Yes, it’s a spoof, and it’s funny. From Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate Action:
But this is the reality that way, way too many people live in.
Thanks to people like Dr. Willie Soon, who hides his cash from Koch and Southern Company to createthe illusion that science is being published contrary to the 97% of climate experts. Thanks to groups like The Heartland Institute, which says you are basically a terrorist if you listen to what those 97% of climate scientists say. Thanks to billionaires like Charles Koch, who dumps millions into organizations like Heartland,fakexperts like Willie Soon and universitydepartments that coordinate the misinformation campaign against climate science
Biasedmedia, often with financial ties to the omnipresent billionaire Koch brothers, actually promotes conspiratorial viewpoints like those showcased in NexGen’s spoof. News organizations are often created by public relations firms simply to push the campaign forward, such as DCI Group‘s defunct TechCentralStation. Think tanks add to the buzz, like the Heartland Institute’s Environment and Climate News, the Media Research Center. and the Franklin Center’s Watchdog.org franchise. Allied press then amplify the PR these groups crank out, often at outlets with financial, staff or ownership ties back to–you guessed it–the Koch bros. I’m talking about the American Spectator, the Daily Caller, the Weekly Standard, the National Review, the Washington Free Beacon, and the Wall Street Journal.
But was Willie Soon serious when he said “Too much ice is really bad for polar bears“? Denier scientist Roy Spencer wasn’t kidding when he said, “I‘m going to start calling these people ‘global warming Nazis’” in reference to those of us who listen to climate scientists. And Heartland CEO Joseph Bast can say anything with a straight face, as with this gem of a call-out video clip where he denies the health risks of smoking…in 2014.
Denial has always been a joke.
