Scientists are often so focussed on measuring the evidence required to determine how things work that they either forget or do not have time for the needs of public education, and the directions the nation will take in applying the knowledge gained by science.

James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore have recently produced a book entitled Climate Cover-Up, in which they examine the powerful public relations forces brought to bear against mainstream climate science, physics and chemistry, in order to blunt the message that we need to take steps to avoid future harm.

Littlemore will appear Thursday night, 7 p.m. in Room PE250 of 1st Choice Savings Centre for Sport and Wellness at the University of Lethbridge to discuss: Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming?

As a PR professional himself, Hoggan felt a strong need to keep the work of PR honest, and he recognized the methods that were used in the attacks on the science findings.

He says "it is infuriating, as a public relations professional, to watch my colleagues use their skills, their training and their considerable intellect to poison the international debate on climate change."

Some of the arguments of the self-appointed skeptics are lacking in both common sense and modern science, but other tactics and campaigns are skillfully designed to appear to show debate among informed physical scientists regarding whether there is an effect caused by atmospheric change at all.

Hoggan and Littlemore track the funds and describe the motives behind the campaigns, noting that "few PR offences have been so obvious, so successful and so despicable as the attack on the scientific certainty of climate change."

They call the unprecedented PR attack "a triumph of disinformation – one of the boldest and most extensive PR campaigns in history".

This special edition of SACPA (Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs) on campus will be moderated by Dan Johnson of the University's geography department.