title: Climate change denial

text: Research on the effect of on the climate began in 1824, when Joseph Fourier inferred the existence of the atmospheric "greenhouse effect". In 1860, John Tyndall quantified the effects of greenhouse gases on absorption of infrared radiation. Svante Arrhenius in 1896 showed that coal burning could cause global warming, and in 1938 Guy Stewart Callendar found it already happening to some extent. Research advanced rapidly after 1940; from 1957, Roger Revelle alerted the public to risks that fossil fuel burning was "a grandiose scientific experiment" on climate. NASA and NOAA took on research, the 1979 Charney Report concluded that substantial warming was already on the way, and "A wait-and-see policy may mean waiting until it is too late."


title: Climate change denial

text: In 1959, a scientist working for Shell suggested in a New Scientist article, that carbon cycles are too vast to upset Nature's balance. By 1966 however, a coal industry research organization, Bituminous Coal Research Inc., published its finding that if then prevailing trends of coal consumption continue, "the temperature of the earth's atmosphere will increase and that vast changes in the climates of the earth will result." "Such changes in temperature will cause melting of the polar icecaps, which, in turn, would result in the inundation of many coastal cities, including New York and London." In a discussion following this paper in the same publication, a combustion engineer for Peabody Coal, now Peabody Energy, the world's largest coal supplier, added that the coal industry was merely "buying time" before additional government air pollution regulations would be promulgated to clean the air. Nevertheless, the coal industry for decades thereafter publicly advocated the position that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is beneficial for the planet.


title: Climate change denial

text: In response to increasing public awareness of the greenhouse effect in the 1970s, conservative reaction built up, denying environmental concerns which could lead to government regulation. In 1977 the first Secretary of Energy, Republican James Schlesinger, suggested President Jimmy Carter inaction regarding a climate change memo citing uncertainty. With the 1981 Presidency of Ronald Reagan, global warming became a political issue, with immediate plans to cut spending on environmental research, particularly climate-related, and stop funding for monitoring. Reagan appointed as Secretary of Energy James B. Edwards, who said that there was no real global warming problem. Congressman Al Gore had studied under Revelle and was aware of the developing science: he joined others in arranging congressional hearings from 1981 onwards, with testimony by scientists including Revelle, Stephen Schneider and Wallace Smith Broecker. The hearings gained enough public attention to reduce the cuts in atmospheric research. A polarized party-political debate developed. In 1982, Sherwood B. Idso published his book "Carbon Dioxide: Friend or Foe?" which said increases in would not warm the planet, but would fertilize crops and were "something to be encouraged and not suppressed", while complaining that his theories had been rejected by the "scientific establishment". An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report in 1983 said global warming was "not a theoretical problem but a threat whose effects will be felt within a few years", with potentially "catastrophic" consequences. The Reagan administration reacted by calling the report "alarmist", and the dispute got wide news coverage. Public attention turned to other issues, then the 1985 finding of a polar ozone hole brought a swift international response. To the public, this was related to climate change and the possibility of effective action, but news interest faded.


title: Climate change denial

text: Public attention was renewed amidst summer droughts and heat waves when James Hansen testified to a Congressional hearing on 23 June 1988, stating with high confidence that long term warming was underway with severe warming likely within the next 50 years, and warning of likely storms and floods. There was increasing media attention: the scientific community had reached a broad consensus that the climate was warming, human activity was very likely the primary cause, and there would be significant consequences if the warming trend was not curbed. These facts encouraged discussion about new laws concerning environmental regulation, which was opposed by the fossil fuel industry.


title: Climate change denial

text: From 1989 onwards industry-funded organizations including the Global Climate Coalition and the George C. Marshall Institute sought to spread doubt among the public, in a strategy already developed by the tobacco industry. A small group of scientists opposed to the consensus on global warming became politically involved, and with support from conservative political interests, began publishing in books and the press rather than in scientific journals. This small group of scientists included some of the same people that were part of the strategy already tried by the tobacco industry. Spencer Weart identifies this period as the point where legitimate skepticism about basic aspects of climate science was no longer justified, and those spreading mistrust about these issues became deniers. As their arguments were increasingly refuted by the scientific community and new data, deniers turned to political arguments, making personal attacks on the reputation of scientists, and promoting ideas of a global warming conspiracy.


title: Climate change denial

text: With the 1989 fall of communism and the environmental movement's international reach at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the attention of U.S. conservative think tanks, which had been organized in the 1970s as an intellectual counter-movement to socialism, turned from the "red scare" to the "green scare" which they saw as a threat to their aims of private property, free trade market economies and global capitalism. As a counter-movement, they used environmental skepticism to promote denial of the reality of problems such as loss of biodiversity and climate change.


title: Climate change denial

text: In 1992, an EPA report linked second-hand smoke with lung cancer. The tobacco industry engaged the APCO Worldwide public relations company, which set out a strategy of astroturfing campaigns to cast doubt on the science by linking smoking anxieties with other issues, including global warming, in order to turn public opinion against calls for government intervention. The campaign depicted public concerns as "unfounded fears" supposedly based only on "junk science" in contrast to their "sound science", and operated through front groups, primarily the Advancement of Sound Science Center (TASSC) and its Junk Science website, run by Steven Milloy. A tobacco company memo commented "Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the mind of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy." During the 1990s, the tobacco campaign died away, and TASSC began taking funding from oil companies including Exxon. Its website became central in distributing "almost every kind of climate-change denial that has found its way into the popular press."


