Another Day, Another Climate Skeptic Exposed As Fossil Fuel Industry Stooge

Ugh.

No matter how many times this same story plays itself out over and over again, some armchair conspiracy-mongers continue to let themselves get exploited by it at every turn.

This time it's Christopher Horner. He is a very well-known public figure in the (fake) climate debate. He regularly appears on places like FOX News, always there to denounce clean energy, environmentalist “wackos”, and the big climate change scam. Here he is in one of his most recent cameos earlier this month:



Most people with enough sense can identify this guy as an industry stooge from a mile away: he’s yet another “skeptic” who’s not even a scientist, but an attorney. Yet it never stops being amazing how many times this guy shows up spewing the same ole denier rhetoric on TV, and minutes later you see it posted on places like ATS. Tell me if any of this sounds familiar:

Christopher Horner, an attorney who claims that the earth is cooling, is known within the scientific community for hounding climate change researchers with relentless investigations and public ridicule, often deriding scientists as “communists” and frauds.

Well, now guess what:

Last Thursday’s bankruptcy filing of Alpha Natural Resources, one of the largest coal companies in America, includes line items for all of the corporation’s contractors and grant recipients. Among them are Horner individually at his home address, as well as the Free Market Environmental Law Clinic, where he is a senior staff attorney.

This is nothing new with the number of industry frauds who keep emerging from the climate skeptic clown car. I’ve posted about it enough times over the years:

Gov't Climate Researcher Exposed for Hiding Funds...So Breitbart Jumps to His Rescue?

Creationists Team Up With Climate Deniers To Take Down Science Education.

Here's 100% Proof That FOX News Are Straight Up Lying, Corporate Shills.

As have many others here:

Unmasking Climate Deception - Fossil Fuel Companies' Deceptions Revealed

Billion-dollar climate denial network exposed

Oh About Those 32,000 "Leading Scientists" Against Global Climate Change.

But some people keep falling for this same BS over and over and over. They really want to believe it’s the world’s scientists that are doing all the lying and cheating, when those accusations turn out to be false or sensationalized a hundred times over, and the people peddling these accusations turn out, in step, to be the actual frauds every time.

In 2009, thousands of emails were hacked from climate researchers at the University of East Anglia. Horner quickly blogged that the “blue-dress moment may have arrived” and began appearing on media outlets to claim that the emails revealed “admissions of falsifying results, collaborating to subvert and violate the laws” in what he dubbed “Climategate.”

“Climategate” became a media phenomenon, with prominent politicians declaring that the emails revealed that climate change is a “hoax.” The Koch organization Americans for Prosperity traveled to international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009 and proclaimed that the emails revealed a “scandal.”

Six official investigations later cleared the University of East Anglia scientists of accusations of any wrongdoing.

I know from experience this thread will generally just preach to the choir, while simultaneously falling on deaf ears with the willfully ignorant, but to those of you actually open-minded enough about the topic – please just consider this perspective when evaluating the full story.

Horner has filed numerous records requests for personal emails from climate scientists and litigated to force universities to comply with his requests. Horner continued his investigations of climate scientists earlier this year by filing a records request with John Byrne, distinguished professor of energy climate policy at the University of Delaware. The request was made on behalf of the Free Market Environmental Law Clinic and the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, where Horner is a senior fellow.

“He has been instrumental in orchestrating the attacks on climate scientists over the past decade in the form of vexatious and frivolous FOIA demands, efforts to force scientists to turn over all of their personal email,” says Dr. Michael Mann, a climate scientist targeted by Horner.

Understand that the whole “scandal” of scientists withholding their data emerged from years and years of them being perpetually harassed by shills like Horner, who were deliberately doing this to disrupt the work. Guys like him are professional trolls. Yet many scientists complied with these requests for years before some got very sick of the charade and put a stop to it (at which point their files were conveniently hacked), and opportunists like Horner began screaming that they were all hiding something.

