“Climate denier” is usually a label reserved for Republicans who are skeptical of man-made global warming, but environmentalist Bill McKibben has now given that label to President Obama.
McKibben took to The New York Times opinion pages to lambast the Obama administration’s approval of Royal Dutch Shell’s plan to explore for oil in the Arctic. McKibben called Obama’s decision “extreme” and “irresponsible.”
“Obama administration’s decision to give Shell Oil the goa head to drill in the Arctic shows why we may never win the fight against climate change,” McKibbenwrote in his oped. “Even in this most extreme circumstance, no one seems able to stand up to the power of the fossil fuel industry. No one ever says no.”
Environmentalists have heavily opposed Shell’s plans to search for oil reserves in the Arctic seas, but McKibben is the first to go so far as to label Obama a “climate denier.” The vocal environmental activist says Obama is a “denier” because he denies “the meaning of the science.”
“This is not climate denial of the Republican sort, where people simply pretend the science isn’t real,” McKibben added. “This is climate denial of the status quo sort, where people accept the science, and indeed make long speeches about the immorality of passing on a ruined world to our children.”
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