title: Climate change denial

text: In the 1990s, the Marshall Institute began campaigning against increased regulations on environmental issues such as acid rain, ozone depletion, second-hand smoke, and the dangers of DDT. In each case their argument was that the science was too uncertain to justify any government intervention, a strategy it borrowed from earlier efforts to downplay the health effects of tobacco in the 1980s. This campaign would continue for the next two decades.


title: Climate change denial

text: These efforts succeeded in influencing public perception of climate science. Between 1988 and the 1990s, public discourse shifted from the science and data of climate change to discussion of politics and surrounding controversy.


title: Climate change denial

text: The campaign to spread doubt continued into the 1990s, including an advertising campaign funded by coal industry advocates intended to "reposition global warming as theory rather than fact", and a 1998 proposal written by the American Petroleum Institute intending to recruit scientists to convince politicians, the media and the public that climate science was too uncertain to warrant environmental regulation. The proposal included a US$ 5,000,000 multi-point strategy to "maximize the impact of scientific views consistent with ours on Congress, the media and other key audiences", with a goal of "raising questions about and undercutting the 'prevailing scientific wisdom'".


title: Climate change denial

text: In 1998, Gelbspan noted that his fellow journalists accepted that global warming was occurring, but said they were in "'stage-two' denial of the climate crisis", unable to accept the feasibility of answers to the problem. A subsequent book by Milburn and Conrad on "The Politics of Denial" described "economic and psychological forces" producing denial of the consensus on global warming issues.


title: Climate change denial

text: These efforts by climate change denial groups were recognized as an organized campaign beginning in the 2000s. The sociologists Riley Dunlap and Aaron McCright played a significant role in this shift when they published an article in 2000 exploring the connection between conservative think tanks and climate change denial. Later work would continue the argument specific groups were marshaling skepticism against climate change – A study in 2008 from the University of Central Florida analyzed the sources of "environmentally skeptical" literature published in the United States. The analysis demonstrated that 92% of the literature was partly or wholly affiliated with a self-proclaimed conservative think tanks. A later piece of research from 2015 identified 4,556 individuals with overlapping network ties to 164 organizations which are responsible for the most efforts to downplay the threat of climate change in the U.S.


title: Climate change denial

text: Gelbspan's "Boiling Point", published in 2004, detailed the fossil-fuel industry's campaign to deny climate change and undermine public confidence in climate science. In "Newsweek" August 2007 cover story "The Truth About Denial", Sharon Begley reported that "the denial machine is running at full throttle", and said that this "well-coordinated, well-funded campaign" by contrarian scientists, free-market think tanks, and industry had "created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change."


title: Climate change denial

text: Referencing work of sociologists Robert Antonio and Robert Brulle, Wayne A. White has written that climate change denial has become the top priority in a broader anti-environmental regulation agenda being pursued by neoliberals. Today, climate change skepticism is most prominently seen in the United States, where the media disproportionately features views of the climate change denial community. In addition to the media, the contrarian movement has also been sustained by the growth of the internet, having gained some of its support from internet bloggers, talk radio hosts and newspaper columnists.


title: Climate change denial

text: "The New York Times" and others reported in 2015 that oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause climate change and global warming since the 1970s but nonetheless funded deniers for years. Dana Nuccitelli wrote in "The Guardian" that a small fringe group of climate deniers were no longer taken seriously at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, in an agreement that "we need to stop delaying and start getting serious about preventing a climate crisis." However, "The New York Times" says any implementation is voluntary and will depend on any future world leaders—and every Republican U.S. presidential candidate in 2016 questioned or denied the science of climate change.


title: Climate change denial

text: Ernesto Araújo, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs appointed by the newly elected president Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro has called global warming a plot by "cultural Marxists" and has eliminated the Climate Change Division of the ministry.


title: Climate change denial

text: The climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States. In the 2016 United States election cycle, every Republican presidential candidate questioned or denied climate change, and opposed U.S. government steps to address climate change as has the Republican leader in the U.S. Senate.


title: Climate change denial

text: A Pentagon report has pointed out how climate change denial threatens national security. A study from 2015 identified 4,556 individuals with overlapping network ties to 164 organizations which are responsible for the most efforts to downplay the threat of climate change in the U.S.


title: Climate change denial

text: In 2013, the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network (SPN), an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks, had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation.


title: Climate change denial

text: According to an investigative report in the "Chronicle of Higher Education", influential academic papers used to support climate change denialism were written by authors affiliated with Harvard, MIT, and Georgetown University who had undisclosed conflict of interest.


title: Climate change denial

text: The Clexit Coalition claims to be: "A new international organisation (which) aims to prevent ratification of the costly and dangerous Paris global warming treaty". It has members in 26 countries. According to The Guardian newspaper: "Clexit leaders are heavily involved in tobacco and fossil fuel-funded organizations".


