# Climate Change The long-term alteration of global temperatures and weather patterns driven primarily by fossil fuel combustion — and one of the most heavily funded denial campaigns in the vault. The right-wing infrastructure documented in this KB has invested billions in climate change denial, delay, and obstruction: the [[Koch Network]] funded climate-skeptic research and lobbying, fossil fuel companies ran decades-long [[Disinformation]] campaigns modeled on the tobacco industry's playbook, and conservative think tanks (including the [[Heritage Foundation]]) have treated environmental [[Deregulation]] as a core policy objective. Climate matters to the vault not as a scientific question but as a political economy question: the fossil fuel industry's campaign to prevent climate action is one of the most successful corporate influence operations in history, and its infrastructure — [[Dark Money]], think-tank capture, media amplification, regulatory obstruction — overlaps substantially with the broader right-wing funding architecture the [[Dark Money Ecosystem]] tracks. ## The Science The fundamental physics of the [[Greenhouse Effect]] have been understood since the nineteenth century. Modern [[Climate Science]] rests on decades of observational data, ice-core records, and increasingly sophisticated [[Climate Models]] that project warming trajectories under various [[Emissions Scenarios]]. The concept of [[Climate Sensitivity]] — how much warming results from a doubling of atmospheric CO2 — has been progressively refined. Research into Climate Feedbacks and Tipping Points has identified thresholds beyond which cascading effects become self-reinforcing. The scientific consensus is unambiguous: human activity is the dominant driver of observed warming since the mid-twentieth century. The political response to that consensus, however, has been shaped far more by industry spending and ideological opposition than by the evidence itself. ## The Denial Infrastructure [[Climate Change Denialism]] did not emerge organically. It was manufactured through a coordinated, decades-long campaign funded by the [[Fossil Fuel Industry and Climate]] and channeled through the [[Think Tank Ecosystem]]. The playbook is documented in [[Merchants of Doubt]]: hire credentialed contrarians, amplify uncertainty, attack mainstream science, and delay policy action long enough for continued extraction profits. Key institutional actors in climate denial include: - **[[ExxonMobil]]** — internal research confirmed climate risks as early as the 1970s; the company then spent decades funding denial organizations and casting public doubt on its own scientists' findings - **[[Chevron]]** — alongside other major oil companies, participated in industry coalitions that lobbied against emissions regulations - **[[Koch Industries]]** — the petrochemical conglomerate whose owners built the largest private political network in American history specifically to fight climate and environmental regulation - **[[Charles Koch]]** and **[[David Koch]]** — personally directed hundreds of millions into organizations opposing climate action, from [[Americans for Prosperity]] grassroots campaigns to academic funding - **[[DonorsTrust]]** — the [[Dark Money]] conduit that anonymized hundreds of millions in donations to climate-denial organizations, shielding donors from public accountability The think-tank layer translated industry funding into policy-ready arguments: - **[[Heartland Institute]]** — hosted conferences promoting climate skepticism and distributed materials to teachers challenging mainstream climate science - **[[Competitive Enterprise Institute]]** — filed lawsuits against the [[EPA]] and climate regulations, and ran public campaigns celebrating CO2 as beneficial - **[[Cato Institute]]** — Koch-founded think tank that published research questioning climate models and opposing carbon pricing - **[[Heritage Foundation]]** — provided the policy blueprint for withdrawing from international climate agreements and dismantling the [[EPA]] This denial apparatus is a textbook case of [[Propaganda]] deployed in service of corporate interests, using the same [[Disinformation]] techniques documented across the vault's media and messaging pages. ## Policy Sabotage: A Timeline The political history of climate obstruction tracks a consistent pattern: international agreements negotiated, domestic implementation blocked, regulations rolled back. The [[Climate Change Timeline]] and [[Climate Policy Sabotage Arc]] document this in detail. **International agreements undermined:** - The [[Kyoto Protocol]] (1997) was signed but never ratified by the US Senate, after an industry-funded lobbying campaign framed it as economically ruinous - The [[Paris Agreement]] (2015) committed nations to limiting warming to 1.5-2 degrees Celsius; [[Donald Trump]] withdrew the US in 2017, rejoined under Biden in 2021, then withdrew again in January 2025 — with the withdrawal becoming effective January 27, 2026 - The Trump administration in 2025 also declared intent to withdraw from the UNFCCC, the IPCC, and the Green Climate Fund — an unprecedented severing of US participation in international climate governance **Domestic regulation gutted:** - The [[Clean Air Act]] and [[Clean Water Act]] have been progressively weakened through