This Changes Everything (78 page)

32
. Daniel Cusick, “Rapid Climate Changes Turn North Woods into Moose Graveyard,”
Scientific American
, May 18,
2012; Jim Robbins, “Moose Die-Off Alarms Scientists,”
New York Times
, October 14, 2013.

33
. Josh Bavas, “About 100,000 Bats Dead After Heatwave in Southern Queensland,” ABC News (Australia), January 8, 2014.

34
. Darryl Fears, “Sea Stars Are Wasting Away in Larger Numbers on a Wider Scale in Two Oceans,”
Washington Post
, November 22, 2013; Amanda Stupi, “What We Know—And Don’t Know—About the
Sea Star Die-Off,” KQED, March 7, 2014.

PART I: BAD TIMING

1
. William Stanley Jevons,
The Coal Question: An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal-Mines
(London: Macmillan and Co., 1865), viii.

2
. Hugo’s original: “C’est une triste chose de songer que la nature parle et que le genre humain n’écoute pas.” Victor Hugo,
Œuvres complètes de Victor
Hugo
, Vol. 35, ed. Jeanlouis Cornuz (Paris: Éditions Recontre, 1968), 145.

CHAPTER 1: THE RIGHT IS RIGHT

1
. Mario Malina et al., “What We Know: The Reality, Risks and Response to Climate Change,” AAAS Climate Science Panel, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2014, p. 3.

2
. Thomas J. Donohue, “Managing a Changing Climate: Challenges and Opportunities for the Buckeye State,
Remarks,” speech, Columbus, Ohio, May 1, 2008.

3
. Session 4: Public Policy Realities (video), 6th International Conference on Climate Change, The Heartland Institute, June 30, 2011.

4
. 
Ibid.

5
. “Va. Taxpayers Request Records from University of Virginia on Climate Scientist Michael Mann,” American Tradition Institute, press release, January 6, 2011; Christopher Horner, “ATI Environmental Law
Center Appeals NASA Denial of Request for Dr. James Hansen’s Ethics Dis
closures,” American Tradition Institute, press release, March 16, 2011; Session 4: Public Policy Realities (video), The Heartland Institute.

6
. Obama for America, “Barack Obama’s Plan to Make America a Global Energy Leader,” October 2007; personal interview with Patrick Michaels, July 1, 2011; Session 5: Sharpening the Scientific
Debate (video), The Heartland Institute; personal interview with Marc Morano, July 1, 2011.

7
. Larry Bell,
Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax
(Austin: Greenleaf, 2011), xi.

8
. Peter T. Doran and Maggie Kendall Zimmerman, “Examining the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change,”
Eos
90, (2009): 22-23; William R. L. Anderegg et al., “Expert Credibility in Climate
Change,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, 107 (2010): 12107-12109.

9
. Keynote Address (video), The Heartland Institute, July 1, 2011; Bob Carter, “There IS a Problem with Global Warming . . . It Stopped in 1998,”
Daily Telegraph
, April 9, 2006; Willie Soon and David R. Legates, “Avoiding Carbon Myopia: Three Considerations for Policy Makers Concerning Manmade Carbon Dioxide,”
Ecology Law Currents
37 (2010): 3; Willie Soon, “It’s the Sun, Stupid!” The Heartland Institute, March 1, 2009,
http://heartland.org
; Keynote Address (video), The Heartland Institute, June 30, 2011.

10
. Personal interview with Joseph Bast, June 30, 2011.

11
. In the years following the conference, news coverage rebounded to twenty-nine stories in 2012 and thirty stories in 2013. Douglas Fischer,
“Climate Coverage Down Again in 2011,”
The Daily Climate
, January 3, 2012; Douglas Fischer, “Climate Coverage Soars in 2013, Spurred by Energy, Weather,”
The Daily Climate
, January 2, 2014.

12
. Joseph Bast, “Why Won’t Al Gore Debate?” The Heartland Institute, press release, June 27, 2007; Will Lester, “Vietnam Veterans to Air Anti-Kerry Ads in W. Va.,” Associated Press, August 4, 2004; Leslie
Kaufman, “Dissenter on Warming Expands His Campaign,”
New York Times
, April 9, 2009; John H. Richardson, “This Man Wants to Convince You Global Warming Is a Hoax,”
Esquire
, March 30, 2010; Session 4: Public Policy Realities (video), The Heartland Institute.

13
. “Big Drop in Those Who Believe That Global Warming Is Coming,” Harris Interactive, press release, December 2, 2009; “Most Americans Think
Devastating Natural Disasters Are Increasing,” Harris Interactive, press release, July 7, 2011; personal interview with Scott Keeter, September 12, 2011.

