Olympic Sized Greenwashing at the 2014 Sochi Olympics

The XXII Olympic Winter Games offically open today in Sochi, Russia, however rather than being the greenest games ever, they will likely be remembered as being rife with greenwash.

In 2007, the Olympic Committee selected the Russian Federation to host the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, a resort on the Black Sea.

These games will host 88 countries and have an estimated carbon footprint of around 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. By comparison the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games’ generated 311,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Anti-Science Journalism Helped to End Progressive Climate Governance in Australia

The popular media's campaign of climate change subterfuge helped to bring down Julia Gillard's government in Australia. Anti-science propaganda has been rampant in the Australian press. A number of extreme weather events (droughts and floods) succeeded in drowning out the voices of those that oppose action on climate change and helped Gillard to get elected in 2010.  Subsequently a determined anti-science media campaign eroded Gillard's popularity and ultimately led to her downfall.

Popular media has flouted their journalistic responsibilities on climate change. A widespread campaign against Australia's carbon policy was adopted by the company that controls most Australian metropolitan newspapers. According to a 2013 study of climate science in newspapers,  the coverage of the Gillard government’s carbon policy was mostly negative (73 per cent to 27 per cent). Negative coverage (82 per cent) across News Ltd newspapers far outweighed positive (18 per cent) articles. The Daily Telegraph was the most negative (89 per cent). The Daily Telegraph has since continued its campaign against Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and bike riders.

Canadian Taxpayers Money to Promote Fossil Fuels

The Harper government has launched a $16.5 million PR campaign to promote Canadian fossil fuels but refuses to provide details about how it is spending taxpayers money. What is known is that the campaign will sell the "benefits" of the tar sands, oil, gas, pipelines as well as other Canadian natural resources.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver would not answer questions from opposition MPs who pressed the minister for details.

Oliver is providing a training program to instruct his department’s scientists and other officials as to what they can and can't say to the press and the public. As explained by Oliver, it is “designed to help them communicate with the public.” The propaganda program will cost Canadian taxpayers half a million dollars.

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 - ALEC Bill on Capitol Hill

The Center for Media and Democracy, creator of ALECexposed, along with Alliance for a Better Utah, produced the following video with Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Mark Fiore illustrating, in “Schoolhouse Rock!” style, how a piece of legislation written by ALEC becomes a law. While leaving a legacy of pollution, the billionaire Koch Brothers, through groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), are using their influence to spread climate doubt and weaken renewable energy standards.

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.

Related Posts
Right Wing War Against Sustainability
Republicans Deny Facts on Climate Change
Republican's Anti-Science Stance on Climate Change
The Business of Climate Change Deception
A Reintroduction to the Climate Denying Duo Known as the Koch Brothers
The Kochs' Climate Science Denial
The Koch Brother's Ties to GOP
The Kochs' War Against Obama and the Democrats
Koch Industries Financing Climate Denial
The Kochs' Cato Institute's Climate
Protecting the Planet from Corporate Misrepresentation
The Foxes in the Henhouse: Republicans in Charge of Climate and Energy Committees
What is Wrong with the Right
The Politics of Intransigence

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.

Rick Santorum's Anti-Environmental Theology

Republican presidential front runner Rick Santorum said President Barack Obama subscribes to a theological worldview that "elevates the Earth above man." This is how the former Senator from Pennsylvania describes Obama's belief in a fact based understanding of climate change.

Heartland Institute’s Deniergate: A New Definition for Irony

The past few days haven’t been very pleasant for the faux think tank Heartland Institute. On Tuesday a source going by the name of “Heartland Insider” leaked several strategy documents and Heartland’s 2012 budget to the DeSmogBlog.

Foster Friess is the Climate Denying Money Man Behind Rick Santorum

Foster S. Friess is the climate denying money-man behind Rick Santorum's bid for the GOP presidential nomination. The Republican hopefuls are following the money, Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is betting on Newt Gingrich and Friess is bankrolling the pro-Santorum super PAC. Friess is a Wyoming cowboy who is known for his opposition to the science of climate change.

Video: The Koch Brothers are Oil Billionaires on a Maniacal Mission

The Koch brothers are oil billionaires who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to increase their own profits through decreasing regulations. With a net worth of $43 billion the Kochs have already spent decades of their lives and over $324 million of their wealth exerting their influence. Here is a video from Brave New Foundation outlining the top five worst things this climate denying duo are doing to fulfill their self serving agenda.