Parody image of Michael Mann in the mind control chair from the original version of the movie "Total Recall"

Michael Mann: Russian Web Bots are Causing Climate Activists to Fight Each Other

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

According to Michael Mann, the main obstacle to climate action is a coalition of Russian robots, Saudis, fossil fuel tycoons, Rupert Murdoch, Wikileaks and climate deniers.

Climatologist Michael E Mann: ‘Good people fall victim to doomism. I do too sometimes’

Jonathan Watts
@jonathanwatts
Sun 28 Feb 2021 03.00 AEDT

The author and eminent climate scientist on the deniers’ new tactics and why positive change feels closer than it has done in 20 years

Who is the enemy in the new climate war?
It is fossil fuel interests, climate change deniers, conservative media tycoons, working together with petrostate actors like Saudi Arabia and Russia. I call this the coalition of the unwilling.

If you had to find a single face that represents both the old and new climate war it would be Rupert Murdoch. Climate change is an issue the Murdoch press has disassembled on for years. The disinformation was obvious last year, when they blamed arsonists for the devastating Australian bushfires. This was a horrible attempt to divert attention from the real cause, which was climate change. Murdoch was taken to task by his own son because of the immorality of his practices.

We also have to recognise the increasing roles of petrostate actors. Saudi Arabia has played an obstructionist role. Russia has perfected cyber warfare and used it to interfere in other countries and disrupt action on climate change. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has made a credible case about Russia’s efforts to hijack the 2016 presidential election and get Trump elected. Russia wanted to end US sanctions that stood in the way of a half-trillion-dollar deal between Rosneft and ExxonMobil. It worked. Who did Trump appoint as his first secretary of state? Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil.

Today Russia uses cyberware – bot armies and trolls – to get climate activists to fight one another and to seed arguments on social media. Russian trolls have attempted to undermine carbon pricing in Canada and Australia, and Russian fingerprints have been detected in the yellow-vest protests in France.Advertisement

And WikiLeaks? Your book suggests they were involved?
I’m not an expert but there has been a lot of investigative journalism about the role they played in the 2016 election. Julian Assange and WikiLeaks helped Donald Trump get elected, and in doing that they did the bidding of Putin. Their fingerprints are also all over the climategate affair 10 years ago. UK investigators have evidence of Russian involvement in that too.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/27/climatologist-michael-e-mann-doomism-climate-crisis-interview

I’ve got news for you Mann, climate activists don’t need our help to fall out with each other. Just look at the fight between Michael Moore and the rest of the climate community over his anti-renewable energy eco-epic “Planet of the Humans”. Or that hilarious time Naomi Oreskes called James Hansen a “denier”, because of a disagreement over nuclear power.

Of course it helps that Michael Moore is part of the climate denier conspiracy. Moore’s “Planet of the Humans” insider attack against renewable energy and the climate establishment was a maskirovka master stroke.

The truth is the previous paragraph is a joke, Michael Moore is not an agent of fossil fuel interests, as far as I know. But do climate activists trust me to tell the truth? Maybe some of them will think I’m mocking climate activists by parading a snippet of the truth, then laughing about it, expecting nobody to believe my reveal.

What do you think, Michael Mann?

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Scissor
February 28, 2021 6:01 pm

He would look better with a mask.

Reply to  Scissor
February 28, 2021 6:09 pm

….. or, better still, a brown paper bag.

Where did the Koch brothers go? I think one passed away, but surely they’re still responsible for deliberately frying the planet along with the children, not to mention the polar bears.

Is this climate clown show coming to an end …… please ??

Scissor
Reply to  philincalifornia
February 28, 2021 6:24 pm

Paper or plastic?

Dean
Reply to  Scissor
February 28, 2021 8:24 pm

Obviously not single use plastic.

Geoff Sherrington
Reply to  Scissor
February 28, 2021 8:40 pm

Do scissors cut plastic or rocks?

Abolition Man
Reply to  Scissor
February 28, 2021 8:40 pm

Plastic with duct tape; it doubles as a viral protection to be worn at all times!

