Not really.
Republicans and their brainwashed followers will be around for a long time.
But the industry coalition that has funded and supported climate denial for decades appears to be cracking apart, according to this article in The Atlantic. Here’s an excerpt:
“If you read a lot of climate commentary, you may get the sense that the fossil-fuel industry, working essentially as a rogue actor, is singularly responsible for America’s lack of climate policy. This isn’t necessarily … wrong, but it’s not exactly correct either. Since the modern era of climate politics began, in 1988, the fossil-fuel industry has worked as a kind of political nexus, a place where lots of different interests—steelmaking, automaking, organized labor—come together to pursue the same goals.”
So the oil industry acted as a kind of hub for climate denial. It also has been a major funder of climate denial propaganda.
But big oil companies are beginning to embrace carbon-control initiatives. Within the railroad industry, the climate-denial coalition is splitting apart, and the American Association of Railroads “has rebranded itself as a climate warrior,” the article says. Given the precipitous decline in coal usage for power generation — once an important freight business — they have little reason left not to.
That’s a big deal, not only because of the pollution they create, but also the influence of corporate policies and lobbying. But there’s also widespread climate skepticism among the general public, much of it deliberately fostered by costly propaganda efforts. A New York Times article in 2019 said (here), “Follow the money” that pays for these efforts.
The money trail, of course, leads back to large corporations (preeminently among them, the oil industry, but many others contribute). If these industries really mean what they’re now saying about the necessity of controlling greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and that money dries up, the cacophony of climate denial disinformation will in large part go away.
I recall reading years ago a National Geographic article about “the end of oil” quoting a scientist who said, “The world will run out of atmosphere before it runs out of oil.” Since then, it has become increasingly clear that the planet can take only so much abuse, and we’re racing up to that limit, and possibly coming to a tipping point. The data are now so compelling that even giant polluter industries with huge vested economic industries are hesitating to ally themselves with the deeply irresponsible climate-denial movement.
That would be an important turning point. But it’s still early days for saving the planet, and as Winston Churchill would say, it’s not the beginning of the end for climate denial, but perhaps may herald the end of the beginning of efforts to defeat the climate-denial movement.
Photo: Will oil refineries disappear in our lifetimes?