The book “Climategate: A Meteorologist Exposes the Myth of Global Warming” is the newest bang on the Climategate drum. It is written by none other than Brian Sussman, the California TV personality whose conspiracy theories also include ‘birther’ arguments and the discovery of the real Noah’s Ark.
The conservative media has fallen into a rut of chanting ‘climategate, climategate, climategate’ every time global warming is mentioned. If conservative mojo is demonstrated by how loudly one can say it, Brian Sussman just announced his candidacy for denier-in-chief.
Sussman’s book, released on Earth Day 2010, is based on the over-arching theory that the entire environmental movement is a farce. The back cover reads: “For many decades, communists, socialists and the global elite have tossed a dizzying array of predicaments into American culture; that carbon dioxide emissions generated by mankind are ruining the planet, is their greatest assertion yet.”
According to Sussman, Earth Day is a socialist plot, DDT is harmless, Rachel Carson was wrong, and Al Gore doesn’t even believe in global warming. Indeed, he thinks practically every environmental issue can be explained away as part of this theory. The book includes such gems as explaining how installing smart-meters that help the grid save energy is really just helping Big Brother become a reality.
It’s not necessary to address Sussman’s claims about Climategate, as numerous investigations have cleared the scientists of wrongdoing and found the underlying science sound. The book’s title is merely a trendy hook slapped on a book that’s been in the works for two years.
This book is marketed for conservative conspiracy theorists. He’s tapping into the small but passionate market of people who believe that Barack Obama is not a US citizen, that there is a global socialist plot to take over the world, and that only the poor and underrepresented right-wing base can see the truth. The book shot to number #7 on Amazon in the first days after it was released. True to form, Sussman, like Glenn Beck, also appears to be a proponent of investing in gold, as his personal website is named God, Guns and Gold.
I suspect that Sussman’s climategate book is selling better than the first climategate book by Steve Mosher because it is positively nuttier. Mosher, who broke the climategate story in November, believes that climate change exists. His book, (Climategate: The CRUtape letters) does not make expansive claims about socialist conspiracies, but instead details (in somewhat dry text) his and co-author Tom Fuller’s understandings of the workings of climate scientists at CRU. This post is hardly an endorsement of the CRUtape Letters, but I cite it to highlight how one book became more popular among the conservative base. (Current Amazon rankings: Mosher 18,127, Sussman 236.)
Brian Sussman proves that conspiracy theories sell copy, and confirms his self-assigned title of ‘media-icon’ by demonstrating his ability to soak up attention by repeating catch-phrases and buzzwords.
In the land of deniers, it is far easier to point to conspiracy theories than to try to find any support for their claims in the scientific literature.
