Old Poison by Joan Francis

minute! Whose fact is this?”
    The interruption came from a gentleman to my
left who sported a thousand-dollar suit, a beautifully coiffed head
of gray hair, and an East Texas twang to his speech.
    “Every time one of those flower sniffers
comes on TV like Chicken Little to claim the sky is falling, some
more sensible scientist comes on and gives a very different
interpretation of the ‘facts.’ We don’t know that it’s humans doing
this. This old world has warmed and cooled lots of times before.
You start shutting down oil wells and cattle ranches, you’ll see
what real disaster is.”
    There was a general hubbub as the audience
mumbled their agreement or disagreement. Before Nate regained
control, Sven rose again and chimed in.
    “That’s right. All those damn hippies have
to do is claim some rat or bird is endangered, and the next thing
you know the whole damn town is outta work. It’s not enough they
wrecked the loggin’ business, now they hafta start in on oil. Guess
next they’ll want us to go back to horses.” He paused and added
with a grin, “Now that could cause some real pollution that you
city folks might not be familiar with.”
    An uneasy laugh tittered through the crowd.
Nate let it play out, then, ignoring Sven, he turned to the Texan
and asked, “David, why are you so sure that this scientist is more
sensible?”
    “Well, because he’s not just some nut out
there burning for a cause. He’s not a politician or a government
mooch just trying to save his own job. He doesn’t have an axe to
grind.”
    “I see. Are you sure he has no axe to grind?
Please turn to page seven in your conference packets. This is a
list of ‘scientists, organizations, and think tanks who are
supported directly by the oil and coal industry, and the amounts of
cash they receive annually. Their job is to make sure that any
information contrary to industry interest is countered by an
opposing view. If the scientists you are listening to are like
these, they do have an axe to grind.”
    The expression on David’s face made verbal
response unnecessary. Nate smiled and said quite affably, “David,
you look like you don’t believe me.”
    “Well, if you want to be frank about it, no,
I don’t. You’re trying to tell me that the oil industry can buy off
every newspaper and TV station in our country, and I’m sorry, but I
don’t believe that. We still have a free country here.”
    This drew enthusiastic applause.
    “Exactly, David. We do have a free country
and a free press, and that is precisely how it’s done.” He paused
to allow his audience to chew on that one.
    “One of the best traits of our free press is
that its members usually try to present both sides of an issue. But
in this case, that very quality of fairness in reporting allows oil
interests to use a few key spokesmen to present their side of the
issue against the opinion of more than two thousand international
scientists. The newspapers and television news give equal time to
both sides, making it look like an even argument, but it is
not.”
    David folded his arms across his chest and
closed his eyes. He might as well have stuck his fingers in his
ears.
    “David, don’t take my word for it. Research
it for yourself. Of course, you will have to read something besides
Lyle Gorman’s editorial in the East Texas Times . Get on the
Internet and read world opinion. You will learn that there is
virtually unanimous agreement by every other industrial country in
the world that we are facing a crisis in global warming. Europe is
even considering trade embargos to make the United States join in
reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
    That was definitely the wrong tack. The East
Texan shouted back, “That’s exactly why we should quit dumping
money into that damned UN to support those commie bastards. We are
the most powerful and richest nation on Earth, and nobody has the
right to tell us how to run our country. We been doing just fine by
ourselves. How