14
. Lydia Saad, “A Steady 57% in U.S. Blame Humans for Global Warming,” Gallup Politics, March 18, 2014; “October 2013 Political Survey: Final Topline,” Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, October 9–13, 2013, p. 1; personal email
communication with Riley Dunlap, March 29, 2014.

15
. DEMOCRATS AND LIBERALS: Aaron M. McCright and Riley E. Dunlap, “The Politicization of Climate Change and Polarization in the American Public’s Views of Global Warming 2001–2010,”
The Sociological Quarterly
52 (2011): 188, 193; Saad, “A Steady 57% in U.S. Blame Humans for Global Warming”; REPUBLICANS: Anthony Leiserowitz et al., “Politics and
Global Warming: Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and the Tea Party,” Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, 2011, pp. 3–4; 20 PERCENT: Lawrence C. Hamilton, “Climate Change: Partisanship, Understanding, and Public Opinion,” Carsey Institute, Spring 2011, p. 4; OCTOBER 2013 POLL: “Focus Canada 2013: Canadian Public Opinion
About Climate Change,” The Environics Institute, November 18, 2013,
http://www.environicsinstitute.org
; AUSTRALIA, U.K., AND WESTERN EUROPE: Bruce Tranter, “Political Divisions over Climate Change and Environmental Issues in Australia,” Environmental Politics 20 (2011): 78-96; Ben Clements, “Exploring public opinion on the issue of climate change in Britain,”
British Politics
7 (2012): 183-202;
Aaron M. McCright, Riley E. Dunlap, and Sandra T. Marquart-Pyatt, “Climate Change and Political Ideology in the European Union,” Michigan State University, working paper, 2014.

16
. For a broad, accessible overview of the study of right-wing science denial, see Chris Mooney,
The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science—and Reality
(Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2012). CULTURAL
WORLDVIEW: Dan M. Kahan et al., “The Second National Risk
and Culture Study: Making Sense of—and Making Progress in—the American Culture War of Fact,” The Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School, September 27, 2007, p. 4, available at
http://www.culturalcognition.net
.

17
. Dan Kahan, “Cultural Cognition as a Conception of the Cultural Theory of Risk,” in
Handbook of Risk Theory
:
Epistemology,
Decision Theory, Ethics, and Social Implications of Risk
, ed. Sabine Roeser et al. (London: Springer, 2012), 731.

18
. Kahan et al., “The Second National Risk and Culture Study,” p. 4.

19
. Dan Kahan, “Fixing the Communications Failure,”
Nature
463 (2010): 296; Dan Kahan et al., “Book Review—Fear of Democracy: A Cultural Evaluation of Sunstein on Risk,”
Harvard Law Review
119 (2006): 1083.

20.
 Kahan, “Fixing the Communications Failure,” 296.

21
. Rebecca Rifkin, “Climate Change Not a Top Worry in U.S.,” Gallup, March 12, 2014; “Deficit Reduction Declines as Policy Priority,” Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, January 27, 2014; “Thirteen Years of the Public’s Top Priorities,” Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, January 27, 2014,
http://www.people-press.org
.

22
. Heather Gass, “EBTP at the One Bay Area Agenda 21 Meeting,” East Bay Tea Party, May 7, 2011,
http://www.theeastbayteaparty.com
.

23
. For more on the conservative movement’s role in climate change denial, see: Riley E. Dunlap and Aaron M. McCright, “Organized Climate Change Denial,” in
The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society
, ed. John S. Dryzek, Richard B. Norgaard, and David Schlosberg
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 144–160; and Aaron M. McCright and Riley E. Dunlap, “Anti-Reflexivity: The American Conservative Movement’s Success in Undermining Climate Science and Policy,”
Theory, Culture, and Society
27 (2010): 100–133. DENIAL BOOKS STUDY: Riley E. Dunlap and Peter J. Jacques, “Climate Change Denial Books and Conservative Think Tanks: Exploring the Connection,”
American
Behavioral Scientist
57 (2013): 705–706.

24
. Bast interview, June 30, 2011.

25
. Robert Manne, “How Can Climate Change Denialism Be Explained?”
The Monthly
, December 8, 2011.

