Trump's State of Disunion (2020 Edition)

Trump's 2020 State of the Union address reaffirmed his ongoing penchant for dishonesty, his utter lack of civility and his conspicuous avoidance of climate change. Trump began by refusing to shake the hand of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and he went on to deliver the most divisive State of the Union speech in the modern memory.

Trump bragged about the fact that the US is the world's largest producer of fossil fuels. He did not acknowledge the mounting evidence that suggest fossil fuels are on their way out, and not once did he mention renewable energy. As is often the case with this president, he tried to take credit that is not his to take. "The United States has become the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world, by far. With the tremendous progress we have made over the past three years." The truth is this happened in 2012, four years before he was president. Trump boasted about energy jobs but what he failed to say is that there are now more renewable energy jobs than there are jobs in the fossil fuel industry.

Video - McConnell Confirms the Koch Brothers Power Over America

Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) provides the smoking gun illustrating the Koch brothers control over America. These comments by one of their own are evidence for the Koch brothers insidious power. McConnell's remarks were recorded during a speech he gave at a secret strategy meeting hosted by the infamous climate denying oil billionaires known as the Koch brothers.

The Koch Brothers Control of America

Charles and David Koch are brothers and oil billionaires who have a long history of political interference and climate misinformation. Their multifarious support for fossil fuels has helped to slow America's adoption of renewable energy.

They have also undermined efforts to pass climate and energy legislation at both the state and national levels. They have even managed to influence the Supreme Court and help sour American attitudes on the veracity of global warming.

Video - Trailer for the Koch Brothers Documentary: Buying Democracy

This is the trailer for "Koch Exposed," a hard-hitting investigation of the 1% at its very worst from acclaimed director Robert Greenwald. Charles and David Koch are using their billions to put a stranglehold on American democracy. The film also explores what we can do about it. Click here to get the film.

Buying Support for the Keystone XL

US courts have cleared the way for wealthy oil industry elites to throw their massive financial weight behind candidates that support their interests. This includes the Keystone XL. While rich environmentalists are also free to do the same, they are nowhere near as numerous or as powerful as those who continue to earn billions from fossil fuels. 

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List of Climate Deniers in the US Congress

A 2010 study showed that 40 percent of Americans do not know that their is a scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change. This should come as no surprise considering that the vast majority of Republican leaders eschew the science to this day. 

While the number of climate deniers are declining, the sad reality is that the lies are being kept alive by Republicans in Congress.

Here is a list of climate deniers in Congress who deny the veracity of the science of global warming. As explained in the forward to the list "Climate change is real, it's caused largely by human activities, and it poses significant risks for our health. Some members of Congress disagree with this simple, scientifically proven fact. We need to work to curb climate change, and a big step is to raise our voices to change the conversation in Washington. Call these deniers out. Hold them accountable. Ask them if they will admit climate change is a problem."
 

Climate Deniers Could Learn from Pascal's Wager

Rather than engage in protracted  psuedo-scientific debates, perhaps a touch of philosophy might help some climate deniers to see the value of acting to combat climate change.

Climate deniers must go through a series of intellectual gymnastics to find pretexts to poke holes in the legion of scientists and plethora of independent research that supports anthropogenic climate change. Perhaps the following philosophical position may save them from the effort needed for their intellectlual contortions.

Video - Evolution and Global Warming Denialism: How the Public is Misled

How can so many be so woefully misinformed about the veracity of anthropogenic climate change? To help answer this question we need only look at the history of the teaching of evolution. Teachers have long been pressured to teach "alternate views" of evolution. Now they're being pushed to deny that global warming is happening, or if it is, that humans aren't a major factor. In this video Genie Scott dissects the tactics of climate change deniers, and the parallels with anti-evolutionists.

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SourceWatch on Greenwashing: Definitions, Allure and Detection

This January 10th 2013 article offers a great summary of greenwashing as well as an explanation of why greenwashing occurs and rough rules of thumb to detect it.

Greenwashing is the unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, an industry, a government, a politician or even a non-government organization to create a pro-environmental image, sell a product or a policy, or to try and rehabilitate their standing with the public and decision makers after being embroiled in controversy.

The U.S.-based watchdog group CorpWatch defines greenwash as "the phenomena of socially and environmentally destructive corporations, attempting to preserve and expand their markets or power by posing as friends of the environment." This definition was shaped by by the group's focus on corporate behavior and the rise of corporate green advertising at the time. However, governments, political candidates, trade associations and non-government organizations have also been accused of greenwashing.

Video - Greenwash Coverage from TerraChoice: The Seven Sins (CBC Newsworld)

TerraChoice Environmental Marketing Inc president Scott McDougall talks about the dangers of Greenwashing on CBC NewsWorld on April 17th, 2009.

