The Democratic Party and the climate movement have been “too cautious and polite” and should instead be denouncing the fossil fuel industry’s “huge denial operation,” US senator Sheldon Whitehouse said in a sit down interview this week.
“The fossil fuel industry has run the biggest and most malevolent propaganda operation the country has ever seen,” the Rhode Island Democrat told CCNow partners NBC News, AFP, and Bloomberg Green on Tuesday. “It is defending a 700-plus-billion-dollar [annual] subsidy … I think the more people understand that, the more they’ll be irate [that] they’ve been lied to.” But, he added, “Democrats have not done a good job of calling that out.”
Whitehouse is among the most outspoken climate champions on Capitol Hill, and on Wednesday evening, he delivered his 300th “Time To Wake Up” climate speech on the floor of the Senate.
He began giving these speeches in 2012, when President Barack Obama was in his first term, and has consistently criticized both political parties for their lackluster response to the climate emergency. The Obama White House, he complained, for years “wouldn’t even use the word climate and change in the same paragraph.”
Whitehouse said that after delivering 300 climate speeches on the Senate floor, he has learned to shift from talking about the “facts of climate science and the effects on human beings to calling out the fossil fuels’ massive climate denial operation.”
“Turns out, none of [the science] really matters while the operation is controlling things in Congress,” he said. “I could take facts from colleagues’ home states right to them, and it would make no difference because of this enormous, multi-billion dollar political club that can [punish] anyone who crosses them.”
Lawmakers need to recognize “how much [public] support there is for climate action,” he told CCNow partners. “How do you have an issue that you win 74 to 12 and you don’t ride that horse as hard as you can?”
Whitehouse said he was only estimating that 74 figure, but that’s exactly the percentage of Americans who want their government to take stronger climate action, according to the scientific studies informing CCNow’s 89 Percent Project. Globally, the percentage ranges between 80 and 89%.
Whitehouse is optimistic that climate denial won’t prevail forever. “Once this comes home to roost in people’s homes, in their family finances, in really harmful ways, that [will be] motivating in a way that we haven’t seen before around this issue,” he said. “And if we’re effective at communicating what a massive fraud has been pulled on the American public by the fossil fuel industry denial groups, then I think that’s a powerful combination.”
The above is an abbreviated version of CCNow executive director Mark Hertsgaard’s story based on the Senator Whitehouse interview. CCNow partners are invited to co-publish the full article, which can be found at The Guardian.
From Us
CCNow Newsmaker Interview: Sheldon Whitehouse. CCNow partners NBC News, Bloomberg Green, and Agence France-Presse jointly interviewed US senator and noted climate hawk, Sheldon Whitehouse on Tuesday.
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Dispatch #9 from the Climate Blueprint for Media Transformation
For several months, we’ve been periodically sharing standout insights from the Climate Blueprint for Media Transformation, a collaboration between CCNow and the Solutions Journalism Network. This is the ninth installment.
Do you believe even small impacts from your reporting, like someone sharing a story or signing up for a newsletter, are worth cataloguing? You should. Every step is valuable. That doesn’t mean journalists are always good at tracking all those “little” bits of success.
Tom Trewinnard helps newsrooms do that, and more. With his tips and resources, you can build that mindset into your work too.
Resources, Events, Etc.
The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication released a new installment of its ongoing national survey, “Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes, Spring 2025,” on July 8. Only 18% of Americans say they hear about global warming in the media “at least once a week,” the lowest percentage since the question was added to the survey in 2015.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is hosting an exclusive webinar with Nic Newman, lead author of the just released Digital News Report 2025, who will present key findings on North America on August 7 at 12pm ET. RSVP
Jobs, Etc.
NatGeo is looking for a senior newsletter editor in Washington, D.C.; MarketWatch seeks an ambitious reporter to join its technology team to cover Elon Musk and his companies; the Arizona Republic is seeking two journalists for reporting fellowships on an ongoing grant-funded environmental project; and New Scientist is looking for an environment news reporter in the UK.
The Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP), led by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, is pleased to announce the COP30 CCMP Reporting Fellowship Program for journalists from low- and middle-income countries interested in covering COP30 in Belem. Deadline: July 15, 2025 Learn more.
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Editor’s Note: Correction. Senator Whitehouse spoke with CCNow partners on Tuesday, July 8.