title: Climate change denial

text: In November 2021, a study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate identified "ten fringe publishers" that together were responsible for nearly 70 percent of Facebook user interactions with content that denied climate change. Facebook said the percentage was overstated and called the study misleading.<ref name="Porterfield_11/2/2021"></ref><ref name="Toxic_Ten_11/2/2021"></ref>


title: Climate change denial

text: The "toxic ten" publishers: "Breitbart News", "The Western Journal", Newsmax, Townhall, Media Research Center, "The Washington Times", "The Federalist", "The Daily Wire", RT (TV network), and "The Patriot Post".


title: Climate change denial

text: "The Rebel Media" and its director, Ezra Levant, have promoted climate change denial and oil sands extraction in Alberta.<ref name="Craig_10/31/2016"></ref><ref name="Rowell_6/24/2017"></ref><ref name="Kay_5/1/2017"></ref>


title: Climate change denial

text: Some climate change denial groups say that because is only a trace gas in the atmosphere (roughly 400ppm, or 0.04%, 4 parts per 10,000) it can only have a minor effect on the climate. Scientists have known for over a century that even this small proportion has a significant warming effect, and doubling the proportion leads to a large temperature increase. The scientific consensus, as summarized by the IPCC fourth assessment report, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other reports, is that human activity is the leading cause of climate change. The burning of fossil fuels accounts for around 30 billion tons of each year, which is 130 times the amount produced by volcanoes. Some groups allege that water vapor is a more significant greenhouse gas, and is left out of many climate models. While water vapor is a greenhouse gas, the very short atmospheric lifetime of water vapor (about 10 days) compared to that of (hundreds of years) means that is the primary driver of increasing temperatures; water vapour acts as a feedback, not a forcing, mechanism. Water vapor has been incorporated into climate models since their inception in the late 1800s.


title: Climate change denial

text: Climate denial groups may also argue that global warming stopped recently, a global warming hiatus, or that global temperatures are actually decreasing, leading to global cooling. These arguments are based on short term fluctuations, and ignore the long term pattern of warming.


title: Climate change denial

text: These groups often point to natural variability, such as sunspots and cosmic rays, to explain the warming trend. According to these groups, there is natural variability that will abate over time, and human influences have little to do with it. These factors are already taken into account when developing climate models, and the scientific consensus is that they cannot explain the observed warming trend.


title: Climate change denial

text: At a May 2018 meeting of the United States House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Alabama's Representative Mo Brooks claimed that sea level rise is caused not by melting glaciers but rather by coastal erosion and silt that flows from rivers into the ocean.


title: Climate change denial

text: Climate change denial literature often features the suggestion that we should wait for better technologies before addressing climate change, when they will be more affordable and effective.


title: Climate change denial

text: Global warming conspiracy theories have been posited which allege that the scientific consensus is illusory, or that climatologists are acting on their own financial interests by causing undue alarm about a changing climate. Despite leaked emails during the Climatic Research Unit email controversy, as well as multinational, independent research on the topic, no evidence of such a conspiracy has been presented, and strong consensus exists among scientists from a multitude of political, social, organizational and national backgrounds about the extent and cause of climate change. Several researchers have concluded that around 97% of climate scientists agree with this consensus. As well, much of the data used in climate science is publicly available to be viewed and interpreted by competing researchers as well as the public.


title: Climate change denial

text: In 2012, research by Stephan Lewandowsky (then of the University of Western Australia) concluded that belief in other conspiracy theories, such as that the FBI was responsible for the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., was associated with being more likely to endorse climate change denial.


title: Climate change denial

text: In February 2015, climate change denier Jim Inhofe, who had previously called climate change "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people", claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax when he brought a snowball with him in the U.S. Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor. He was succeeded in 2017 by John Barrasso, who similarly said: "The climate is constantly changing. The role human activity plays is not known."


title: Climate change denial

text: Donald Trump tweeted in 2012 that the Chinese invented "the concept of global warming" because they believed it would somehow hurt U.S. manufacturing. In late 2015, he called global warming a "hoax."


title: Climate change denial

text: In 2004, Stefan Rahmstorf described how the media give the misleading impression that climate change was still disputed within the scientific community, attributing this impression to PR efforts of climate change skeptics. He identified different positions argued by climate skeptics, which he used as a taxonomy of climate change skepticism: Later the model was also applied on denial.


title: Climate change denial

text: This taxonomy has been used in social science for analysis of publications, and to categorize climate change skepticism and climate change denial. Sometimes, a fourth category called "consensus denial" is added, which describes people who question the existence of the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming.


title: Climate change denial

text: The National Center for Science Education describes climate change denial as disputing differing points in the scientific consensus, a sequential range of arguments from denying the occurrence of climate change, accepting that but denying any significant human contribution, accepting these but denying scientific findings on how this would affect nature and human society, to accepting all these but denying that humans can mitigate or reduce the problems. James L. Powell provides a more extended list, as does climatologist Michael E. Mann in "six stages of denial", a ladder model whereby deniers have over time conceded acceptance of points, while retreating to a position which still rejects the mainstream consensus:


title: Climate change denial

text: Journalists and newspaper columnists including George Monbiot and Ellen Goodman, among others, have described climate change denial as a form of denialism.


