Leaders Spreading Global Warming Denial
We should not forget the damage done by climate change skeptics
It is important to note what leaders are doing to promote skepticism and denial so that when the problem of climate change becomes more clear and accepted we can use this time period as a lesson in how vulnerable we can be as a society to corporate PR campaigns that manipulate the psychology of many in our country. Realizing the depth of the problem and the number of conservatives willing to play along with the corporate message is important, and starts with holding them responsible:
Michelle Bachmann is a candidate for president who has generated tremendous energy and enthusiasm among social and fiscal conservatives, and particularly the tea party. She is also one of the foremost climate change deniers of our day, with quotes including:
“Carbon dioxide is natural. It occurs in Earth. It is a part of the regular life-cycle of Earth. In fact, life on planet Earth can’t even exist without carbon dioxide. So necessary is it to human life, to animal life, to plant life, to the oceans, to the vegetation that’s on the Earth, to the, to the fowl that — that flies in the air, we need to have carbon dioxide as part of the fundamental life-cycle of Earth.”
“And the science indicates that human activity is not the cause of all this global warming. And that in fact, nature is the cause, with solar flares, etc.”
James Inhofe, Republican senator and noted global warming skeptic has tried at every turn to stir up conservative paranoia about government and science, including:
“With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.”
Sarah Palin, republican candidate for president, started this quote as if she might be willing to believe that global warming exists, but her answer quickly devolved:
“A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I’m not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.”
Fox News anchors, such as Steve Doocy who famously had a great example of oversimplifying a moment in time to try to disprove a complex and long-term problem:
“Despite it being bitterly cold outside in the northern plains, we hear a lot about global warming. Is there another side to this story?…This is the worst winter in some parts of America and around the world and perhaps we should be worried now about global cooling”
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, (R-Missouri) is just one of the many GOP reps who has wanted to stir up the deniers by claiming that the science behind global warming was tainted, and used divisive language that hinted at government intervention and overreach:
“My goal is to deliver some of our people’s hard-earned money back into their pocketbooks instead of spending it on international junk science.”
The US Chamber of Commerce took a very short-sighted, greedy, and anti-science tone with their stance about how despite ruining the globe through climate change, humans could adapt:
“Humans have become less susceptible to the effects of heat due to a combination of adaptations, particularly air conditioning…Overall, there is strong evidence that populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.”
The Wall Street Journal, in the person of Senior Economics Writer Stephen Moore tried to confuse the point and stir up anti-science sentiments:
”I’m old enough to remember when the scientific consensus that there was going to be cooling, remember, in the 1970s we’re going to have global cooling and we’re all going to starve to death and we’re not going to have agriculture.”
These are just a few of the many leaders who have stirred up denial by using fears of government overreach, secretive scientific agendas, and/or insecurity about uncontrollable change. As more people become aware of the problem of global warming and climate change because the effects become more obvious and clear, we should remember how people managed to stir up denial and skepticism among many people so that history does not repeat with the next issue that stirs these same insecurities.
Here is a more comprehensive and detailed directory of people who have fought to fight against the existence of global warming and climate change. Our goal here is to show, especially after the science becomes completely settled and more people are aware of the damage global warming has caused while we’ve been in denial, is to show how large a right wing and corporate business interests can buy the PR on an argument away from rational science. The extent of the deniers reach can be shown through this listing. We hypothesize that some of the people listed below who are fighting against the idea of climate change are merely motivated primarily by their own conservative psychology, while others are more directly funded through think tanks and others who receive money from corporate interests.
Robert Tracinski: Author and blogger who holds a wide range of political beliefs, most all of them highly conservative. He pushes strongly for a rejection of the science behind global warming and climate change.