Climate Change Denial: Dear Climate Denier | Matt Russell

05/07/20 • 42 min

Dear Climate Denier
This is the premiere of a new segment for the show called Dear Climate Denier. Our guest today is Matt Russell, an environmental consultant and a good friend of mine and he’ll join us each week to discuss one or two standard climate denial topics so you’ll be ready the next time you hear those talking points come up. And, most importantly we’ll talk about the best approach for talking to your nearest and dearest climate deniers. How can you stand your ground on climate change and offer up some facts without getting into a screaming match.
The History of Climate Change Denial
Going forward Dear Climate Denier will be a quick little segment of the show but for this episode we’re going to do a deep dive on it. The best place to start is by taking a look at the history of climate science and climate change denial. We’ll also discuss some of our favorite examples of climate deniers going off the rails.
Planet of the Humans
Michael Moore released a new movie called Planet of the Humans on Earth Day this year. It attacks renewable energy, biomass, Bill McKibben and the environmental movement in general. It’s full of outdated information and unsupported conclusions. Unfortunately a lot of the points that the film makes are the exact same things that climate deniers were saying about renewable energy 10 years ago. We’ll talk about that a little bit today but we’ll go into depth on the movie in the next episode.
Links
Episode webpage: Climate Change Denial: Dear Climate DenierThe History of Climate Change DenialIf you would like to support the show please click here.
Music by:

Audio production by Keaton Butler – [email protected] Please share the show with a friend.

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Previous Episode

Sustainable Business: Samantha Richardson author of Ethical Profit

Samantha Richardson is the author of Ethical Profit: A Guide to Increasing Profit Using Sustainable Business Practices. She’s also the founder and CEO of Ethical Profit Accounting Agency, specializing in helping small businesses with a social or environmental mission get a handle on their finances so they can better understand their cash flow and finances. With this information, they are able to make smarter business choices to help fuel their growth.

It was a fun conversation. Here are some of the topics that we covered with Samantha:

Myths that persist around sustainable business like the idea that it’s too expensive to operate sustainably
Small and large steps that businesses can take to become more sustainable and all of the benefits that they can gain from doing so.
What are B Corps and why is it that they can be even more profitable than businesses that are strictly focused on profit
How a focus on short term profit can cost a business more in the long run (for example the infamous Ford Pinto)
How Samantha brought Quidditch to Australia

Please share the show with a friend.
If you would like to support the show please click here.
Do you have a great idea for stopping climate change? We want to hear it.
Click here to share your idea and it might be featured on the show.Music by:

Audio production by Keaton Butler – [email protected]

Support the show

Next Episode

Climate Change Denial pt. 2: Planet of the Humans vs. Renewable Energy

Matt Russell joins us again for our second episode in a two part series about climate denial. This week we're focusing on Planet of the Humans, the new movie from Michael Moore, Jeff Gibbs and Ozzy Zehner. The filmmakers aren’t climate change deniers but they are very critical of renewable energy and a lot of the arguments that they bring up in the film are incorrect talking points and myths that climate change deniers used 10 years ago. Deniers are ecstatic to have an influential liberal documentary filmmaker like Michael Moore reviving these points. It provides them with a lot of ammunition that they can use as they work to slow the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Overall the film is a poorly-researched and often incorrect indictment of nearly every aspect of the green movement, from technologies to organizations to leaders. We’re not going to dive into every topic that is covered in the film. We’ll take a look at the questions it raises around the following: