As President Trump’s nominees for government positions go
through their Senate hearings, several of them have been asked about their
views on climate change. The nominees have generally deflected questions on the
issue by claiming there is a question as to how much effect manmade emissions
are having on the climate. None of the nominees addressed the fact that
essentially all climate scientists publishing research today have stated
manmade emissions are responsible for the climate change observed in recent
decades.
Marc Morano, publisher of the skeptical news site Climate
Depot and a known climate change denier, defended the nominees statements and
was quoted saying, “This is a semantic game that Trump’s Cabinet officials are
playing,” Morano said. “Obviously, if you say you believe in climate change, it’s
a meaningless statement. The media is so easy to fall for misdirections on this
issue, and the Trump nominees have mastered that this week. You sort of just
laugh at how gullible the media is.”[1]
Using statements that ‘feel’ true, but aren’t, is a popular
strategy when one isn’t supported by the facts. As Mr. Morano pointed out, it is
surprising to see how easily the news media allows itself to be duped into
being the unwitting partner in this effort, frequently unwittingly publishing
unsubstantiated claims as being valid and lending its own credibility to the
source in the process.
A case in point is Tom Harris, executive director of the
misnamed International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC). Harris is but one
example of a group of individuals and organizations engaged in a tobacco
industry-style campaign concerning climate change. As the executive director of
ICSC, Mr. Harris is paid to place editorials and letters in news outlets to
support the cause of the fossil fuel industry, using questionable logic,
science and claims.
“It’s pretty surprising to see how easily the media allows
itself to get duped into this,” says Dr. Christopher Keating, a physicist who
does research in geophysics and has published two books on climate change. “His
articles have no scientific credibility and he isn’t even consistent in his
claims.”
Harris has stated Canada
should follow the advice of Philippine President Duterte and opt out of the Paris agreement on climate
change.[3]
For the record, Duerte has been implicated in the deaths of thousands, has
compared himself to Hitler[4],
stated he regrets he did not participate in the rape and murder of a lay
minister[5]
and said he once threw a man out of a helicopter.[6]
“This is not the example I would’ve used,” opines Keating.
“He has even had his articles reprinted in North
Korea[7]
and Uzbekistan.[8]
Meaning, he has been endorsed by two of the most despotic regimes in the world
and thinks we should take advice from Duterte. But, the news media keeps publishing
his submissions.”
“So, in one article, he tells us there is no global warming, that there is global warming and it’s a good thing, and that there is global warming but it’s a bad thing and people are suffering from it. Which one is it? He also promotes the NIPCC by repeating their claim climate change isn’t real while, at the same time, stating they are wrong because it is real. And, amazingly enough, the media allows itself to be used this way.”
The NIPCC, or Nongovernmental International Committee on
Climate Change, is a fake science organization funded by the Heartland
Institute in an effort to undermine the United Nations’ IPCC.
“The NIPCC has been completely debunked[10]
and shown to be a pseudoscience organization,” continued Keating. “Harris often
says they have thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers to support their
claims, but he can never produce any valid science. That’s because they don’t
have any. Citing them as a source is like citing an astrologer. If you say
climate change isn’t real because NIPCC says so, you might as well say it isn’t
real because your daily horoscope in the newspaper says so. Both would be
equally valid.”
NIPCC was founded and funded by Heartland
Institute[11], which
calls itself “the world’s most prominent think tank promoting skepticism about
man-made climate change”. As such, NIPCC is funded, directly and indirectly, by
fossil fuel interests and its goal is to undermine credible science. It even
picked its name so that it can be confused with the UN’s IPCC and designed it’s
publications to look the same as the UN reports. According to Keating, “This is
a deliberate effort on their part to confuse the public. And yet, the media
refers to them as if they are a credible source.”
“NASA, NOAA, the American Geophysical Union, the American
Physical Society, and all the official scientific bodies of the nations on
Earth agree that human activities are driving global warming. Climate research from across the world is
summarized every several years by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
the IPCC. But Harris asks the news media
to ignore the world’s climate scientists and the IPCC’s summary in favor of the
NIPCC. And, news services all over the country willingly go along,” points out
Keating.
