Name: COVID-19 'Liberate' Groups Are the Same Ones Pushing Climate Denial
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COVID-19 'Liberate' Groups Are the Same Ones Pushing Climate Denial

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This story is a part of Covering Climate Now’s&nbsp;&nbsp;focused on Climate Solutions, to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Covering Climate Now is a global journalism collaboration committed to strengthening coverage of the&nbsp;climate&nbsp;story.to the climate&nbsp;crisis.as the coronavirus outbreak&nbsp;worsened around the world and eventually made its way&nbsp;into the United&nbsp;States.&nbsp;—&nbsp;— and what Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-) has coined the “.”of Tea Party protests in 2009, many of the protests have the , yet are tied&nbsp;through .&nbsp;has called the “” movement, one major&nbsp;thread tying the groups together is the . , a network of state-level conservative think tanks advancing&nbsp;pro-corporate agendas,&nbsp;has received money from the likes of the , the Devos family, the , and&nbsp;others.&nbsp;descend upon the&nbsp;capitol in Lansing on April 15, with some people inside their cars and some outside, some with masks and others without, and violating social distancing guidelines while&nbsp;waving&nbsp;Confederate flags or pro-Nazi signs. These protesters were&nbsp;calling for an end to Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s put into place on March&nbsp;23.Dubbed “Operation Gridlock,” the rally was convened by the Michigan Freedom Fund and Michigan Conservative Coalition and &nbsp;—&nbsp;echoing opposition to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential&nbsp;campaign.to reverse Whitmer’s executive order, which she said .&nbsp;from the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, helped to , , and via a . The group is led by Greg McNeilly, former Executive Director of the Michigan Republican Party and campaign manager for Dick DeVos’ 2006 gubernatorial&nbsp;run.&nbsp;, current Secretary of Education under Trump. Beyond his role running the Michigan Freedom Fund, McNeilly works as Chief Operating Officer at The Windquest Group, a privately held investment firm owned by Dick and Betsy&nbsp;DeVos.of . While the Michigan Freedom Fund is not an member, the &nbsp;— which also promoted “Operation Gridlock” via its online news publication Michigan Capitol Confidential&nbsp;— is one. The Mackinac Center also receives huge financial support from the Devos Family&nbsp;Foundation.See DeSmog’s&nbsp;&nbsp;on&nbsp;Climate&nbsp;Solutions and, wrote of climate change that “the planet is believed to be experiencing a global cooling — not a warming” and referred to potential climate regulations as “federal global warming&nbsp;controls.”” coalition, a response to calls for a climate strike last fall. On its website, the coalition that “there is a healthy and ongoing discourse over the science of global climate change” and that “it’s well past time that we have a full and independent review of the climate science that is driving energy and environmental&nbsp;policy.”and pointed its readers toward the livestream,&nbsp;which ran on Breitbart News’ Facebook page. That stream&nbsp;has received over 5.8 million watches as of April&nbsp;20.Until 2017, served as the majority owner of Breitbart, a right-wing news site previously run by former aide to the Trump 2016 campaign and White House,&nbsp;. The Mercer Family Foundation has in the past been a major donor and Robert Mercer was a to the Trump presidential campaign, giving&nbsp; again in&nbsp;2020.A 2018 story published by the money-in-politics tracking website Maplight reported that the Mercer Family Foundation had&nbsp;&nbsp;into climate denial groups for that previous tax year, according to disclosure forms reviewed by the&nbsp;organization. That included $800,000 to&nbsp;, a mainstay of the climate denial stratosphere and an&nbsp;.upon its capitol, the made the call to action for the “Disobey Idaho” protest. Several Republican legislators joined the rally. Idaho Freedom Foundation is an &nbsp;member..&nbsp;. “Free people don’t live like this. If you value your freedom —&nbsp; if you want your kids and grandkids and their kids and grandkids to experience what it means to have unalienable rights&nbsp;— &nbsp;the time to act is&nbsp;now.”.there is “much diversity of thought surrounding climate change, its potential causes, and human stewardship of the environment,” but that “the Idaho Science Standards emphasize climate change, and that human interaction with the environment is routinely&nbsp;harmful.”&nbsp;” yet on climate&nbsp;change.for violating Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s stay-at-home executive&nbsp;order.&nbsp;Now, frequent Republican North Carolina congressional candidate and businessman has pledged to pay for eight buses to boost&nbsp;the protest efforts for an April 21 convening. In his congressional campaign platform, D’Annunzio&nbsp;called climate change a&nbsp;“hoax.”for one of his congressional runs. “It’s a hoax and not even worthy of&nbsp;discussion.”.” The piece was written by Bob Luddy, former Board Chairman of the Civitas Institute, North Carolina’s affiliate. Luddy, according to Civitas’ most recent 990 form, to the group during the 2017-2018 fiscal&nbsp;year.. “Farmers, who are crucial food producers, will soon go bankrupt, reducing food supplies and causing shortages. -19 will not disappear because we stayed&nbsp;home.”&nbsp;by March 30, comparing -19 to the flu and writing that “leaders are creating an economic crisis and a major national security risk with limited&nbsp;data.”the governor’s “plan is to save us from -19 based on virtually no data and death projections that were wildly overstated and are now being revised downward by the medical&nbsp;community.”&nbsp;that there is “good reason to be skeptical” about climate change, adding that “the entire foundation of anthropogenic global warming [should] be looked upon with tremendous skepticism and suspicion that should not be soon disregarded” because “liberty is at&nbsp;stake.”