Foster S. Friess is the climate denying money-man behind Rick Santorum’s bid for the GOP presidential nomination. The Republican hopefuls are following the money, Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is betting on Newt Gingrich and Friess is bankrolling the pro-Santorum super PAC. Friess is a Wyoming cowboy who is known for his opposition to the science of climate change.
Articles on his website deride the science behind climate change by attempting to resurrect “climate-gate” (even though the science was deemed sound and the scientist in question was cleared by a UK parliamentary committee).
Articles on Friess’ site with titles like, “It’s Hard to Believe in Global Warming When Climate is Getting Cooler,” flagrantly contradict the facts. Recent evidence corroborates the observation that the earth is getting warmer and this is precipitating extreme weather events.
When Friess is not assaulting the science of climate change he is trying to impugn climate scientists. An article on his site brazenly calls global warming the “greatest scam in history” and questions the age and experience of the scientists working for the UN. Another article’s headline reads, “Humans Are Not Main Cause of Global Warming.”
Throughout his site the articles he posts use the language of climate change denial. They use deliberately misleading phrases like “global warming alarmists” and “climate change propaganda.” Rather than acknowledge that he shares the Republican’s anti-scientific bias, Friess tries to frame the issues in terms of free speech and the right to dissent.
Other articles on his site include “Global Warming; A Religion in Decline.” In this article he makes wildly inaccurate statements like, “Green technologies have all proved expensive, environmentally hazardous and wildly unpopular duds.”
As a successful investor it is hard to see how Friess could make such outlandish claims. There is a wealth of data supporting the powerful and sustained growth of cleantech. Investing Daily has even gone so far as to describe CleanTech as “the greatest investment opportunity ever.”
Cisco Systems vice president Marie Hattar has said that cleantech will not only be the biggest innovation ever, it will be 10 to 100 times bigger than the Internet.
As we get ever closer to the catastrophic impacts of climate change it is unconscionable that those who should know better continue to use their wealth and power to promote denialism at the highest level.
Friess describes himself as the “man atop the horse.” Given the implications of runaway climate change, he may best be described as one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.
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