Another example Keating cites is how the media repeats
Harris when he states climate change is “a topic of intense debate in the
science community.” [12]
“This is a false statement and he completely ignores the fact that over 99% of recently
published climate scientists[13]
and 97% of all surveyed climate scientists[14] are
in agreement that manmade emissions are causing climate change. There is no
debate among credible scientists on this issue. The science is massively
overwhelming and conclusive – manmade emissions are changing the climate.”
Harris frequently claims scientists and environmentalists “expect
us to believe humanity controls our planet’s climate as if we had a global
thermostat,”[15] and states,
that “proof is lacking that humans control the climate.”[16]
“No one is saying we control the climate,” says Keating. “The
science shows we are changing the climate, not controlling it. So, why is he
making such a deceptive statement?”
Another frequent statement Harris makes is “The climate is always
changing.” Keating responded, “This is the current ‘I hate science’ statement,
similar to the claim “I’m not a scientist, but…” When people say this, they are
implying they think all of the climate scientists in the world are unaware of
that fact. We have climate scientists because the climate is always changing.
The question is, ‘why is the climate changing today?’ Either Harris is unable
to realize this, or he’s counting on his readers to be unable to figure it out
for themselves. Really, there is no alternative. And, it is very deceitful
because the climate has never changed this fast. It is easy to come to the
conclusion that Harris leaves those facts out because it doesn’t help his
agenda.”
Keating addressed Harris’ claims that we shouldn’t do
anything about CO2 emissions because it is not a pollutant.[19]
“Harris says CO2 is not a pollutant because it occurs naturally and
is good for plants. The same can be said about raw sewage. It is produced
naturally and has been used as fertilizer for thousands of years. But, no one
wants it in their yard. You would have a hard time convincing people that
sewage in their drinking water wasn’t pollution. What Harris is failing to
mention is we are not discussing naturally produced CO2, we
discussing CO2 produced by automobiles and power plants. Those emissions
are not natural and are pollutants. And, Mr. Harris is misleading with his
statements because he leaves out a lot of important information. For instance,
CO2 would also be good for plants we don’t want, such as weeds in
farm fields.”
His attempts to refer to science are equally bad. In one
instance, he wrote an article, published in the Washington Post, claiming there
was no scientific validity to an average surface temperature.[20]
When this article was reviewed by seven climate scientists, their conclusion
was that Harris’ overall scientific credibility was “very low.”[21]
“Why would the news media lend credence to someone who is
rated as having ‘very low’ scientific credibility? This is one of those things
the news media really needs to rethink,” says Keating.
Harris’ has lately been undermining efforts to address
climate change by claiming we should instead by using that money to help people
suffering from climate change. In an article published in the Des Moines
Register, Harris stated, “Across the world people are suffering due to the
effects of dangerous climate change. Yet aid agencies are unable to secure
sufficient funds to help them because, of the more than $1 billion spent
globally every day on climate finance, only 6 percent of it is goes to
helping vulnerable people adapt to climate change today. The rest is spent
trying to stop climate phenomena that might, or might not, happen in the
distant future. This is immoral, effectively valuing the lives of people yet to
be born more than those in need today.”[22]
“This is really an amazing statement on his part,” says
Keating. “The reason people are suffering today is because Harris, and people
like him, worked hard to prevent any actions from being taken back when we had
a chance. Now, he’s essentially saying we shouldn’t do anything about climate
change today because we didn’t do anything in the past. And, he doesn’t say
anything about those people who will suffer in the future because we didn’t
address climate change today.”
“After reading his statements, it seems to me that he is
only interested in protecting wealthy people who are making fortunes from the
fossil fuel industry and not workers and the world’s poor.” Keating cites Harris’
strong ties to the Heartland Institute, which has received funding from tobacco
companies and numerous fossil fuel companies to support its anti-science
campaigns, including the effort to convince people that second-hand smoke is
not dangerous. Harris was awarded Heartland’s 2014 Winner of the Excellence in
Climate Science Communications Award.[23]
Other winners are Fred W. Singer, a man strongly associated with the largest
campaign of deceit in American history, one which the tobacco industry admitted
to and paid hundreds of billions of dollars in penalties for. In the past,
Harris was the Director of Operations for the High Park Advocacy Group, a
fossil fuel industry lobby firm. He was also a senior associate with APCO
Worldwide, a PR firm that worked with tobacco giant Phillip Morris to develop a
response to findings concerning the hazards of second-hand smoke.[24]
“We see this coordinated campaign to undermine science to
the advantage of certain industry groups,” concludes Keating. “Harris is only
one example of the people engaged in these efforts. They are certainly free to
say these things, but I think the news media should also inform people of the
nature of their campaign. People have the right to know.”
