Climate Accountability

Talking to the Tea Party about climate?

Is talking to Tea Partiers about climate that different from talking to your eco-friendly, politically savvy friends?

Watch comedian David Mitchell take the piss out of climate deniers

I am obsessed with David Mitchell. (The comedian, not the dishy author, but really both of them.) Okay, mostly I'm obsessed with Robert Webb because he's the cute one who takes his pants off sometimes, but the point is they are both spectacularly funny and I will basically listen to David Mitchell talk about anything. So it's particularly delightful when he's going yard on climate deniers.

Best way to convince deniers: Butter them up

Well, it turns out Dave Roberts has been going about this talking to climate skeptics thing all wrong. If you want to get people to consider data that doesn't fit with their pet worldview, you should make them think really hard about how great they are. Then they'll be putty in your hands! And if you don't believe me, have I mentioned how fetching you look today?

Even Tea Partiers don't think environmental protection kills jobs

Yale University and George Mason University took a deep dive into the relationships between political identity and views on climate change. In other words, they tried to figure out what the hell is going on in the minds of Tea Partiers. Godspeed, brave souls.

Here's what sets Tea Partiers off from the rest of us:

• They do not believe global warming is happening. Duh. Only 34 percent of Tea Partiers believe in global warming, vs. 53 percent of Republicans. 53 percent of Tea Partiers aren't even wavering: they know global warming's not happening.


• Those snowstorms last winter made them wonder if global warming was real at all.


• They seriously believe there's disagreement about the science behind this stuff.


• They're so damn sure of themselves!

Climate convert says deniers are dumb

In a beautifully written post on Climate Crocks, former skeptic D.R. Tucker illuminates the way that far-right climate change denialism encourages and feeds off of science-phobia. Tucker is clearly far from stupid, but he wonders if stupidity is a required characteristic for climate change denial -- not because there's really an IQ requirement, but because denialists glorify ignorance and roll their eyes at complexity. That's appealing to dumb people, surely. But it's also appealing to people who lack for good science education or who think they're dumb at science, and who feel disadvantaged and judged because of it. Climate deniers like Rush Limbaugh make them feel like that's an asset, not a flaw.

'Hockey stick' climate scientist quietly vindicated for the umpteenth time

Despite countless investigations confirming his research methods and conclusions, the climatologist continues to be a target of climate-denier vitriol.

Colbert gets a checkup from a GOP spin doctor

Stephen Colbert is now getting communication coaching from lead GOP spinmeister Frank Luntz, the man who rebranded oil drilling as "energy exploration" and counseled Republican politicians to "make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the [climate change] debate." Luntz has done a lot to armor the GOP with the rhetorical weapons it […]

Super Congress stacked with climate zombies

Most of the Republicans named to the Super Congress committee are proud torchbearers of global warming denial.

Right-wing pundits: 'People believe our falsehoods, so we win!'

I guess it's no surprise that conservative pundits think climate science is about deliberately misleading people for political point-scoring. That's what their agenda is, so why should anyone else's be different? After a recent poll showed that 69 percent of Americans believe it's at least "somewhat likely" that "some scientists" may have falsified climate data, the right-wing media response amounted to "Hey, that's our lie! Look how well it's doing! We rule!"

Companies claim concern for climate, but sponsor ALEC

By sponsoring the American Legislative Exchange Council, many corporations violate their own greenwashed official policies on climate change.