Leading humans-cause-global-warming denier Pat Michaels, largely funded by the Koch brothers and Big Oil, gave the world a wonderful line of compassion last Friday. With much of the country panicking, or at least concerned, about Hurricane Irene (and for good reason), Michaels commented, “It is doubtful that Irene will even cough up eight bodies.”
Well, unfortunately, Michaels was wrong, as at least 40 Americans have been reported killed by Irene already, and some reports are saying at least 54 (as well as 2 people in the Caribbean).
While this does show Michaels’ lack of compassion for people he doesn’t know, however, nothing shows it like his constant work to prevent global warming action in Congress or public understanding of the problem.
Michaels is one of the media’s few go-to guys for the “climate skeptic” side of the story when reporting on global warming. Unfortunately, with only a tiny fraction of climate scientists being at all skeptical that humans are causing accelerated global warming, giving “skeptics” (which are really just deniers at this point) equal voice in the media is like aiding global murder. Sorry to put it so frankly, but that’s the sad truth of the matter.
And, yes, Michaels was included in the 2010 Climate B.S. of the Year awards, especially for his Congressional testimonies. From that post:
Long-time climate change skeptic Patrick Michaels testified before the House Science and Technology Committee and misrepresented the scientific understanding of the human role in climate change and the well-understood effects of fundamental climatic factors, such as the effects of visible air pollution. Including these effects (as climate scientists have done for many years) would have completely changed his results. Michaels has misrepresented mainstream climate science for decades, as has been noted here, here, and elsewhere, yet he remains a darling of the skeptics in Congress who like his message.
This Hurricane Irene quote is certainly not an inspirational quote of the week — sorry — but I had to highlight it. Got something more uplifting to share? Please do, in the comments below.
Photo via beelaineo
