Hello and welcome to a very special edition of the Climate Denier Roundup! Today we’re playing a fun game of “Who Said It?” Because while climate deniers and conservatives would have you believe their opposition to climate policy is based on the uncertainty of the science, or reliability of renewable energy, or any number of other wonky objections, their arguments are often indistinguishable from corporate public relations brand management, tin-foil conspiracy theories, or general rightwing grievance-mongering.
Here are three quotes we came across, presented with limited context to see how good you are at spotting the difference between climate denial and other bad faith lies!
The first comes from a personal blog about how “Twitter is cancelling Science”- is it a climate denier like Tony Heller or Willie Soon complaining about being banned, exposed as corrupt, or some other type of conspiracy theorist peddling dangerous disinformation?
“The global implementation of the Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’ has led to the fact that this much-needed dialogue is labelled as betrayal and disdain for humanity… Even though I have done nothing wrong and act purely on moral grounds, I am consistently discredited on the internet by disciples of the alarmists and fact-checkers… Every time I submit scientific publications myself, however, the respective journals are contacted by the woke ‘sceptics’, and I am accused of untenable conflicts of interest…”
While it may well be cribbed from a climate denier, that’s actually from a crank who thinks the cure to Covid is Vitamin D!
Next up is an entry in our Corporate category. See if you can tell if this is an effort by the oil industry to greenwash its gas and hydrogen operations, or if it’s doublespeak from another famously dishonest source of disinformation.
The head of a company “looks to stop selling [their product] within 10 years”, according to a Washington Examiner headline. The executive said he wants to “solve the problem of [product’s use]", but that if consumers are too dependent on the product to “quit” then in that case the “second best choice is to let them switch to the better alternatives… a noncombustible, scientifically substantiated, ideally regulated product.”
Hmm, is it a coal or oil company supposedly accepting climate science? Nope! It’s tobacco executives describing how they’re going to fight smoking by getting people to vape instead, which is a pretty perfect metaphor for the fossil fuel industry’s promotion of itself as wanting to be part of the solution to climate change.
Okay, last one! Is this a scientist complaining about how their climate denial is actually much more widespread among their colleagues than the 97% consensus suggests, or a conservative ranting about how normal people don’t appreciate the rank bigotry fueling the right’s culture wars?
“They hate you in academia. They hate you in the media. They hate you on the sports field, in the movies, on Facebook and Twitter. Your boss hates you. Your colleagues hate you — or at least have been told they should. They hate you because you think the wrong way…. I always warn those who aren’t prepared for blowback not to associate with me publicly… You are the majority. It’s not that everybody hates you. It’s that millions of Americans are afraid to say that they agree with you. We have been silenced.”
Is that supposed silencing, written in a published book and excerpted in a New York Post op-ed, a climate denier, or an outraged auteur ginning up book sales from angry conservatives?
Both, actually! It’s Ben Shapiro, who’s made his whole brand whining about liberals, and of course runs a website founded with a billionaire fracker’s money, where, shocker, Tuesday’s top story was a piece about his book.
Well, there you have it! Hope you enjoyed playing this little game of “climate denial or disinformation?” and came away with the understanding that there’s no difference between the two.
[Postscript: Aafter we mocked Tony Heller for being indistinguishable from cranks who still use the term “Orwellian” unironically (and inaptly) to describe being foiled by rudimentary fact checks, Tony Heller used the term “Orwellian” to describe Twitter using the term “experts.” An hour later, he tweeted a screenshot of this column, including the line implicitly mocking him for using the term “Orwellian” unironically. Incredible how he’s both predictable and always surprisingly stupid in new ways.]