Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) (C), Republican Whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) (R) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) (L) during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on April 30, 2024. Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.
The Center for American Progress (CAP) has periodically analyzed the statements of sitting members of Congress to find out if they deny that human-caused climate change exists.
CAP’s most recent analysis of the 118th United States Congress determined that there are 123 elected officials who are climate deniers — that’s 23 percent of the 535-member total, a press release from the progressive thinktank said.
“It’s definitely concerning,” said Kat So, author of the report and energy and environment campaigns manager at CAP, as The Guardian reported. “It’s harder to deny the science when it’s so much more apparent that the climate is warming, that extreme weather is getting worse and happening constantly. Nobody can deny the science with a straight face, given everything.”
Of the congressional climate deniers, 100 were state representatives and 23 were senators, all of whom influence public perceptions of climate change, as well as the direction and speed of the country’s climate policy, CAP said.
CAP’s analysis found that, of the 90 newly appointed or elected congressional members, 18 are climate deniers.
Members of Congress are given publicly disclosed contributions, which in some cases may mean potential influence by the fossil fuel industry.
The report found that current climate deniers in Congress have received a total of $52,071,133 in lifetime fossil fuel campaign contributions.
“While not every member who has received fossil fuel contributions is a climate denier, many are in positions of strong influence over environmental policy,” the press release said. “Current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), a climate denier, received $103,450 in oil and gas donations in the 2022 cycle, his second-highest industry contributor.”
There has been a downward trend in climate deniers from the 116th Congress — when there were 150 “outright climate deniers” — to 139 in the 117th Congress and 123 in the current legislative assembly.
When asked what his party is doing to combat the climate crisis, GOP Representative Steve Scalise from Louisiana, the house majority leader, said, “We’ve had freezing periods in the 1970s. They said it was going to be a new cooling period. And now it gets warmer and gets colder, and that’s called Mother Nature. But the idea that hurricanes or wildfires were caused just in the last few years is just fallacy.”
In its report, CAP explored more subtle types of climate change obstruction, which could delay action and prolong the fossil fuel industry’s influence on U.S. energy and environmental policy.
“While ‘climate denial’ is arguably the most commonly understood and historically used term, it only describes one type of an ever-widening array of tactics,” CAP said.
Other rhetorical strategies used by some members of Congress include the redirecting of responsibility for tackling the climate crisis. For example, deferring U.S. greenhouse gas reductions until other nations act first, spreading misinformation and portraying climate activism as alarmist.
“[T]he fossil fuel industry obstructs climate policy to bring in substantial profits, which it then uses to influence trade associations and members of Congress to continue obstructing meaningful climate action that would harm its bottom line. The fossil fuel industry’s federal lobbying efforts totaled $133 million in 2023,” the press release said.
An example of the fossil fuel industry’s misinformation campaigns is the claim that offshore wind had caused whale deaths. An “Unusual Mortality Event” has been declared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration since 2016, but the deaths were not attributed to offshore wind construction projects.
“The deaths, instead, have been attributed to ship strikes and entanglements. These specific falsehoods have been traced back to AstroTurf groups, organizations, and elected officials funded by the fossil fuel industry to block the expansion of wind projects off the Atlantic coast,” the press release said.
CAP’s analysis provided an up-to-date definition of a “climate denier” in Congress as any member who makes any of six types of untrue statements concerning the existence, effects or causes of climate change, including statements reflecting the belief that climate change is a hoax or is not real, that global heating “is merely a continuation of natural cycles” and that climate impacts are “positive for planetary health” or “actually beneficial to humans.”
Research has shown that climate deniers disproportionately represent the American public, with as few as half of Americans sharing their viewpoint, reported The Guardian.
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“The amount of people at each end of the spectrum – alarmed and dismissive – were essentially tied back in 2013 but today there are three alarmed people for every one dismissive, so there’s been a fundamental shift in how people see climate change in the U.S.,” said Anthony Leiserowitz, a climate public opinion expert at Yale, as The Guardian reported.
CAP pointed out the abundance of warning signs of the climate crisis, such as 2023 being the hottest on record, and that every three weeks the U.S. experiences an average of one billion-dollar extreme weather event.
“The science is clear: Americans cannot afford to ignore the realities of global climate change. Climate-fueled extreme weather events continue to cost American lives and billions of dollars year after year, and the intensity and frequency of these events will continue to increase without action to address the causes of climate change,” CAP said.
Cristen is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. She holds a JD and an Ocean & Coastal Law Certificate from University of Oregon School of Law and an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. She is the author of the short story collection The Smallest of Entryways, as well as the travel biography, Ernest’s Way: An International Journey Through Hemingway’s Life.
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- Source: https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-deniers-congress-2024.html