The climate deniers are at it again .
In late December , the Competitive Enterprise Institute , a conservative think tank , discharge what it ’s foretell a“Climate Fact Check ” report . The paper , which wascovered breathlessly by Fox News , purports to give away claims made by “ climate alarmists and their media ally ” in 2022 that “ clashed with realism and skill . ” ( Spoiler alert : all the “ claims ” covered are , in fact , in line with the scientific consensus . Go anatomy . )
CEI has a long chronicle of perpetuating climate denial — its Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy , Myron Ebell , is one of the most eminent - profile deniers in the U.S.—and this report is no exception . The reputation contains a lot of tried - and - true climate denier tactics to attempt to discredit reportage of clime - related catastrophe in 2022 from electrical outlet like the New York Times , the Washington Post , and the BBC . Many of the rhetorical proficiency are such old lid that there are entireacademicpapersandbookswritten them . I wo n’t cave in down every pretended claim , scientific misdirect , and pointless non - sequitur in the report , but here are a few highlights :
CEI Director of the Center for Energy and Environment Myron Ebell in 2017.Photo: Leon Neal (Getty Images)
The report says that , because Europe had a megadrought in the 1500s , “ before ember - fired force plants , sport utility and cheeseburger , ” the punishing drouth it experienced this twelvemonth could n’t possibly be juiced up by mood variety . The existence of bad droughts in era past times has no bearing on the increase occurrence of these drouth thanks to climate alteration now . Arapid attribution analysispublished in October find that mood change made the drought in Europe three to four times worse .
“ While the New York Times label China ’s drouth as ‘ record ’ as it was supposedly the most extreme drought since records began in 1865 , enquiry reports severe megadrought in China as far back as 1637 , amid a period called the Little Ice Age , ” the report crows . Again , the macrocosm of serious weather outcome before modern record has no carriage on whether or not this drouth was surprisingly bad in linguistic context , which it was . The New York Times was being actual by calling it the risky drought on record , since official records of drouth in China do n’t go back to 1637 .
The paper claims that “ heat waves have dramatically declined in frequence and length in the US over the past 90 class , per the National Climate Assessment . ” That 90 - year figure is severalise : expanding the data that far back includes the extreme hotness the U.S. experienced during the Dust Bowl , when , as theNational Climate Assessment itself explains , drought and damaging land use practices intensified summertime temperatures . If the good hoi polloi at CEI had just read the full report rather of cherry - pluck a sealed solidification of statistics , they would have seen the determination that heat waves are propose to become “ more intense ” across the U.S. as the clime proceed to change .
What ’s important about this newspaper is not the unabashed climate denial , which is old tidings , but rather how it could suffice as a signal of how mood denialists may seek to evolve past these tired tactics . In the first Thomas Nelson Page of the report , CEI singles out $ 8 million of funding thatthe Associated Press get last yearfrom organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation , the private menage foundation of the beginner of Wal - Mart , to set up more than two 12 climate report positions across the world . In aninterview with Fox News , Steve Milloy , a longtime denier and Fox News commentator , went so far as to call the AP a “ propaganda turnout . ”
“ It ’s hard to claim it ’s news when you ’re being pay to report only one side of the climate discussion , ” Milloy said . ( This is a particularly plenteous statement come from Milloy , who , in addition to holding a situation at CEI , has a long history of getting bear to shill anti - science bullshit for bothtobaccoandoil company . )
The past several years have seen an explosion in reportage on the well - funded sources of climate denial , which became all the more relevant after Donald Trump got elected and began put some of these dark money - funded denier in literal billet of top executive ( Myron Ebell was Trump’stransition head for the EPA ) . CEI heel the Heartland Institute , the Energy & Environment Legal Institute , Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow , and the International Climate Science Coalition as co - presenters of the report ; all of these grouping have long resume of perpetuate climate disaffirmation . These system have also repeatedly been called out for their connections to crude and gas company and other forms of sullen money — multipletimesby theverymediathey are now trying to accuse of prejudice thanks to financing .
Philanthropic funding of news outlet , to be clear , ordinarily comes with some form of stringent newspaper column firewall between the editorial staff and the funding source . The AP hastaken philanthropic money since the former 2010sto fund various faculty position reporting on issue set out from religion to water supply issues .
When we ask the AP for remark on the CEI report , a representative pen in an electronic mail that the AP ’s coverage referenced by CEI is “ factual and based in science ” and that the outlet stands by it . “ The Associated Press knead with a variety of system , including nonprofit and foundations , in support of its independent news media , ” the spokesperson write . “ In all cases , AP is transparent about the source of any external funding received and keep on perfect editorial control of all content . ”
This report is intelligibly in lookup of a “ gotcha ” import . But there ’s a big difference between a nonpartisan word organization taking money to report on climate from the Walton family — which , arguably , would have more of an bonus to inhibit news media about how consumerism impact clime alteration — versus taking money directly from unidentified benefactors and petroleum company .
In the end , this written report and many other denier claims operate under the blemished assumption that there ’s somehow an vantage to be gain in perpetuate the correct science — that the huge bulk of scientists who agree on decades of research and cogitation are really just looking to line their own pockets . But there ’s a large difference between one of the most respected news mercantile establishment in the humans getting a grant to report on a scientific consensus and perpetuating tired old rhetorical chestnut that recoil full - formed from organization fed by sinister money and oil and gas interests . Someone might need to distinguish Fox News .
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