UK Climate Deniers Take Anti-Science Message to Trump Administration at CPAC 2017

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Two fringe British climate science deniers are heading to Maryland to see Donald Trump and his tea party pals this week, taking their Brexit-inflected anti-science agenda withย them.

Trumpโ€™s golden elevator buddy and UKIP MEP, Nigel Farage, and far-right Breitbart London commentator, James Delingpole, are both due to appear at the American Conservative Unionโ€™s annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), startingย today.

CPAC claims to be the โ€œbirthplace of modern conservatismโ€, and aims to โ€œbreak through the resistance of Washingtonโ€™s powerful elitesโ€ via four-days of talks and activist training. In recent years it has been seen as a breeding ground for Tea Party ideas and activism.

The conference will offer Farage and Delingpole an opportunity to network with other members of a USUK climate science denial network linked to Brexit and Trump, previously mapped by DeSmog UK.

For the second year in a row, Farage will address the conference. He will be speaking on a panel titled โ€˜Brexit and What it Means for the Worldโ€™, and will be hoping the auditorium is somewhat fuller thanย before.

In 2014, he said he has โ€œno ideaโ€ whether global warming is real. He will be interviewed by Delingpoleโ€™s boss at Breitbart London, editor in chief Raheem Kassam. A former UKIP aide, Kassam was also pictured in the golden elevator alongside Farage and Trump lastย November.

Delingpole himself will take the stage to conduct twoย interviews.

The first is with Mark Mills, advisor to the CO2 Coalition. The CO2 Coalition is famous for disputing mainstream climate science. Its tagline is: โ€œCarbon dioxide, a nutrient vital forย lifeโ€.

Its director is Princeton professor William Happer, who was exposed in 2015 for agreeing to hide fossil fuel funding for his research by an Energydesk investigation. Happer is now reportedly being considered as a candidate to be Trumpโ€™s science advisor.

The second will be with Craig Idso, chairman of the board of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, also known as CO2 Science.

The center is one of three sponsors of the climate science denialist Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) reports, which published its latest iteration in 2015. Craig Idso and his father, Sherwood Idso, have been lead authors of the NIPCCย report.

Craig Idso has also received money from the Exxon-funded Heartland Institute.

Trumpย Administration

As well as these fringe climate denialists, some big hitters will be in attendance thisย year.

Conference regular Donald Trump is scheduled to speak, though his security detail may be larger than in previous years. Vice president Mike Pence will also make an appearance. Both White House residents openly question the veracity of climateย science.

Trumpโ€™s chief strategist Steve Bannon and chief of staff Reince Priebus will also be in attendance. Priebus is known to have close ties to the Koch brothers, the USโ€™s largest funders of climate science misinformation. Bannon was until recently executive director of Breitbart news and has been accused by Democrats in Congress of using the website for โ€œspreading bigotryโ€.

Recently appointed Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt is also due to address the conference. Pruitt is known to have close ties to the fossil fuel industry, and is this week released thousands of emailsย further detailing the relationship after prolongedย litigation.

The emails show Pruitt โ€œclosely coordinated with major oil and gas producers, electric utilities and political groups with ties to the libertarian billionaire brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch to roll back environmental regulationsโ€, the New York Times reports.

The Trump administrationโ€™s heavy presence shows it continues to interact with fringe groups of political and scientific outsiders, even though it now constitutes the politicalย elite.

USUK Climate Science Denierย Network

Members of another key node in the climate science denier network, the Heritage Foundation, are also regular named on the conferenceย agenda.

The conservative think tank is known for lobbying to repeal climate policies, and was identified as a driving force behind Trumpโ€™s transition team. The Heritage Foundation has long supported and been lobbied by several Brexit climate science deniers.

UK international trade secretary Liam Fox and Brexiteer MEP Daniel Hannan both recently hopped across the Atlantic to visit the foundation. Nigel Farage and former UK environment secretary Owen Paterson also spoke at the foundation in the run up to the Brexitย referendum.

There are two panels dedicated to climate change at CPAC. The first is sponsored by the CO2 coalition, and is titled โ€˜When Politics Meets Climateย Forecastingโ€™.

The second is titled โ€˜Fake Climate News Camouflaging an Anti-Capitalist Agenda โ€“ and What President Trump Plans To Do About Itโ€™ and is sponsored by the E&E Legal Institute. The institute has been described as having ย โ€œa core mission of discrediting climate science and dismantling environmentalย regulationsโ€.

There is also a panel on โ€˜opposition researchโ€™ featuring two members of America Rising. Its โ€œcreepyโ€ attack-wing, America Rising Squared, is known for social-media aimedย attacks on climate scientists and environmental activists.

Main image credit: Mark Taylor via Wikimedia Commonsย CCย 2.0

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Mat was DeSmog's Special Projects and Investigations Editor, and Operations Director of DeSmog UK Ltd. He was DeSmog UKโ€™s Editor from October 2017 to March 2021, having previously been an editor at Nature Climate Change and analyst at Carbon Brief.

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