Michael E. Mann -screencap from video interview given to Rolling Stone magazine, with "L" hand gesture overlaid. Used under fair use exemption for "commentary or criticism to the public through parody or satire."

Michael Mann: Carbon Shaming Celebrity Climate Hypocrites is a Big Oil Plot

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

According to Mann, whenever we point out the private jet traffic jams at climate conferences, or Clown Prince Harry’s latest green PR disaster, its all part of a sinister big oil conspiracy to discredit climate activists, by making them all look like useless hypocrites.

As denying climate change becomes impossible, fossil-fuel interests pivot to ‘carbon shaming’

Aylin Woodward 
Aug. 28, 2021, 11:06 AM

  • Fossil-fuel interests no longer bother denying that climate change is real.
  • So they’ve pivoted to new tactics, including painting climate advocates as hypocrites.
  • Drawing attention to advocates’ non-eco-friendly habits undermines their credibility and distracts from policy changes.

After Prince Harry told Oprah Winfrey that climate change and mental health are two of the “most important issues facing the world today,” the New York Post threw the words back at him. In a story earlier this week, the Post reported that the “double-talking dilettante” had taken a private plane from Colorado to California.

Sky News and The Times too, have lambasted Harry’s carbon-intensive jetsetting. All three publications are tied to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which previously denied the science of climate change. Murdoch is on the advisory board of Genie Energy, an energy company that invests in oil and gas projects.

London mayor Sadiq Khan, an anti-pollution advocate, got similar treatment from The Sun, another Murdoch-owned publication, for flying 32,000 miles (51,499km) between 2016 and 2019 and purchasing 4.3 million paper towels in a year.

According to Michael Mann, an atmospheric science professor at Pennsylvania State University, these types of stories are part of a larger strategy: Groups that support the continued use of fossil fuels have increasingly begun to point out climate advocates’ seemingly hypocritical behavior, rather than denying that climate change is real. It’s one of many new strategies the fossil-fuel industry has adopted, according to Mann’s latest book “The New Climate War.” 

Mann told Insider that in his view, “2009-2010 was the last hurrah for good old fashioned climate-change denialism.” By 2019, 62% of Americans agreed that climate change was affecting their day-to-day lives.

“It’s beyond not being able to deny the science,” he said. “It’s now a matter of having to deny reality.”

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/fossil-fuel-interests-target-climate-advocates-personally-2021-8

Anyone else noticed climate activists don’t seem to have a sense of humour? Perhaps that is why some people find it difficult to understand that when we point out the latest carbon outrage perpetrated by our hypocrisy challenged climate heroes, it is not part of some grand conspiracy to make them look silly. We just think its funny.

Get notified when a new post is published.
Subscribe today!
4.7 29 votes
Article Rating
135 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
September 1, 2021 1:56 pm

Whenever Micky Mannish speaks, the intellectual climate changes – for the worse.

It’s beyond not being able to deny the science,” he said. “It’s now a matter of having to deny reality.

That comment was autobiographical and the truest thing he said for a long time.

Olen
September 1, 2021 1:58 pm

Shaming not proof. Shaming easier than proving. It’s all they have.

michael hart
September 1, 2021 2:58 pm

My god, I’d never thought I would have to tell a man to shave his proximal phalanges.

Tom Abbott
September 1, 2021 3:34 pm

From the article: “It’s beyond not being able to deny the science,” he said. “It’s now a matter of having to deny reality.”

What a ridiculous statement!

Show us one shred of evidence that CO2 is the control knob of the Earth’s temperature.

Mann is claiming something that is not in evidence. It doesn’t matter how forcefully he asserts it is true, if he has no evidence, then he has no proof of anything, and he has no evidence, and he should know it better than anyone.

In other words, Michael Mann is blowing smoke in an effort to try to obscure the truth about his unsubstantitated assertions. He wants to change the subject.

What is being denied Michael Mann, is that your assertions equal evidence. They do not. They are your opinion. And your opinion is worthless.

Hivemind
September 1, 2021 3:44 pm

I don’t think they’re funny, I think they’re hypocrites. And dangerous loonies.

Zig Zag Wanderer
September 1, 2021 3:49 pm

its (sic) all part of a sinister big oil conspiracy to discredit climate activists, by making them all look like useless hypocrites.