Pop Piasa
Reply to  philincalifornia
February 28, 2021 6:30 pm

I think the clown show might be reaching a new level of ridiculous just in time to get voted out if the Newsom recall happens. I think 2 years of this progressive despotism will convince anyone with a lick of horse sense that climate changes, always has, always will and adaptation is far more sensible than some theoretical attempt at mitigation which just happens to enable the biggest transfer of wealth in history. The progressives plan to crash the western world and necessitate world government. Truly woke folks see it plain as day.

MarkW
Reply to  Pop Piasa
March 1, 2021 8:42 am

How many years has it been since Grey Davis was kicked out?

John Tillman
Reply to  philincalifornia
February 28, 2021 6:54 pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Koch

A great American who in 2019 left behind a beautiful widow and three children, worth tens of billions of Yankee dollars.

Richard (the cynical one)
Reply to  philincalifornia
February 28, 2021 7:51 pm

As a skeptic, I am proud to be in such distinguished company as Russian robots, oil company tycoons, Robert Murdoch, various and sundry low life mouth breathing knuckle dragging slack jawed eye glazed denialists, because the unthinkable alternative would be to cede my right to reason, and join the lemmings as they are herded towards the cliff edge. Maybe David Attenborough would record our mass demise as the grand finale of his life’s lie.

henry Chance
Reply to  philincalifornia
February 28, 2021 7:53 pm

Koch (bros 2-1) own John Zink Hamsworthy the combustion engineering pollution control giant. They can clean your smokestack/exhaust. But it is expensive and the Chinese for example turn off their pollution control technology.
Koch had 4 sons and I met the dad in the 60’s.

Reply to  Scissor
February 28, 2021 6:35 pm

How about on a wanted poster for assassinating science.

Nick Graves
Reply to  Scissor
March 1, 2021 12:41 am

He’d look better if he squared-up Dr Tim Ball.

Robert W Turner
Reply to  Scissor
March 1, 2021 6:15 am

According to Michael Mann the villain, the main obstacle to climate action getting away with it is a coalition of Russian robots anonymous hackers, Saudis international boogeymen, fossil fuel tycoons people with jobs, Rupert Murdoch real news, Wikileaks those pesky kids, and climate deniers critical thinkers. And they would have got away with it too.

taz1999
Reply to  Robert W Turner
March 1, 2021 4:04 pm

Darn ruskies must be made of CO2. Ruskies effect everything, all the time, and there’s nothing they can’t do…

Richard Chenoweth
February 28, 2021 6:05 pm

moore looney tunes.

February 28, 2021 6:12 pm

Hey, Michael Mann . . . didn’t you forget to mention the Vogon Constructor fleet?

Neo
Reply to  Gordon A. Dressler
March 1, 2021 9:59 am

.. and our new Reptilian Overlords

Tom Halla
February 28, 2021 6:13 pm

Mann is definitely down the rabbit hole.

Editor
Reply to  Tom Halla
February 28, 2021 6:18 pm

I was thinking something similar, Tom…along the lines of he’s bat poo crazy.

Regards,
Bob

Tom Halla
Reply to  Bob Tisdale
February 28, 2021 6:24 pm

After MacIntyre and McKittrick demolished the “hockey stick” MBH 98 paper, Mann seemed to double down on his original claims. Mann really does seem impervious to evidence.

Mr.
Reply to  Tom Halla
February 28, 2021 8:18 pm

In the Guardian article, Mann said this –

This was part of a larger effort to discredit the science of climate change that is arguably the most well-funded, most organised PR campaign in history.

His delusion is that he thinks he was talking about skepticism, instead of the “settled science”

Jit
Reply to  Mr.
March 1, 2021 12:44 am

Well-funded PR? Mann has been pumping out his opinions about World Climate War Two on outlets with vast audiences, including the prime BBC breakfast radio show. I have yet to see or hear anything other than softball questions. No doubt all this will do wonders for his sales.

MarkW
Reply to  Mr.
March 1, 2021 8:44 am

If it is so well funded and organized, surely Mickey would have no trouble actually documenting it?
Of course he never does, he just keeps declaring that it must exist.

