Last week, Dr. David Whitehouse, advisor to the UK’s premier climate denial shop, GWPF, made a shockingly frank admission in a comment to a Parliamentary report on science communications and the media. Apparently, Whitehouse thinks freedom of speech includes “misleading the public by making factually inaccurate statements.” Given that GWPF had to spin off a political advocacy arm after the Charity Commission determined it was blurring the line between education and political spin, this quote is surprising only in its honesty.
DeSmogUK’s Mat hope reports a couple of other details from Whitehouse’s comments. For one, he failed to disclose his affiliation with GWPF- what’re you ashamed of, David? And then, cementing his anti-science position, Whitehouse argued that the media gives “too much authority to papers published in peer-reviewed journals.”
Fortunately, the House of Commons' Science and Technology committee ignored Whitehouse’s plea to protect lies in its “Science Communication Inquiry.” Instead, the final report, which focuses on how science is reported in the media, quotes actual scientists and experts, like those at the Royal Society and Science Media Center. (How nice it must be to have a House Science committee actually respect real experts and ignores flacks who unabashedly defend deceiving the public!)
From a misleading Whitehouse to a misleading White House, last week Washington Post fact checker Michelle Ye Hee Lee took on the claim from a Trump administration fact sheet that the Clean Power Plan would cost of up to $39 billion per year. Figures cited in the fact sheet are from a study commissioned by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. Outdated data, poor assumptions, and other biases earn the claim two Pinocchios.
That’s just one claim from the Energy Independence executive order “fact” sheet. For a full takedown of the administration’s alternate facts, this annotated post from NRDC has you covered.
Not that this will stop them from repeating the lies. When it comes to climate deniers in and out of this administration, the fact of the matter is that facts don’t matter.
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