Scott Horton: Populist parties deny climate science despite unequivocal evidence
Horton argues MAGA and global populist movements reject climate scientists while evidence proves warming real.
What to know
- Horton claims populist parties globally—MAGA, Reform UK, AfD—deny climate science as a core ideological position despite scientific consensus.
- Commenters emphasize the scientific evidence base: rising temperatures, CO2 emissions, ice core data, and independently replicated results, while questioning denial motivations.
- Discussion centers on fossil fuel industry influence and financial incentives driving political climate denial, with some voices noting the collective harm of inaction.
- Disagreement exists over whether deniers reject climate change entirely or simply its human causes; some commenters worry about escalating climate impacts regardless.
The dispute Whether climate deniers reject climate change entirely or selectively accept it while denying human causation or reversibility. · positions read across 74 posts and comments
Climate change is scientifically proven; populist denial is driven by fossil fuel industry funding and political incentives.
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“Why would thousands of people devote their careers to studying climate science just to perpetuate a myth?”
himself132.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Deniers may accept climate change but reject human causation; the broader problem is that populist movements downplay evidence-based reasoning.
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“They accept it, they just deny its human-caused, or reversible.”
liem.bahneman.com · Bluesky ↗
Climate change is real and accelerating; inaction now guarantees catastrophic future consequences for all.
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“We're reaching the point where it may be to late to do much about it and yet, corporations still refuse to do anything about it.”
dhumph.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Scott Horton Social media commentator
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump postscomments
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Commenters debate climate science evidence and denial motivations
Dozens of Bluesky users responded with arguments about the scientific consensus, emissions data, fossil fuel industry incentives, and the motivations behind climate denial by populist movements.
“Why would thousands of people devote their careers to studying climate science just to perpetuate a myth of man-made climate change?”
— himself132.bsky.social, Bluesky commenter · source -
Why would thousands of people devote their careers to studying climate science just to perpetuate a myth of man-made climate change? And why would unqualified MAGA idiots be the only people who could recognise this hoax?
2 more of the top 3 · 71 posts in this stretch
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No recurring "fuel" costs for solar or wind: The lifecycle emissions of solar energy are far lower than those of all fossil fuel sources: PV and CSP: 43 and 28 grams of CO2-eq/KWh Coal: 1,001 grams of CO2-eq/KWh Natural gas: 486 grams of CO2-eq/KWh Source:
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I think the tobacco execs claimed that nicotine was not addictive as well. Always look at the incentives. The top tier of the gop is funded by oil. They would like to keep burning fossil fuels.
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Scott Horton asserts populist parties reject climate science
Horton posted that a fundamental tenet of MAGA and other populist movements globally is denial that global warming is real and that climate scientists should not be believed, despite unequivocal evidence.
“A fundamental tenet of MAGA and all the other "populist" parties (Reform UK, RN, AfD, etc) is that global warming is a hoax and we must not believe the climate scientists. But the evidence is unequivocal.”
— Scott Horton -
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A fundamental tenet of MAGA and all the other "populist" parties (Reform UK, RN, AfD, etc) is that global warming is a hoax and we must not believe the climate scientists. But the evidence is unequivocal.
1 more of the top 2 · 3 posts in this stretch
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Don't forget bernjob! Hes a populist... aamof he's a MAGA doppelganger. Another one like Trump who'd have us FALSELY believe change is possible within the existing dominant two-factions-of-a-plutocrat-owned-duopoly shitstem. It ISNT POSSIBLE.
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What people are saying 20 voices from 1 site · best of 74 · verbatim
- Sep 17
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S
Agreed but have a quarrel with your terminology. "Populist" can be of the left and right. Progressive populists, such those who won primaries this spring, definitely support action addressing climate change. Right wing populist or fascists do not.
- Sep 16
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They accept it, they just deny its human-caused, or reversible.
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That is false. You don't refute climate science by demanding a live debate. The conclusion comes from rising temperatures, rising human-produced CO2, its radiative effect, and observed atmospheric/ocean changes. Results are published, testable, and independently replicated, not from anonymous graphs
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It's going to end up – or maybe it's already happened in some cases - where they're going to be dying from some climate change event but they're still going to be denying it, like some people who died of Covid while still denying that it even existed.
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R
I've talked to such people. They believe global warming is just a natural cycle, nothing to do with human activity. The counter is to point out that we have 10,000-yo ice cores that show no such swings in such a short time.
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The people that tell society to not listen to the warnings from doctors and scientists are destined to perish. The fossil fuel industries have bought our politicians for a song compared to their long term profits. It’s been very lucrative to lie to the world. We are fighting wars over gas and oil.
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The *beginning* of climate change. And it is no longer a linear trajectory, nor will the exponents decrease, nor is it recoverable. Credible projections have our species surviving 3-5 generations - there are no technologies that can alter that. Populist parties are the pawns of narcissists.
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A kid from Scranton proved this was coming...67 years ago and no one listened. Watch over on YouTube👇
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It's becoming increasingly plain they want everyone dependent on fossil fuels because they see it as the means to control the "culture" & drive a socially conservative agenda.
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These people don't believe in science. They don't even just read about it to at least inform themselves. With statistic increase of temperature for example, they ignore the trend and look for some extreme in the past and claim it's all normal.
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When Trump & Co is your beacon of knowledge, you adhere to the basic belief that uneducated opinion is just as good as truth.
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PRETEND like global warming is real & take steps to resolve it & see what happens -if nothing happens you were right - if the Earth starts to heal & restore then YEA we all win NOTHING to lose by pretending climate change is real & deadly EVERYTHING TO LOSE BY PRETENDING IT ISN'T YOU F'ING MORONS
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Just goes to prove what complete idiots they are
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How is that working in Great Britain this year where the temps were reaching 100 and the entire country was brown, no grassy hills at all.
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from charts to observable curcumstance, the evidence mounts Extreme #climatechange is real and now @thedamagereport.bsky.social @johniadarola.bsky.social @adammockler.com
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Unfortunately they will drag the rest of the people down with them. I fear that stopping them entirely, is not feasible. In some ways I am lucky to be old I won't be around.
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The animal species we belong to chooses to eat our fellow animals more than 3xs per day in many wealthy nations,. We can CHOOSE the plant-based diet required by spiritual masters and promoted by UN climate scientists, many nutritionists. The impact our sadistic diet has on Earth Life is gruesome.
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But then MAGA will confidently assert that there was a worse temperature spike in the Middle Ages and it’s all natural.
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We're reaching the point where it may be to late to do much about it and yet, corporations still refuse to do anything about it.
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Ps. Global warming is partly cyclical and partly caused by human activities. The argument made by deniers downplays the latter and populists dumb down the messaging for the moron masses like they do with every stance. Bernjob does that with other issues and the Dems? They talk but REALLY? Do Nothing