Pete Myers: We saw this coming
Pete Myers / Environmental Health Sciences

Pete Myers: We saw this coming

On climate science, a small group of very smart and very selfish people – backed by huge sums of money – have stopped the changes that needed to be made.

Woke up this morning and lay in bed for an hour reading the press on the new IPCC report. As if we didn't know this was coming #*&#%%!!


I quit a tenured academic position in 1987 to join the National Audubon Society as Senior Vice President for Science with the hope of getting them to take on climate change. I even brought one my climate science heroes, George Woodwell, to an Audubon board meeting. If HE couldn't do it, no one could. Ironically, I had an easier time convincing New Jersey's Republican governor at the time, Tom Kean, to issue a proclamation warning about global warming. Really.

In 1988 at the Audubon Society's national conference I spoke to grassroots leaders about the basic physics and chemistry of climate change, and what it meant for the future of birds. At the beginning of my talk I even held up a bag of disposable diapers and warned that if they truly understood what I was saying, and believed it, they'd need some of these.

No takers. So in 1990 I left and became director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation. Over the next dozen years we distributed millions of dollars in grants to organizations attempting to turn the tide on climate change. I don't think we bent the curve one one-hundredth of a degree.

Manufactured doubt and the IPCC

As I lay there reading the press reports, I realized that the joke has been on us: Margaret Mead's famous quote about what a small number of people can do is actually about the denialists. A small group of very smart and very selfish people backed by huge sums of money have managed to stop the changes that need to be made. They're going to a future Hell of their own creation but they are bringing us with them.

And they haven't done it just on global warming. Manufactured doubt has a deep history: The tobacco industry honed into a nuclear weapon. The climate denialists adapted their methods. The endocrine disrupting denialists climbed on board. And most recently the vaccine/Covid skeptics have carried the baton.

(By the way, the EDC denialists are responsible for some portion of the COVID-19 deaths because EDCs contribute to the co-morbidities that have killed many people. I think many fewer people would have died if the denialists had never bared their fangs.)

Climate Denialists

So heeding Albert Einstein's dictum to not keep doing something that doesn't work, I'm pulling out the vipers. My friend pictured at the top of this article here, Generalissimo Eyelash Viper, is going to begin seeking out the denialists to offer them a short-cut to the Hell of their own creation.

Pete Myers is the founder and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences. Views expressed are his own and not necessarily those of Environmental Health News or The Daily Climate.

Top photo of an eyelash viper courtesy Pete Myers.

A delivery bicycle with a white box attached is parked on a sidewalk in front of a restaurant with a sign painted on the window.
Credit: Claudio Olivares Medina/Flickr

Affordable e-bikes are transforming delivery work for Latin American migrants

For immigrant delivery workers in Colombia, affordable e-bikes — financed by start-ups like Guajira — are proving to be a game-changer, offering a faster, cleaner, and more cost-effective alternative to motorbikes.

Mariel Lozada reports for Reasons To Be Cheerful.

Keep reading...Show less
Senator Whitehouse & climate change

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.
An old, rusted wastewater pipe extends onto a beach.
Credit: Simon Bleasdale/Flickr

Britain’s sewage crisis is poisoning its waterways and economy

Widespread sewage spills are contaminating Britain’s waters, threatening businesses, biodiversity, and public health, while weak regulations and corporate profits take priority over investment in critical infrastructure.

Kate Holton and Dylan Martinez report for Reuters.

In short:

  • Britain’s largest offshore mussel farm, located to avoid sewage pollution, is still plagued by harmful bacteria like E. coli, blocking exports to Europe and damaging the shellfish industry.
  • Water companies discharged sewage for 3.6 million hours in 2023, contaminating rivers and coastlines, harming tourism, and forcing the government to review the sector. Privatized firms, which have paid billions in dividends, are accused of neglecting infrastructure upgrades.
  • Activists and clean water advocates are fighting back, linking sewage failures to stalled construction projects, biodiversity collapse, and public health risks, forcing officials to confront decades of underinvestment and weak oversight.

Key quote:

“It’s criminal that they’re allowed to dump what they dump in the seas and get away with it. It's affecting all sorts of businesses, including us.

— Sarah Holmyard, sales manager at Offshore Shellfish

Why this matters:

As climate change intensifies rainfall, Britain’s crumbling infrastructure is reaching a breaking point. Regulators, long accused of looking the other way, are under mounting pressure as activists connect the dots between failing water infrastructure, stalled housing projects, and collapsing ecosystems.

Read more:

Embracing rainwater through green infrastructure

Port of Long Beach lit up at night with docks and shipping containers at night.
Credit: SunSlice Photography/Flickr

America’s ports made progress on pollution, but will it last?

Efforts to clean up pollution at America’s ports, which gained momentum under Biden’s climate policies, now face uncertainty as the Trump administration moves to roll back environmental regulations.

Alexa St. John and Etienne Laurent report for the Associated Press.

Keep reading...Show less
Two men in suits sit in front of several screens with a sign above reading Tidal Turbine Control Centre.
Credit: Scottish Government/Flickr

France’s new tidal turbines aim to power thousands of homes with clean energy

A tidal farm featuring some of the world’s most powerful underwater turbines is set to generate clean electricity off the coast of Normandy, marking a major step in Europe’s push for renewable energy.

Lottie Limb reports for Euronews.

Keep reading...Show less
sardines swimming in deep blue water.
Credit: Greg Hirson/Flickr

Sardines forced to eat plastic as Mediterranean plankton shrinks

Sardines in the Mediterranean, struggling to find nutritious plankton, are inadvertently ingesting more plastic as climate change reshapes their diet.

Rob Hutchins reports for Oceanographic.

Keep reading...Show less
A flooded city viewed from above.
Credit: Pixabay

Unprecedented climate disasters surged worldwide in 2024

The world experienced 151 record-breaking extreme weather events in 2024, the hottest year ever recorded, displacing hundreds of thousands and causing widespread destruction.

Damian Carrington reports for The Guardian.

Keep reading...Show less
Alaska oil pipeline elevated above snow-covered ground with Caribou standing around.

Trump’s team opens Alaska lands to oil, reigniting drilling debate

The Trump administration is pushing forward plans to expand oil and gas drilling across vast stretches of Alaska, reopening battles over the Arctic’s future.

Valerie Volcovici reports for Reuters.

Keep reading...Show less
From our Newsroom
silhouette of people holding hands by a lake at sunset

An open letter from EPA staff to the American public

“We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We need to hold this administration accountable.”

wildfire retardants being sprayed by plane

New evidence links heavy metal pollution with wildfire retardants

“The chemical black box” that blankets wildfire-impacted areas is increasingly under scrutiny.

People  sitting in an outdoors table working on a big sign.

Op-ed: Why funding for the environmental justice movement must be anti-racist

We must prioritize minority-serving institutions, BIPOC-led organizations and researchers to lead environmental justice efforts.

joe biden

Biden finalizes long-awaited hydrogen tax credits ahead of Trump presidency

Responses to the new rules have been mixed, and environmental advocates worry that Trump could undermine them.

Op-ed: Toxic prisons teach us that environmental justice needs abolition

Op-ed: Toxic prisons teach us that environmental justice needs abolition

Prisons, jails and detention centers are placed in locations where environmental hazards such as toxic landfills, floods and extreme heat are the norm.

Agents of Change in Environmental Justice logo

LISTEN: Reflections on the first five years of the Agents of Change program

The leadership team talks about what they’ve learned — and what lies ahead.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.