title: Climate change denial

text: Denialism in this context has been defined by Chris and Mark Hoofnagle as the use of rhetorical devices "to give the appearance of legitimate debate where there is none, an approach that has the ultimate goal of rejecting a proposition on which a scientific consensus exists." This process characteristically uses one or more of the following tactics:


title: Climate change denial

text: In 2015, environmentalist Bill McKibben accused President Obama (widely regarded as strongly in favour of action on climate change) of "Catastrophic Climate-Change Denial", for his approval of oil-drilling permits in offshore Alaska. According to McKibben, the President has also "opened huge swaths of the Powder River basin to new coal mining." McKibben calls this "climate denial of the status quo sort", where the President denies "the meaning of the science, which is that we must keep carbon in the ground."


title: Climate change denial

text: A study assessed the public perception and actions to climate change, on grounds of belief systems, and identified seven psychological barriers affecting the behavior that otherwise would facilitate mitigation, adaptation, and environmental stewardship. The author found the following barriers: cognition, ideological world views, comparisons to key people, costs and momentum, discredence toward experts and authorities, perceived risks of change, and inadequate behavioral changes.


title: Climate change denial

text: Various groups, including the National Center for Science Education, have described climate change denial as a form of pseudoscience. Climate change skepticism, while in some cases professing to do research on climate change, has focused instead on influencing the opinion of the public, legislators and the media, in contrast to legitimate science.


title: Climate change denial

text: In a review of the book "The Pseudoscience Wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe" by Michael D. Gordin, David Morrison wrote:


title: Climate change denial

text: Explaining the techniques of science denial and misinformation, by presenting "examples of people using cherrypicking or fake experts or false balance to mislead the public", has been shown to inoculate people somewhat against misinformation.


title: Climate change denial

text: Dialogue focused on the question of how belief differs from scientific theory may provide useful insights into how the scientific method works, and how beliefs may have strong or minimal supporting evidence. Wong-Parodi's survey of the literature shows four effective approaches to dialogue, including "[encouraging] people to openly share their values and stance on climate change before introducing actual scientific climate information into the discussion."


title: Climate change denial

text: Florida State Senator Tom Lee has described the emotional impact and reactions of individuals to climate change. Lee says, "If these predictions do bear out, that it's just economically daunting. I mean, you have to be the Grim Reaper of reality in a world that isn't real fond of the Grim Reaper. That's why I use the term emotionally shut down, because I think you lose people at hello a lot of times in the Republican conversation over this." Emotional reactions to climate change may include guilt, fear, anger, and apathy. Psychology Today, in an article titled "The Existential Dread of Climate Change, has suggested that "despair about our changing climate may get in the way of fixing it." The American Psychological Association has urged psychologists and other social scientists to work on psychological barriers to taking action on climate change.


title: Climate change denial

text: An "Irish Times" article notes that climate denial "is not simply overcome by reasoned argument", because it is not a rational response. Attempting to overcome denial using techniques of persuasive argument, such as supplying a missing piece of information, or providing general scientific education may be ineffective. A person who is in denial about climate is most likely taking a position based on their feelings, especially their feelings about things they fear.


title: Climate change denial

text: Lewandowsky has stated that "It is pretty clear that fear of the solutions drives much opposition to the science."


title: Climate change denial

text: It can be useful to respond to emotions, including with the statement "It can be painful to realise that our own lifestyles are responsible", in order to help move "from denial to acceptance to constructive action."


title: Climate change denial

text: Seeing positive economic results from efforts at climate-friendly agricultural practices, or becoming involved in intergenerational stewardship of a farm may play a role in turning farmers away from denial. One study of climate change denial among farmers in Australia found that farmers were less likely to take a position of climate denial if they had experienced improved production from climate-friendly practices, or identified a younger person as a successor for their farm.


title: Climate change denial

text: In the United States, rural climate dialogues sponsored by the Sierra Club have helped neighbors overcome their fears of political polarization and exclusion, and come together to address shared concerns about climate impacts in their communities. Some participants who start out with attitudes of anthropogenic climate change denial have shifted to identifying concerns which they would like to see addressed by local officials.


title: Climate change denial

text: "I used to be a climate-change skeptic", conservative columnist Max Boot admitted in 2018, one who believed that "the science was inconclusive" and that worry was "overblown". Now, he says, referencing the Fourth National Climate Assessment, "the scientific consensus is so clear and convincing."


title: Climate change denial

text: Climate change doubter Bob Inglis, a former US representative for South Carolina, changed his mind after appeals from his son on his environmental positions, and after spending time with climate scientist Scott Heron studying coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef. Inglis lost his House race in 2010, and went on to found republicEn, a nonprofit promoting conservative voices and solutions on climate change.


title: Climate change denial

text: Jerry Taylor promoted climate denialism for 20 years as former staff director for the energy and environment task force at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and former vice president of the Cato Institute. Taylor began to change his mind after climate scientist James Hansen challenged him to reread some Senate testimony. He became President of the Niskanen Center in 2014, where he is involved in turning climate skeptics into climate activists, and making the business case for climate action.


title: Climate change denial

text: In 2009, Russian president Dmitri Medvedev expressed his opinion that climate change was "some kind of tricky campaign made up by some commercial structures to promote their business projects." After the devastating 2010 Russian wildfires damaged agriculture and left Moscow choking in smoke, Medvedev commented, "Unfortunately, what is happening now in our central regions is evidence of this global climate change."