Roger Knights
Reply to  Mr.
March 1, 2021 3:09 pm

See my 2012 WUWT guest thread, “Notes From Skull Island – why climate skeptics aren’t ‘well funded and well organized’”

If our side were well funded and well organized, as warmists charge, it would have the following 22 characteristics–which it doesn’t.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/12/16/notes-from-skull-island-why-skeptics-arent-well-funded-and-well-organized/ 

Reply to  Bob Tisdale
February 28, 2021 11:44 pm

I was going to say Mann has lost it but I don’t think he ever found it

Chaswarnertoo
Reply to  Redge
March 2, 2021 1:02 am

Time he was sectioned.

Voltron
February 28, 2021 6:20 pm

Everyone who disagrees with me is a Russian bot

MarkW
Reply to  Voltron
March 1, 2021 8:45 am

That’s pretty much the mantra of all progressives.

Hugs
Reply to  Voltron
March 2, 2021 3:34 am

Absolutely. And conspiracist. I only spread facts, like Trump killed 500,000 Americans to Covid on purpose, deviously overriding resistance by state-level leaders such as Cuomo & DeBlasio, Trump is a neo-N**i, CPAC used Odan symbolism on stage, and so on. Like just keeping to the established, solid facts.

And Climate Change is a Fact! You can’t argue! Science! Science is the belief in the consensus of the experts!

February 28, 2021 6:23 pm

Does anyone even listen to this bloke anymore?
His stupidification is complete..

Trying to Play Nice
Reply to  Mike
March 1, 2021 6:18 am

He finds fingerprints everywhere. He really should upgrade his technology and look for DNA.

niceguy
Reply to  Trying to Play Nice
March 2, 2021 12:25 pm

I wonder why Mueller couldn’t find a use for his talent…

Al Miller
February 28, 2021 6:24 pm

the fact that this person holds a position at a university tells me what a joke our institutions have become.

Reply to  Al Miller
February 28, 2021 6:34 pm

The fact that this is the kind of person who teaches young pliable minds how to fabricate support for an emotionally supported political agenda is a bad omen for our future.

Alan Robertson
Reply to  Al Miller
March 1, 2021 12:02 am

Hey!
Not everyone gets to type a letter saying “I won the Nobel Prize” and pin it to their office door.
Think of the children.

Reply to  Alan Robertson
March 1, 2021 8:28 am

My tennis partner for a decade worked in Asheville side by side with some Climate notables (e.g. Karl). He received the same IPCC letter as Mike for his contributions, but the difference was he tried to hide the fact.

Pamela Matlack-Klein
Reply to  Al Miller
March 1, 2021 4:40 am

Back when I was looking at colleges and universities to apply to, Penn State College was considered a great place to go if you planned to major in PhyEd…. Serious students looked elsewhere. Just naming it a university has not really changed the place all that much has it?

Steve E.
Reply to  Al Miller
March 1, 2021 6:18 am

… and what a joke “peer review” has become.

Reply to  Al Miller
March 1, 2021 8:25 am

This is exactly what Simberg and Styne described and were then sued by MM; the whitewash Penn State gave to abuse allegations and subsequently to the Mann inquiry – that the money brought in by the two (very different) programs some how was evidence that the programs were well regarded and thus the charges must be false.
Of course the Penn State President went to prison for that judgement.

Roger Knights
Reply to  Al Miller
March 1, 2021 3:15 pm

Hw’s also a bigshot in the Skeptical Inquirer ecosystem, and recently received a very (formerly) prestigious award from some prestige institution. What laugh it’ll be on them if the Pranksters on Olympus turn down the temperature dial!

February 28, 2021 6:24 pm

It seems to me that the main obstacle to climate action is the lack of legitimate scientific support that anything needs to be done.

Reply to  co2isnotevil
February 28, 2021 8:55 pm

Agreed. If the chips were really down, people would be interested, however the only chips down seem to be the ones dribbling down Michael Mann’s shirt.

dodgy geezer
Reply to  co2isnotevil
March 1, 2021 2:10 am

That doesn’t actually seem to be an obstacle. Illegitimate science works quite well on politicians…

Reply to  dodgy geezer
March 1, 2021 9:36 am

It may work to a limited extent, but defying the laws of physics is unsustainable. The push back will never end until climate science is reformed.

