Climate Hustle, produced by Climate Depot’s Marc Morano for CFACT, screens its world premiere in Paris, France on December 7, 2015 during the United Nations COP21 climate summit.
While Morano claims that the film contains interviews with scientists, he fails to explain that his chosen subjects lack credibility and are far outside the mainstream climate science community.
In fact, 97 percent of actively publishing climate scientists agree — that’s right, there is an overwhelming 97% consensus position that global warming is real and largely driven by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.
Climate Hustle is designed to confuse people, create doubt and further delay climate action — much as Marc Morano has been paid to do for decades. Don’t be conned by the Climate Hustler. If you’re looking for an entertaining film about climate science denial, check out Merchants of Doubt instead, which happens to feature Marc Morano.
Who Is Marc Morano?
Marc Morano is the executive director and chief correspondent of ClimateDepot.com, a project of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). Morano is also the Communications Director at CFACT, which has received funding from oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron among other fossil fuel interests. According to 2011 IRS Forms (PDF), Morano was the highest paid staff member at CFACT with a salary of $150,000 per year. Morano’s blog Climate Depot regularly publishes articles questioning man-made global warming. [12], [13], [6], [37]
Although he has no scientific expertise in the area, Morano has become a prominent climate change denier. He has been called “the Matt Drudge of climate denial”, the “King of the skeptics,” and a “central cell of the climate-denial machine.” He was also listed as one of 17 top “climate killers” by Rolling Stone Magazine. He has accused climate scientists of “fear mongering,” and has claimed that proponents of man-made global warming are “funded to the tune of $50 billion.”
For more information about the climate hustler Marc Morano, check out his DeSmogBlog profile.
Watch Marc Morano interviewed by Peter Sinclair:
What is the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)?
The Washington-DC-based Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1985. The conservative think-tank in Washington D.C. has received funding from ExxonMobil, Chevron, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars from foundations associated with Richard Mellon Scaife. CFACT has also received at least $7.8 million in dark money through DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund.
CFACT‘s position on climate change is CO2 is “beneficial” to plants and wildlife and therefore,
“Regulating carbon dioxide may be profitable for certain industries and governments, but will impose enormous costs on society – while having no effect on our weather and climate.”
CFACT has also suggested that the earth may be “cooling” and therefore CO2 is a “benefit”:
“Many climatologists and astrophysicists believe recent sun spot, Pacific Ocean and global temperature trends suggest that our planet may have entered a cool phase that could last for 25 years. If that is the case, the additional carbon dioxide being emitted by China, India and other developing countries could bring a major additional benefit: helping to protect wildlife habitats, enhance oceanic biota and preserve crop yields under sub-optimal climatic conditions.”
Find out more about CFACT in the DeSmogBlog profile on Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT).
Climate Hustle cast members
The names of climate “sceptics” and others interviewed for Climate Hustle have been released in the run-up to the film’s 7 December 2015 premiere through interviews and blog posts. These names have included:
- Professor Judith Curry, Georgia Institute of Technology
- Professor Richard Tol, University of Sussex
- Ivar Giaever, retired physicist
- William Briggs, statistician
- Dr Robert Giegengack, University of Pennsylvania
- Patrick Moore, Canadian climate science denier
- Freeman Dyson, retired physicist
- James Lovelock, independent scientist
- Bob Carter, Australian geologist and associate of Institute of Public Affairs, Heartland Institute and other denialist think tanks
- Tom Harris, executive director of the International Climate Science Coalition
Sources: NewsBusters, Institute Coppet, Climate Depot, William M Briggs