None of these allegations actually proved true, but the PR damage was done, and that’s exactly what these propagandists set to accomplish in the first place:

Newspapers Retract 'Climategate' Claims, but Damage Still Done

The whole thing was a set up from the start.

Many people have already figured this out for themselves now, but it’s still sad to see how many so-called “conspiracy theorists” keep falling for the ridiculous shtick endlessly. In fact, shills like Horner are very aware of this, and they specifically target conspiracy crowds to help spread their propaganda for them:

Horner has also often cast scientists as villains. He claimed on Alex Jones’ program “Infowars” that climate science is a backdoor strategy for enacting “global governance.”

Again, sound familiar?

I can’t stress this enough - climate conspiracy theorists: YOU are the ones getting HOAXED. Badly. You’re getting exploited by some very slimy people and a lot of you simply don’t want to accept it because your pride or your politics are more important to you than the truth.

I’m not posting this to chastise anyone or kick them while they’re down. I’m posting it in the hopes some will finally choose denying ignorance over embracing pro-pollution propaganda. But if you want to stick to the same script, then go ahead, just know that Christopher Horner is not the first and he certainly won’t be the last exposed climate change troll. These stories have been emerging for years and will continue to do so with the same consistent narrative every time. And the more you continue to play them off and ignore the obvious bigger picture here, the more…well…let’s put it this way: the less sympathy you’ll get when someone inevitably calls you a denier.


Source for excerpts above:

Attorney Hounding Climate Scientists Is Covertly Funded By Coal Industry

a reply to: mc_squared
climate conspiracy theorists: YOU are the ones getting HOAXED

oh really, if the science is so overwhelming then why are you fighting a propaganda war

originally posted by: Tellurian

a reply to: mc_squared
climate conspiracy theorists: YOU are the ones getting HOAXED

oh really, if the science is so overwhelming then why are you fighting a propaganda war

I guess the definition of 'propaganda' is lost on you eh?

a reply to: Tellurian

You answered your own question.

The general public has a hard time with science, which is exactly why professional deniers have launched massive propaganda assaults to undermine it. They know they can't win the scientific debate, so they've drawn it into their own turf instead. Many of the more notorious "skeptics" like Steven Milloy and junkscience.com started out as projects put together by actual PR firms, often originally by tobacco companies to downplay the health hazards of smoking:

The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition

And many people feel they are winning this war:

Global warning: climate sceptics are winning the battle

a reply to: mc_squared

A skeptic being funded by the fossil fuel industry . Surely you jest ....... i am gobsmacked .

Science is up for grabs by the highest bidder, has been for a long while.

From my perspective, it started with big tobacco paying science millions to declare smoking was good for ya!

What this means is that the people can no longer trust scientists to give us a dispassionate view.

We have so many players. Fossil fuel industry, the Nuclear Industry, those who want to steal even more from mums and dads with carbon taxes. A huge portion of our Governments are owned by one side or the other, sometimes by multiple parties.

So .... you caught ONE bought player and ..... he is a lawyer. No real surprise, is it.

So, we can't trust our Governments, we can't trust science ..... yea.

I would not climb too high on the soap box.

What you would have us believe is that you catching one .... proves that that entire side of the debate is wrong. Really, that is a huge stretch.

It is murky indeed and where is the truth ....... yea, have fun with that.

Catching one greedy little so and so means nothing, nothing at all.

P

a reply to: hutch622

And yet so many self-professed skeptics here continue to pretend this isn't a thing.

originally posted by: pheonix358
Science is up for grabs by the highest bidder, has been for a long while.

From my perspective, it started with big tobacco paying science millions to declare smoking was good for ya!

Yes and those exact same Tobacco shills moved on to profess that global warming is a hoax. Look up the histories on Steven Milloy, Fred Singer, Frederick Seitz, The Heartland Institute - all famous AGW skeptics that got their starts shilling for tobacco.

