History Repeats Itself?

When tobacco companies first set to work marketing and selling their wares, they were not aware that they were selling a potentially dangerous product. A few decades later, the medical community was facing mounting evidence of cigarettes true harm. A decade later the general public was becoming widely aware of the issue. It was around this time that the tobacco companies first launched the denial campaigns that lasted decades. Their marketing strategies were excellent, they appealed to our egos and to a *more sophisticated* mentality. Doctors touting death by cigarettes were made out as quacks and alarmists. A short time after this, the first government report came out about the health hazards of cigarettes. At no time did the tobacco companies waver in pushing forward in their ad campaigns for more customers, more money. Millions died throughout the 50 year reign of big tobacco.

Now, in the preceding paragraph, please replace these words: tobacco companies and big tobacco with oil companies and big oil; medical community and doctors with scientific community and scientists; cigarettes with global warming. I do not want this to be our story. The video below is a television spot that was aired in May of 2006. I know it's been around for a bit, but it's worth viewing again. The idiocy of this spot astounds me. The Competitive Enterprise Institute produced this video. They receive large portions of funding from big oil companies, and, coincidently, big tobacco as well. Do we really want to play "whoever has the most money wins", again?

Above is an actual commercial from the 1950s, just around the time the tobacco companies were labeling the mounting medical evidence against them as unfounded and alarmist. There were many more advertisements just like this one, both in print and on television. If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.