Global Warming, Hollywood Woes and Eco-Terrorism
The Heartland Institute hosts the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change.
Rumors of a strike by the Screen Actors Guild causes uneasiness in Hollywood.
Police in Seattle suspect members of the Earth Libration Front of arson in the recent destruction of several homes.
Issues in the News
1. ENVIRONMENT
The Heartland Institute hosts the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray reports on the event:
“…there was real scientific debate between, for instance, those who regard natural factors as overwhelming in the science and those who believe man is having a substantial effect, but that it won’t amount to any warming to worry about. There were economic disagreements between those who believe a form of revenue-neutral carbon tax is an appropriate response and those who regard that as an unwarranted and/or potentially disastrous market distortion. No one who attended could honestly contend that this was scripted by some vast energy conspiracy. Politically, there were libertarians, conservatives, moderates and, yes, self-described socialists.”
2. ENTERTAINMENT
Rumors of a strike by the Screen Actors Guild causes uneasiness in Hollywood.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Editorial Director Ivan Osorio on the prospects for more labor trouble in the film industry:
“Canceling the Oscars extravaganza would have cost L.A.’s economy $130 million, according to an estimate by Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation. Disaster was averted at the last minute, with an agreement reached between the studios and the Writers Guild only 12 days before Hollywood’s big night out, which addressed some of the issues over online content distribution. Now with the Screen Actors Guild facing new contract negotiations, there may yet be another such game of brinkmanship as just played out between the writers and the studios — with the attendant peril to California’s economy. And episodes like this are likely to play out again every time a contract is up and new methods of content distribution are developed. Is this any way to run an industry?”
3. LEGAL
Police in Seattle suspect members of the Earth Libration Front of arson in the recent destruction of several homes.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau on the rise of eco-terrorism:
“What happened in Washington state is frightening. It is further confirmation of a trend in eco-terrorism I report on in [the book] Eco-Freaks. Eco-terrorism is becoming just as sophisticated and elaborate as other forms of terrorism, with terror cells and carefully designed acts of destruction. It can no longer be dismissed as the work of a few nuts. Investigations and convictions from the recent bombings of facilities from ski resorts to research facilities have revealed a vast network that rivals that of other organized terrorism.”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].