Don
Reply to  co2isnotevil
March 1, 2021 2:47 pm

Yes that is a knotty one ! But the models don’t lie , all 76 of them even though the vast majority of them are way off the actual mark . Ironically the one that follows the actual climate the closest is the Russian one . Ha Ha Ha Ha !
. These climate change prostitutes are determined that climate change has the potential to destroy mankind no matter the lack of evidence in the real world and they will drive the world’s economies back into the stone age to prove it .
What really bothers me is not climate change , but the number of people and worse advanced nations Governments who seem to accept the insane narrative that climate change is an existential threat to mankind . Despite nothing has indicated this for at least 30-40 years since the scare started apart from natural waxing and wanings of many systems .

Sweet Old Bob
February 28, 2021 6:28 pm

M.M.
” I’m not an expert ….”
We know that !
😉

Dennis G Sandberg
February 28, 2021 6:28 pm

Michele Mann, is to climate what Paul Krugman, Emeritus Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton, is to economics.

Neither of them can possibly be as stupid as their remarks. I have to believe they provide their drivel solely to get published and reap the financial rewards that comes from the liberal MSM worship, knowing full well it’s all bull feathers.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Dennis G Sandberg
February 28, 2021 6:53 pm

“Michele Mann, is to climate what Paul Krugman, Emeritus Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton, is to economics.”

I think that is an excellent comparison. Two guys who are pruported to be intelligent but spew some of the most clueless drivel you ever heard.

It’s like listening to AOC talk. Nonsense all the way down.

Reply to  Tom Abbott
March 1, 2021 8:32 am

What’s really mind-boggling is that Krugman, for example, has been consistently wrong in his prognostications for many years, yet is still held up and looked to as an “expert” to make predictions about future trends.

Reply to  TonyG
March 1, 2021 12:30 pm

“…  has been consistently wrong in his prognostications …”

In one of Dr. Laurence Peters books he gives the following stories:

If a businessman gives the same problem to five different economists, he’ll get five different answers, six if one of them went to Harvard.

and:

Find me a one-armed economist – I’m sick and tired of hearing “On the other hand …”.

Rory Forbes
Reply to  Dennis G Sandberg
February 28, 2021 8:45 pm

It’s rather like Noam Chomsky struggling with economics when he should have stayed with linguistics. Thee poor guy just can’t wrap his great brain around the fact that no iteration of socialism works. He still believes he can pick up a turd by the clean end.

MarkG
February 28, 2021 6:29 pm

The left have banished pretty much everyone on the right who isn’t controlled opposition from social media.

As every sane person knows, when there’s no-one on the right for the left to attack, they start to eat each other. So that very success has become their downfall; they need someone to hate, and the only people remaining are other leftists.

Gary Ashe
February 28, 2021 6:33 pm

Mad Mickey lost the plot several years ago, he has always suffered from bunker mentality and been a confirmed conspiracy theorist which of course like Leftie wworth his salt he projects on to those that call out psuedo science and his tree ring circus.

Pauleta
February 28, 2021 6:34 pm

I can confirm that, I am a Russian bot.

Fraizer
Reply to  Pauleta
February 28, 2021 6:48 pm

That’s just what we would expect a Russian Bot to say.

Reply to  Pauleta
February 28, 2021 7:01 pm

Myself, the issue is different.

C3DEB51D-1212-4483-B4FA-9321E1BE8C83.jpeg
Ed Zuiderwijk
Reply to  Pauleta
March 1, 2021 5:14 am

Da.

Mr.
February 28, 2021 6:34 pm

I’m completely supportive of the msm giving Mann as much rope as possible to spruik his human-caused climate armageddon bs.

After all, unbridled exposure of perfidy to the general populace is what usually brings charlatans undone.

Reply to  Mr.
February 28, 2021 6:58 pm

As I’ve said before:

He is the very model of a modern useful idiot
He’s got lots of bogus data for the UN Secretariat

From the Pirates of Penn State, a Comic Opera

Abolition Man
Reply to  philincalifornia
February 28, 2021 8:21 pm

Are they Ice Pirates?

