James Hoggan's book "Climate Cover-Up" is quite thorough in exposing the sneaky strategies and tactics that people and companies develop in efforts to persuade people that global warming is not a problem. The book bought the ideas behind these campaigns to light. Also, the book brings up the issue of think tanks, astroturfing and the pseudoscientists.
The chapter that stood out to me the most was Chapter 4: "The Age of Astroturfing." This chapter simply states that people relate more to grassroots PR efforts. But if a grassroots organization does not exist, then fake ones are put into place. This is where the term "astroturf" comes in because it is a name for FAKE grass. I could not understand why a person who is supposed to know the honesty and fairness of PR would develop an astroturfed campaign.
I believe that public relations practitioners need to educate themselves on global warming before they can inform the masses. It is important for public relations to have knowledge of a little bit of everything. If a PR person does not know the facts and spreads the wrong information, then there will be confusion.
"Climate Cover-Up" is an excellent book for people seeking more information on the global warming crisis. It also warns them not to believe every effort that is put together to try and combat this problem.
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