By Denise Robins, Media Matters
Donald Trump has notably said that climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese. Now, as president, he will turn to advice from Steve Bannon of Breitbart News, a white nationalist website that has smeared climate scientists, the Pope, and others who recognize the need to fight climate change.
Former Breitbart News Chairman To Become Trump Administration’s Chief Strategist
Donald Trump Appointed Breitbart’s Steve Bannon As Chief Strategist. Trump has appointed Steve Bannon, who was the Executive Chairman of right-wing website Breitbart News, as Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to the president, according to a statement from the Trump transition team. Bannon took a leave of absence from Breitbart News in August to serve as the CEO of the Trump campaign. [GreatAgain.gov, 11/13/16; Breitbart.com, 8/17/16]
Breitbart News Is An Unabashedly White Nationalist And Anti-Semitic Website. Bannon bragged during the Republican Convention to nominate Trump that Breitbart News had become home to the “alt-right” -- which is a racist code word for white nationalists. Under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart News has featured racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and anti-LGBT rhetoric. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the site recently made a “noticeable shift toward embracing ideas on the extremist fringe of the conservative right. Racist ideas. Anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant ideas -- all key tenets making up an emerging racist ideology known as the ‘Alt-Right.'" [Media Matters, 9/19/16, 8/17/16, 11/14/16]
Under Bannon, Breitbart News Repeatedly Smeared Climate Scientists, The Vatican, And Climate Advocates
Bannon Accused Pope Francis Of “Hysteria” On Climate Change, Asked Guest To Explain How Vatican Is “Overrun” By “Cultural Marxists.” While hosting the December 2, 2015 edition of the SiriusXM radio show Breitbart News Daily, Bannon declared that the Pope has “fallen into this hysteria” about climate change. Bannon then interviewed theologist Thomas D. Williams about Pope Francis’ climate change encyclical, which calls for reduced fossil fuel use in order to help the world's poor. Bannon said “a lot of practicing Catholics” were “quite confused” by the encyclical, and stated to Williams: “You mentioned the fact that he has got advisers around him that really crafted this message and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has been overrun by what you call cultural Marxists.” Williams responded that the Pope’s encyclical is “closely aligned to a redistributionist mentality” and about poorer countries “looking for handouts under the guise” of reducing carbon emissions, to which Bannon replied: “Yes. That’s the climate justice.” [Breitbart News Daily, 12/2/15 via SoundCloud]
Breitbart Editor James Delingpole: NASA, NOAA Scientists Are "Talentless Low-Lives." Breitbart News editor James Delingpole wrote a post listing "twelve reasons why the Paris climate talks are a total waste." One of the reasons Delingpole gave was that the "alarmist climate scientists are talentless low-lives who cannot be trusted," citing NASA, NOAA, the Met Office, and the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia as examples.
[Breitbart News, 11/30/15]
Delingpole: “Most” Of The Scientists, Businesses, And Politicians Who Support Acting On Climate Change Are “Abject Liars.” In a column about the economic value of the “climate change industry” titled, “Climate change: the Hoax that Costs Us $4 Billion a Day,” Delingpole wrote:
In the headline I call the climate change industry a hoax. That’s because, on any objective level it is. I don’t mean that all the scientists and businesses and politicians promoting it are abject liars — just most of them, even if it means that in order to keep earning their living they have to be dishonest with themselves about something they know in their hearts not to be true. [Breitbart News, 8/8/15]
Delingpole: Pope Francis’ Climate Encyclical Includes Language You Would Expect From A "16-Year-Old Trotting Out ... Formulaic Bilge And Accepted Faux-Wisdom." Delingpole criticized Pope Francis’ climate change encyclical for including "hackneyed language and extremely dubious science you might expect from a 16-year-old trotting out the formulaic bilge and accepted faux-wisdom required these days to pass a fairly typical exam paper in Geography or Environmental Sciences." He went on to claim that the encyclical is wrong "scientifically," "morally," "theologically," and "economically." [Breitbart News, 6/16/15]
Delingpole Praised Climate Science Denier For Calling Climate Advocates “Global Warming Nazis.”Delingpole praised Roy Spencer, a scientist who rejects the overwhelming scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, for announcing that he would respond to climate advocates’ use of the term “denier” by calling them “global warming Nazis.” Delingpole praised Spencer for making a “bold move,” and predicted that Spencer would receive criticism “not because anything you are saying here is technically inaccurate but because the climate debate is all about double standards.” Delingpole added that one of the “things you are not allowed to mention if you are a climate skeptic” is that the “environmental lobby uses the same tactics used by totalitarian movements through the ages – fascists, Nazis, communists, there’s really no difference.” [Media Matters, 2/20/14; Breitbart News, 2/21/14]
Delingpole Called Climate Advocates “Eco Nazis,” “Eco Fascists,” And “Scum-Sucking Slime Balls.”Delingpole wrote a column titled, “In Praise of ‘Hate Speech,’” in which he explained why he would not sign a petition asking the British Government to classify the term “climate denier” as “hate speech.” In particular, Delingpole wrote that the petition would make it “much harder” for him to smear climate advocates:
Face it, we’re fighting a bunch of eco Nazis, here. They are corrupt, mendacious, bullying, fascistic, misanthropic, greedy, totalitarian and rotten to the very core. And personally, every now and again, I like to remind the scum-sucking slime balls of this fact. Which becomes much harder if people on our side of the argument are coming over all prissy and reaching for the smelling salt just because someone has used a silly epithet designed to put climate scepticism in the same category as Holocaust denial.
