No, Trump, the Founder of Greenpeace Did Not Say that Climate Change is Fake

By Jacob Weindling  |  March 12, 2019 | 3:56pm
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty
Politics Features Donald Trump
No, Trump, the Founder of Greenpeace Did Not Say that Climate Change is Fake

It used to be the case that when a president spoke, it was news. It was even news when this president spoke. When he first took office, even his tweets were treated as breaking news. Now, it’s just a firehose of looney tunes coming out of the West Wing, and as proof that evolution exists, we have all numbed ourselves to the fact that the President of the United States’ favorite thing to do in this world is live-tweet a DVRed episode of Fox & Friends then go scream something about the Mueller investigation at the press.

This organizing principle we have all subconsciously rallied around is largely a good thing, as I can personally attest that we will all go mad if we let his voice rattle around endlessly in our brains. But from time to time, it’s good to stick your head back down into the toxic sludge and take a look around, because this is the President of the United States, after all.

*Stefon voice*

This new bad faith GOP talking-point has everything: a fake Greenpeace founder, standard climate denialism, and a basic misunderstanding of the building blocks of life that keep oxygen pumping to Trump’s dilapidated husk of rotting fast food ”meat” that he calls a brain.

Bringing this back to reality…Greenpeace issued a statement, saying:

Patrick Moore often misrepresents himself in the media as an environmental “expert” or even an “environmentalist,” while offering anti-environmental opinions on a wide range of issues and taking a distinctly anti-environmental stance. He also exploits long-gone ties with Greenpeace to sell himself as a speaker and pro-corporate spokesperson, usually taking positions that Greenpeace opposes.

Now this isn’t complete and total BS, as Greenpeace noted that Moore “played a significant role in Greenpeace Canada for several years,” but “he did not found Greenpeace.” Moore also studied forest sciences as an undergrad and got a PhD in forestry from the University of British Columbia. There is a lot of confusion around this man’s life, but really all you need to know about Moore as a public figure is the second sentence of his Wikipedia entry:

After leaving Greenpeace and becoming a paid advocate for the oil & gas industry, Moore has criticized the environmental movement for what he calls scare tactics and disinformation, saying that the environmental movement “abandoned science and logic in favor of emotion and sensationalism.”

Weird how Moore became a public critic of environmentalism the moment he started cashing checks from oil companies! Almost like there’s some correlation between that change in reality and his change in behavior!

The President of the United States basically doesn’t go to work, and spends most of his days amplifying whatever lunacy comes out of Fox News. While this cartoonish unreality that is very much our reality can be easy to laugh at, that jovial feeling masks an underlying truth that is frankly, too scary to seriously contemplate.

The most powerful man in the world who can start a nuclear war at the drop of a hat has his brain leaking out of his ears.

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.

 
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