Apparently Michaels left first, and Cato then decided to get rid of all of the people who worked for him. However it happened, The Cato Institute, once the Koch Foundation, founded on lies, has disbanded its Global Warming Denialism "research" center. But they don't want you to get the idea that they have come to accept the facts in the issue.
tl;dr: Hooray!
As we have been going along from Friday to Friday, I have pointed out particular ancient Denialist lies that have failed, but maintain a zombie existence on the Web and in Republican talking points. Today we go wholesale.
U.S. think tank shuts down prominent center that challenged climate science
The move came after Pat Michaels, a climate scientist [sic] who rejects mainstream researchers’ concerns about rising temperatures, left Cato earlier this year amid disagreements with officials in the organization.
A spokeswoman said Cato’s shuttering of the Center for the Study of Science does not represent a shift in the institute’s position on human-caused climate change. But the think tank moved decisively to close down the science wing that was overseen by Michaels. Ryan Maue, a meteorologist and former adjunct scholar, also left the center.
Let's just review a bit of Cato's unsavory history, and savor the moment.
President and CEO: Peter N. Goettler
Formerly called: Charles Koch Foundation; Cato Foundation
Patrick J. ("Pat") Michaels (born February 15, 1950) is an American climatologist.
Michaels was a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute until Spring 2019. Until 2007 he was research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, where he had worked from 1980.[2][3][4]
A self-described skeptic on the issue of global warming, he is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists. He has written a number of books and papers on climate change, including Sound and Fury: The Science and Politics of Global Warming (1992), The Satanic Gases (2000), and Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media (2004). He's also the co-author of Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don't Want You to Know (2009).[2] Michaels' viewpoint, as argued in a 2002 article in the journal Climate Research, is that the planet will see "a warming range of 1.3–3.0°C, with a central value of 1.9°C" for the 1990 to 2100 period (a value far smaller than the IPCC's average predictions).[5]
Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute has built a career on creating doubt about the reality of climate change and its threats.
Global Warming | Cato Institute
See how many lies you can count here, and how many items are true in exactly the opposite sense of what Cato wants to convey with its weasel wording.
Global warming is indeed real, and human activity has been a contributor since 1975. But global warming is also a very complicated and difficult issue that can provoke very unwise policy in response to political pressure. Although there are many different legislative proposals for substantial reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, there is no operational or tested suite of technologies that can accomplish the goals of such legislation.
Fortunately, and contrary to much of the rhetoric surrounding climate change, there is ample time to develop such technologies, which will require substantial capital investment by individuals.
Time's up. Too late. We are already doing it all, at $300 billion or so annually for renewable energy, and comparable amounts for batteries, storage, and electric vehicles, all cheaper than coal, oil, and gas.
The temperature savings are presented to three significant digits in order to tell the results apart. In the real world, the impacts from the emissions reduction pathways are not nearly so precise and, in fact, the temperature savings from most of the different carbon dioxide emissions reduction pathways are scientifically impossible to tell apart from each other, and in many cases, are impossible to tell apart from the original A1B scenario, i.e., they are same thing as doing nothing.
Oh, what beautiful bafflegab! And what a convenient conclusion for the Denialists!
Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group
The Cato Institute is focused on disputing the science behind global warming and questioning the rationale for taking action. Cato was founded by Ed Crane and Charles Koch, David Koch remains on Cato’s Board of Directors. In 2012, the Koch brothers sued the Cato Institute in order to exert more control over the organization. The lawsuit was dropped after an agreement was reached between the two parties, following months of highly-publicized attacks back and forth.
The organization’s 2009 “Handbook for Policymakers” on global warming begins with the suggestions that Congress should “pass no legislation restricting emissions of carbon dioxide” and “inform the public about how little climate change would be prevented by proposed legislation.”
Robert Bradley, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, co-founded the the Institute for Energy Research with Charles Koch in 1984.
In addition to millions of dollars in support from its co-founders, the Koch Brothers, the Cato Institute has also received $125,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998. The Cato Institute has also been listed as one of Philip Morris's “National Allies.” Cato's corporate supporters have included both Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds.
Other notable funders include Scaife Family Foundations, and the secretive DonorsTrust, a group that has been described as the “Dark Money ATM of the conservative movement.”
On electric cars, Cato has said
“The real reason for all the scandalous regulations and subsidies designed to shove us into underpowered mini-cars has nothing to do with 'saving the planet.' It’s all about doling out lucrative gifts (emissions credits, grants and subsides) to politically-favored companies who try to sell us unwanted electric cars or biofuels while the government punishes taxpayers and companies that produce vehicles American consumers really want” — Alan Reynolds, Cato Institute senior fellow.
Oh, of course. Conspiracy theories.
ClimateDenierRoundup for Climate Hawks
Neither Cato nor Michaels appear to have made any public statement about why the Center folded. The Center has come under increased scrutiny as larger awareness of fossil fuel funding for denial organizations has grown, borne of the ExxonKnew litigation. Back in 2010, Michaels admitted on CNN that something like 40% of his funding came from fossil fuels.