Politics Decoded

Limbaugh's Climate Change Hoax

Rush Limbaugh has single-handedly ensured that no Republican presidential candidate will say s/he believes in “man-made global warming.”   Limbaugh made it clear he will not endorse anybody who does when he said, “The last year has established that the whole premise of man-made global warming is a hoax, and we still have presidential candidates that want to buy into it.”    Well, not anymore — they all agree with him now!  And none of the candidates are for limiting emissions or a strong clean energy program.

Why would he do this?  Follow the money.  Limbaugh is paid $2 million per year by the Heritage Foundation to parrot their “talking points” and encourage listeners to send them money.  Greenpeace says the Heritage Foundation is a climate change denial front group for Koch Industries, the largest privately-held energy company in the country.  The Heritage Foundation is also funded by Exxon Mobil.  According to SourceWatch, the Heritage Foundation's Hurricane Katrina rebuilding recommendations included "drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and suspend environmental regulations, including the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act." 

Limbaugh said scientists involved in global warming "hoax" should be "named and fired, drawn and quartered."  But his false claims about ozone depletion, global warming, that only 17% of scientists believe that global warming exists, America’s forests, volcanoes spewing worse ozone depletion chemicals than man-made ones and environmentalists trying to destroy capitalism were debunked by the Environmental Defense Fund and Media Matters named him 2011 Climate Change Misinformer of the Year.

While BP was spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, Limbaugh said Alaska’s Prince William Sound “is pristine now.”   But the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council 2010 Report states that “oil persists in the environment and in places, is nearly as toxic as it was the first few weeks after the spill.” 

Trying to make it sound like House Democrats didn’t give Republicans time to read the climate change bill before voting on it, Limbaugh said “there was not even a copy of the bill in the well of the House, which is standard. It wasn’t even written.”  Actually there wasn’t an official copy of the final amended bill, but both the original bill and the amendments to the bill were there.   

Here are how the Republican presidential hopefuls have lined up behind Limbaugh:

 

Mitt Romney changed his opinion between June and October 2011 after being blasted by Limbaugh:

• In June Romney said, "...the world is getting warmer and humans contribute to that...It's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gasses that may well be significant contributors to the climate change...” 
• Shortly afterwards Limbaugh said about Romney, “Bye, bye, nomination. Another one down. We’re in the midst here of discovering that this is all a hoax.  The last year has established that the whole premise of man-made global warming is a hoax, and we still have presidential candidates that want to buy into it.”
• Four months later Romney said, “...we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet and the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us...Let’s aggressively develop our oil, our gas, our coal...Let’s grant the permits to let the drillers start drilling.”    
  

Newt Gingrich has also changed his position from 2007 to 2011: 

• In 2007 Gingrich said,  “The evidence is sufficient that we should move towards the most effective possible steps to reduce carbon loading of the atmosphere...and do it urgently.”  
  
• In a 2008 TV ad made for Al Gore, Gingrich and democrat Nancy Pelosi said,  “we do agree our country must take action to address climate change.”  
• But today Gingrich says “I never believed in Al Gore’s fantasy”   and there is “evidence on both sides of the climate change argument.” 
  

Even Jon Huntsman Jr. has flip-flopped:

• Huntsman said “I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”       
• But Huntsman since said “the scientific community owes us more” and that “there’s probably more debate yet to play out” 
  

The rest of the candidates needed no convincing:

• Michele Bachmann said “Carbon dioxide is not a harmful gas.” 
  
• Rick Perry said “Scientific theory that has not been proven and from my prespective is more and more being put to question.”  
  
• Rick Santorum said "There is no such thing as global warming.”
  

This isn’t the first time Republicans have backed down from Limbaugh.  Rep. Darrell Issa, RNC chairman Michael Steele, Rep. Phil Gingrey, Gov. Mark Sanford and Sarah Palin are among just a few.  

Read about Limbaugh being a Chauvinist Pig here.

Read about his Tobacco Hoax here. 

Read about some of his other lies here.