So .... you caught ONE bought player and

No, I've caught many - I left several other links in the OP. I could do this for many many more. They are a dime a dozen. Virtually every single prominent skeptic in the debate has this same dirt on them.

In a few hundred years humanity will use the internet as a snapshot of how people thought, They will look at the deniers as simpletons. People who can not see the wood through the trees.
Thats If we make it another few hundred years.

a reply to: pheonix358

My parents are lifetime scientists who have been presented with awards for their work. To their credit they laugh at the awards as if they were gold stars from teacher.

For many, many years they have said that science was hijacked by politics long ago. And politics of course was bought long ago.

It is touchingly naive to have faith in science.

a reply to: mc_squared

Hopefully this gets through to some people. Unfortunately too many deniers are either trollish (the type that gets the hummer just to make treehuggers mad), so uninformed as to think that science offers an ideological choice or they're as trained as Pavlov's dog: Climate change? "Al Gore!" and promptly rewarded with an ego massage from any of the above.

So let me make sure I have my notes for the new dictionary straight:

Shill = someone who takes a certain view and accepts money from a private industry (and sometimes government)
Saint = someone who takes the opposing view of a 'shill' and accepts money from government (and sometimes private industry)

a reply to: pheonix358

I think there are dupes being used on both sides . check this out

James Madison famously wrote: “the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival
parties.” We now see what Madison warned against in a carefully planned and heavily funded 1
“orchestration” by individuals who have placed their personal interests ahead of the public weal.
This report chronicles a campaign by “major environmental donors” to provide — and
governors’ willing participation to obtain — private funding and other resources to advance
policies that the same governors’ aides recognize threaten political consequences if the campaign
is revealed (this in turn explains the need for massive private underwriting of “orchestrators”
“closely tied to each governor” to promote the same campaign). The policies at issue are the
economically harmful war on affordable and reliable energy — and wealth transfers to
uneconomic industries to, as the President has vowed, finally make renewable energy profitable.
Their popular names are the Obama “Clean Power Plan”, the “clean energy economy”, and the
Paris global warming treaty expected this coming December to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

eelegal.org...

a reply to: mc_squared

You will always see someone exposed. Like many issues people have dug in. Whatever, it is what it is. Names will be called, denier, skeptic, it's a religion, it's cult, etc. This is what the conversation has come to. Kids on the playground have chosen a side, now its about who can shout the loudest.

Seriously, stories like this, data changes, name calling, it's hotter , it's colder, etc. I will say stories like this don't help those who don't believe. I will say on the flip side when people who do believe make crazy statements that don't happen, or jet around the country in Private jets, have multiple mansions, have investments tied to an industry they say is evil ( check where your 401k is invested, etc) doesn't help

Here's what I believe. I don't think anyone has any clue as to what is really happening. I believe the hypocrite on both sides need to leave it alone. But hey we sure can link to stories on the web, and call names. We sure can act like we have a clue, try to seem smart. Please.

a reply to: mc_squared

I'm sick of both sides. One side says we're doomed, the other says BS. I'm on the side of personal accountability.

I do everything I can to keep a small carbon footprint. I don't need a scientist on either side to tell me what to do, and I won't take either side serious until money is taken out of the equation.

Both sides acting like children, insulting each other and calling folks ignorant if they don't take their words as gospel has ruined this whole debate for me.

a reply to: the2ofusr1

I agree completely.

Now either there are two or three sides going hammer and tongs at each other ..... or

There is a deliberate campaign to muddy the waters.

Why would anyone want to deliberately muddy these waters.

Well .... back before this all started, there were some startling claims that we were heading for another event where much of the planet will once again be covered in ice.

Graphs such as this one show quite clearly that this is where we are headed.



Now the graph is quite dramatic but one does need to understand that the x axis is in geologic time scales.

Is it going to be now ... 500 years from now ... or 1000 years from now ....

and the answer is, no one has any idea.

