Climate change deniers argue that global warming was not caused by man-made carbon emissions, despite all the evidence to the contrary
As noted earlier (3.5.7), the link between industrialisation and global warming has been proved beyond legitimate doubt. Fossil fuel companies have an interest in opposing action to reduce climate change, though. By July 2024 “Oil and gas companies had spent nearly 33 million U.S. dollars on lobbying Republican Party members in the 2024 election cycle” according to Statista.com. This was after What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign: “Donald Trump has pledged to scrap President Biden’s policies on electric vehicles and wind energy, as well as other initiatives opposed by the fossil fuel industry.”
Fossil fuel companies have an obvious interest in sowing doubt about the role of carbon emissions. Their tactics were revealed in a Guardian report, The forgotten oil ads that told us climate change was nothing:
“The fossil fuel industry has perpetrated a multi-decade, multibillion dollar disinformation, propaganda and lobbying campaign to delay climate action by confusing the public and policymakers about the climate crisis and its solutions. This has involved a remarkable array of advertisements – with headlines ranging from “Lies they tell our children” to “Oil pumps life” – seeking to convince the public that the climate crisis is not real, not human-made, not serious and not solvable. The campaign continues to this day.” [18 November 2021]
Some false claims were rebutted by the BBC Reality Check team. The technique used by the climate change deniers was to draw attention to a particle of truth whilst ignoring the larger picture that contradicted it. The claims made were:
· The “past century's temperature changes are just part of the Earth's natural cycle, rather than the result of human behaviour”. The earth does have a natural cycle, but that is totally swamped by the man-made impact.
· “Global warming is good …global warming will make parts of the earth more habitable, and …cold kills more people than heat does”. This claim ignores the dangers to the millions of people who will be displaced by climate change.
· “Climate change action will make people poorer …fossil fuels have been essential to driving economic growth. So limiting their use, the argument goes, will inevitably stunt this growth and increase the cost of living, hurting the poorest.” The poorest people on the planet, though, are those who are most likely to be displaced by climate change.
· “Renewable energy is dangerously unreliable”. Whilst the power available from wind turbines does fluctuate, this is a known situation and can be managed with appropriate electricity grid design and storage capacity.
These false claims are peddled on social media and by Fox News. A Public Citizen analysis found that 86% of climate segments that aired on Fox News in 2018 included claims dismissing or casting doubt on the global threat. This misinformation campaign has been effective: the Economist reported in July 2021 that A third of Americans deny human-caused climate change exists.
The Republican Party ignores the role of fossil fuels in climate change. This can be seen clearly in the Preamble to the 2024 Republican Party Platform:
“Common Sense tells us clearly that we must unleash American Energy if we want to destroy Inflation and rapidly bring down prices, build the Greatest Economy in History, revive our Defense Industrial Base, fuel Emerging Industries, and establish the United States as the Manufacturing Superpower of the World. We will DRILL, BABY, DRILL and we will become Energy Independent, and even Dominant again. The United States has more liquid gold under our feet than any other Nation, and it's not even close. The Republican Party will harness that potential to power our future.”
This will doubtless please the party’s fossil fuel donors. And it will be music to the ears of many voters in oil and gas producing areas of the country.
The Democratic Party has taken the opposite approach. It seeks to appeal to voters who understand the wider issues associated with man-made climate change. Chapter 4 of the 2024 Democratic Party Platform is entitled “Tackling the Climate Crisis, Lowering Energy Costs, & Securing Energy Independence”. The transition to green energy will grow the economy in the short term as well as the long term – but it doesn't suit established fossil fuel industries.
The economic arguments for taking action to combat climate change were described earlier (3.5.7). America's Democratic Party, the EU, and Britain’s Labour Party all eagerly plan to seize the opportunities – but the climate change deniers in Republican Party reject this approach, to the detriment of the American people and the planet.
(This is an archive of a page intended to form part of Edition 4 of the Patterns of Power series of books. The latest versions are at book contents).