Bring it on, I say. I love being called a “Denier”. Much more, I suspect, than they love being called Eco Fascists. After all, insults only hurt when they contain a grain of truth. [Breitbart News, 7/25/14]
Citing A Climate Change Denier, Breitbart Claimed An "Expert" Says "Marxists, Global Warming Extremists Control Vatican." In an article titled, “Climate Expert: Marxists, Global Warming Extremists Control Vatican,” Breitbart author Robert Wilde promoted climate science denier Christopher Monckton’s theory that Pope Francis issued a climate change encyclical because of Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, “a communist [who] managed to get control of the pontifical academies of sciences and social sciences.” In his remarks, which were made on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday, Monckton added that Sorondo is an "out and out marxist who decided that climate change was useful to marxism." [Breitbart News, 6/13/15]
Breitbart Labels Climate Change A "Conspiracy" And A "Scam"
Delingpole: Climate Change Is “The Greatest-Ever Conspiracy Against The Taxpayer.” In an article promoting a speech he gave to the World Taxpayers’ Associations in Berlin, Delingpole wrote: “Climate change is the biggest scam in the history of the world – a $1.5 trillion-a-year conspiracy against the taxpayer, every cent, penny and centime of which ends in the pockets of the wrong kind of people.” In the speech itself, Delingpole similarly claimed that “the global warming industry” is “a fraud; a sham; a conspiracy against the taxpayer.” [Breitbart News, 3/28/16]
Breitbart Writer Called Earth Day And Climate Change A “Scam.” Then-Breitbart contributor Jeffrey Jena penned an article in April 2009 headlined, “Beware the Earth Day Scam.” Jena wrote:
Today the granddaddy of all financial scams will be launched again. It is known as “Earth Day.” Do not fall for this scam! This con game may seem like a new idea, but it’s been around since the seventies, just like Mr. Obama’s “new” idea about saving the country by building some light rail. This scam seems to pop up every Spring in one form or another. This scam has also been circulated under the names; “Global Warming,” “Climate Change,” “The Green Movement,” and “Ecology.” Recent variations have used the names “Carbon Credits” and “Cap and Trade.” [Breitbart News, 4/22/09]
Delingpole Claimed “Scientists” Say: “Global Warming Is Good; CO2 Is Our Friend.” Delingpole touted a report from the fossil fuel-funded Heartland Institute, which seeks to undermine the consensus report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In an article headlined, “'World doing just fine; Global Warming is Good; CO2 is our friend' say Scientists,” Delingpole wrote: “The latest verdict is in on ‘climate change’ – and the news is good. The planet is greening, the oceans are blooming, food production is up, animals are thriving and humans are doing better than ever: and all thanks to CO2 and global warming.” [Breitbart News, 4/4/14]
Trump Is A Climate Science Denier
Trump Has Repeatedly Called Global Warming A “Hoax.” [Media Matters, 5/26/16]
Trump Tweeted Global Warming “Was Created By And For The Chinese In Order To Make U.S. Manufacturing Non-Competitive. On November 6, 2012, Trump tweeted:
The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012