The People's Climate March. (photo: Irma Omerhodzic/EcoWatch)
180
Climate Deniers in Congress Received $82 Million in Dirty Money
By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch
01 May 17
Those
of you who participated in Saturday's People's Climate March have
181 more reasons to protest.
New
research shows that the 180 climate-denying members of Congress—plus President Trump, who famously denounced global
warming as a hoax—have received more than $82 million from fossil fuel
industries.
Researchers
from the Center for American Progress Action Fund calculated
that the Republican president, 142 representatives and 38 senators, who do not
accept the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity causes climate
change, have received a total of $82,882,725 from coal, oil and gas
industries—an increase from the $80,453,861 total in the previous report.
According
to the new report, the top three recipients were Arizona Senator John McCain,
who opposes the Environmental Protection Agency's finding that greenhouse gases
are pollution; Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, who once said, "For
everybody who thinks it's warming, I can find somebody who thinks it
isn't;" and Texas Senator John Cornyn, who actually acknowledges that
humans have an impact on the environment but doesn't think it's the
responsibility of the government to do anything about it.
For
the report, the researchers defined a climate denier as any lawmaker who has:
•
Questioned or denied the scientific consensus behind human-caused climate
change;
•
Answered climate questions with the "I'm not a scientist" dodge;
•
Claimed the climate is always changing (as a way to dodge the implications of
human-caused warming);
•
Failed to acknowledge that climate change is a serious threat; or
•
Questioned the extent to which human beings contribute to global climate change.
Trump
himself received $1,132,996 in dirty energy money.
"Last
year's analysis found that 202,803,591 people were represented by a climate
denier in Congress. Now, the entire population of almost 325 million Americans
is represented by a climate denier with the election of Donald Trump as
president," the report stated.
The
president's first 100 days in office has
been widely considered as disastrous, especially for the environment. From
appointing cabinet members with
noted ties to the fossil fuel industry to signing a slew of executive orders that
roll back key environmental regulations.
Center
for American Progress Action Fund's new analysis was presented in an interactive map and accompanying data sheet.
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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