The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. CONGRESS
Al Gore testifies on global warming before committees in both the House and Senate, describing the planet as “having a fever.”
CEI Experts Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis responds to Gore’s testimony:
“Asserting that the planet has a ‘fever’ and asking parents whether they would listen to the doctor if their child had a fever is an old rhetorical trick. You don’t discuss the issue on its own terms, rather you turn it into a metaphor so you can talk about something else that everybody fears or loathes. This begs the whole question at issue, namely, whether there is anything pathological (if that concept even applies) to the modest amount of warming we’ve observed over the past 30 years. The Earth was warmer than today during the Holocene Climate Optimum, very likely the Roman Warm Period, and arguably the Medieval Warm Period. The amount of warmth we’ve seen is within the range of natural variability. Gore’s ‘fever’ rhetoric is alarmist spin, not science.”
2. HEALTH
A British woman claims to be severely “allergic” to modern technology like cell phones and microwave ovens.
CEI Experts Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Steven Milloy on the alleged health risk from low-level electromagnetic fields:
“Fears that electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) created by power lines and appliances caused cancer started in 1978. Parents worried about power lines over schools. Consumers worried about electric blankets. Power companies worried about burying power lines. The National Academy of Sciences finally unplugged the scare in October 1996, concluding that no evidence showed EMFs presented a health hazard.”
3. SAFETY
Consumer Reports magazine retracts its recent safety ratings for infant car seats, citing testing errors.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Scholar Fran Smith on Consumers Reports’ questionable track record of evaluating consumer products:
“While heading a free-market consumer group for 12 years, I followed Consumer Reports carefully, as their pronouncements had and have a huge impact on public policy. [There are many] examples of how Consumer Reports worked against consumers’ interest in distorting scientific findings and raising fears among consumers about products and technologies that offer significant consumer benefits. In many cases, CR has had a significant effect in restricting those products. Their pronouncements especially have caused consumers to avoid food products that were healthy and nutritious or to be fearful of technological advances that can improve health and safety.”