. “By the end of this quarantine, our jobs and our way of life will have been&nbsp;decimated.”in both and .&nbsp;&nbsp;by The Washington Post, include , Tea Party Patriots, the , and Trump 2016 campaign economic adviser .of , a group which for decades has received donations from the fossil fuel industry and Koch family to push its in statehouses nationwide while also pushing a climate change denial&nbsp;message.&nbsp;on climate change. “ will continue to monitor the issue and support the use of sound science to guide policy, but will also incorporate economic and political&nbsp;realism.”require teaching a “balance” of climate science denial and climate science in K-12 schools. It also has pushed the of the fossil fuel industry, while legislation of the renewable energy&nbsp;sector., meanwhile, is an outgrowth of the group , itself a creation funded and founded by the petrochemical billionaire brothers&nbsp;Charles and David Koch. The group’s efforts, alongside the Kochs’ other front group , were seen as for the of the Tea Party movement in 2009 and in the 2009 climate bill proposed by President Barack Obama and the&nbsp;Democrats.&nbsp;“directly financing 92 groups that have attacked climate change science and policy solutions,” according to a Greenpeace &nbsp;analysis.&nbsp;, long considered the brain trust of the conservative movement and Republican Party and&nbsp;another key prong of the climate denial apparatus. He on the Board of Scholars and still serves on its .&nbsp;In a recent episode of the ‘s “” show on Zoom, Moore called stay-at-home orders “one of the biggest bone-headed moves by government in 100 years” which will “go down in history potentially as one of the great abuses of governmental power, not just at the federal level, but at the state level and local&nbsp;level.”The Denver-based Independence Institute is also an &nbsp;and has called&nbsp; Colorado’s response “bureaucracy run wild” and called for Coloradans to “challenge these house arrest orders in every legal way&nbsp;possible.”Moore also called for more acts of civil disobedience, for comparing&nbsp;the ongoing protests in states nationwide to the civil rights efforts of Rosa&nbsp;Parks.“Isn’t that called the right of assembly and grievances against your government? I thought that was protected in the Constitution,” said Moore. “I’m working with a group in Wisconsin that wants to do a drive-in. So you remember the old sit-ins, but this is going to be a drive-in and they’re going to shut down the Capitol. Shhhh, don’t tell anybody, but they think they can get 1,500 people to come&nbsp;in.”&nbsp;He also in Wisconsin willing to pony up legal and bail&nbsp;fees.&nbsp;“And we have one big donor in Wisconsin — I’m not going to mention his name — and he told me ‘Steve, I promise I will pay the legal and bail fees for anyone that gets arrested,” said Moore. “So this is a great time, gentlemen and ladies, for civil disobedience. We need to be the Rosa Parks here and protest against these government&nbsp;injustices.”. “So, it’s very alarming how this propaganda campaign, that they made this stuff out of, almost completely out of thin air and they’ve convinced millions and millions of thought leaders that this stuff is&nbsp;real.”itself, as least as it pertains to its own employees. Beginning in late-March, they to a work-from-home paradigm, even as they use the Americans for Prosperity Network to shelter-in-place orders —&nbsp;.Niskanen Center explicitly the novel coronavirus debate not to go the way of climate change. The group started as an offshoot of the , another Koch-funded think tank that is part of the climate denial network, and was&nbsp; by several disgruntled Cato&nbsp;staffers.Stay up to date with DeSmog news and alertsSteve Horn is a former Research Fellow and writer for DeSmog and a freelance investigative journalist based in San Diego, . He currently works as a climate reporter and producer for The Real News&nbsp;Network.Two are advisors to a well-connected "forum" set up by the BP-funded Institute of Economic Affairs that wants to see UK fracking regulations relaxed.Two are advisors to a well-connected "forum" set up by the BP-funded Institute of Economic Affairs that wants to see UK fracking regulations relaxed.Green MP Caroline Lucas said climate sceptics and “delayers” should be “nowhere near the prime minister’s top team”.Green MP Caroline Lucas said climate sceptics and “delayers” should be “nowhere near the prime minister’s top team”.The former Brexit minister, who has been at the forefront of efforts to oppose UK action on climate change, is re-entering government after four years.The former Brexit minister, who has been at the forefront of efforts to oppose UK action on climate change, is re-entering government after four years.FTI Consulting has a long track record of trying to control public narratives around fossil fuels for its clients in an effort to head off climate action. Now a Congressional committee wants answers.FTI Consulting has a long track record of trying to control public narratives around fossil fuels for its clients in an effort to head off climate action. Now a Congressional committee wants answers.Clearing the PR PollutionSectionsDatabasesTopicsDeSmogFollowClearing the PR PollutionSectionsDatabasesTopicsDeSmogFollowWebsite byStay up to date with DeSmog news and alertsResultsSee all resultsStay up to date with DeSmog news and alerts

This story is a part of Covering Climate Now’s&nbsp;&nbsp;focused on Climate Solutions, to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Covering Climate Now is a global journalism collaboration committed to strengthening coverage of the&nbsp;climate&nbsp;story.to the climate&nbsp;crisis.as the coronavirus outbreak&nbsp;worsened around the world and eventually made its way&nbsp;into the United&nbsp;States.&nbsp;—&nbsp;— and what Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-) has coined the “.”of Tea Party protests in 2009, many of the protests have the , yet are tied&nbsp;through .&nbsp;has called the “” movement,...

COVID-19 'Liberate' Groups Are the Same Ones Pushing Climate Denial

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