Denying global warming with John Stossel

Introduction

ABC News reporter John Stossel doesn’t fear global warming, and he’s working to make sure you don’t, either.

As part of the Center’s research on global warming critics, we recorded footage of Stossel giving a closing speech at a gathering of climate change skeptics in NYC in March.

After equating news reports on global warming to fears of killer bees and the Y2K bug, Stossel then criticized coverage of the first day of the conference by the “socialist media,” including The Washington Post, The Independent, and The New York Times.

Then, finished with alerting the audience to the scourge of global warming “scare mongering,” Stossel turned his attention to helping the 400-plus attendees better sell their skepticism to the media. One tip: They should emphasize specific words to get through to “dumb” reporters.

“It’s important that you make the effort to get through that dumb layer,” Stossel said. “Some of you are brilliant scientists, but you can’t talk worth a damn, but you can learn how to do this better.”

To hear the audio of his full speech, as provided by the conference organizers, The Heartland Institute, click here. Or just watch our clip of the speech below.

Reached at his ABC offices, Stossel said of the captured video, “Well, that’s accurate quoting.” He then expounded a bit more on his reasons for speaking out at the conference:

“It’s possible that [global warming is] going to be a catastrophe as Al Gore says, but I’m highly skeptical of that after the long list of prior catastrophes. I’m a skeptic of the people who say it’s a catastrophe and we can fix it. I’m utterly convinced that the stuff like buying a Prius or changing a light bulb will make absolutely no difference.”

Stossel said he was not paid for his speech, though The Heartland Institute did make on his behalf a $4,750 donation to the Wellfleet Conservation Trust, a Cape Cod, Massachusetts, nonprofit that, according to its website, works to protect “the rural character of the town of Wellfleet.”

UPDATE: Check out our latest on the conference.