title: Climate change denial

text: Michael Shermer, the publisher of "Skeptic" magazine, reached a tipping point in 2006 as a result of his increasing familiarity with scientific evidence, and decided there was "overwhelming evidence for anthropogenic global warming." Journalist Gregg Easterbrook, an early skeptic of climate change who authored the influential book "A Moment on the Earth", also changed his mind in 2006, and wrote an essay titled "Case Closed: The Debate About Global Warming is Over."


title: Climate change denial

text: Weather Channel senior meteorologist Stu Ostro expressed skepticism or cynicism about anthropogenic global warming for some years, but by 2010, he had become involved in explaining the connections between man-made climate change and extreme weather.


title: Climate change denial

text: Richard A. Muller, professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and the co-founder of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, funded by Charles Koch Charitable Foundation, has been a prominent critic of prevailing climate science. In 2011, he stated that "following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I'm now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause."


title: Climate change denial

text: Between 2002 and 2010, the combined annual income of 91 climate change counter-movement organizations—think tanks, advocacy groups and industry associations—was roughly $900 million. During the same period, billionaires secretively donated nearly $120 million (£77 million) via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organizations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change.


title: Climate change denial

text: As of the end of 2019, in the United States, 97 percent of the coal industry's political contributions and 88 percent of the oil and gas industries' contributions had gone to Republicans, leading economist Paul Krugman to call the Republicans "the world's only major climate-denialist party."


title: Climate change denial

text: Public opinion on climate change is significantly affected by media coverage of climate change, and the effects of climate change denial campaigns. Campaigns to undermine public confidence in climate science have decreased public belief in climate change, which in turn have affected legislative efforts to curb emissions. Another reason why the public is skeptical about climate change is their lack of knowledge.


title: Climate change denial

text: In a 2006 ABC News/Time/Stanford Poll, 56% of Americans correctly answered that average global temperatures had risen over the previous three years. However, in the same poll, two-thirds said they believed that scientists had "a lot of disagreement" about "whether or not global warming is happening."


title: Climate change denial

text: From 2001 to 2012, the number of Americans who said they believe in anthropogenic global warming decreased from 75 percent to 44 percent. (Scientists believe it is happening.)


title: Climate change denial

text: A study found that public climate change policy support and behavior are significantly influenced by public beliefs, attitudes and risk perceptions. As of March 2018 the rate of acceptance among U.S. TV forecasters that the climate is changing has increased to ninety-five percent. The number of local television stories about global warming has also increased, by fifteen-fold. Climate Central has received some of the credit for this because they provide classes for meteorologists and graphics for television stations.


title: Climate change denial

text: The popular media in the U.S. gives greater attention to climate change skeptics than the scientific community as a whole, and the level of agreement within the scientific community has not been accurately communicated. In some cases, news outlets have allowed climate change skeptics to explain the science of climate change instead of experts in climatology. US and UK media coverage differ from that presented in other countries, where reporting is more consistent with the scientific literature. Some journalists attribute the difference to climate change denial being propagated, mainly in the US, by business-centered organizations employing tactics worked out previously by the US tobacco lobby. In France, the US and the UK, the opinions of climate change skeptics appear much more frequently in conservative news outlets than other news, and in many cases those opinions are left uncontested.


title: Climate change denial

text: The efforts of Al Gore and other environmental campaigns have focused on the effects of global warming and have managed to increase awareness and concern, but despite these efforts, the number of Americans believing humans are the cause of global warming was holding steady at 61% in 2007, and those believing the popular media was understating the issue remained about 35%. A recent poll from 2015 suggests that while Americans are growing more aware of the dangers and implications of climate change for future generations, the majority are not worried about it. From a survey conducted in 2004, it was found that more than 30% of news presented in the previous decade showed equal attention to both human and non human contributions to global warming.


title: Climate change denial

text: In 2018, the National Science Teachers Association urged teachers to "emphasize to students that no scientific controversy exists regarding the basic facts of climate change."


title: Climate change denial

text: Climate change denial has been promoted by several far-right European parties, including Spain's Vox, Finland's far-right Finns Party, Austria's far-right Freedom Party, and Germany's anti-immigration Alternative for Deutschland (AfD).


title: Climate change denial

text: It has been suggested that climate change can conflict with a nationalistic view because it is "unsolvable" at the national level and requires collective action between nations or between local communities, and that therefore populist nationalism tends to reject the science of climate change.


title: Climate change denial

text: In 2019, U.S. Undersecretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes said that the Freeport LNG project's exports would be "spreading freedom gas throughout the world", while Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg echoed the call to internationally export "molecules of US freedom."


title: Climate change denial

text: On the other hand, it has been argued that effective climate action is polycentric rather than international, and national interest in multilateral groups can be furthered by overcoming climate change denial. Climate change contrarians may believe in a "caricature" of internationalist state intervention that is perceived as threatening national sovereignty, and may re-attribute risks such as flooding to international institutions. UK Independence Party policy on climate change has been influenced by noted contrarian Christopher Monckton and then by its energy spokesman Roger Helmer MEP who stated in a speech "It is not clear that the rise in atmospheric CO is anthropogenic".


