Climate change deniers’ new battle front attacked : The Guardian

The battle between climate change deniers and the environment movement has entered a new, pernicious phase. That is the stark warning of one of the world’s leading climate experts, Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University.

Mann told the Observer that although flat rejection of global warming was becoming increasingly hard to maintain in the face of mounting evidence, this did not mean climate change deniers were giving up the fight.

“First of all, there is an attempt being made by them to deflect attention away from finding policy solutions to global warming towards promoting individual behaviour changes that affect people’s diets, travel choices and other personal behaviour,” said Mann. “This is a deflection campaign and a lot of well-meaning people have been taken in by it.”

Read The Guardian article 

See also: 

435 people died in an 1896 heatwave — but scientists say the extreme heat events of today are still hotter: ABC

 

#criminales climáticos de la cárcel   #criminalesclimáticosdelacárcel  #jailclimatecriminals

#gaolclimatecriminals  #buyfromthebush

How the Political Right Uses Fossil Fuels to Galvanize Opposition to Climate Action : Green Market Oracle

It is widely understood that in the main, conservative far-right political movements support fossil fuels and oppose the veracity of climate change and climate action. In the U.S. Republicans have worked with the old energy industry to subvert the facts for many years. Thanks to insidious disinformation campaigns 73 percent of Republican voters have been hoodwinked into believing that climate change is not a serious threat and 70 percent do not believe that humans are the cause. The resistance to climate action does not stop at disinformation. Republicans have actively thwarted the democratic process through redistricting (gerrymandering) and voter suppression. In Oregon Republican lawmakers refused to appear in the state legislature to avoid passing a sweeping climate change bill by the Democratic majority.
No individual has done more harm to global climate action that Donald Trump. He has dismissed climate change as a "hoax" and his administration's resistance to science is unprecedented. This president and his Republican minions actively support the expansion of fossil fuels and wanton deregulation. The Trump administration's raft of anti-environmental policy positions including withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
Trump has helped to pave the way for climate denial from far-right politicians in Brazil, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands. They have stoked opposition to climate action to build support for anti-science policy.  The result is the right wing leaderships in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Estonia have all killed their net-zero emissions plans this year.
The key to resistance to science-based climate action can be found in marrying opposition to fossil fuel tax hikes and resistance to climate action. The so called yellow vest protests in France and other parts of Europe illustrate this point. Opposing increases in gas prices serves as both a mustering point of resistance and a segue to oppose climate action. However, this is a manufactured crisis as gas taxes were already high.
In a play on Trump's nationalistic "make America great again" French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to "make our planet great again". French right wing political leaders have seized on Macron's climate leadership to galvanize opposition to climate action. As one slogan put it, "Macron is concerned with the end of the world. We are concerned with the end of the month."
Similar contrarian sentiments can be found in other countries that support climate action including Sweden which is widely recognized as one of the most climate forward nations on the planet. Resistance to gas tax hikes in Sweden are called Bensinupproret. The leader of the movement's 600,000 Facebook members is Peder Blohm Bokenhielm he dismisses climate action as "hysteria". In climate friendly Finland, opposition to climate action is also being used by the right for partisan purposes. Finns Party chairman Jussi Halla-aho also dismisses climate action as "hysteria".
However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore climate science, even for right wing politicians whose policy agendas are commonly rooted in obfuscation and outright deception. The new center-right European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, placed climate policy at the top of her "agenda for Europe," ahead of even economic policy. "I want the European Green Deal to become Europe's hallmark," she explained.

From Green Market Oracle 

#jail climate criminals  #gaol climate criminals 

See also:

The Madrid climate talks failed spectacularly. Here's what went down: The Conversation

Hard Times in the Climate Denial Business for the Heartland Institute: DeSmog

"A Failing Business Model?

The oil industry is still spending heavily against policies to address climate change and in support of efforts to promote fossil fuel consumption. These days, however, the messaging and efforts seem to be moving away from Heartland-style denial attacks on climate science and tuned more toward PR campaigns promoting the idea that oil and gas companies accept climate change is happening and are doing their part to address it.

That's likely driven in part by the fact that public awareness of and concern about climate change has significantly increased since 2008.

The list of talking points at https://t.co/xb4sVkeq7K reads like the list of climate myths at https://t.co/HYOLcOjBof

— John Cook (@johnfocook) July 25, 2019

The industry's new approach appears focused on selling the idea that natural gas is “clean” and that fossil fuels are the future — even a “solution” to climate change. Meanwhile, across the U.S., coal plants are closing, the gas industry is a financial disaster, and renewables are growing rapidly and in many cases can provide electricity more cheaply than gas power plants.

The Cato Institute, another free market think tank that for years pushed climate science denial and received funding from the fossil fuel industry, dropped its climate denial program earlier this year. Cato was founded by the petrochemical billionaire Charles Koch. 

Will Heartland follow a similar path to attract broader appeal and fossil fuel industry funding?"

Read the complete DeSmog article 

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Who is Preventing Kids from Learning about Climate Change? :Green Market Oracle

Who is Preventing Kids from Learning about Climate Change? :Green Market Oracle

"The reason that climate change is not de rigueur in American schools is largely due to powerful economic interests.  Specifically the fossil fuel industry and Republican legislators whom they help elect.

The fossil fuel industry is at the core of the climate crisis and they have known that they are a leading cause of climate change for decades. In a bid to retain their economic power they have declared war on science and sought to subvert the truth through a diverse array of sophisticated campaigns.

The oil and gas industry uses their tremendous wealth to buy politicians and political outcomes. Their immense financial clout is also used to buy scientists and control academia.

Campaign finance is one of the most powerful weapons they have deployed in their war against the facts. The GOP has been working for the fossil fuel industry for years, and in the age of Trump they have consolidated their control over Republicans.

Disinformation is disseminated through lobbyists, think-tanks and front groups. One of the most pernicious purveyors of climate denial is the fossil fuel funded Heartland Group. They promote policy that supports industry and their disinformation campaigns target kids in public schools. They provide "educational" materials (textbooks and lesson plans) that try to circumvent the facts about anthropogenic climate change.

Their lies have been deeply ingrained in the nation's political discourse on education. Such disinformation has prompted a number of state legislators to question whether kids should be given access to the facts about climate change. In Idaho legislators said kids should not be taught that climate change is caused by human activity."

Read the article

Related:

Climate change: Big lifestyle changes 'needed to cut emissions': BBC

 

Oil And Gas Giants Spend Millions Lobbying To Block Climate Change Policies [Infographic]: Forbes

By Niall McCarthy 

 

Every year, the world's five largest publicly owned oil and gas companies spend approximately $200 million on lobbying designed to control, delay or block binding climate-motivated policy. This has caused problems for governments seeking to implement policies in the wake of the Paris Agreement which are vital in meeting climate change targets. Companies are generally reluctant to disclose such lobbying expenditure and late last week, a report from InfluenceMap used a methodology focusing on the best available records along with intensive research of corporate messaging to gauge their level of influence on initiatives to halt climate change. 

Go to Forbes article