Environment & Energy

LongTomH

(8,636 posts) Thu Mar 28, 2019, 05:30 PM Mar 2019

"And the Award for Climate Change Denial Goes to.............."

From the Weather Channel's Collateral blog: And the Award for Climate Change Denial Goes to.......:

The conservative Heartland Institute, a think tank that leads the charge in denying the scientific evidence for human-caused climate change, gave out 19 awards at Heartland-sponsored “climate conferences” between 2014 and 2017 for just that. According to an analysis by The Weather Channel Digital the recipients included:

Seven people with no background in science whatsoever.
Eleven with a bachelor’s level degree or better in a science.
One with no higher level degree at all.
Five with a bachelor’s level degree or better in climate science, specifically.
Nineteen (out of 19) who have established ties to industry groups and/or the Heartland Institute or other climate-skeptic think tanks.
Six who published on the subject of climate change in peer-reviewed journals, making them among the minority of publishing scientists in the topic of climate change.

Of the 11 winners with some science in their higher level education, only five have the background that lends itself to climate science. These include Sherwood Idso, a research physicist in geology and geography, who has multiple degrees in soil science and is touted by the Heartland Institute as being “one of the world’s leading authorities on the effects of carbon dioxide on plants.”

Sound like a lovely bunch? Actually, it's worse. Some of these people have ties to 'think tanks' funded by fossil fuel interests, including the Koch brothers.

There's also:

Meteorologist Roy W. Spencer has an advanced degree in atmospheric sciences. He is also an advisor to the Cornwall Alliance, an evangelical Christian group that claims environmentalism is “one of the greatest threats to society and the church today,” according to DeSmog.