Feature | Seeking Solace in 40 Slides of Climate Science Denial

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It was an evening plagued by powerpoint problems and empty seats for the director of the UKโ€™s leading climate science denial campaign group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), who had for one night ventured far from the organisation’s offices in Westminster’s Tufton Street to the small Devon town ofย Totnes.

For aย group that boasts numerous high-profile Westminster connections โ€” including its founder Lord Nigel Lawson,ย hereditary peer Matt Ridley, and multiple major Conservative party donors โ€” its real-world impact seemed distinctlyย underwhelming.ย 


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Out of the 100 or so chairs laid out in the faux-grandeur of a ballroom of a local hotel last Tuesday night, less than a third were filled. Well-meaning local organiser Ian Phillips had sent out 400 leaflets advertising the public talk, carefully avoiding the numerous notice boards around Totnes, instead selecting letterboxes and emailing other local Conservative party members. There appeared to be very few people under the age of 40 at the talk, and even fewerย women.

The GWPFโ€™s director Benny Peiserย was there to regale the small audience with tales of Boris Johnson, and impart his views on the problems with the UKโ€™s march towards a low carbon energy system. Before he began, there was a brief word from Phillips, who is a dedicated follower of the group. He pointedly explained to the audience that anyone is free to ask a questionย no matter what their views are โ€” something as he claims he was denied the opportunity to do at a recent Liberal Democratย event.ย 

Another audience member then stood up to welcome Peiser to Totnes, and guideย everyoneโ€™s attention to an empty plastic box at the back of the room for collecting donations to recoup the cost of their guestโ€™s travel to Devon โ€” perhaps an odd request on behalf of the director of an organisation that had over ยฃ350,000 of donations listed in its latest accounts. Nonetheless, the request is repeated at the following morningโ€™s Q&A session, where Phillips revealed organising the events has cost himย ยฃ300.

Phillips greeted me with delight when I presented my credentials to him, pleased a reporter from London had come to the talk. He admitted checking the Totnes Extinction Rebellion Facebook group, where he said he found activists discussing the event, and wondered whether that might prove the story of theย evening.

That turned out to not be the case, and Peiser was left in peace to take the audience on a whistle-stop tour of the new Prime Ministerโ€™s fluctuating views on climate change: from Johnsonโ€™s days espousing climate science denial in his Spectator and Telegraph columns, through to his current techno-optimismย towards a problem he says he believe exists, via a recent refusal to join other party leaders in a climate changeย debate.

Beyond this political analysis, much of Peiserโ€™s talk focused on his belief that energy prices rise with increased climate action; a position contrary to that of policy experts, who point to the long-term savings provided by cheap renewables and energy efficiency policies, as well as the rising costs of fossil fuels.ย 

Nonetheless, Peiser warnedย that โ€œat some point people will snap.โ€ The idea that climate action is the preserve of those that can afford it is a recurring theme throughout his talk, along with warnings that the UK could experience a โ€˜yellow vestsโ€™ moment in response to higher energyย costs.ย 

The GWPF and the issue of Brexit are no strangers. The day before the talk, the GWPF put out a press release headlined, โ€˜Working Class and Leave Voters Favour Lower Energy Bills Over Climate Actionโ€™, based on a poll it commissioned, and which Peiser mentions several times in Totnes. The group was also named by whistleblower Shamir Sanni as one of nine organisations that met in advance of the Brexit referendum to agree campaign lines. Peiser strongly denies that the GWPF is trying to turn climate action into a culture war, however, telling me the โ€œwhole purposeโ€ of his talk was to avoid turning climate policy debates โ€œinto a Brexitย issue.โ€


Read more about Benny Peiser and the Global Warming Policy Foundation in DeSmog’s Disinformationย Database


Throughout the event, Peiser presents himself as a sober voice of reason and takes great care to place himself in the โ€˜middleโ€™ of the climate debate.ย He simply requests governments spend more time discussing options rather than racing towards climate action, heย says.

Peiser maintains this apparently middle-of-the-road approach until faced with a question from one audience member about Earth Overshoot Day and the planetโ€™s finite resources. Suddenly, Peiser is arguing that humans have an infinite amount of resources to draw on, andย wonโ€™t be running into any difficulty. The questioner storms out of the room, frustrated at Peiserโ€™s refusal to engage with his rebuttals. His departure is accompanied by much shaking of heads at this rare attempt to counteract what Peiser isย saying.

Peiser also offers no comment on the polemic from the GWPFโ€™s Science Editor, the former journalist David Whitehouse, published on the organisationโ€™s website the day before his talk. The blog postย bemoans the โ€œspurious accuracyโ€ and โ€œscientific nonsenseโ€ of global temperature data, catalysed by wide reporting of NASA analysis showing the last decade was the warmest on recordย โ€“ interpreted by many as a reminder of the need for urgentย action.

Most of the audience clearly feel alienated by the growth of climate activism. They are a friendly and welcoming group, with many seemingly looking for a community of people that hold similar views to them in a world where climate science denial is ever diminishing. One Q&A attendee requests that everyone in the room go around and clearly state where they personally stand on climate changeย in an attempt to confirm that there are at least 18 other people in Totnes whoย agree.ย 

The event is an insight into how climate denial exists outside Trump-obsessed media headlines and Westminsterโ€™s corridors, where the GWPFโ€™s connections ensure it still has some influence on the debate. Climate science deniers are increasingly finding themselves in rooms like these โ€” friendly but largely empty, and haunted by technicalย failures.

Image credit: Francesย Rankin

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