Marc Morano

Marc Morano
Born 1968[1]
Nationality American
Alma mater George Mason University (B.A.)
Occupation Former U.S. congressional staffer, founder and executive editor of ClimateDepot.org

Marc Morano (born 1968)[1] is a former Republican political aide who founded and runs the climate change denial website ClimateDepot.com.[2] ClimateDepot is a project of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. that advocates for free-market solutions to environmental issues.[3]

Career

Morano was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in McLean, Virginia. He has a bachelor's degree from George Mason University in political science.[1]

He began his career working for Rush Limbaugh from 1992 to 1996.[4] After 1996, he began working for Cybercast News Service, where he was the first to publish the accusations from Swift-Boat veterans that John Kerry had allegedly exaggerated his military service record.[3]

Beginning in June 2006, Morano served as the director of communications for Senator Jim Inhofe. He was also communications director for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee under the George W. Bush administration. In 2007, Morano produced a report listing hundreds of scientists whose work, according to Morano, questions whether global warming is caused by human activity.[3][5]

In April 2009, despite having no formal education in the field of climate science, Morano founded and became executive editor of ClimateDepot.com, a website sponsored by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). In November 2009, Morano was one of the first to break the Climatic Research Unit email controversy story after being contacted by Anthony Watts. The story was subsequently picked up by James Delingpole.[4] In 2016 Morano co-wrote and presented the CFACT-funded documentary Climate Hustle.

Media appearances

In December 2012, Morano debated Bill Nye on global warming on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight.[6] In January 2013, Morano debated Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, again on Piers Morgan Tonight.[7] Morano was interviewed in the 2015 documentary Merchants of Doubt.[8]

Reception

Negative

Climatologist Michael E. Mann has criticized Morano.[9] At the end of 2012, Media Matters for America, a politically progressive media watchdog, named Morano the "Climate Change Misinformer of the Year."[10]

Morano has been criticized for publishing the email addresses of climate scientists on ClimateDepot.org. In March 2012, Morano posted an article and the email address of sociology professor Kari Norgaard, who had presented a paper on why it is difficult for societies to take action to respond to climate change. This story was later picked up by Rush Limbaugh, after which Norgaard received threatening emails.[11] Morano repeated this action again in 2013, when he posted the email address of Shaun Marcott in response to Marcott's having published a temperature reconstruction which resembled the hockey stick graph.[11]

Morano says that emails targeting climate scientists can be nasty in tone, but he defends the practice of posting their addresses by noting that he himself has received hate mail. He says that his goal is to "let the professors hear from the public" and that receiving nasty emails is "part of the process."[11]

Positive

Morano's EPW website won a Golden Mouse Award in 2007 for improving communications between Members of Congress and their constituents.[12] In February 2010, Accuracy in Media awarded Morano their annual Reed Irvine Award alongside Andrew Breitbart,[13] and in July 2010, Doctors for Disaster Preparedness announced it would award Morano that year's Petr Beckmann Award.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Friedman, Lisa (2008). The Almanac of the Unelected: Staff of the U.S. Congress 2008. Bernan Press. p. 606.
  2. ↑ Mooney, Chris (April 28, 2015). "Why Pope Francis is about to make a dramatic wave in the climate debate". Washington Post. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Kaufman, Leslie (April 9, 2009). "Dissenter on Warming Expands His Campaign". New York Times. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  4. 1 2 Richardson, John H. (March 30, 2010). "This Man Wants to Convince You Global Warming Is a Hoax". Esquire. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  5. ↑ Morano, Marc (December 11, 2008). "U. S. Senate Minority Report: More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims". Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Archived from the original on 7 December 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  6. ↑ Piers Morgan (December 4, 2012). "Bill Nye vs Marc Morano on Global Warming". CNN. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Does climate change exist?". CNN. 23 January 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  8. ↑ Biello, David (6 March 2015). "How to Win Friends and Bamboozle People about Climate Change". Scientific American. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  9. ↑ Marshall, George (2014). Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 151. ISBN 9781620401330. OCLC 885302594.
  10. ↑ Fitzsimmons, Jill; Theel, Shauna (December 27, 2012). "Climate Change Misinformer Of The Year: Marc Morano". Media Matters for America. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
  11. 1 2 3 Ogburn, Stephanie Paige (January 22, 2014). "Scientist Targets of Climate Change Hate Mail Rally for Support". Scientific American.
  12. ↑ Morano, Marc (April 6, 2009). "Climate Depot Aims To Redefine Global Warming Reporting". Climate Depot. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Andrew Breitbart, Marc Morano to Receive Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Awards". Accuracy in Media. 16 February 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
  14. ↑ Hickman, Leo (July 13, 2010). "Climate sceptic Morano's 'courage' award is a vicious irony". The Guardian.

External links

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