Quantcast
Powered by RebelMouse

Koch Brothers Decline Tom Steyer's Climate Change Debate Invitation

Brandon Baker
May. 05, 2014 10:11AM EST Climate

Remember last week when Tom Steyer challenged billionaire clean energy opposers Charles and David Koch to a climate change debate?

Steyer, a billionaire activist for renewable energy and climate awareness, took things a step further Friday by placing an advertisement requesting a debate in the Koch's hometown newspaper, The Wichita Eagle. A bold move, no doubt, but not enough.

The Kochs have declined the offer.

Graphic credit: NextGen Climate

“We are not experts on climate change,” Koch spokeswoman Melissa Cohlmia told the newspaper. “We do believe there should be free and open debate on the climate issue and it should be based on sound science and intellectual honesty."

Steyer extended the invitation after Charles Koch argued in theWall Street Journal that there needed to be more free and open debate on climate change. Apparently, Koch didn't mean that he or his brother should be a part of that.

“We’re glad that Koch Industries has acknowledged that they are not experts on climate change,” said Heather Wong, a spokeswoman for Steyer's NextGen Climate Action. “The scientific community has, in fact, had a free and open debate about climate change and reached an unequivocal conclusion: Our climate is changing and carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels is primarily responsible.”

The actions of Koch Industries show that the brothers don't agree with that, and now their words show that they're unwilling to debate it.

“The Koch Brothers have always been shrouded in secrecy, their labyrinth of shadowy organizations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars benefiting candidates who deny basic science and push legislation that enables climate change,” the advertisement read. “Charles Koch has already mourned the oppression of ‘free and open debate.’

"Here’s his chance to do something about it.”

——–

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE

Activist Tom Steyer Challenges Koch Brothers to Climate Debate

New Report Reveals Koch Brothers Could Make $100B Profit if Keystone XL Pipeline is Built

Jimmy Carter Slams Koch Brothers and ‘Unpleasantly Successful’ Climate Denial Campaign

——–

climate change featured kansas

EcoWatch Daily Newsletter

whales

Georgia Beachgoers Helped Save Dozens of Beached Whales

Animals
Georgia Department of Natural Resources

Beachgoers enjoying a pleasant evening on Georgia's St. Simons Island rushed into the water, despite warnings of sharks, to rescue dozens of short-finned pilot whales that washed ashore on Tuesday evening, according to the New York Times.

Read More Show Less
whales marine life oceans animals
activism

Extinction Rebellion Protesters Arrested in London

Climate

Six Extinction Rebellion protesters were arrested as they blocked off corporations in the UK. The group had increased their actions to week-long nationwide protests.

Read More Show Less
air pollution extinction rebellion public health childrens health climate change activism
Sponsored
photo contest

Submit Your Photo to EcoWatch's 'Best of Summer' Photo Contest

Popular
Golde Wallingford submitted this photo of "Pure Joy" to EcoWatch's first photo contest. Golde Wallingford

EcoWatch is pleased to announce our third photo contest!

Read More Show Less
photo contest environment adventure ecowatchers summer
climate crisis

Watch These Young Spoken-Word Poets Take On Climate Change

Popular
Sari Goodfriend

By Courtney Lindwall

Across the world, tens of thousands of young people are taking to the streets to protest climate inaction. And at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem last month, more than a dozen of them took to the stage.

Read More Show Less
climate change climate crisis
public lands

Trump's Drilling Leases on Public Lands Could Lead to 4.7B Metric Tons of Carbon Emissions

Climate
Pumpjacks on Lost Hills Oil Field in California. Arne Hückelheim, Wikimedia Commons

By Julia Conley

A national conservation group revealed Wednesday that President Donald Trump's drilling leases on public lands could lead to the release of more carbon emissions than the European Union contributes in an entire year.

Read More Show Less
conservation public lands trump administration methane fossil fuels center for biological diversity common dreams
Sponsored
public health

New Research Shows Malaria Can Spread In Cooler Climates

Climate
Pixabay

By Marlene Cimons

For nearly a century, scientists thought that malaria could only spread in places where it is really hot. That's because malaria is spread by a tiny parasite that infects mosquitoes, which then infect humans — and this parasite loves warm weather. In warmer climates, the parasite grows quickly inside the mosquito's body. But in cooler climates, the parasite develops so slowly that the mosquito will die before the it is fully grown.

Read More Show Less
climate change mosquitoes public health climate crisis
indigenous rights

33 Native Hawaiians Arrested Protecting Sacred Mountain From Giant Telescope

Popular
The summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, which is considered sacred by some Native Hawaiians. Charmian Vistaunet / Design Pics / Getty Images

A decade-long fight over the proposed construction of a giant telescope on a mountain considered sacred by some Native Hawaiians came to a head Wednesday when 33 elders were arrested for blocking the road to the summit, HuffPost Reported.

Read More Show Less
indigenous peoples activism science indigenous rights hawaii thirty meter telescope mauna kea
plastics

Cambodia to Return 1,700 Tons of Plastic Waste to U.S., Canada

Popular
A boy walks past a plastic-choked canal in in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Jan. 17, 2019. TANG CHHIN SOTHY / AFP / Getty Images

Cambodia is the latest Asian country to reject the wealthy world's plastic waste.

Read More Show Less
plastic pollution environmental justice plastics cambodia