A recent study from Indiana University found that Americans are more likely to follow advice from climate scientists who have worked to cut their own carbon footprints. In light of this, science-denier blogger Anthony Watts did some sleuthing on Google to supposedly prove that prominent climate scientists don’t practice what they preach.
Watts posted what he calls “aerial surveys” or satellite images of their homes, including those of Michael Mann, Jonathan Overpeck, and Kevin Trenberth, scientists who are regular right-wing targets. He deduced that none have solar panels on their rooftops.
“The results don’t speak well for them,” he writes. You can sense how thrilled he was with this discovery.
Except … he was wrong.
DeSmog’s Graham Readfearn did real-life reporting and followed up with these scientists. He found that nearly all of them use some form of renewable power in their homes. As Michael Mann confirmed to Grist, “our power comes entirely from wind. Apparently it didn’t occur to Anthony Watts that there are a variety of sources of renewable energy, and a variety of plans (in Pennsylvania and elsewhere) that allow you to elect to purchase your power entirely from renewables.”
With this out of the way, maybe Watts can go forth with an equally valuable scientific inquiry: Proving, once and for all, that the Earth is a giant cube.
