Via Billy
A report blaming the 1989
Exxon
Valdez spill in part on global warming has generated more ridicule than
alarm, renewing scrutiny over the role of liberal foundations in
keeping the fading #ExxonKnew social-media campaign alive.
The
article, “The role a melting glacier played in
Exxon’s
biggest disaster,” earned a few hat tips from the environmental
movement after appearing Thursday in the Los Angeles Times, but the
taunting from climate-catastrophe challengers has been merciless.
“Blindingly
stupid,” “climate change fan fiction,” “irrelevant” and “ridiculous”
were among the insults hurled at the report, written by students from
the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism’s Energy and
Environmental Reporting Project.
“Anyone who has ever followed the story knows that the only ice responsible for the
Exxon Valdez spill would be the ice cooling the captain’s many cocktails that night,” said
Katie Brown of Energy in Depth, which is
funded by the Independent Petroleum Association of America. “But for anti-
Exxon campaigners, no alternate theories (or should we say alternative facts?) are too outrageous to publish.”