In a 2013 study, Riley Dunlap and Peter Jacques analyzed how climate denial books are closely tied to organized denial think tanks, and while most consensus climate books are accurate and peer reviewed, Dunlap and Jacques concluded that “at least 90% of denial books do not undergo peer review, allowing authors or editors to recycle scientifically unfounded claims that are then amplified by the conservative movement, media, and political elites.”
That study period considered books published by 2010, but a decade later there's no indication it's any less true. Deniers are still recycling debunked claims that are uncritically amplified by the conservative media apparatus. For example, Mike Shellenberger’s book was resoundingly debunked last year, but that didn’t stop Republicans in Congress from once again calling him up — today! — to testify about the Texas blackouts.
But if the denial books published last year didn’t satisfy your craving for denier blog posts in book form, you’re in luck! Longtime fossil fool Marc Morano has a “new” book out about how “the Green New Deal is even worse than you think.” ($24.99 on Amazon) Featuring none other than NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the cover, because of course Morano would drive a little hate towards a woman, the book explains the definitely new and novel idea that, according to the Amazon synopsis, “‘climate change’ is the perfect Trojan horse for the socialist agenda of the Left”.
Hey Marc, lazy liar James Delingpole called from 2011. He wants the political, “green on the outside, red on the inside” watermelon metaphor back. ($90.00 on Amazon for the paperback, $5.00 on Kindle) Wait, no he doesn’t, he actually recanted that back in 2019, so perhaps it’s yours to recycle after all!
According to a breakdown by Joe Bastardi, published by Morano’s employer CFACT, the book looks like just another attempt to convince conservatives that science is actually a conspiracy. That’s something Marc’s been hard at work on this year. Defending the novel coronavirus’s right to infect and kill people like himself who refuse to wear a mask (while he’s not encouraging more violent sedition) has served as great practice for his interview with white supremacy-laundering Breitbart to rehash his COVID-climate conspiracy.
If you’re wondering who on Earth would publish a career liar’s book of regurgitated old blog posts, may we introduce reliable conservative propaganda producer Regnery publishing. You may recognize them as the publishing house set up by a man whose nephew would grow up to inherit millions of the family’s wealth, only to squander it, becoming what BuzzFeed called “the most influential racist you’ve never heard of.”
You may also recognize it as the publishing house that had a tantrum at the New York Times Bestseller list a couple years back, claiming bias against conservatives but more likely bristling at the new self-bought disclosures because Regnery has long been known for buying its conservative authors’ books in bulk to game the bestseller lists.
But to help sell some books beyond what Regnery will likely purchase to juice sales figures, Morano’s also working the disinformation circuit, illustrating Dunlap and Jacques’ point about conservative books being amplified by the conservative movement with an interview at the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, a chapter-by-chapter summary by fired-no-resigned from Harvard because of misogynistic-but-unclear-circumstances blogger Lubos Motl, and a review by an intern at the billionaire-backed Federalist in just a couple days.
Somewhat interestingly, Morano actually thanks Motl and Bastardi as two of a list of usual suspects “whose work was invaluable in writing this book,” which perhaps explains why their reviews were so glowing!
Though what Morano might be most proud of is that his book is the #1 New Release in Amazon’s so-niche-everyone-can-be-a-winner “United States National Government” section.
Given that Amazon claims to want to be a climate savior, how does it justify selling books like this, and so, so many others, that very intentionally work against a goal of climate action?
You can either be a climate champion, or you can sell and profit off of climate denial books like Morano’s, that “recycle scientifically unfounded claims that are then amplified by the conservative movement, media, and political elites.”