLENT Ad! Big Oil is friend to no man or government on this planet. They buy our elections and politicians to get billions in taxpayer dollars, they gouge Americans at the pump and they drive every alternative energy company they can into bankruptcy. Big Oil! The Big Enemy of Mankind!
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
07:51 AM on 01/11/2013
GW debate is over...even exxon ceo said recently that GW is real and caused by fossil fuel combustion....
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Zariana
For SCIENCE!!!
10:49 AM on 01/12/2013
Exxon needs to send a memo to the GOP Congress reminding them who their corporate masters are, then. The fools on the hill don't seem to get it.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Janalyce2
10:22 AM on 01/13/2013
They can't keep the genie in the bottle anymore.

A certain crusty, that's-my-opinion-and-I'll-stick-to-it Berkeley scientist said for years that GW was a bunch of bunk. The Kochs gave him funds to do a study. (Check the funding for almost any climate "denier" scientist and you'll find black energy money in the background.)

The scientist did the research. And said that he'd been 100% wrong, GW is real, it's happening and it's accelerating.

Oops.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/opinion/the-conversion-of-a-climate-change-skeptic.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The evidence is SO OVERWHELMING that even Exxon can't lie and be believed anymore.
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07:50 AM on 01/11/2013
even sen jim inhofe now believes global warming is real....he says its "his" god's plan so get used to it.....
06:25 PM on 01/10/2013
Exxon being part of the remote possibility of 1c increase in global temps is really bad for our children.

The massive deficit which will leave our children with massive debt which is a certainty is a non issue.
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ILoveFiction
That's unbelievable!
08:10 AM on 01/11/2013
Oh my taxes!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
sylvia wadlington
Kindle Writer
09:08 AM on 01/11/2013
Dead kids don't need money or a working economy.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Cayce58
03:53 PM on 01/10/2013
In August, 2007, Newsweek printed an article titled, "Global Warming is a Hoax*". It gave the history of Exxon's campaign against climate science. In 2006, they publicly apologized for paying anyone with a PHD $10,000 to write an article critical of the science. They then paraded those articles(most not written by climate scientists) in front of Congress, claiming the science was unsettled, undecided. Even after the apology, they continued to politically oppose change.
12:00 PM on 01/10/2013
Love it! Unfortunately, I am finding it harder these days to be optimistic, since we have successfully lead the way (!) in waiting so long to address the problem that it is probably already too late to avoid the bigger disasters headed our way. Hopefully not, but I am pretty skeptical...
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Cayce58
03:55 PM on 01/10/2013
We have to stop it before the methyl hydrate releases.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
June25
11:38 AM on 01/10/2013
Let the kids walk everywhere for a week.I'm sure their appreciation for Exxon will improve significantly.
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Why Does it Seem So Hard
For folks to believe facts
01:27 PM on 01/10/2013
So walking makes the effects of climate change acceptable?
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03:16 PM on 01/10/2013
Eventually, they won;t be walking any place ... you might be dead by then, but regardless, THEY will have to deal with the world, then AS IT IS!

not as some BS ideology wants it to be -- your ideology won;t save you, let alone anybody else!!

physics has ZERO respect, or concern, for human ideology ...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Hoosier 77
AIRCRAP dot ORG
11:26 AM on 01/10/2013
Neil Young & Lincvolt at SEMA 2010- Part 1Lincvolt is the world's first Micro-Turbine powered Bio-Electro-Cruiser.
She draws her power from a Bio-Diesel fueled Capstone Microturbine generator, and a UQM 150KW prime mover and super-safe Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries.

In 2007, Young assembled a team to modify his 1959 Lincoln Continental to enable it to run on electricity. The goal was to inspire a generation by creating a clean automobile propulsion technology that serves the needs of the 21st century, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a new low while delivering performance that is a reflection of the driver's spirit. 
By creating and demonstrating this new clean power technology, Lincvolt hopes to show a way to reduce the demand for petro-fuels enough to eliminate the need for war over energy supplies, thereby enhancing the security of the USA and other nations throughout the world. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynT_1l0kclA
ItsGettingWeird
(or is it just me?)
07:58 AM on 01/11/2013
That's pretty amazing! Here's why:

About twelve years ago, I sketched an idea for a microturbine/electric hybrid luxury car with NiMH batteries (which were state-of-the-art at the time). So, I purchased a high-powered GE FB4001 electric motor and two Honda Civic Hybrid battery packs. Searching the Web, I then discovered the Capstone microturbine, but never got around to finishing my project.

Since then, I have been delighted to see the rollout of Tesla's all-electric Model S luxury sedan. Its lithium batteries offer a range of 265 miles. This eliminates the need for an onboard turbine generator, in my opinion.

On the other hand, I think the turbine/electric hybrid could be ideal for over-the-road trucks and other heavy, long-range vehicles.

Thanks for the link to Neil Young's project website. I'm gonna check it out. :-)
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Hoosier 77
AIRCRAP dot ORG
11:00 AM on 01/11/2013
I once sketched a picture of a beefy magnet 6.5 inch 2" voice coil speaker. with a "large roll surround" back in 1973. (nobody to make it back then)
10:43 AM on 01/10/2013
I love it!.. the commercial...
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10:20 AM on 01/10/2013
I might agree with what the ad says, but I think it's too over-the-top and might have the opposite effect of what was intended.