Chris Hayes starts off by playing some clips of Climate Charlatans like Donald Trump and Stuart Varney ridiculing the recent rescue of a group of scientists on a ship trapped in sea ice off of the coast of Antarctica.
Chris Hayes: The Right's Willful Stupidity On Climate Change
The right wing had a field day, pointing and laughing at the global warming believers who, just to be clear, are only a group of scientists risking their lives for no monetary gain and little glory in order to help save the planet. It truly was a new year's gift of faux irony for the denialists. And that it coincides perfectly with their annual tradition of snow-trolling makes it all the better.
Get it? It's cold! Where's your Al Gore now?
Of course, no one ever said that climate change meant it wouldn't ever be cold. Even in the most overdramatic climate change nightmare conceived by liberal Hollywood, the end came not from hot, but from cold, a giant snow hurricane, a snurricane. And yet, here we are. Because this willful stupidity is backed by a lot of money. A new report found that conservative groups spend up to $1 billion a year to fight action on climate change. $1 billion to cultivate a group of people who delight in being on the wrong side of history.
In 2006, 59% of Republicans believed that there is solid evidence the Earth is warming. A decade later, that number has dropped to just 50%. There is an entire industry that exists to feed its viewers and readers with contempt and ridicule for not only the basic science of climate change, but even for the people who toil in obscurity, risking their lives to avert genuine misery and disaster for millions of people, and that industry controls one of our two parties.
Michael Man: We climate scientists actually have a technical term for this phenomenon: its called winter.
This gem comes from the Climate Charlatans at Fox "News":
13 Dumbest Things Media Said About Climate Change In 2013
Fox News hosts seized on a weather forecast predicting an especially cold winter for 2013 to cast doubt on global warming. However, the forecast came from the Farmer's Almanac, which makes predictions with a "secret formula" based on "tides, astronomical events, and sunspots," and which meteorologists have called "the Ouija board of weather." Even if the Almanac's cold winter prediction were true, however, they would not negate the trend of warming temperatures in the United States and globally.
Is there any distortion the Right's Professional Climate Ignoramuses won't stoop to?
Apparently not.