Message From the Editor

Language matters. Here at DeSmog, we know that intimately. Long before many other news outlets felt comfortable calling out climate science denial for what it was, we were compiling a robust database of the people and organizations involved in spreading climate disinformation. But language evolves and so does climate denial (well, sometimes).

And even people in the climate movement — like researchers and activists and policymakers who believe that we should be acting swiftly to address the climate crisis — may be internalizing a narrative that fossil fuel interests have perpetuated, and using language that could undercut climate progress, according Dr. Genevieve Guenther, climate communications expert and author of the new book, The Language of Climate Politics.

She sat down with DeSmog reporter Geoff Dembicki for an exclusive interview to break down that narrative, the potentially problematic language used across the political spectrum, and her vision for political change if more people dropped what she calls the language of the “new climate denial.” Get the full story.

Some of the language Guenther takes issue with subtly furthers the notion that continuing to pump out more oil, coal, and gas is OK even as the world burns. 

Take, for instance, “decarbonization.” An ExxonMobil or Imperial can “decarbonize” its oil and gas business by pitching carbon capture projects that would strip a mere fraction of the carbon pollution from their fossil fuel ventures. 

For many on the political right, supporting fossil fuels indefinitely doesn’t sound so bad in theory — and neither does the pricey, unproven, government-subsidized carbon capture and storage technology (CCS).

That’s why you may expect attacks on CCS from the left. But among some right-wing figures, such as Canadian conservative influencer Jordan Peterson and Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran a failed primary campaign against Donald Trump, carbon capture and storage is spurring a growing conservative backlash. Read more here.

Send us your story tips or feedback: [email protected]. Want to know what our UK team is up to? Sign up for our UK newsletter. 

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

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Image credit:  Michael Halsband

The Growing Conservative Backlash Against Carbon Capture and Storage

— By Geoff Dembicki (4 min. read) —

Earlier this year a far-right group called Canada Proud began running Facebook ads to its more than 534,000 followers attacking the climate change technology favored by conservative leaders as well as the country’s largest oil and gas producers. 

“Carbon capture is billed as a green technology that stops carbon from entering the atmosphere,” the ad explains. “But is it really good for the environment? As it turns out, not really.” The technology, Canada Proud claimed, “can poison groundwater, it can put carcinogens in the soil and even has a record of causing earthquakes.” 

How to Blunt the ‘New Climate Denial’ with Better Language

— By Geoff Dembicki (7 min. read) —

The idea that the climate debate can be neatly divided into two competing camps — with Republican deniers on the right and Democratic advocates on the left — is one of the many myths that Dr. Genevieve Guenther takes on in her new book The Language of Climate Politics. The reality, according to Guenther, a climate communications expert and founder of the advocacy group End Climate Silence, is that fossil fuel industry talking points permeate the political spectrum, contributing to a mainstream consensus that producing ever more oil, coal and gas is fine even as the planet burns. 

One way to blunt this “new climate denial,” as she calls it, is better and more effective language that puts a phase-out of fossil fuels at the center of the climate action agenda. In an exclusive interview with DeSmog, Guenther explains how oil and gas companies weaponize the language of climate advocates, why it can be a waste of time trying to engage with Fox News viewers and what needs to happen to put truly transformative climate action at the top of political agendas everywhere. 

Dutch and U.S. Climate Deniers Join Forces as Europe Shifts to the Right

— By Nina Tea Zibetti, Alexander Beunder, Merel de Buck and Jilles Mast (9 min) —

“I embrace that high carbon lifestyle […] CO2 is showing huge, huge benefits, and so we should celebrate it,” U.S. climate science denier Gregory Wrightstone tells the audience.

Welcome to Clintel’s fifth anniversary celebration. Here, windmills are referred to as “bird choppers,” and carbon dioxide is not something to fear, but rather a “miracle molecule” that we should emit more of, not less. Apparently, according to Wrightstone, the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are now so low that the planet is experiencing a “CO2 famine.”

Charity Commission Fails to Clamp Down on Climate Science Denial Group

— By Adam Barnett and Sam Bright (4 min. read) —

The UK’s charity watchdog has said it is “satisfied” with changes made by the country’s main climate science denial group after investigating concerns about its funding, structure, and bias. 

In 2022 the Charity Commission, the UK’s independent charity regulator, launched a case into the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), set up by the (now late) Conservative peer Nigel Lawson in 2009.

Dozens of New MPs Worked for Oil and Gas Lobbyists

— By Andrew Kersley (4 min. read) —

At least 24 newly elected MPs used to work for public relations, consultancy and lobbying firms that have a history of representing oil and gas companies, DeSmog can reveal.

A DeSmog analysis of the MPs entering Parliament after the 2024 general election found that two dozen had a background working for oil and gas giants, coal power station conglomerates, as well as other highly polluting clients.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: CLINTEL

Climate Intelligence Foundation (CLINTEL) is a Netherlands-based climate science denial group founded in 2019 by retired professor of geophysics Guus Berkhout and journalist Marcel Crok. Its principal view is that “there is no climate emergency.” According to Dutch broadcaster KRO-NCRV Pointer, the 800 “scientists, scholars, and professionals” that support CLINTEL have “conducted little to no climate research.” The organization has close ties to Forum voor Democratie, the main Dutch nationalist party. Various members of CLINTEL’s list of ambassadors, and its extended list of signatories, have connections to libertarian free-market groups with a history of climate science denial, including the Heartland Institute, the Cato Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. All three organizations are members of the Koch-funded Atlas Network. CLINTEL recently held its fifth anniversary conference that celebrated its transatlantic ties with U.S. climate deniers.

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database, Ad & PR Database, and Koch Network Database.