Denial & Misinformation - Inside Climate News

In the N.C. Governor’s Race, the GOP Frontrunner Is a Climate Denier, and the Democrat Doesn’t Want to Talk About It

By Daniel Shailer — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 10:00:00 +0000

The state’s Republican lieutenant governor and Democratic attorney general are expected to square off in November to replace term-limited Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat. But the Republican legislature, with super-majorities in both houses, now calls the shots on climate.

By Daniel Shailer

One stifling Sunday last summer, Winkler’s Grove Baptist Church’s congregation gathered in Hickory, North Carolina, for morning worship. The service’s guest speaker, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, was three months into his gubernatorial campaign. After 25 minutes at the lectern, he turned his attention to climate change.

The Supreme Court’s Social Media Case Has Big Implications for Climate Disinformation, Experts Warn

By Kristoffer Tigue — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 16:20:00 +0000

Justices heard first arguments last week on legal challenges to laws passed by Florida and Texas that could make it harder for social media companies to curb misinformation.

By Kristoffer Tigue

The Supreme Court is once again weighing legal challenges with potential ramifications for the global fight against climate change.

Michael Mann’s $1 Million Defamation Verdict Resonates in a Still-Contentious Climate Science World

By Marianne Lavelle — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 18:55:00 +0000

A D.C. jury hands a win to the climate scientist behind the ‘Hockey Stick’ graph, but less prominent researchers continue to feel threats over their work.

By Marianne Lavelle

In winning a $1 million verdict against a pair of right-wing bloggers on Thursday, climate scientist Michael Mann scored a victory that is reverberating through a world of climate discourse that many say is no less disputatious than when the bloggers penned their attacks 12 years ago.

With the World Stumbling Past 1.5 Degrees of Warming, Scientists Warn Climate Shocks Could Trigger Unrest and Authoritarian Backlash

By Bob Berwyn — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 10:05:00 +0000

Most of the public seems unaware that global temperatures will soon push past the target to which the U.N. hoped to limit warming, but researchers see social and psychological crises brewing.

By Bob Berwyn

As Earth’s annual average temperature pushes against the 1.5 degree Celsius limit beyond which climatologists expect the impacts of global warming to intensify, social scientists warn that humanity may be about to sleepwalk into a dangerous new era in human history. Research shows the increasing climate shocks could trigger more social unrest and authoritarian, nationalist backlashes.

Q&A: How YouTube Climate Denialism Is Morphing

Interview by Steve Curwood, Living on Earth — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 10:05:00 +0000

The message may be evolving, but the company and YouTubers are still making millions off of it.

Interview by Steve Curwood, Living on Earth

From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Steve Curwood and with Imran Ahmed, the CEO and founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Michael Mann’s Defamation Case Against Deniers Finally Reaches Trial

By Marianne Lavelle — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000

After a 12-year journey through the courts, the climate scientist behind the ‘Hockey Stick’ graph tells a jury that bloggers sullied his name with a crass comparison.

By Marianne Lavelle

Michael Mann, one of the nation’s most prominent climate scientists, told a Washington, D.C. jury on Wednesday that he was made to feel like a “pariah” and saw his grant funding plummet after right-wing bloggers sought to discredit his science with vulgar attacks in 2012.

DeSantis Called for ‘Energy Dominance’ During White House Run. His Plan Still is Relevant to Floridians, Who Face Intensifying Climate Impacts

By Amy Green — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 17:30:00 +0000

Record heat and more damaging hurricanes leave some Floridians feeling their governor is ignoring the perils of a warming planet.

By Amy Green

SATELLITE BEACH, Fla.—Established by rocket scientists on a sliver of a barrier island south of Kennedy Space Center in the middle of the 20th century, this community is the sort of place where locals raise families after growing up here themselves. Most don’t want their community to change, but change is coming.

2023 in Climate News: Did Renewable Energy’s Surge Keep Pace With a Radically Warming Climate?

By ICN Staff — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

The push and pull of progress and catastrophe made 2023 one of the most discordant—and consequential—years for the world’s climate.

By ICN Staff

In 2023, clean energy progress and the horrors of a radically warming climate fought almost to a draw.

The Climate Treadmill Speeds Up At COP28, But Critics Say It’s Still Not Going Anywhere

By Bob Berwyn — Mon, 25 Dec 2023 10:05:00 +0000

The Dubai climate summit showed how fossil fuel companies and their allied politicians captured the UN process. Decades of obstruction have gridlocked efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions from oil, gas and coal.

By Bob Berwyn

Esa Sharon Mona Ainuu, Niue minister of natural resources and environment, was in tears as she met the press on Dec. 11, near the end of COP28 in Dubai. After 12 days of meetings, any references to a fossil fuel phase-out had suddenly been stripped out of the text by Sultan al-Jaber, the presiding officer at climate talks, who just a few weeks earlier said there is “no science” showing a fossil fuel phase-out is needed to stop global warming.

As Financial Turmoil Threatens Plans for an Alabama Wood Pellet Plant, Advocates Question Its Climate and Community Benefits

By Lee Hedgepeth — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Enviva made big promises to the small Alabama town that would produce the fuel for “sustainable” energy in Europe. The company’s struggles have left politicians who supported it mum and activists who opposed it hopeful.

By Lee Hedgepeth

EPES, Ala.—Portia Shepherd said “it’s a God thing.”