administrative reinterpretation and judicial challenge - [[Scott Pruitt]], as EPA administrator, systematically dismantled Obama-era climate regulations while maintaining close ties to fossil fuel executives — a case study in [[Regulatory Capture]] - [[Andrew Wheeler]], a former coal lobbyist, continued the deregulatory agenda as Pruitt's successor - [[Ryan Zinke]] opened federal lands and waters to expanded fossil fuel extraction as Interior Secretary - The Trump administration's 2025 actions included dismantling greenhouse gas emission limits for power plants, cars, trucks, and oil and gas production, alongside eliminating tax credits and subsidies for renewable energy and electric vehicles - Trump declared a "national energy emergency" to accelerate fossil fuel production and cut federal funding for climate research and low-carbon technology The [[Environmental Deregulation Playbook]] documents the recurring tactics: appoint industry insiders, defund enforcement, rewrite cost-benefit analyses, and slow-walk implementation until a friendlier administration can reverse course. ## Legislative and Judicial Dimensions [[Congress]] has been the primary venue for blocking climate legislation, with the [[Republican Party]] and the [[Freedom Caucus]] treating opposition to climate regulation as a litmus test. The fossil fuel industry's campaign contributions and the [[Koch Network]]'s electoral infrastructure have made climate action politically toxic for Republican officeholders. The [[Inflation Reduction Act]] (2022) represented the largest federal climate investment in US history, but its clean energy provisions became immediate targets for repeal efforts. By 2025, many of its incentives had been eliminated or defunded. In the courts, the [[Chevron deference]] doctrine — which gave regulatory agencies interpretive authority over ambiguous statutes — was a critical tool for upholding EPA climate rules. Its erosion through judicial challenges, documented in [[Environmental Law and the Courts]], has weakened the federal government's capacity to regulate emissions without explicit congressional authorization. ## The Broader Political Economy Climate policy intersects with nearly every major theme in this vault: - **[[Energy Sector]]** and **[[Energy Transition Politics]]** — the economic disruption threatened by decarbonization drives industry opposition, while the [[Solar Industry Timeline]] documents the parallel growth of renewable alternatives - **[[Disaster Capitalism and Climate]]** — extreme weather events create profit opportunities for connected firms while devastating vulnerable communities - **[[Environmental Justice Movement]]** and **[[Environmental Racism]]** — the costs of both climate change and fossil fuel extraction fall disproportionately on communities of color and low-income populations - **[[Project 2025]]** — the Heritage Foundation-led policy blueprint that includes systematic plans to dismantle federal climate programs and withdraw from international agreements - **[[Overton Window]]** — the denial campaign successfully shifted the bounds of acceptable debate, making even moderate climate policy appear radical in American political discourse ## Current Status (2025-2026) The period following Trump's return to office in January 2025 has represented the most aggressive rollback of climate policy in US history. Researchers have documented 45 climate policy reversals in a single year across 15 jurisdictions. Beyond domestic policy, fossil fuel producers, automakers, and agribusiness have been documented pressuring foreign regulators to weaken their climate commitments — extending the sabotage campaign beyond US borders. The [[Climate in Right-Wing Thought Hub]] tracks how climate denial has evolved from outright rejection of science to more sophisticated forms of delay: acknowledging warming while disputing its severity, accepting human causation while opposing every proposed solution, or promoting fossil-fuel-friendly "alternatives" designed to forestall genuine emissions reductions. ## See Also - [[Deregulation]] — the policy framework used to block environmental rules - [[Dark Money Ecosystem]] — the funding architecture behind climate denial - [[Heritage Foundation]] — think tank central to anti-regulation advocacy - [[Koch Network]] — the political network most invested in climate obstruction - [[Climate Change Denialism]] — the manufactured doubt campaign - [[Climate Policy Sabotage Arc]] — the narrative arc of policy obstruction - [[Fossil Fuel Industry and Climate]] — industry's role in denial and delay - [[Regulatory Capture]] — the mechanism by which industry controls its regulators - [[Environmental Deregulation Playbook]] — recurring tactics for dismantling protections - [[Climate Change Timeline]] — chronological record of key events - [[Actuarial Science and Risk Classification]] — sorting people into risk pools by predicted loss — the oldest applied probability, and the oldest algorithmic discrimination - [[Discount Rates as Policy Choices]] — how the rate used to convert future costs into present value determines the answer to nearly every long-horizon policy question - [[The Value of a Statistical Life]] — the dollar figure regulatory analysis assigns to mortality risk reduction, and what happens when it is set to zero