Global warming skeptic keeps his cool amid hysteria

Global warming skeptic Marc Morano, the founder of ClimateDepot.com, is a marked man in climate change circles.

While many scientists, academics, and personalities sound the alarm over what they see as the cataclysmic threat posed by a warming planet, Mr. Morano takes the opposite approach: The sky isn’t falling. The doom-and-gloom forecasts are wrong.

And he isn’t above cracking a joke or two along the way to make his case.

“I took everything Al Gore did in his books and movies and tried to do the exact opposite: use humor, entertainment, and fun,” Mr. Morano said.

That makes his ideological foes even angrier.

The liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America once dubbed him “Misinformer of the Year.” The 2015 documentary “Merchants of Doubt” portrayed him as a mustache-twirling villain. The progressive news/opinion website The Daily Kos slammed him as “evil personified.”

Then there are the violent threats Mr. Morano said he received for sharing his opinions on a hotly debated topic. Hate mail. Nasty phone calls. Wishes for the death of his children.

Undeterred, Mr. Morano is back with “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change,” a book that shares his journey to the top echelon of climate change skeptics while debunking those who insist the world is doomed unless we take action now.

A key takeaway from the book? That climate change scares may be new, but potential remedies date back decades.

“Even with the other environmental scares, it was the same solution … global governance, central planning, wealth redistribution,” Mr. Morano said. “There’s nothing new about them.”

That doesn’t deny the seriousness of the matter, particularly given how climate change devotees hope to alter the world.

“This is the most well-funded, environmental scare in the history of environmental cares,” he said.

Humor proves an effective weapon given the shifting goal posts employed by climate change alarmists, he said.

Take Prince Charles, who in 2009 famously gave the Earth 100 months to clean up its act or suffer irreversible and cataclysmic disaster. Six years later, the British heir apparent updated his warning, extending the date of the apocalypse by 33 years. Given Queen Elizabeth’s robust health at the age of 91, her 69-year-old son may live long enough to see the fruits of his prediction, Mr. Morano said.

News media are part of the problem when it comes to climate change hysteria, Mr. Morano said. It wasn’t always that way. His book details how mainstream outlets including The New York Times once offered more balance to environmental issues.

Yet Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich of “The Population Bomb” — the 1968 tome that warned of widespread starvation in the 1970s and ‘80s because of overpopulation — got round-the-clock coverage with less-than-usual skepticism from reporters. Even “The Tonight Show” gave Mr. Ehrlich his close-up in 1977, Mr. Morano notes.

“Carson knew it was good TV. … It sold newspapers and got everyone excited,” he said.

What changed?

Mr. Morano points to 1988 when scientist James Hansen testified on Capitol Hill about the global warming threat and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emerged.

“Their sole mission is promoting the fear of global warming,” he said. “Once that happened, we were guaranteed we’d get constant alarms.”

He pins part of the blame on Hollywood. The entertainment industry effectively uses its influence to impact the next generation of climate change believers.

“That is a powerful tool,” he said of Hollywood products such as the eco-friendly “Happy Feet” franchise.

“Disney films, National Geographic, Earth Day films,” he ticks off a few other sources hoping to influence young minds. It appears to be working, he said.

“Over the last five years, even the libertarian and conservative kids in college are brainwashed. By the time they’re coming up through college, they say climate change is settled science,” Mr. Morano said. “They’ve never even heard the other arguments.

“It becomes, ‘I better not oppose that because I don’t want to be a denier.’ That’s where celebrities are so important,” he said.

Mr. Morano said he loves debating climate change alarmists. Lately, the feeling isn’t mutual.

He recalls locking horns with Bill Nye (“The Science Guy”) and University of Exeter professor Andrew Watson, among others. Such clashes are becoming less common as news outlets steer clear of climate change skeptics. It’s part of a larger trend.

“The LA Times doesn’t print skeptical letters to the editor from readers,” he said. “They’re trying to make [climate skepticism] toxic.”

The ascent of President Trump, who famously took the United States out of the Paris climate accord, doesn’t mean climate change alarmism is on the decline.

“This is far from over. … Everything President Trump did is reversible,” Mr. Morano said. “The last two Republican [presidential] nominees would not have taken us out of the Paris agreement. … [Mitt] Romney was begging and pleading Trump not to withdraw.”

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