A vast conspiracy to misinform the public and political leaders on climate change has been exposed by the Guardian. Over the past ten years
$120 million dollars has been anonymously distributed to a network of "think tanks" to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about climate change. The political pressure on the Republican party has been so strong that Republican politicians who were formerly in favor of cap and trade legislation, a Republican idea, have recanted their support.
Congressman Bob Ingis of South Carolina was driven out of congress for the heresy of proposing revenue neutral carbon legislation. Political extortion by anonymous billionaires has enforced lock-step climate change denial orthodoxy on the Republican party. Rational bipartisan discussion of climate change in congress is now impossible because of the massive pressure from the front groups of the fossil fuel oligarchs.
I committed various heresies against the Republican orthodoxy. I voted against [the Iraq] troop surge. … [I] voted to disapprove [Rep.] Joe Wilson’s [R-S.C.] outburst against President Obama, for example. I was for an immigration proposal that might include a path to citizenship.
And still all those were heresies, but the most enduring heresy that I committed was saying the climate change is real, and let’s do something about it.
I voted against cap and trade, because I think it’s a big tax increase. It grows government; it decimates American manufacturing; it’s hopelessly complicated. … But I proposed an alternative, and the alternative got me in some trouble. It’s basically a revenue-neutral tax swap where we would reduce taxes on payroll, shift the tax to carbon dioxide and revenue-neutral rates that the government wouldn't grow, but we would just change what we tax as a way of trying to get the true cost comparisons on the fuels. …
The only good idea in years, by a Republican, to stimulate American job growth was smacked down by the fossil fuel oligarchs. Payroll taxes are hard on workers and small business. Shifting a part of the payroll tax to a carbon tax would put more money into the pockets of carbon conscious consumers and would encourage American innovation in renewable energy, conservation and transportation.
But political extortion by the Koch brothers and other billionaires forced that reasonable proposal off the table.
Conservative billionaires used a secretive funding route to channel nearly $120m (£77m) to more than 100 groups casting doubt about the science behind climate change, the Guardian has learned.
The funds, doled out between 2002 and 2010, helped build a vast network of thinktanks and activist groups working to a single purpose: to redefine climate change from neutral scientific fact to a highly polarising "wedge issue" for hardcore conservatives.
The millions were routed through two trusts, Donors Trust and the Donors Capital Fund, operating out of a generic town house in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC. Donors Capital caters to those making donations of $1m or more.
The groups have been highly effective in manipulating older white people who are economically insecure and fear change. These Republican voters cannot imagine that anyone could be as evil as the greedy bastards who are manipulating them. They cannot imagine that they are being lied to and manipulated by people who purport to share their values.
There is nothing conservative about trashing the land, the air, the water and the natural systems that support life. It is the most extreme thing humanity has ever done. The prototypical conservative, Barry Goldwater, was ardent conservationist. Destroying America is not a conservative value. Preserving America's air, water and land is a fundamentally conservative thing to do that virtually all Americans would agree on if they were accurately informed. Over $120 million has been spent to misinform them.
The liars who are misinforming Americans hate America. They hate the land we live in, they hate the water we drink and they hate the air we breathe. They are evil. Compared to them the whores of Babylon are chanting cherubim. They will bring Hell to earth.
The ongoing onslaught of extreme weather has convinced most Americans that climate change is a serious problem that needs to be addressed now. Reality has slapped them in the face. Now is the time to turn the tables on the evil bastards that have been lying to us.
• Demonstrate against Keystone XL. We don't need Canada's toxic tar.
• Discredit the deniers and delayers. Expose them, mock them & turn the public against them.
• Support renewable energy for American jobs and a brighter future.