Rory Forbes
Reply to  Abolition Man
February 28, 2021 8:57 pm

Here’s the production with Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt …



Derge
Reply to  Abolition Man
March 5, 2021 12:16 am

These Ice Pirates 😉

https://youtu.be/B-YZ8WOU1-w

Rory Forbes
Reply to  philincalifornia
February 28, 2021 8:47 pm

Oh, well played that man … applause!

Abolition Man
Reply to  Rory Forbes
February 28, 2021 9:54 pm

Thanks, Rory!
That brings back happy, old time, family memories; I believe my father was in a production of “Pirates…” put on by our church choir when I was a kid.
I have always prefered “The Mikado,” especially the TV production with Groucho Marx that was a family staple in my youth; and many believe that Josephine Marcus first traveled to Tombstone as part of a troupe performing “H.M.S.Pinafore” where she met Wyatt while living with sheriff Johnny Behan!
There you have it; six degrees of Wyatt Earp!

Rory Forbes
Reply to  Abolition Man
February 28, 2021 10:43 pm

I played bit parts in “HMS Pinafore” and “Ruddigore” in high school (60 years ago). I’ve loved Gilbert and Sullivan ever since and seen productions, professional and private in London, New York, Toronto, Vienna, Cologne and here. Oddly, I knew that about Wyatt Earp.

Yes, it sure does bring back old times and better times.

Reply to  Abolition Man
March 1, 2021 8:34 am

I have always prefered “The Mikado,”

I’ve got a little list…

Reply to  Rory Forbes
March 1, 2021 7:47 am

Thank you, thank you. Aside from the little parasol to ward off either the man-made global heating or the global raining, the lyrics are just so apt:

I’m very well acquainted too with matters mathematical
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical
About binomial theorem I’m teeming with a lot o’ news—
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse

Chorus

With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypote-pote-nuse

February 28, 2021 6:38 pm

Because the whole Global warming-Climate Change boondoggle is based on lies, there is great scope for interpretation and disagreement amongst the Warmistas. Add in a natural tendency to aggressiveness and pugnaciousness b y Greenies,and nothing further is needed for conflict. Non-Warmistas can sit back and enjoy the fights.

Geoff Sherrington
Reply to  nicholas tesdorf
February 28, 2021 8:44 pm

aggression and pugnacity?

ThunderChicken
February 28, 2021 6:46 pm

EcoVangelist Elmer Fudd hath spoken!

Tom Abbott
February 28, 2021 7:03 pm

From the article: “MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has made a credible case about Russia’s efforts to hijack the 2016 presidential election and get Trump elected.”

Mann said this in the last few days? After Trump has been completely exonnerated of colluding with the Russians over the 2016 election? It was the Obama-Biden FBI and Justice Department that were the real people trying to hijack the 2016 election.

Obviously, Michael Mann is not very well-informed about current events. Or, I suppose he could be deliberately lying to try to make the Russians look like a likely suspect for turning alarmists against each other. If the Russians can do it to an election, then they can do it to alarmists.

Poor alarmists. They are under attack from the Russians. And Trump!

Michael Mann reminds me of the Red Skelton tv character who used to duck from imaginary diving birds. The character would declare: “There’s another flock of them!”.

Derg
Reply to  Tom Abbott
February 28, 2021 7:34 pm

Trump Russia colluuuusion….the fake news mother of all fake news.

Abolition Man
Reply to  Derg
February 28, 2021 8:43 pm

Shhhh! Don’t talk about it too loud or the FBI might hear you!

Abolition Man
Reply to  Tom Abbott
February 28, 2021 8:17 pm

It was going well until he cited Rachel Maddow as making a credible case for the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax! Then, after I picked myself up off the floor and found no major injuries, I stopped and said to myself: “ A. Man, A. Man, this Mickey Mann is nucking futz!
Citing Maddow is like citing Adam “Schifty” Schiff as an expert on Trump impeachment evidence, or Eric “Farty” Swalwell on Chinese security concerns!
I think philincalifornia may have hit the nail on the head; the DemoKKKrats are being transformed into a Monte Python version of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta! There are powerful forces at work here that seem to be making fools out of alarmists and their allies! This demands much further study and research; I’d better open another bottle of whiskey!

