Climate Change Denialist lies

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-five-corrupt-pillars-of-climate-change-denial?fbclid=IwAR0M7uG1bNAP29kQQR4C9S5smw-ujX0aiYWHXN2gHz6-4qMXxL-uaGpQKJw

MARK MASLIN, THE CONVERSATION
30 NOV 2019

The fossil fuel industry, political lobbyists, media moguls and individuals have spent the past 30 years sowing doubt about the reality of climate change - where none exists.

The latest estimate is that the world's five largest publicly-owned oil and gas companies spend about US$200 million a year on lobbying to control, delay or block binding climate policy.

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The idea that climate change is too expensive to fix is a more subtle form of climate denial. Economists, however, suggest we could fix climate change now by spending 1 percent of world GDP.

Perhaps even less if the cost savings from improved human health and expansion of the global green economy are taken into account. But if we don't act now, by 2050 it could cost over 20 percent of world GDP.

We should also remember that in 2018 the world generated US$86,000,000,000,000 and every year this World GDP grows by 3.5 percent. So setting aside just 1 percent to deal with climate change would make little overall difference and would save the world a huge amount of money.

What the climate change deniers also forget to tell you is that they are protecting a fossil fuel industry that receives US$5.2 trillion in annual subsidies – which includes subsidised supply costs, tax breaks and environmental costs. This amounts to 6 percent of world GDP.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that efficient fossil fuel pricing would lower global carbon emissions by 28 percent, fossil fuel air pollution deaths by 46 percent, and increase government revenue by 3.8 percent of the country's GDP.

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Climate change deniers also argue that climate change is good for us. They suggest longer, warmer summers in the temperate zone will make farming more productive. These gains, however, are often offset by the drier summers and increased frequency of heatwaves in those same areas.

For example, the 2010 "Moscow" heatwave killed 11,000 people, devastated the Russian wheat harvest and increased global food prices.

More than 40 percent of the world's population also lives in the Tropics – where from both a human health prospective and an increase in desertification no one wants summer temperatures to rise.

Deniers also point out that plants need atmospheric carbon dioxide to grow so having more of it acts like a fertiliser. This is indeed true and the land biosphere has been absorbing about a quarter of our carbon dioxide pollution every year.

Another quarter of our emissions is absorbed by the oceans. But losing massive areas of natural vegetation through deforestation and changes in land use completely nullifies this minor fertilisation effect.

Climate change deniers will tell you that more people die of the cold than heat, so warmer winters will be a good thing. This is deeply misleading. Vulnerable people die of the cold because of poor housing and not being able to afford to heat their homes. Society, not climate, kills them.

This argument is also factually incorrect. In the US, for example, heat-related deaths are four times higher than cold-related ones. This may even be an underestimate as many heat-related deaths are recorded by cause of death such as heart failure, stroke, or respiratory failure, all of which are exacerbated by excessive heat.

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Climate change deniers argue we cannot take action because other countries are not taking action. But not all countries are equally guilty of causing current climate change.

For example, 25 percent of the human-produced CO₂ in the atmosphere is generated by the US, another 22 percent is produced by the EU. Africa produces just under 5 percent.

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