26
. GORE: “Al Gore Increases His Carbon Footprint, Buys House in Ritzy Santa Barbara Neighborhood,” Hate the Media! May 2, 2010; HANSEN: William Lajeunesse, “NASA Scientist Accused of Using Celeb Status Among Environmental
Groups to Enrich Himself,” Fox News, June 22, 2011; Christopher Horner, “A Brief Summary of James E. Hansen’s NASA Ethics File,” American Tradition Institute, November 18, 2011; VINDICATED: David Adam, “ ‘Climategate’ Review Clears Scientists of Dishonesty over Data,”
Guardian
, July 7, 2010; FUELED: James Delingpole, “Climategate: The Final Nail in the Coffin of ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’?”
Daily Telegraph
, November 20, 2009; James Delingpole, “Climategate: FOIA—The Man Who Saved the World,”
Daily Telegraph
, March 13, 2013; BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: Wendy Koch, “Climate Wars Heat Up with Pulled Unabomber Billboards,”
USA Today
, May 4, 2012.

27
. Personal interview with James Delingpole, July 1, 2011; Bast interview, June 30, 2011.

28
. Bast interview, July 1, 2011.

29
. “The Rt Hon. Lord
Lawson of Blaby,” Celebrity Speakers,
http://www.speakers.co.uk
; Nigel Lawson,
The View from No. 11: Britain’s Longest-Serving Cabinet Member Recalls the Triumphs and Disappointments of the Thatcher Era
(New York: Doubleday, 1993), 152–62, 237–40; Tim Rayment and David Smith, “Should High Earners Pay Less Tax,”
The Times
(London), September 11, 2011; Nigel Lawson,
An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look
at Global Warming
(New York: Duckworth Overlook, 2008), 101.

30
. Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway,
Merchants of Doubt
(New York: Bloomsbury, 2010), 5, 25–26, 82, 135,164; Václav Klaus, “The Climate Change Doctrine Is Part of Environmentalism, Not of Science,”
Inaugural Annual GWPF Lecture
, October 19, 2010,
http://www.thegwpf.org
.

31
. Robert J. Brulle, “Institutionalizing Delay: Foundation Funding
and the Creation of U.S. Climate Change Counter-Movement Organizations,”
Climatic Change
122 (2014): 681.

32
. In addition to questioning whether the concept of “worldview” is truly distinct from political
ideology and possesses unique explanatory power, social scientists have criticized cultural cognition theory for neglecting the structural drivers of the climate change denial movement. For
key examples of scholarship focusing on the social, political, and economic dynamics of that movement, see Dunlap and McCright, “Organized Climate Change Denial,” and McCright and Dunlap, “Anti-Reflexivity.” On the Heartland Institute’s funding: according to Greenpeace USA’s ExxonSecrets project, the organization “has received $676,500 from ExxonMobil since 1998”; according to Heartland itself, it
received a total of $100,000 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation in 1992 and 1993 and $50,000 from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation in 1994; and according to the Conservative Transparency database maintained by the American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, Heartland received an additional total of $42,578 from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation between 1986 and 1989 and in 2011, an additional
total of $225,000 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation between 1988 and 1991 and in 1995, a total of $40,000 from the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation (connected to the Koch family) between 1992 and 1999, and a total of $10,000 from The Carthage Foundation (a Scaife foundation) in 1986. See: “Factsheet: Heartland Institute,” ExxonSecrets.org, Greenpeace USA,
http://www.exxonsecrets.org
; Joseph
L. Bast, “A Heartland Letter to People for the American Way,” The Heartland Institute, August 20, 1996,
http://heartland.org
; “Heartland Institute,” Conservative Transparency, Bridge Project, American Bridge 21st Century Foundation,
http://conservativetransparency.org
. “MERITS OF OUR POSITIONS”: “Reply to Our Critics,” The Heartland Institute,
http://heartland.org/reply-to-critics
; LEAKED DOCUMENTS:
“2012 Fund-raising Plan,” The Heartland Institute, January 15, 2012, pp. 20–21.

33
. “Money Troubles: How to Kick-Start the Economy,”
Fareed Zakaria GPS,
CNN, August 15, 2010; “Factsheet: Cato Institute,” ExxonSecrets.org, Greenpeace USA,
http://www.exxonsecrets.org
; “Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group: Cato Institute,” Greenpeace USA,
http://www.greenpeace.org
; “Case Study: Dr. Willie
Soon, a Career Fueled by Big Oil and Coal,” Greenpeace USA, June 28, 2011,
http://www.greenpeace.org
.

34
. “Factsheet: Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow,” ExxonSecrets.org, Greenpeace USA,
http://www.exxonsecrets.org
; Suzanne Goldenberg, “Secret Funding Helped Build Vast Network of Climate Denial Thinktanks,”
Guardian
, February 14, 2013.

35
. Lawrence C. Hamilton, “Climate Change: Partisanship,
Understanding, and Public Opinion,” Carsey Institute, Spring 2011, p. 4; “Vast Majority Agree Climate Is Changing,” Forum Research, July 24, 2013, p. 1,
http://www.forumresearch.com
.