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New FTC Green Guidelines for Marketers

In October 2012 the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) updated its Green Guides for marketers. The original draft of the updated guidelines were released in 2010. The changes that should be noted pertains to the FTC's interpretation of general environmental benefits, more specifically claims that a product is “eco friendly” or “green,”

There are at least two salient points to be made here. The first is that the FTC now requires proof of any stated environmental benefit and the second is what it calls “environmental tradeoffs.” The replacement employed in the greener offering must indeed be green. The net effect is that companies will have to work harder to prove the claims they make. The FTC also has new powers to act against those who contravene these guidelines.

Climate Skeptics Try to Use Leaked IPCC Draft to Vindicate their Irrational Stance

A leaked draft of a major report is erroneously being used by climate skeptics to suggest that cosmic rays are responsible for global warming rather than human activity. To make their case they cherry-pick one sentence of a 14-chapter draft report to try to undermine the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change. One of the report's lead authors described this attempt as "completely ridiculous."

Professor Steve Sherwood, a director of the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, told ABC Radio in Australia: "You could go and read those paragraphs yourself and the summary of it and see that we conclude exactly the opposite, that this cosmic ray effect that the paragraph is discussing appears to be negligible … It's a pretty severe case of [cherry-picking], because even the sentence doesn't say what [climate sceptics] say and certainly if you look at the context, we're really saying the opposite."

Romney Lied about the Success of Obama's Green Stimulus

During the presidential debate, Mitt Romney lied to the American public about the success of President Obama's green stimulus spending. A big part of the success of the Democrat's stimulus spending concerned the creation of green jobs. The US unemployment rate is now at 7.8 percent, this is the first time since the President took office that they have dropped below 8 percent. The President's support for green jobs are part of this favorable employment trend. According to a study from the Bureau of Labor as of 2010 there were already 3.1 million green jobs in the US. While the Obama administration was growing the number of green jobs, the Republicans were pushing legislation that undermines green job growth.

Popular Media is Distorting the Facts about Climate Change

Major news organizations are not accurately reflecting the truth about climate change. Fox News, the Wallstreet Journal and even PBS have been charged with misrepresenting the facts about climate change.

According to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, 93 percent of Fox News' and 80 percent of the Wall Street Journal opinion pages' climate coverage is inaccurate and misleading. This is the finding of an analysis titled "Is News Corp. Failing Science". Even the PBS aired an interview with a biased climate skeptic tied to the controversial Heartland Institute.

New York Times Inadvertently Supports Denial

In May 2012, the New York Times published an article by Justin Gillis titled, "Clouds' Effect on Climate Change Is Last Bastion for Dissenters." This article lends legitimacy to the climate deniers subterfuge by unwittingly casting doubt.The article seems to infer that if you cannot predict with certainty the way clouds will behave you cannot predict that the earth will keep warming. The article explains that scientists cannot predict future temperature, so the inference is that we cannot predict global warming. "The result is a big spread in forecasts of future temperature, one that scientists have not been able to narrow much in 30 years of effort." 

Video: Interview with Michael Mann on the War on Climate Scientists

Climate Science Watch interviewed Michael Mann on the release of the Penn State University "Final Investigation Report" on allegations of misconduct levied against Dr. Mann late last year by climate change 'skeptics' and denialists. The report concluded that there is "no substance" to the allegations. We also asked Dr. Mann about ongoing attacks on the credibility of climate science and on the integrity of climate scientists, and about his recent comments about the iconic 'hockey stick' graph of the global temperature record.

Video: The Controversy Surrounding Michael Mann's Hockey Stick Graph

Michael Mann created a widely known graph commonly referred to as a "hockey stick." His data shows that the temperature has increased significantly at the same time as man has started pumping CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Climate deniers tried to refute his results accusing Mann of using faulty statistics, some even suggested that he was guilty of fraud. Although there is some variability, a host of scientists have corroborated Mann's hockey stick. If anything newer research suggests that the earth has gotten even warmer than suggested by Mann's hockey stick.

Video: Climatologist Michael Mann Headlines 2012 U.Va. EnviroDay Event

Climatologist Michael Mann of Penn State University speaks about scientific findings relating to global warming in this University of Virginia EnviroDay appearance. His talk, titled "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches From the Front Lines," shows how his findings have brought political heat from some Virginia and national politicians. Mann continues his research and outlines its scientific soundness during this packed public presentation. Prior to his move to Penn State in 2005, Mann served as a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia.

Video: Michael Mann and the Climate Wars

Michael Mann talks about the research related to the scientific finding that the earth is warming. He goes on to discuss the war between those who accept science and reason and those who do not. Mann reviews how he has been subject to criticism for his scientific research. Even though his life and safety have been threatened, he continues to wage war in defense of science. Mann compares the war against the science of climate change to the misinformation campaign efforts of the tobacco industry, some have even compared it to McCarthyism.

Media Coverage of a New Climate Study Misrepresents the Impact of the Oil Sands

As reviewed in a February 20th article by Joe Romm, there has been a lot of misunderstanding about the findings of the new study entitled “The Alberta oil sands and climate” by climatologists Neil C. Swart and Andrew Weaver.