Bill McKibben on O.J. Simpson and the Attack on Climate Science

onFeb 25, 2010 @ 13:09 PST

The award-winning author Bill McKibben has penned a great piece today comparing the OJ Simpson trial to the attack underway on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chage (IPCC) and climate science in general.

McKibben writes:

“In 1989, I could fit every scientific study on climate change on top of my desk. Now, you could fill the Superdome with climate-change research data. Yet somehow, the onslaught against the science of climate change has never been stronger.”

And,

“The campaign against climate science has been enormously clever, and enormously effective. It’s worth trying to understand how they’ve done it. The best analogy, I think, is to the O.J. Simpson trial, an event that’s begun to recede into our collective memory. For those who were conscious in 1995, however, I imagine that just a few names will make it come back to life. Kato Kaelin, anyone? Lance Ito?”

You can read McKibben’s entire piece here: The Attack on Climate-Change Science Why It’s the O.J. Moment of the Twenty-First Century.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

Analysis

The Pathways Alliance Carbon Capture Project Was Always a Boondoggle

ByMitch Anderson

onMay 20, 2026 @ 12:41 PDT

Instead of delivering on its promised CCS project, the Oil Sands Alliance is turning up the heat on Ottawa to rollback environmental regulations, and government is capitulating.

Climate Denier Group Pushes States to Embrace Coal Power for Data Centers

BySharon Kelly

onMay 20, 2026 @ 11:17 PDT

The Heartland Institute used the American Legislative Exchange Council’s 2025 annual meeting to spread climate disinformation and tout coal to power AI.

Series: Tech vs. Climate

Series: Tech vs Climate