title: Climate change denial

text: Jerry Taylor of the Niskanen Center posits that climate change denial is an important component of Trumpian historical consciousness, and "plays a significant role in the architecture of Trumpism as a developing philosophical system."


title: Climate change denial

text: Though climate change denial was apparently waning "circa" 2021, some right-wing nationalist organizations have adopted a theory of "environmental populism" advocating that natural resources should be preserved for a nation's existing residents, to the exclusion of immigrants. Other such right-wing organizations have contrived new "green wings" that falsely assert it is refugees from poor nations who are the cause of environmental pollution and climate change, and should therefore be excluded.


title: Climate change denial

text: Efforts to lobby against environmental regulation have included campaigns to manufacture doubt about the science behind climate change, and to obscure the scientific consensus and data. These efforts have undermined public confidence in climate science, and impacted climate change lobbying.


title: Climate change denial

text: The political advocacy organizations FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity, funded by brothers David and Charles Koch of Koch Industries, were important in supporting the Tea Party movement and in encouraging the movement to focus on climate change. Other conservative organizations such as the Heritage Foundation, Marshall Institute, Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute were significant participants in these lobbying attempts, seeking to halt or eliminate environmental regulations.


title: Climate change denial

text: This approach to downplay the significance of climate change was copied from tobacco lobbyists; in the face of scientific evidence linking tobacco to lung cancer, to prevent or delay the introduction of regulation. Lobbyists attempted to discredit the scientific research by creating doubt and manipulating debate. They worked to discredit the scientists involved, to dispute their findings, and to create and maintain an apparent controversy by promoting claims that contradicted scientific research. "'Doubt is our product,' boasted a now infamous 1969 industry memo. Doubt would shield the tobacco industry from litigation and regulation for decades to come." In 2006, George Monbiot wrote in "The Guardian" about similarities between the methods of groups funded by Exxon, and those of the tobacco giant Philip Morris, including direct attacks on peer-reviewed science, and attempts to create public controversy and doubt.


title: Climate change denial

text: Former National Academy of Sciences president Frederick Seitz, who, according to an article by Mark Hertsgaard in "Vanity Fair", earned about US$585,000 in the 1970s and 1980s as a consultant to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, went on to chair groups such as the Science and Environmental Policy Project and the George C. Marshall Institute alleged to have made efforts to "downplay" global warming. Seitz stated in the 1980s that "Global warming is far more a matter of politics than of climate." Seitz authored the Oregon Petition, a document published jointly by the Marshall Institute and Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine in opposition to the Kyoto protocol. The petition and accompanying "Research Review of Global Warming Evidence" claimed:


title: Climate change denial

text: The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind. There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. ... We are living in an increasingly lush environment of plants and animals as a result of the carbon dioxide increase. Our children will enjoy an Earth with far more plant and animal life than that with which we now are blessed. This is a wonderful and unexpected gift from the Industrial Revolution.


title: Climate change denial

text: George Monbiot wrote in "The Guardian" that this petition, which he criticizes as misleading and tied to industry funding, "has been cited by almost every journalist who claims that climate change is a myth." Efforts by climate change denial groups played a significant role in the eventual rejection of the Kyoto protocol in the US.


title: Climate change denial

text: Monbiot has written about another group founded by the tobacco lobby, The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), that now campaigns against measures to combat global warming. In again trying to manufacture the appearance of a grass-roots movement against "unfounded fear" and "over-regulation", Monbiot states that TASSC "has done more damage to the campaign to halt [climate change] than any other body."


title: Climate change denial

text: Drexel University environmental sociologist Robert Brulle analysed the funding of 91 organizations opposed to restrictions on carbon emissions, which he termed the "climate change counter-movement." Between 2003 and 2013, the donor-advised funds Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, combined, were the largest funders, accounting for about one quarter of the total funds, and the American Enterprise Institute was the largest recipient, 16% of the total funds. The study also found that the amount of money donated to these organizations by means of foundations whose funding sources cannot be traced had risen.


title: Climate change denial

text: The work of economic consultancy Charles River Associates forecasting the impact on employment of the 2003 Climate Stewardship Act was criticized by the Natural Resources Defense Council in 2005 for using unrealistic economic assumptions and producing directionally incorrect estimates. A 2021 study concluded their work from the 1990s to the 2010s overestimated predicted costs and ignored potential policy benefits, and was often presented by politicians and lobbyists as independent rather than sponsored by the fossil fuel industry. Other papers published during that time by economists at MIT and Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates, also with funding from the fossil fuel industry, produced similar conclusions.


title: Climate change denial

text: Several large corporations within the fossil fuel industry provide significant funding for attempts to mislead the public about the trustworthiness of climate science. ExxonMobil and the Koch family foundations have been identified as especially influential funders of climate change contrarianism. The bankruptcy of the coal company Cloud Peak Energy revealed it funded the Institute for Energy Research, a climate denial think tank, as well as several other policy influencers.


title: Climate change denial

text: After the IPCC released its February 2007 report, the American Enterprise Institute offered British, American and other scientists $10,000 plus travel expenses to publish articles critical of the assessment. The institute had received more than US$1.6 million from Exxon, and its vice-chairman of trustees was former head of Exxon Lee Raymond. Raymond sent letters that alleged the IPCC report was not "supported by the analytical work." More than 20 AEI employees worked as consultants to the George W. Bush administration. Despite her initial conviction that climate change denial would abate with time, Senator Barbara Boxer said that when she learned of the AEI's offer, she "realized there was a movement behind this that just wasn't giving up."


