Leaked Files Show Epstein’s Climate Denial (of course)

Why the “Epstein hoax” is a lot like the “Climate hoax”.
Denial is far, far more than a River in Africa.

Just when you thought he couldn’t be any more despicable.

It’s rare for Trump to rebuke his own supporters, but this specific line of attack—in which he claims that those demanding more documents on Epstein are “weaklings” falsely convinced of a plot cooked up by Democrats to advance radical leftist goals—follows a familiar playbook: namely, that of climate denial, which claims (among other things) that climate change is a plot cooked up by Democrats to advance radical leftist goals. Let’s call Trump’s new position Epstein Denial. Unfortunately for Trump, it’s not really working out for him.

In order to understand why a strategy that’s historically been so successful for Republicans is now tearing them apart, consider the function climate denial has had for the party. Republicans have spent years deriding policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and incentivize renewable energy as “Green New Scams,” and long calledclimate change itself a “hoax” perpetrated by the Chinese government. The strategy, which has roots in the tobacco industry’s efforts to cover up the harm caused by its products, serves the material interests of reliable Republican donors in the fossil fuel industry. Although oil and gas executives have known for decades that their companies’ products contribute to global warming, they funded right-wing think tanks, advertising campaigns, and politicians spouting a contradictory array of talking points: that climate change isn’t real, is overblown, or is actually good.

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In the recently released emails, Epstein, who was spending Christmas, 2016 at Mara Lago, wrote to celebrity physicist Lawrence Krauss with some climate denial talking points. I preserved as many of the misspellings and grammatical errors as spell check would allow.

Adapted from HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_026049.txt.pdf

Epstein:

I liked the argument that more co2 is good for plants?

Krauss:

My goodness. So you are listening to an old Nobel laureate whose expertise has nothing to do with this, who has never studied this in detail, built models, done experiments…

Epstein:

Is the south pole getting colder and more ice? Is it accurate to say that climate changes can only be measured over long periods. 20 years or more. I m here with the trump peopl in palm and when asked I say I dont have any idea if this global warming is a threat that can be reduced , currently, carbon taking machines. guess if that is really a concern. I would also like to know what groups prefer warming. canada?

Krauss:

Yes, freeman Dyson says that too.. That may be true at some level, and indeed during a period of the earth’s history when there was more CO2 (hundreds of millions of years ago), there were very large plants of certain types.. but what does this imply, really?
more corn in the Arctic?
do we need more corn in the arctic? He has cherry picked data, the typical act of those who believe the answer before they ask the question.

Krauss:

I was in antarctica. The west antarctic ice sheet is melting at an unprecedented rate .. if it all goes into the ocean sea levels will rise by about a meter. You are correct that we should ask if it can be reduced.. We are currently involved in a proposal that explores capturing CO2 from the atmosphere.. that may cost about 100/ton CO2 ..if there was a carbon tax, that might be doable. It is not clear yet, but total research on this so far is <10 million.
Total research each year on oil and gas exploration > 2 billion.

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A few months later, in another exchange, Epstein assured Krauss that space exploration would be preserved in the Trump administration, but climate science, not so much.

Epstein:

“you told me you were worried about space and i told you not to worry, he will decimate climate change. and support, verifiable projects.”

Krauss:

All shoe. (sic) This is not supporting science,” Krauss said. “It is all about the size of the rocket for him. All this will do is give him glory and not contribute to science.”