150 Congressional Climate Liars, All GOP; Avg Lifetime FF Contributions/Member - $455,730
According to new analysis from the Center for American Progress (CAP), there are 30 fewer lawmakers in Congress compared to last year who deny some element of climate change — whether it’s fully denying that global temperatures are increasing at all or just that warming is exacerbated by human activity. (ThinkProgress is an editorially independent publication housed at CAP).
That means there are total 150 lawmakers who deny or downplay climate change, all Republicans, who were singled out by the report. They represent 28 percent of the 116th Congress. Together, these lawmakers have received an average lifetime contribution of $455,730.55 from fossil fuel political action committees (PACs), CEOs, and employees. The current drop reflects a shift in public sentiment, in addition to evolving ways of talking about and addressing climate change.
Much of the decline is due to the 2018 election exodus when 47 lawmakers defined as “climate deniers” by CAP left office or were defeated — either during the primaries or the November midterm elections. With some other newly elected climate deniers, this brings the overall decline to 30 lawmakers. The organization’s definition of a “denier” falls along specific parameters to include anyone who denies “the scientific consensus that climate change is happening” or that humans are contributing to it, along with any individuals who do not feel that it is an “urgent threat.”
These lawmakers also reflect the rhetoric and policies of President Donald Trump and other top officials in the administration, who have questioned the existence of climate change and overseen the mass rollback of environmental regulations, all while bolstering fossil fuels, including the dying coal industry. “These climate deniers illustrate the forceful hand that the fossil fuel industry has in politics, both through the industry’s direct contributions to candidates and also in more subtle ways, like hand-picking many members of Trump’s administration and funding massive public misinformation campaigns,” said Sally Hardin, a research analyst with CAP.
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https://thinkprogress.org/number-of-climate-deniers-decline-congress/