title: Climate change denial

text: The Royal Society conducted a survey that found ExxonMobil had given US$2.9 million to American groups that "misinformed the public about climate change", 39 of which "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence". In 2006, the Royal Society issued a demand that ExxonMobil withdraw funding for climate change denial. The letter drew criticism, notably from Timothy Ball who argued the society attempted to "politicize the private funding of science and to censor scientific debate."


title: Climate change denial

text: ExxonMobil denied that it has been trying to mislead the public about global warming. A spokesman, Gantt Walton, said that ExxonMobil's funding of research does not mean that it acts to influence the research, and that ExxonMobil supports taking action to curb the output of greenhouse gasses. Research conducted at an Exxon archival collection at the University of Texas and interviews with former employees by journalists indicate the scientific opinion within the company and their public posture towards climate change was contradictory.


title: Climate change denial

text: Between 1989 and 2002, the Global Climate Coalition, a group of mainly United States businesses, used aggressive lobbying and public relations tactics to oppose action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight the Kyoto Protocol. The coalition was financed by large corporations and trade groups from the oil, coal and auto industries. "The New York Times" reported that "even as the coalition worked to sway opinion [towards skepticism], its own scientific and technical experts were advising that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted." In 2000, Ford Motor Company was the first company to leave the coalition as a result of pressure from environmentalists, followed by Daimler-Chrysler, Texaco, the Southern Company and General Motors subsequently left to GCC. The organization closed in 2002.


title: Climate change denial

text: From January 2009 through June 2010, the oil, coal and utility industries spent $500 million in lobby expenditures in opposition to legislation to address climate change.


title: Climate change denial

text: In early 2015, several media reports emerged saying that Willie Soon, a popular scientist among climate change deniers, had failed to disclose conflicts of interest in at least 11 scientific papers published since 2008. They reported that he received a total of $1.25m from ExxonMobil, Southern Company, the American Petroleum Institute and a foundation run by the Koch brothers. Charles R. Alcock, director of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where Soon was based, said that allowing funders of Soon's work to prohibit disclosure of funding sources was a mistake, which will not be permitted in future grant agreements.


title: Climate change denial

text: Lewandowsky reports that by asking four questions about the free market he is able to predict with "67% "confidence" (that is, variance)" an individual's attitudes towards climate change.


title: Climate change denial

text: The Republican Party in the United States is unique in denying anthropogenic climate change among conservative political parties across the Western world. In 1994, according to a leaked memo, the Republican strategist Frank Luntz advised members of the Republican Party, with regard to climate change, that "you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue" and "challenge the science" by "recruiting experts who are sympathetic to your view." (In 2006, Luntz said he still believes "back [in] '97, '98, the science was uncertain", but he now agrees with the scientific consensus.) From 2008 to 2017, the Republican Party went from "debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist", according to "The New York Times". In 2011, "more than half of the Republicans in the House and three-quarters of Republican senators" said "that the threat of global warming, as a human-made and highly threatening phenomenon, is at best an exaggeration and at worst an utter "hoax"" according to Judith Warner writing in "The New York Times Magazine". In 2014, more than 55% of congressional Republicans were climate change deniers, according to NBC News.


title: Climate change denial

text: According to PolitiFact in May 2014, Jerry Brown's statement that "virtually no Republican" in Washington accepts climate change science, was "mostly true"; PolitiFact counted "eight out of 278, or about 3 percent" of Republican members of Congress who "accept the prevailing scientific conclusion that global warming is both real and man-made."


title: Climate change denial

text: In 2005, "The New York Times" reported that Philip Cooney, former fossil fuel lobbyist and "climate team leader" at the American Petroleum Institute and President George W. Bush's chief of staff of the Council on Environmental Quality, had "repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents." Sharon Begley reported in "Newsweek" that Cooney "edited a 2002 report on climate science by sprinkling it with phrases such as 'lack of understanding' and 'considerable uncertainty.'" Cooney reportedly removed an entire section on climate in one report, whereupon another lobbyist sent him a fax saying "You are doing a great job." Cooney announced his resignation two days after the story of his tampering with scientific reports broke, but a few days later it was announced that Cooney would take up a position with ExxonMobil.


title: Climate change denial

text: United States Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, in a June 2017 interview with CNBC, acknowledged the existence of climate change and impact from humans, but said that he did not agree with the idea that carbon dioxide was the primary driver of global warming pointing instead to "the ocean waters and this environment that we live in". The American Meteorological Society responded in a letter to Perry saying that it is "critically important that you understand that emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the primary cause", pointing to conclusions of scientists worldwide.


title: Climate change denial

text: Republican Jim Bridenstine, the first elected politician to serve as NASA administrator, had previously stated that global temperatures were not rising. A month after the Senate confirmed his NASA position in April 2018, he acknowledged that human emissions of greenhouse gases are raising global temperatures.