They don’t need any help in that department

Reply to  Eric Worrall
September 1, 2021 6:34 pm

Napoleon.
Wasn’t that the pig’s name in Animal Farm?

Lrp
Reply to  Gunga Din
September 1, 2021 7:46 pm

Yes, they’re pigs

Quilter 52
September 1, 2021 4:19 pm

Can we assume Mickey wants to be invited to travel by the private jets But also wants no one to criticise him if he does?

observa
September 1, 2021 4:20 pm

Interesting how Ofcom had to choose between woke ginger and whinger or Queeny and sensed the popular mood-
Meghan Markle ‘absolutely livid’ over Piers Morgan ruling, royal expert claims (msn.com)

September 1, 2021 5:08 pm

Groups that support the continued use of fossil fuels have increasingly begun to point out climate advocates’ seemingly hypocritical behavior, rather than denying that climate change is real

This from the Mann who refuses to debate the science but rather sues those who disagree with him. He refuses to disclose his “evidence” during discovery. And then refuses to pay when he loses in court.
Some “scientist”!
PS Those people he’s defending? They ARE hypocrites.

Reply to  Gunga Din
September 1, 2021 5:12 pm

“Groups that support the continued use of fossil fuels have increasingly begun to point out climate advocates’ seemingly hypocritical behavior, rather than denying that climate change is real”

That was supposed to show as a quote of the Mann from the post.

Dean
September 1, 2021 5:13 pm

Well duh!!!

Only climate denying monsters don’t know that the attributes of CO2 in the atmosphere changes depending on the level of green credentials that the person emitting them.

In fact Mannie’s CO2 is so pure that it actually sequesters evil CO2 emissions from denying gargoyles.

Bruce Cobb
September 1, 2021 5:33 pm

The “L” stands for Liar.

John Sandhofner
September 1, 2021 7:23 pm

“point out climate advocates’ seemingly hypocritical behavior, rather than denying that climate change is real.” Actually we do both. We continually point out where the evidence refutes their claims but use the hypocrisy to expose the fact they don’t even believe in the threat. Their problem is the volume of evidence against their position is becoming so overwhelming that they are now in panic mode. Soon the volume of the evidence will cause their case to collapse under its own weight of deception.

Michael S. Kelly
September 1, 2021 11:21 pm

When Mann last “testified” before Congress, it was simply maddening. At the obviously choreographed behest of one of the Democrat representatives, he told the story of Trofim Lysenko’s reign of scientific terror in the Soviet Union. Mann’s account was astoundingly accurate. That shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone, since he has been replicating it in the present day United States, in the role of Lysenko. However, he presented it as though he was the victim of the modern Lysenkos, who, in his alternate reality, are the “climate deniers.”

I’ve testified before Congress a number of times, and know that it doesn’t permit debate unless the Members ask for it. No Republican asked Judith Curry, John Christy, or Roger Pielke, Jr. to respond to his remarks. Just another Republican failure in this battle of wits against half-wits.

https://www.ff.org/michael-mann-embarrasses-himself-before-congress/

richard
September 2, 2021 4:34 am

At Obamas party this year the usual crowd of useful fools turned up. The ones who spout climate change and the seriousness of covid.

Obama’s house is by the sea
They all turned up in private jets.
500+ partying in a large marquee when the rest of the country is told to keep their distance.

No one takes this nonsense seriously any more. I refer to a previous WUWT that article- “What this memo shows is EPA’s recognizing it had to move its global warming campaign away from the failed model of discredited Big Green pressure groups and their “mascots” the polar bears and polar ice caps, that “climate” has proved “consistently — an unpersuasive argument to make.” In it we see the birth of the breathtakingly disingenuous “shift from making this about the polar caps [to] about our neighbor with respiratory illness…” https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/03/18/happy-anniversary-most-cynical-epa-memo-ever/

Captain Climate
September 2, 2021 5:02 am

Mann is always good for some comedy.

Ryan
September 2, 2021 8:15 pm

some people find it difficult to understand that when we point out the latest carbon outrage perpetrated by our hypocrisy challenged climate heroes, it is not part of some grand conspiracy

I believe that’s called “Confession through projection”

Al Kour
September 2, 2021 10:18 pm

I always prefer oil industry to snake oil industry.