Every year the Poor Man Institute gives out awards for a range of wanktastic behavior from the lunatic right. Highlights include the Chickenhawk of the Year award (for rhetorical courage), the Fluffy award (for egregious ass-kissing), and the Purple Teardrop With Clutched Pearl Cluster award (for melodramatic offense-taking).
Of particular interest to Gristians, however, is the Creamy Baileys Nobel Peace Prize for Science award for terrible science writing. Voting just opened and as a milestone of sorts, all five contenders are nominated for terrible writing about climate change:
1. Chad Myers, “Global warming is a cover-up for ACID OCEANS!!"
2. Camille Paglia, “A new blog will bring scientific rigor to the global warming debate“
3. Charlie Daniels, “Global warming is a yankee conspiracy!“
4. Gregg Easterbrook, “Global warming is a cover-up for KILLER ASTEROIDS … GOVERNMENT-FUNDED HADRON DEATH ORGIES … LIGHTSPEED ALIEN NUCLEAR ATTACKS!!!“
5. James Inhofe, “The IPCC agrees: Al Gore is fat”
This goes to show, among other things, that the increase in attention to climate change is tracking with an increase in mind-bendingly stupid things being written about it. Mixed blessings, as they say.
You can vote for your favorite over at the Poor Man Institute. Let us know in comments who you voted for — or if the folks at PMI missed any important examples of wankery.
