Renewable Revolution

 
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April 30, 2018





CFACT’s Marc Morano is very proud of his book, “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change.” Last Thursday, he scored an 18 minute interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Pat Robertson 😈 (who once suggested Disney World’s “Gay Days” could incite God to hit Orlando with hurricanes.) At the EPA’s scientific “transparency” policy announcement earlier this week, Morano gave a copy to Scott Pruitt (who, of course, needs no help being incorrect).

All this publicity among those who are looking for advice on how to be wrong about climate change is paying off. According to an email blast sent to CFACT’s subscribers last week, Morano’s book is currently outselling Rachel Carson’s seminal 1962 work, “Silent Spring”.

Carson’s series of New Yorker articles-turned-book on the impacts of widespread pesticide use is widely considered a catalyst for the rise of the modern environmental movement, and is credited as helping to bring environmental concerns into the mainstream. It’s also a book published 56 years ago. Last we checked, surpassing current sales of works published five decades ago isn’t exactly a major accomplishment.

Then, of course, there’s the matter of who’s actually buying Morano’s screed. After all, bulk purchasing is a tried and true method of gaming these sorts of lists, where marketers, book clubs or groups with an interest in a book’s topic buy in bulk then resell at a significant discount.

You may remember this from the 2015 pseudo-scandal in which the New York Times kept Ted Cruz’s book off its bestseller list because they found “the overwhelming preponderance of evidence was that sales were limited to strategic bulk purchases.” Campaign finance filings later revealed that Cruz’s campaign spent $122,000 on copies of his book. 

Though this sort of bulk purchasing is an all-too-common nonpartisan marketing ploy, this was hardly the first time conservatives bought in bulk (see right-wing talk show host Mark Levin’s 2014 book, which got a boost from a $400,000 purchase from the Republican Senate Conservatives Fund). We know climate deniers are undoubtedly well aware of the strategy of bulk buying and distribution: last year Heartland sent 25,000 science teachers its climate denial propaganda.

But the idea’s been around for years. Back in 2007, a group of conservative authors sued conservative printing house Regnery Publishing, alleging it was "selling their books at a steep discount to book clubs and other organizations owned by the same parent company.” And by donating the books or otherwise selling at a discount, Regnery was stiffing the authors out of their royalties. (Per their contract, the dispute was settled by arbitration, which found in Regnery’s favor.)

And who published Morano’s book?

Because there are no coincidences in climate denial: Regnery Publishing.