[1]
Cama,Timothy, Trump nominees dodge
‘climate denier’ charge, The Hill, January 22, 2017, http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/315385-trump-nominees-dodge-climate-denier-charge
[2] Harris,
Tom, Climate change realism goes international, International Conference on
Climate Change, Mar 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgAHyQzIMOw&feature=youtu.be
[3] Harris, Tom, Ontario tilting at
climate windmills, Toronto
Sun, 22 Sep 2016, http://www.torontosun.com/2016/09/22/ontario-tilting-at-climate-windmills
[4] Rodrigo
Duterte vows to kill 3 million drug addicts and likens himself to Hitler, The
Guardian, 1 Oct 2016,
[5] Leading Philippine presidential contender: Gang rape
victim ‘so beautiful’ he wishes he had ‘been first’, Washington Post, 18 Apr
2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/18/leading-philippines-presidential-contender-gang-rape-victim-so-beautiful-he-wishes-he-had-been-first/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.cf0e034fb617
[6] Philippine leader says once threw man from helicopter,
would do it again, Reuters, 29 Dec 2016, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-duterte-helicopter-idUSKBN14I0DH
[7] Harris, Tom, TOM HARRIS: U.N. clouding the debate over
climate change, North Korea Times, 14 Oct 2015,
http://www.northkoreatimes.com/index.php/sid/237619209
[8] Harris, Tom, TOM HARRIS: U.N. clouding the debate
over climate change, UzbekistanNews.Net, 14 Oct 2015, http://www.uzbekistannews.net/article/237619209/tom-harris-un-clouding-the-debate-over-climate-change
[9] Harris,
Tom, Little money available to help poor adapt to climate change, Inside
Halton.com, 13 Sep 2016, http://m.insidehalton.com/opinion-story/6855608-little-money-available-to-help-poor-adapt-to-climate-change
[10] Mann,
Michael and Gavin Schmidt, Not the IPCC (“NIPCC”) Report, RealClimate.org, 28
Nov 2008, http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2008/11/not-the-ipcc-nipcc-report/
[12] Harris,
Tom, Misleading language in the climate debate, Press and Sun Bulletin, 1 Nov, 2016,
http://www.pressconnects.com/story/opinion/readers/2016/11/01/misleading-language-climate-debate/93124536/
[13] Powell,
James Lawrence, The Consensus on Anthropogenic Global Warming, Skeptical
Inquirer, Vol. 39.6, Nov/Dec 2015, http://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_consensus_on_anthropogenic_global_warming
[14] Cook,
John, et al., Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the
scientific literature, , ,
[15] Harris,
Tom, Hanging together to save affordable power, Washington Times, 6 Apr 2016,
[16] Harris, Tom, Proof lacking that humans control
climate, Watertown Daily Times, 29 Oct 2016, http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/opinion/proof-lacking-that-humans-control-climate-20161029
[18] Harris, Tom, DiCaprio climate catastrophe film boosts Clinton campaign, Canada
Free Press, 28 Oct 2016, http://canadafreepress.com/article/dicaprio-climate-catastrophe-film-boosts-clinton-campaign
[19] Suzuki,
David, Pollutant or plant food?, Castanet.net, 28 Sep, 2016, http://www.castanet.net/news/Opinion/177027/Pollutant-or-plant-food
[20] Harris, Tom, Deceptive temperature record claims,
Washington Post, 23 Aug 2015, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/23/tom-harris-global-warming-deceptive-temperature-re/
[21] Analysis of “Deceptive temperature record claims”,
ClimateFeedBack.org, http://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/tom-harris-deceptive-temperature-record-claims/
[22] Harris,
Tom, Climate change help lacking for those suffering today, Des Moines
Register, 1 Nov 2016,
[23] Heartland Institute, Climate Change Awards – Tom
Harris, http://climatechangeawards.org/tom-harris/
[24] Tom
Harris and ICSC, http://tomharrisicsc.blogspot.com/2016/12/tom-harris-paid-shill.html
