Rush Limbaugh Named Climate Change Misinformer of the Year (Video)

 

Written by Brian Merchant

Out of all of the politicians, pundits, and public figures that spread misinformation about climate change over the last year, Media Matters has bestowed a special honor upon Rush Limbaugh. The loudmouthed radio host, who commands an audience of 14 million (mostly) conservative listeners, has earned the watchdog organization’s dubious honor of “Climate Change Misinformer of the Year.”

Congrats, Rush! By repeatedly referring to climate change as a hoax, by getting the science even more wrong than your average Fox News host, and by wielding denial as a political weapon–Rush declared “bye bye, nomination” after Mitt Romney dared discuss climate with a level head–Limbaugh has done more damage to the general public’s understanding of global warming than perhaps any other man in 2011.

A kind of repulsive climate denial retrospective, Media Matters put together this reel of Limbaugh’s greatest hits. Listen:

Here’s Media Matters on why Limbaugh took top honors:

Limbaugh, whose radio show reportedly reaches roughly 14 million people per week, remains the most prominent and cocksure denier of human-induced climate change in the news industry. His unyielding belief that the world’s earth scientists are perpetrating a “hoax” has led him to some interesting places this year, from declaring that the heat index is “manufactured by the government,” to accusing NASA of sabotaging its own research satellite, to announcing that the National Academy of Sciences has “lost all credibility.” Given his large following, Limbaugh’s extreme and misguided position may well have influenced the Republican presidential primary by discouraging candidates from speaking about the threats posed by global warming.

Rush Limbaugh’s bull-headed denial and paranoid rants may indeed mark the nadir of climate change media coverage, not just for the year, but generally speaking. This sort of obsessive, fact-less denial, also observed in specimens like Glenn Beck and Sen. James Inhofe, has a ripple effect, allowing slightly less extreme pundits and pols to deny science and appear credible. These figures create a ‘core’ of denial that has the net effect of manufacturing legitimacy for truly illegitimate notions about science.

In other words, Media Matters nailed it: Rush Limbaugh and his ilk are spreading misinformation about climate science as loudly and prominently than ever.

See Media Matters for a full list of Limbaugh’s (mis)statements about climate change and more information about his denial tactics.

This post was originally published by Treehugger.

 

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Photo from Gage Skidmore via flickr

54 comments

Su Mrnda
Su Mrnda6 years ago

For whoever said Rush Limbaugh is "provocative and entertaining," I've found brick walls more entertaining and his whole "joke" seems to be being the loudest, biggest, most insensitive ignoramus you can find. The man has no real meaningful credentials and is so anti-intellectual that he doesn't even bother to investigate things in a systematic fashion, and given his grade-school level name-calling discourse, it's hard for me to take him seriously on anything.

All said, he's made Americans more ignorant, and made them very proud of the fact.

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K s Goh
KS Goh6 years ago

Thanks for the article.

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Barbara DeFratis
Barbara DeFratis6 years ago

"Rush is a sad, sad, sad example of the horrors and hypocrisy of conservatives and republicans in the 21st century.....if Rush doesn't believe in global warming I think he should be allowed to go spend some time with the polar bears.....let him explain to them that their ice isn't melting, food supplies aren't shrinking, etc....." Dave C

That is sooo True. That is also why, this Independent is turning more and more to the Democratic Party.

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Holly Lawrence
Holly Lawrence6 years ago

Hell.. he gets the life - long award for it!

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AJ A.
Past Member 6 years ago

"So many who know nothing about science and scientific procedure talk as if they are experts in climate change."

Such as yourself.

Simply being able to name the first element of the periodic table of the elements (or even the other one-hundred and seventeen) has vanishingly little to do with actual climate science -- even if one may have worked in some area of chemistry. A true SCIENTIST would not be making such ridiculous, absurd and sweeping comments about those with acknowledged expertise in an area he clearly has none: climatology.

Again, U.C Berkeley physicist Dr. Robert Muller, who was THE leading scientific critic calling into question the work of climatologists (and allied scientists) completely and unequivocally reversed his position -- after completing a two-year study funded by, amongst other organizations, the "charitable" foundation of one Charles Koch, about which he published a piece in the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576594872796327348.html .

Come back and post another comment AFTER you've at least read Dr. Muller's article -- if not some of the formal papers published in peer-reviewed journals by actual (and credentialed) climate scientists (or their articles in respected mainstream publications).

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Robert O.
Bob B6 years ago

So many who know nothing about science and scientific procedure talk as if they are experts in climate change.

They are 100% certain that humans are causing climate change, yet cannot even name the first element on the periodic table. They are simply repeating mis-information they hear from others who also know nothing about science or choose to corrupt it.

Science will eventually win, it always does, no matter what political games are being played.

Everyone believed for thousands of years that the Earth was flat, they believed it simply because they were told to believe it. Science eventually proved they were wrong.

Some still believe the Earth is flat. Like-wise, some will always believe in man-made global warming.

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Robert B.
Robert B6 years ago

Rush Limberger's stinking hot, lying breath is enough to accelerate Global Warming.

And of course there is always some one like Robert O. (the chemist) who insist that there is no global warming by saying that we always have climate change. That part is true. But when we have actual global warming within the span of 200 yrs, that is not normal. We have cycles of about 12,000 years NOT 200. Ever since the beginning of the industrial revolution we have been spewing carbon dioxide and pollutants into the air 24 hours a day. THAT makes a difference. I would also tend to believe the majority of the world's SCIENTISTS over people with political agendas.

THINK!

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Marie W.
Marie W6 years ago

Rush Limbaugh is THE Misinformer of the Year! No the Decade!


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Robert O.
Bob B6 years ago

I see my previous comment was deleted from this string. I also got a lot of nasty emails due to my comment.

I simply stated (based on 39 years of experience as a Chemist) that the studies and data presented in support of man-made global warming are not in accordance with scientific practice.

I also stated that climate change has been occurring for millions of years, and there is no scientifically proven data about the theory that human activity is causing climate change.

The climate change data and studies I have read are not science. They are just untested theories.

And to insist that the science about climate change is settled is like pushing one's own religious beliefs onto others.

If I practiced chemistry like climate change proponents do their work, I would be barred from practice and swamped in law-suits.



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Nick R.
Nick R.6 years ago

He lies about everything else, why not lie about the environment. Anybody that listens to this windbag needs to get a life. I don't know why Care2 should even give him the face time.

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