The Climate News Cabal Just Can’t Quit

Opinion by Kip Hansen – 9 July 2021

The Climate News Cabal:  a loose association of pseudo-journalists who have enlisted like-minded souls to strive to promote Climate Alarm in every news and media outlet in the world, and it should be noted that there is more than one of these nefarious outfits, are still at it.  Worse than ever.  I call them pseudo-journalists because they have abandoned all the mores of journalism for the thrill of viewpoint and political advocacy masquerading as journalism.   One of these groups is Covering Climate Now which corrupts journalism out of, ironically, the Columbia Journalism Review.

I’m on their mailing list (Sun Tzu – “Keep Your Enemies Closer”).  They email all their thoroughly nonsensical plans for making the world believe we are all going to die in . . . . countdown . . . 10 – 9 – 8  – 7 –  …   years  if  we-the-people  “don’t do as we-the-elites say!”  It is always a threat and the things that all of us must do is always the same – there is a prescribed list from the UN/IPCC/SDGs/Green-New-Dealers and everyone left of Ike Eisenhower:   Give up all petroleum products, give up your gasoline and diesel automobiles, give up 24/7 electrical power (only those who have it must give it up, those who don’t yet have it must never be allowed to have it in the first place).  And a few other odd little things:  give up eating meat, give up having families with children, traveling anywhere you can’t walk or bicycle to. 

Here’s CCNow’s latest tirade delivered to my email in-tray:

Do climate deniers really believe their nonsense?
JULY 8, 2021

It’s a trope in political journalism to wonder whether high profile climate deniers are “in on the joke.” That is, do they realize privately that the science is unequivocal but cynically choose to claim the opposite in public? Or are they truly, hopelessly uninformed?

In a video obtained this week by CNN, US Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, said the following in June during a luncheon with GOP women: “I don’t know about you guys, but I think climate change is bullshit.” (Johnson mouthed the operative word, as if that makes a difference.) He further claimed, falsely, that “more and more” scientists are debunking climate change—and he unironically said that taking climate action will be “a self-inflicted wound.”

That’s pretty straightforward. And given the private setting, it’s reasonable to conclude that Johnson—a man with virtually unlimited access to expertise and resources—actually believes it. 

It’s not only politicians, of course. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board called an effort by French President Emmanuel Macron to amend his country’s constitution to account for climate change “the latest example in Western democracies of the disconnect between elites obsessed with climate change and the public.”

In fact, studies and surveys repeatedly show that the public is urgently concerned about climate change. A June report by the Yale Program for Climate Communication found that majorities in each of 31 countries surveyed, often by large margins, want governments to make climate change a priority; in the US, the majority is smaller but nevertheless clearly in favor of taking action. This, despite the fact that only one in five Americans realize that scientists agree that climate change is real, human caused, and very dangerous.

Climate denial and misinformation will likely get worse now that meaningful action is finally on the table. Today’s weather extremes are making the emergency increasingly obvious, yet misperceptions still pervade segments of both elite and mass opinion, particularly in the US. Some climate deniers doubtless don’t want to know any better. Some of the misperceptions, however, are rooted in years of inadequate media coverage. Journalists must now make the facts unambiguously clear to all audiences–including the fact that only rapid, far-reaching action will preserve a livable climate for all of us.

No author taking credit, of course (who would put their name to that if they could dodge it?)  As you can imagine, I might have written it this way:

“It’s a trope in skeptical  journalism to wonder whether high profile climate alarmists are “in on the joke.” That is, do they realize privately that the science is nonsensical but cynically choose to claim the opposite in public? Or are they truly, hopelessly uninformed?”

“I mean, do Al Gore or Emma Thompson or Jane Fonda or Brad Pitt actually believe that flying around the world in private jets to spread climate alarm in countries where the people don’t even have toilets or electric lights is the right thing to do?”

That just might be me, but really? 

You see how CCNow works, they try to shame a sitting US Senator, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, for admitting his true personal understanding in public (of all places, after all, he is a politician):

“In a video obtained this week by CNN, US Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, said the following in June during a luncheon with GOP women: “I don’t know about you guys, but I think climate change is bullshit.” (Johnson mouthed the operative word, as if that makes a difference.) He further claimed, falsely, that “more and more” scientists are debunking climate change—and he unironically said that taking climate action will be “a self-inflicted wound.”

Hmmm, Ron Johnson thinks climate change is BS – so what?  He thinks that “’more and more’ scientists are debunking climate change” – we can’t fact check Senator Johnson’s opinion – its an opinion.  But are “more and more” scientists debunking climate change?  Let see.  Try a brief Amazon search for recent books skeptical of climate change and climate change policy.  Gee, more and more scientists are writing books debunking climate alarmism.  As always, no one (almost . .  some nut-cases out there)  claims that the climate or climates don’t  change.

Will some types of radical climate action be “a self-inflicted wound.”?  You betcha!  Some nations have already suffered self-inflicted wounds through their misguided climate policies.  That’s supported by even more scientists, politicians and economists than are skeptical of climate change in general. 

So, Senator Johnson, gives his unvarnished opinion on climate change (“BS”) and points out two true things but CCNow pretends that they are two false things.

But, wait, there is more! The link on the word “bullshit” in the CCNow email links to a progressive political hit-job show on CNN, ”Kfile”, from which these quotes are taken:

“In a statement, Johnson told CNN, “My statements are consistent. I am not a climate change denier, but I also am not a climate change alarmist. Climate is not static. It has always changed and always will change.” The senator offered a similar statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week, and later posted a response with his opinion on climate change on his Senate website, in which he said humanity could “easily adapt” to climate change.”

“Also in 2010, Johnson falsely suggested that the country Greenland was “actually green at one point in time,” to dismiss the effects of climate change.”

My goodness, his sin is noticing that the climate has changed and changes, and admitting to not being a climate alarmist (which seems to be required in the eyes of CNN).  Johnson foolishly, apparently believes that mankind can adapt to climate change (as we have done for all of the modern warm period).  But to state that Greenland was actually green at one time — that must be labelled false.

Do you think that anyone at CCNow or our striving CNN climate alarmists have actually been to Greenland?  Can they really not know that much of it’s coastal area is green today and much more of it was green during the last two previous warm periods?

That looks pretty green to me, all except the mountain tops – which is true in Los Angeles, California in the winter too. 

To add insult to injury, CCNow goes beyond any supportable truth and claims:  “scientists agree that climate change is real, human caused, and very dangerous.”  That is NOT true.

This is my opinion which I believe to be far closer to the truth, closer to actuality:

“Most scientists agree that some notion of “climate change” is real – it ranges from ‘climate is always changing’ through ‘the Earth appears to be warming slightly’ to full-blown climate alarm.   Many scientists agree that human changes to the environment – our many massive cities, ubiquitous land use changes, deforestation, widespread agriculture and so-called greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere – may or probably have caused some of that change.  Only very few scientists public state, in published work, that climate change is currently “very dangerous” – many more are willing to state that it might become, some vague time in the future, dangerous enough to require adaptation.  – Kip Hansen”

CCNow, Climate Desk, and other efforts of this type are destroying the trust that the general public once had in journalists and journalism and especially in science journalism – these advocacy cabals stretch, distort, misrepresent and warp both the facts and current events intentionally to “move the public mind” – which used to be called brainwashing – to make what is not real appear real.  Despicable. 

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Author’s Comment:

I have strong opinions on this topic, but have restrained myself.  Most importantly, readers should realize that their friends, neighbors, colleagues and relatives – all around the world – are being fed this type of intentional misleading climate news every day in every news story that climate alarm can be shoehorned into, whether it fits or not.  It is no wonder that they are scared. 
I haven’t bothered to debunk much of the obviously false and misleading stuff in the CCNow email … those wishing to contribute can do so in comments. 

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