In his first book, Sound and Fury: The Science and Politics of Global Warming, Patrick J. Michaels succinctly nailed the strategy of political activists on environmental issues. This strategy consists of six steps:

• Step 1: Define the Problem as Apocalyptic.
• Step 2: Present the Apocalytic Vision as a Mainstream View and Dissenters as Crackpots.
• Step 3: Play up the Lurid Prognostications and Imagery of Doom because Apocalypse Sells Newspapers and Television Time.
• Step 4: Build Massive Financial Support.
• Step 5: Use That Lobbying Support to Pass Economically Profound Legislation Before the Necessary Science Has Been Completed.
• Step 6: Invent a New Problem.

Step 2 could be extended to: Depict the dissenters as in the pay of evil giant corporations. Michaels published this assessment of the activists strategy in 1992. From the perspective of 2007 it is amazing how accurate he was. Acid rain, ozone depletion, environmental contamination, species extinction and global warming are prime examples of issues that were dealt with through this strategy. The cost to the tax payers and general population has been in the tens of billions of dollars if not in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Bureacracies have been created to implement the policies promoted by the activists and staffed often enough by those activists.