Climate Scientists, Epstein Survivors Speak Out: This Is No Hoax

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When you have no stake in the facts, everything is a hoax. That certainly explains the public service career of US President Donald Trump. The President has always counted on his loyal supporters to absorb his fantasies into their own reality, from a 2015 campaign speech in which he said “a lot of it’s a hoax, it’s a hoax” in reference to global warming, all the way up to this week’s casual “Democrat hoax” dismissal of Jeffrey Epstein survivors…oh, wait. Did you hear something? The sound of support finally cracking, maybe?

*Source.

Climate Science Takes A Back Seat

Trump’s stance on climate science has prompted a torrent of rebuttals from scientists over the years, but that didn’t stop the US electorate from vaulting him into the Oval Office for a second time this year. Fair enough. Climate science is not front of mind to the US voting public, nor, for that matter, is any kind of science. After all, this is essentially the same beer poll electorate — voters, eligible voters who didn’t vote, and third-party voters alike — that re-elected the bumbling, war-starting, income-redistributing, climate change “skeptic” President George W. Bush to a second term in office back in 2004.

Still, much water has passed under the bridge in the past 20 years or so. Climate-related impacts are rising fast. Now that millions of voters across the country have lost, or are facing the loss of, their homes and livelihoods to the looming climate crisis, perhaps climate science will play a more important role in their heads as they choose to vote (or not) in the all-important midterm elections next November.

JK! In terms of climate science, Election Day 2026 is already shaping up to be business as usual for the US electorate in general, and Trump supporters in particular. In July, for example, the Department of Energy posted an all-but-fraudulent report on climate change that was met with outrage from climate scientists and environmental organizations, and cricket chirps from Trump supporters.

Legacy Media Raises The Alarm

CleanTechnica was among those circulating science-based rebuttals to the new Energy Department report shortly after its release on July 23. Since then, additional scientists have added to the effort. Legacy media has also begun to raise public awareness.

“More than 85 climate experts say Energy Department report on greenhouse gases is ‘full of errors’,” reads the headline of a CBS News report on September 2.

CBS News got straight to the matter from the start. “An international group of more than 85 climate experts on Tuesday published a 439-page review arguing that a report by the Trump administration’s Energy Department fails to ‘adequately represent the current scientific understanding of climate change,’ and it ‘exhibits pervasive problems’ by misrepresenting scientific literature and cherry-picking data,” wrote Tracy J. Wholf, the senior coordinating producer of climate and environmental coverage at CBS.

Meh, Just Another Hoax

This really is a five-alarm fire. Back in 2009, the EPA issued a formal Endangerment Finding on carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gasses, based on a scientific determination that these air pollutants are a danger to public health. Now the EPA seeks to revoke the finding, and along comes the new Energy Department report to support the effort.

Even Fox News has taken note of huge, gaping holes in the new climate report.The assignment was shunted to a sports correspondent on the company’s Fox Live Nowstreaming service, but he did a creditable job of explaining the position of climate scientists, while also taking note of Energy Secretary Wright’s background in the fossil energy business (check our archive for more background on Secretary Wright).

Who’s Hoaxing Who?

The new Energy Department report includes elaborate biographies of the five contributors. However, the bios leave out the parts where all five are known for regularly disputing the consensus on climate science. Even Fox Live Now pointed out the omission, noting that the report was prepared by “four scientists and one economist who have all questioned whether climate change is a large threat to the world.”

Fox Live Now doesn’t go into details, but the organization Media Matters for America does. Take Judith Curry, Ph.D., for example, who has previously served as chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech while consulting for fossil energy firms. “She resigned from Georgia Tech in 2017 citing climate ‘craziness’ and has been called out by other scientists for promoting debunked climate denial arguments,” notes Media Matters.

Media Matters also describes the three other contributing scientists in detail:

John Christy, Ph.D., known for promoting the idea that carbon dioxide couldn’t possibly cause harm because it “makes things grow.”

Steve Koonin, Ph.D., who has worked for the global oil and gas firm BP.

Roy Spencer, Ph.D., who advises the climate-denying Heartland Institute.

The fifth contributor is the economist Ross McKitrick, Ph.D. Media Matters has been tracking him since at least 2010, when he disputed the 2009 Endangerment Finding. McKitrick also expressed his views on climate science in a 2015 article posted by the Cato Institute, where he continues to maintain a biographical page.

Here’s One Hoax That Is Not Going Away

The dust kicked up by the rebuttals to the Energy Department report will surely pass, as it always has. Not going away any time soon, though, is the firestorm surrounding the Epstein files. This one falls squarely in Trump’s lap. During the 2024 campaign, he suggested that he would support efforts to disclose the information collected by the government on Epstein’s long history of sexual abuse, trafficking, and blackmail, setting off rounds of eager speculation among his conspiracy-soaked supporters.

Upon taking office however, Trump suddenly lost interest. “This is a Democrat hoax that never ends,” Trump told reporters after a group of Epstein survivors spoke out in public on September 3rd.

His supporters were not mollified. They want the files, the files, and all the files. “Trump has said, let’s move on. And the base doesn’t want to move on. MAGA doesn’t want to move on,” emphasized the high profile Trump supporter David Brody, host of Real America’s Voice and the Christian Broadcasting Network, in a broadcast on September 4th.

The Epstein survivors were certainly not mollified, either. “We are real human beings. This is real trauma,” one survivor, Haley Robson, had to remind the President.

“I cordially invite you to the Capitol to meet me in person so you can understand this is not a hoax,” Robson added.

If Brody thinks MAGA World is upset now (and he does), just wait ’til they hear from another group of survivors, who are reportedly comparing notes on Epstein’s clients with the aim of posting a public list.

What do you think, did Trump play the hoax card one too many times when he insulted the Epstein survivors? Or will this, too, pass? Drop a note in the comment thread, but before you do, consider the response Trump got earlier this week from self-identified supporters on his own social media platform, Truth Social, when he proclaimed “Prices are ‘WAY DOWN’ in the USA, with virtually no inflation.”

Image: via CleanTechnica archive courtesy of Carbon Brief.