California billionaire Tom Steyer and his super PAC (NextGen Climate) have come up with a new—albeit still strange—way to drum-up support for his extreme environmental agenda. Last week, NextGen sent an email to supporters announcing the commencement of a new set of awards. Not the Oscars, Emmys or Grammys, the email points out. But, the “Stone Age Awards.”
Steyer plans to use the awards to shame “climate change denying politicians who continue to spout puzzling, embarrassing, and grossly misinformed prehistoric statements about the scientific facts of climate change.” Apparently, only one politician—of a list created by Steyer—can win the Stone Age Award. But, who decides?
Steyer and his super PAC claim that the public decides via online voting, which ended last Sunday. Steyer followed the announcement of the winner, Florida Governor Rick Scott, with a strange Geico caveman-esque ad attacking him.
The NextGen email explains that climate change is a confirmed scientific fact. Republicans deny “the science with a straight face” and pursue “prehistoric agendas.” That, apparently, qualifies them for a Stone Age Award.
Well, using that reasoning, SHIFT suggests that Steyer add his own name to the list—and that of Jay Inslee for good measure. You see, another scientific fact is that warming on the U.S. West Coast is entirely a result of natural causes, not human emissions and not greenhouse gases. Scientists at the University of Washington documented warming over the course of a century in the West Coast and concluded that “the vast majority of coastal temperature increases since 1900 are the result of changes in winds over the eastern Pacific Ocean.” The scientists found “no evidence that those weather patterns were themselves being influenced by the human burning of fossil fuels.” But, Tom Steyer and Jay Inslee continue to look at the science with “a straight face” and pursue their extreme agenda.
You can view the email here.
Leave a Reply