A Timeline Tracing the Origins of the Youtube Video

by drcharles

Have you heard of the YouTube video that rips on Al Gore? Want to learn of the conspiracy that breeds this sort of thing? Then follow me on a late night journey through the billions of pages out there on the internet as we hold up a Google lantern to wade through the darkness (FYI, I'm a pragmatist - Republican on some issues, Democrat on others, Green on still others.)

It's the year 2000.

I'm in med school and driving a piece of crap Mazda.

George Bush receives $1,800,000 from oil and gas companies in his bid to become president.

Al Gore receives $137,000 from oil and gas companies in his bid to become president.

Energy sector scorecard for 2000:
Oil companies - contribute $34 million, 78% to Republicans.
Electric utilities - $19 million, 68% to Republicans
Coal companies - $3.7 million, 88% to Republicans
Nuclear power - $13.6 million, 68% to Republicans
Alternative energy $0.78 million, (wind, solar, geothermal) - 68% to Democrats

Bush loses the popular vote by 540,000 votes.

Gore loses Florida by 537 votes?

The Supreme Court splits along partisan lines 5-4 to stop the Florida recount.

Bush is sworn in as 43rd president of the United States.

2 former oilmen (Bush and Cheney) are commanders in chief.

Donald Evans, another oilman, heads up the Commerce Department.

Former energy executives are sprinkled throughout the administration.

Several months later, the White House meets with big oil executives to develop the national energy policy.

Enron CEO Ken Lay, the largest individual political donor to the Republicans in the energy sector, is invited to a private meeting with Cheney.
Consumer and environmental groups are frozen out.

Penguins in arctic regions of the planet are getting nervous.

Bush energy strategy calls for:
-Executive orders easing regulations that slow the siting and licensing of power plants and gas refineries
-More coal burning plants, loosening Clinton era rules
-Opening parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, among other parts of the nation
-10 billion over 10 years for tax incentives including hybrid vehicle purchases, methane gas development and solar power cell installation.
-No relief for deregulated energy industry in California which suffered huge blackouts. Californians pay 30-60 billion per year to out-of-state generators

Fast forward to 2005, past Iraq, the collapse of Enron, and soaring atmospheric CO2 levels.

Exxon Mobil Corp. posts record profits for any U.S. company - $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter and $36.13 billion for the year (2005). Annual revenue grows to $371 billion. Saudi Arabia's estimated 2005 gross domestic product is $340.5 billion.

Bush signs into law the 2005 Energy Act. It includes the following:-Exemptions to the Safe Drinking Water Act for oil and gas drilling -Exemptions to the Clean Water Act for construction related to oil and gas development-Opening of coastal areas that have been under moratorium for decades to a harmful inventory of oil and gas resources. -A provision that could be used to disadvantage communities and states that wish to seek redress for contaminated drinking water in any new suits filed in state courts-Makes it much more difficult for the public to have meaningful input in the way of environmental reviews-Again threatens wildlife and the 23 million-acre ANWR.

Fast forward to 2006, past the timely release of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, Bush's approval rating at 35%, and some stupid American Idol finalists.

Profits at Exxon Mobil surge 36 % to a near record $10.4 billion in the second quarter as oil prices help the world's largest publicly traded company soundly beat Wall Street forecasts. When added to 1Q profits, Exxon is up $18.8 Billion so far this year.

It takes $45 to fill the tank in my piece of crap Mazda. I'm seeing patients all summer with medical conditions that get worse in 100 degree weather that feels like a warm broth of CO2 soup.

Some idiot releases a video on YouTube in which Al Gore appears as a sinister figure, brainwashing penguins and boring movie audiences by blaming the Mideast crisis and Lindsay Lohan's skinny waist on global warming.

The film is released by someone calling themselves "Toutsmith."

The Post Gazette reports that an email sent by "Toutsmith" can be traced back to a computer registered to DCI Group. DCI group is a public relations and lobbying firm. Its clients include oil company Exxon Mobil Corp.

DCI runs Tech Central Station, an opinion Web site that aims to raise doubts about the science of global warming and about Al Gore's film. It promotes the rare skeptical scientist on talk-radio shows and compensates them for editorials they write to major newspapers.

The video gets a lot of hits after sponsored links on Google start appearing when users type in "Al Gore" or "Global Warming." The ads, which don't disclose their sponsor, are taken down shortly after The Wall Street Journal contacts DCI Group.

You get mad. You decide to join in the greening of America, even if it's too late, because that's the right thing to do.

Dr. Charles finally goes to bed after this, his first bit of Google-cut-and-paste-environmental-journalism, fully expecting but hoping not to wake up in a world in which gas costs $10/gallon and we're at war with Iran.

So there it is, a semi-complete timeline of the YouTube Penguin video, awaiting your editorial additions, of course.