David A
Reply to  Tom Abbott
March 1, 2021 3:15 am

Michael Mann, now and forever, ” defending the indefensible”.

Reply to  Tom Abbott
March 1, 2021 8:39 am

I thought that questioning the integrity of an election was sedition?

Reply to  TonyG
March 1, 2021 3:58 pm

If you once read a book about anyone who had a gun, it’s insurrection.

Dakota
February 28, 2021 7:04 pm

On a serious note, Dr. Mann seems to have increasingly gone off the rails. His claims and rants have become more and more bizarre. Perhaps this is a result of his growing desperation in attempting to defend his indefensible pseudo-science. I seriously believe that he has a delusional mental health problem. It is time for an intervention. He really is a victim of the claims of climate change.

Gary Ashe
Reply to  Dakota
March 1, 2021 2:21 am

Yeah a victim of climate change.

Neo
Reply to  Dakota
March 1, 2021 10:23 am

Your “street cred” is only good for so long

Reply to  Dakota
March 1, 2021 4:00 pm

Maybe he could become the first climate refugee and f-off to somewhere without the internet. Will anyone miss him?

Richard M
February 28, 2021 7:07 pm

With the Earth cooling fast from the recent ENSO induced peak the situation is only going to get worse for pseudo-science activists like Mann. No new ENSO peaks on the horizon which means quick cooling could last throughout 2021. Coming up soon we will see the PDO and AMO move into negative territory which will then increase the cooling.

Of the claimed 1 C of warming we could very easily see much of it disappear. Don’t think he will be hanging around for many interviews in a few years. People would just point and laugh. He will become a mocked Mann.

Neo
Reply to  Richard M
March 1, 2021 10:26 am

They will back up a Type 78 Tracked Carrier next to a weather station in the Arctic .. and new warming records

Roger Knights
Reply to  Richard M
March 1, 2021 3:24 pm

Maybe he’ll switch to Global Cooling alarmism.

Anon
February 28, 2021 7:12 pm

When I see something as completely erroneous and nutty as that explanation, it really makes me doubt that Mann is a scientist at all. And the first part of any battle is to know your opponent, so with that kind of analysis, I actually feel safer as a climate skeptic, knowing Mann is off like Don Quixote, tilting at windmillsand far from my door / office. He is absolutely unhinged… which only makes me believe his science is unhinged as well. (sigh)

До свидания (lol)

ResourceGuy
Reply to  Anon
March 1, 2021 12:25 pm

Make that paid unhinged science, with benefits and honors also unhinged

harry
February 28, 2021 7:13 pm

Someone needs to build a Michael Mann cuckoo clock.

Gregory Woods
Reply to  harry
March 1, 2021 2:23 am

He is a cuckoo clock…

JCalvertN(UK)
February 28, 2021 7:17 pm

Isn’t Mann exhibiting “Conspiracist Ideation”? Maybe he should pay a visit to his shrink – namely the expert on the field of Recursive Fury and Conspiracist Ideation” – Dr Stephan Lewandowsky.

Tom
February 28, 2021 7:30 pm

“Russian trolls have attempted to undermine carbon pricing in Canada and Australia”

Russians would want the opposite. Forcing Canadian and Australian energy companies to pay stupid and exorbitant taxes will increase the break-even costs (already very high for Canadian Oil Sands projects) even higher, reducing competition for Russia’s energy exports.

Are we certain that Mann himself isn’t a Chinese/Russian hybrid AI bot/troll bent on destroying Western democracy and capitalism? He just spouts random incoherent nonsense.

February 28, 2021 7:36 pm

MIKEY MANN AND MIKEY MOORE….TWO UNFUNNY COMEDIANS. Mikey can’t prove this Russian bot thing or the CO2 thingy. Mikeys are bad people.

February 28, 2021 7:37 pm

Michael ….I have to ask…. are the Russian Web Bots in the room with us right now?

Reply to  MarkH
March 1, 2021 12:41 am

He can see them like Greta can see CO2…

ResourceGuy
Reply to  MarkH
March 1, 2021 12:35 pm

+25

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