It’s a Hoax! — 1
Featuring: Editor John Nolte of Breitbart
“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
- Businessman Donald Trump, November 6, 2012 (via Twitter)
Although evidence now presented even in the corporate media of the devastating effects of global climate destabilization has finally become awkwardly undeniable for the Denialists, certain groups and individuals still actively promote the notion that global climate destabilization (RAGH!) is “silliness”, “a scam”, or “bullshit”, which is based on “bad science” spread by “liberal media” promoting a “hoax”. President Trump’s penchant for calling “a hoax” anything inconvenient to his narcissistic view of the world is wearing thin, but as the Coronavirus outbreak is demonstrating, he can get considerable mileage out of it.[1]
Breitbart News operates as a syndicated on-line media website, dependent on ad revenue but appealing to a highly politically “conservative” audience. In Breitbart, on April, 2019 (31 years after Hansen’s Congressional testimony), John Nolte, (described as an “Editor at Large”) wrote his assessment of Global Climate Destabilization in an article titled: “Scientists Prove Man-Made Global Warming Is a Hoax”.[2] His “proof” for his claim (that anthropogenic climate change is a hoax) is that scientists in Potsdam have proven that three million years ago CO2 levels were the same on earth as they were today.[3] He points out that there were no humans 3,000,000 years ago and delivers this spectacular deduction: “But I thought humans warmed the planet? That’s the hustle we’ve been sold for three decades now — you know, that WE are the problem.” Nolte reinforces among his readers the idea that global climate destabilization is really a “Global Warming Hoax”. He argues that since the earth’s climate fluctuates naturally, clearly the current warming is just another natural fluctuation:
“…even the most maniacal pushing the Global Warming Hoax admit that, at best, we can only cool the planet a couple of degrees, which will do next to nothing if the planet is determined to again warm itself by seven degrees…”
What is disappointing about his article is that it doesn’t bother to address the (calculated, conspiratorial) “hoax” aspect of global climate destabilization. Nor do any of the 3000+ posters and commentors take Nolte to task for this omission. Hoaxes are perpetrated. They are not mere misunderstandings, mistakes, or manifestations of ignorance. Nolte doesn’t give his readers the courtesy of speculating who is behind the hoax. At least Trump had the “courage” to openly blame the Chinese for perpetrating the “hoax” of Global Warming for purposes of economic advantage. Nolte doesn’t do that. Nolte is already writing to a choir of true unbelievers. His audience doesn’t need proofs or evidence. They don’t need to have names of the hoax’s cabal named. The true unbelievers in Nolte’s grasp already know the conspiracy is real and the truth is out there.
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[1] Daniel Dale. “Fact Check: Trump tries to erase the memory of him downplaying the coronavirus” March 17, 2020. CNN.com https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/17/politics/fact-check-trump-always-knew-pandemic-coronavirus/index.html
[2] John Nolte, “Scientists Prove Man-Made Global Warming Is a Hoax” Breitbart, April, 2019. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/04/09/nolte-scientists-prove-man-made-global-warming-is-a-hoax/
[3] The same study was used by other denialist sites, with the same faulty reasoning employed by John Nolte, in an attempt to promote denialism and cast doubt on scientific conclusions that human activities are driving the current warming. See the thorough analysis of the Nolte Article in Climate Feedback, April 11, 2019 (edited by Scott Johnson and updated April 15, 2019): https://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/breitbart-article-baselessly-claims-a-study-of-past-climate-invalidates-human-caused-climate-change-john-nolte/