One thing is clear though ... this message was drowned out by the noise and I would put it clearly, no Government wants its citizens getting all upset about an issue that Governments can do absolutely nothing about.

It is one of those ... it is what it is and what will happen will happen and don't come crying to me because we are all in the same boat ... on its way to the land of ice and frozen people.

In my view, this whole debate is designed to confuse us to the point where we throw our hands in the air and say, 'Whatever!'

But there is an enormous amount of money being spent to keep us in the dark.

P

a reply to: mc_squared
Sad to see this thread is already being flooded with the usual denier BS....

Science is science yet despite all the data we have observed, despite all the fossil fuel shills that have been exposed we still have people claiming the scientists are being paid off by the government to support some global agenda meanwhile those same people ignore all the evidence that it is the fossil fuel industry are the ones pushing the agenda of doubt.

That is what this is all about. They know they cannot disprove the reality of human induced climate change, however they know they can cause the layman to have doubts, especially if they hammer down their arguments with political and emotional rhetoric.

The science behind man made climate change is clear. Only the willfully ignorant and paid shills beg to differ.

originally posted by: KawRider9
a reply to: mc_squared

I'm sick of both sides. One side says we're doomed, the other says BS. I'm on the side of personal accountability.

I do everything I can to keep a small carbon footprint. I don't need a scientist on either side to tell me what to do, and I won't take either side serious until money is taken out of the equation.

Both sides acting like children, insulting each other and calling folks ignorant if they don't take their words as gospel has ruined this whole debate for me.

I find whenever anyone posts evidence of professional deniers manipulating the debate, the skeptics tend to briefly concede "fine, BOTH sides are doing it" (before most of them go right back to believing every word the deniers say anyway).

I guess I should probably just quit while ahead for now, but this half and half view is still a huge part of the problem. That's because it's really all the PR reps on the denial side need for their agenda anyway. They have no interest in actually winning the scientific debate, they already know they can't do that - all they need to do is keep everything in limbo. So they specifically try to center this debate on hyperbole, name-calling and confusion. That's the point.

So, not to make this anymore schoolyard - but they started it.

^This is not an excuse - it's a very important perspective if you want to understand the whole story here. This idea that the scientists all said we're gonna die and we'd be underwater by now is itself just propaganda coming from the shills. It's all part of their calculated PR strategy. They've been pushing this angle for over 25 years:



So, to just "be sick of it" is still playing into their hands unfortunately because that's exactly what they want. If you look at the actual science instead of how these propagandists spin it you'll find no one ever said we're all supposed to be underwater by now for example, and in fact many of the IPCC predictions have actually been criticized for being too conservative and "erring on the side of least drama":

Experts say the IPCC underestimated future sea level rise

How the IPCC Underestimated Climate Change

Climate Scientists Erring on the Side of Least Drama

But the deniers want you to believe all this other strawman BS they made up in the first place exactly so you'll just get sick of it.

This is one of those sad threads. Driven by ego. the need to be correct. It's the way most discussions about this subject go. Discredit the opposing side, slag them with anything you can find. All while never really discussing the big picture.

If the entire world stopped driving cars, buses, trucks, and planes today, would the warming stop? Would we have to stop any industrial process? And of course the big kicker, is any of that even remotely possible?

Yup, I think these discussions should continue just as they have. Keep everyone occupied on who we need to blame, while ignoring the steps that could be taken to enact change. But then, If you listen to the experts here, it's already too late. So all that is left is to assign blame. I say we blame the Unions. Or perhaps the socialists. Whichever.

a reply to: network dude
Opposing side? This is not about picking sides. To suggest this is about opposing views is being ignorant of the science and the problem we are facing.

This is about the science, the data, and the blatant manipulation of public opinion that turns these discussions into school yard debate where emotions, plays on words, and memes are used to make ones argument instead of the actual science.

It is not too late to make changes and no experts say this. Making the needed changes will not cause humanity to go back to the stone age, ignoring science however will bring us back to the dark ages.