Trump continues to blow past norms & laws
This morning, (un)Real Donald Trump tweeted out boosting a careerist who has made a fortune in propagating climate-science denialism. Once a Jim ‘snowballs disprove science’ Inhofe staffer, that careerist — Marc Morano — merits distinction as the Andrew Breitbart of the climate-science denial world.
Breitbart [specialises in] twisting the truth,
editing video to make black look like white and up look like down —
that’s the stuff of hocus-pocus and snake oil;
it’s not the work of the journalist.Well, when it comes to the echo chamber of deceptive truthiness and outright deceit in the arena of climate change, sadly there is a pantheon of Breitbarts to chose from who are actively disseminating confusing material and outright falsehoods with gullible (or collaborating) journalists always ready to echo their falsehoods and give them voice in “faux and balanced” Global Warming reporting.
If, however, forced to narrow down in this pantheon of anti-science syndrome sufferers, there seems to be one name that sinks to the bottom: Marc Morano.
Morano’s career path includes Swift Boating Senator Kerry, being “Rush Limbaugh’s ‘Man in Washington””, writing an article for the Family Research Council (in the 80s) attacking those seeking resources for AIDS research and funding, promoting and pushing Coronavirus denialism and dismissal of COVID19 implications & need for concerted action, etc … etc … etc …
For far too long, like Breitbart, Morano had a gold pass of access to too many journalists with lots of private conversations to influence reporting and many quotations to boost his reputation. One of the benefits of the past decade: credible outlets have reduced their credulity of Morano’s lies and ever-less frequently been giving an aura of credibility to him.
And, sadly, too many have had to spend too much time debunking his deceit to help credible journalists and outlets understand why Morano didn’t merit being given even a crumb of credibility in their reporting. Just a few tastes of this.
- Climate Hustle 2 is simply BS (and, well, a BAD mockumentary) showcasing the thinning roster of aging climate-science deniers.
- A Sourcewatch on Morano and his science denialism and DeSmogBlog’s take
Marc Morano has been called “the Matt Drudge of climate denial,” the “king of the skeptics,” and “a central cell of the climate-denial machine,” and he revels in these descriptions. Although he has no scientific expertise, he is adamant that manmade global warming is a “con job” based on “subprime science.” … Morano is paid by an industry-funded group to run the climate denial website ClimateDepot.com. At Climate Depot, Morano serves as the de facto research department for the right-wing media’s attacks on climate science, and mobilizes his readers to target individual scientists and reporters for telling the public about climate change threats.
Climate Change Misinformer Of The Year: Marc Morano, MMfA, 2012
As a reporter for the ExxonMobil-funded Conservative News Service, Morano helped launch the swift-boat campaign attacking John F. Kerry’s military service in Vietnam. He then went to work as communications director for the leading climate change denier in the Senate, James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), and he brought “swift boating” to climate science. Among his targets has been James Hansen, former head of the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies and an authoritative voice calling for action on climate change. Morano labeled Hansen a “wannabe Unabomber” who supports “ridding the world of industrial civilization,” “razing cities” and “blowing up dams.”
Morano is a long-time paid denier, which means there’s plenty of stuff out there about how he’s… not exactly a reliable expert. He even makes it into the Merchant of Doubt film trailer (and even more in the book) emphasizing ‘I’m not a scientist but sometimes I play one.”
Considering this record, it should surprise no one that Morano has remained a darling of the fossil-foolish climate deniers like DICK (Denier-In-Chief Kleptocrat) Trump.
Energy Dominance
Now, as is typical of Trump’s 10,000s of lies as President, today’s tweet is multifaceted in the ignorance and deceit — it isn’t just about climate-science denial.
To the extent that the United States has “energy dominance” (a long, complicated, and debatable discussion) due to oil and natural gas (ONG) booms, let us be clear: the path to “dominance” started well before Trump (Thank You (?), Obama) and the gains in US ONG production to date were overwhelming either prior to Trump’s occupation of the Oval Office or investment streams/planned well before Team Trump was in control. As AP put it back in 2017,
THE FACTS: … energy production was unleashed during Obama’s presidency, largely because of advances in hydraulic fracturing that made it economical to tap vast reserves of natural gas. Oil production also greatly increased, reducing imports. [Under Obama,] the U.S. for the first time in decades was getting more energy domestically than it imports.
Turning to another space, Trump has loved to brag about stock market performance (which, again, boomed even more under Obama …). Notable: while the United States moved to (fossil-foolish) “energy dominance”, the firms core that dominance have underperformed the stock market, provided negative returns to investors, and many haven’t even been able to earn enough to pay off their loans (let alone profits).
However, really, what is ‘energy dominance’ really? Boosting oil and natural gas production and reliance (forget coal, which has fallen under Trump) is not a path for ‘dominance’ in a world that is increasingly dominated by policies and economic imperatives for low-carbon solutions. Instead, such fossil-foolish approaches create huge risks and vulnerabilities (fiscal, reputational, climate, …). True “energy dominance” will come from harnessing clean energy to create a prosperous, climate-friendly society and leveraging this to boost national security (through sharing globally) and the economy (creating jobs, boosting industries, driving exports).