A link from the main Google page leads a viewer to “explore the potential impacts of climate change on our planet Earth and learn about solutions for adaptation and mitigation,” but provides absolutely no voices skeptical or critical of the science. The page includes organizations such as Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, Al Gore, and actor Ted Danson. One video comes from Steve Schneider, whose name appears in a number of the leaked Climate Research Unit emails and whose website prominently features the “hockey stick” chart now at the center of the climate change debate.
The site includes links to Google’s super-fun GoogleEarth application, which allows users to survey the effects of mankind on the environment. But no space is dedicated whatsoever to the controversy over the science — the page is a full-on whitewash. This is unusual for Google, a company that has thrived on encouraging openness.
I inquired why they wouldn’t feature, say, the work of Steve McIntyre or Bjorn Lomborg. They replied,
“Google Earth is open so anyone can use it (i.e. create layers and tours) for educational purposes. I don’t know if the people you mentioned have created a tour in Google Earth like the others have. Regardless, we’re featuring tours on that special COP15 page to help illustrate climate change issues and solutions.”
But they likely solicited the available tours, which is why they’re featured. Google is ignoring that 52 percent of Americans are skeptical of the science behind global warming.
UPDATE (3:37PM): I finally got them to answer the question: “In other words, you did not reach out to groups that were skeptical of climate change?”
The response: “Correct; as you can see on our green website and Google.org website, as a company we believe that climate change is a serious issue. For an occasion as significant as COP15, we’re happy to be featuring these tours to illustrate problems of and solutions to climate change and look forward to adding more tours in the future. That said, our tools make it possible for someone with a different position on the issue to illustrate and share their tour with the world.”
