#1187: Brian Sussman

Brian Sussman is a former weather forecaster with the CBS station in San Francisco, who, in 2003, began hosting an evening show pretentiously called Right Thinking from the Left Coast, on the San Francisco conservative talk station KSFO – he became the morning host in 2010. Sussman, a professional bulverist, is particularly notable for his rather unhinged climate change denialism; his 2010 book Climategate: A Veteran Meteorologist Exposes The Global Warming Scam was issued by the WND publishing arm, no less, and attempts to argue that global warming is a Marxist ploy, that the UN is evil and seeking a one-world government by conspiracy and so on. And yes, he seems generally incapable of distinguishing scientific investigation and evidence assessment from political punditry.

The sequel, the conspiracy oriented Eco-Tyranny: How the Left’s Green Agenda will Dismantle America, “provides a thought-provoking analysis of the origins of the modern-day ‘sustainable’ movement”, according to … James Inhofe, and just like so many creationist tracts it tries to undermine environmentalism by exposing the movement’s alleged dark roots – a moronic fallacy even if it the premises were supported by rigorous scholarship, which, of course, they are not.

And yes, that really is his argument. Sussman claims that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels not only created the environmental movement but also the nefarious, anti-capitalist and anti-Christian notion of man-influenced climate change, with the purpose of destroying capitalism and Christianity. According to Sussman, Marx & Engels said “capitalism produces pollution and that pollution could change the climate and bring us into an ice age that would destroy all species” (unfortunately he doesn’t provide the source). Therefore, apparently, it is communism that motivates environmental measures at present, and the communists are everywhere: “we have these people in all levels of government of the United States, including in the White House and the West Wing of the White House.” Of course, even if his assumption were true, it wouldn’t show anything about whether climate change is happening, but figuring out logical relationships isn’t Sussman’s strong suit.

There’s a report on an interview by Sussman with denialist David Deming, an Associate Professor of Geosciences and University of Oklahoma and signatory to the Discovery Institute’s petition A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism,  here.

Sussman has also made comments suggesting sympathy with birtherism..

Diagnosis: True Coast to Coast AM material, Sussman seems to be loved by the WND and people like James Inhofe and Phyllis Schlafly – to give you some context. The guy is seriously incapable of properly evaluating evidence or reason. The extent to which he poses a threat to civilization is less clear, since his rants seem mostly to be appreciated by people who are already far out in conspiracy land.