Climate change deniers are getting more desperate in their fight for legitimacy. As the scientific consensus on climate change strengthens, this group’s arguments and tactics grow more preposterous.
The latest attack on climate science has been by the Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank based out of Illinois. They advocate for free markets and question climate science, as well as humans’ impact on the environment.
Heartland hired Naomi Seibt, a 19-year-old girl from Germany who refers to herself as a climate realist, to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference. This conference is also being headlined by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Therefore, it is a pretty significant event for anyone who subscribes to conservative beliefs.
Seibt is being dubbed as the “Anti-Greta,” but I do not understand why this is considered a good title. Greta Thunberg is a brave young woman trying to make this world a better place by using scientific facts and acting out of pure concern for future generations. Why would anyone want to be the antithesis of that?
Thunberg has even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 and is the youngest person to become Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.
Clearly, she is an admirable person and her only agenda is to make the world a better place by trying to save it. I see nothing wrong with this. Furthermore, she makes conservatives nervous and now they think they need to beat her by hiring another young person to go up against her.
Unfortunately, Seibt does not have quite as remarkable a record nor the upstanding qualities that make Thunberg such an admirable figure.
First of all, Seibt is being paid by the Heartland Institute to create YouTube videos and write articles where she denies climate change. Seibt has admitted that Heartland is paying her €1,900 monthly to create climate change denialism content for them. On the other hand, Thunberg has been promoting a hands-on approach to climate change for free because that is true activism — not being paid to say what a think tank wants.
Seibt is also on the record saying some truly disturbing things. To start, she said that her activism began because she was concerned about immigrants coming to Germany. She said in an interview that she wanted to limit the immigrants coming from Syria, claiming she wants Germany to “only let in those people who are actually being persecuted … Some were coming for economic reasons, and not actually fleeing because they were being persecuted.”
This is a narrow-minded look at immigration that says only those facing certain death should be allowed into Germany. I do not understand how a German citizen could accurately determine the reason someone is leaving Syria and if they were, in fact, being persecuted.
She has also expressed support for a Canadian alt-right commentator, Stefan Molyneux. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, has called Molyneux “a skilled propagandist” who has advocated for eugenics, white supremacy, social Darwinism, as well as non-white racial inferiority.
A reporter even read one of Molyneux’s quotes to Seibt where he said, “I could not help but notice that I could have peaceful, free, easy, civilized and safe discussion in what is essentially an all-white country.” Seibt then replied, “I am still a fan, absolutely.”
Not only does Seibt lose credibility by supporting someone as terrible as Molyneux and having anti-refugee stances, but the think tank that hired her has even worse credibility.
In the 1990s, the Heartland Institute worked with tobacco company Phillip Morris to disprove the risks of second-hand smoke and attempted to prevent anti-smoking laws. That has not aged well for them considering it is pretty much common knowledge that smoking is bad for the smoker and the people around them. The tobacco companies know this as well.
Clearly, the climate-deniers are desperate. They are attempting to replicate Thunberg’s impact by using a paid spokesperson who is nowhere as altruistic nor accomplished as Thunberg. Heartland and Seibt’s credibility shows that the climate-deniers at the conservative political action conference are grasping at straws to deny the science that grows stronger every day.
Heartland has attempted to hurl awful and graphic insults at a 17-year-old girl standing up for saving the planet. Now, they attempt to replicate her. Unfortunately, it was a very poor job and they just look more ridiculous by hiring a child to fight another child.