title: Climate change denial

text: Although climate denial have started to decrease among the Republican Party leadership towards an acknowledgement that "the climate is changing", a 2019 study from several major think tanks describes the climate right as "fragmented and underfunded."


title: Climate change denial

text: Acknowledgement of climate change by politicians, while expressing uncertainty as to how much climate change can be attributed to human activity, has been described as a new form of climate denial, and "a reliable tool to manipulate public perception of climate change and stall political action."


title: Climate change denial

text: According to documents leaked in February 2012, The Heartland Institute is developing a curriculum for use in schools which frames climate change as a scientific controversy. In 2017, Glenn Branch, Deputy Director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), wrote that "the Heartland Institute is continuing to inflict its climate change denial literature on science teachers across the country". He also described how some science teachers were reacting to Heartland's mailings: "Fortunately, the Heartland mailing continues to be greeted with skepticism and dismissed with scorn."<ref name="NCSE_Branch_6/5/2017"></ref> The NCSE has prepared Classroom Resources in response to Heartland and other anti-science threats.


title: Climate change denial

text: Branch also referred to an article by ClimateFeedback.org which reviewed an unsolicited Heartland booklet, entitled "Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming", which was sent to science teachers in the United States. Their intention was to send it to "more than 200,000 K–12 teachers". Each significant claim was rated for accuracy by scientists who were experts on that topic. Overall, they scored the accuracy of the booklet with an "F": "it could hardly score lower", and "the "Key Findings" section are incorrect, misleading, based on flawed logic, or simply factually inaccurate."


title: Climate change denial

text: Manufactured uncertainty over climate change, the fundamental strategy of climate change denial, has been very effective, particularly in the US. It has contributed to low levels of public concern and to government inaction worldwide. An Angus Reid poll released in 2010 indicates that global warming skepticism in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom has been rising. There may be multiple causes of this trend, including a focus on economic rather than environmental issues, and a negative perception of the United Nations and its role in discussing climate change.


title: Climate change denial

text: Another cause may be weariness from overexposure to the topic: secondary polls suggest that the public may have been discouraged by extremism when discussing the topic, while other polls show 54% of U.S. voters believe that "the news media make global warming appear worse than it really is." A poll in 2009 regarding the issue of whether "some scientists have falsified research data to support their own theories and beliefs about global warming" showed that 59% of Americans believed it "at least somewhat likely", with 35% believing it was "very likely".


title: Climate change denial

text: According to Tim Wirth, "They patterned what they did after the tobacco industry. ... Both figured, sow enough doubt, call the science uncertain and in dispute. That's had a huge impact on both the public and Congress." This approach has been propagated by the US media, presenting a false balance between climate science and climate skeptics. "Newsweek" reports that the majority of Europe and Japan accept the consensus on scientific climate change, but only one third of Americans considered human activity to play a major role in climate change in 2006; 64% believed that scientists disagreed about it "a lot." A 2007 "Newsweek" poll found these numbers were declining, although majorities of Americans still believed that scientists were uncertain about climate change and its causes. Rush Holt wrote a piece for "Science", which appeared in "Newsweek":


title: Climate change denial

text: Deliberate attempts by the Western Fuels Association "to confuse the public" have succeeded in their objectives. This has been "exacerbated by media treatment of the climate issue". According to a Pew poll in 2012, 57% of the US public are unaware of, or outright reject, the scientific consensus on climate change. Some organizations promoting climate change denial have asserted that scientists are increasingly rejecting climate change, but this notion is contradicted by research showing that 97% of published papers endorse the scientific consensus, and that percentage is increasing with time.


title: Climate change denial

text: Social psychologist Craig Foster compares climate change denialists to flat-earth believers and the reaction to the latter by the scientific community. Foster states, "the potential and kinetic energy devoted to counter the flat-earth movement is wasteful and misguided ... I don't understand why anybody would worry about the flat-earth gnat while facing the climate change mammoth ... Climate change denial does not require belief. It only requires neglect."


title: Climate change denial

text: In 2016, Aaron McCright argued that anti-environmentalism—and climate change denial specifically—has expanded to a point in the US where it has now become "a central tenet of the current conservative and Republican identity."


title: Climate change denial

text: On the other hand, global oil companies have begun to acknowledge the existence of climate change and its risks. Still top oil firms are spending millions lobbying to delay, weaken or block policies to tackle climate change.


title: Climate change denial

text: Manufactured climate change denial is also influencing how scientific knowledge is communicated to the public. According to climate scientist Michael E. Mann, "universities and scientific societies and organizations, publishers, etc.—are too often risk averse when it comes to defending and communicating science that is perceived as threatening by powerful interests".


title: Dilbert

text: Dilbert is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Scott Adams, first published on April 16, 1989. It is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office with engineer Dilbert as the title character. It has spawned dozens of books, an animated television series, a video game, and hundreds of themed merchandise items. "Dilbert Future" and "The Joy of Work" are among the most read books in the series. In 1997, Adams received the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award and the Newspaper Comic Strip Award for his work. "Dilbert" appears online and as of 2013 was published daily in 2,000 newspapers in 65 countries and 25 languages.


title: Dilbert

text: On June 3, 2010, United Media sold their licensing arm, along with the rights to "Dilbert", to Iconix Brand Group. This led to "Dilbert" leaving United Media. In late December 2010, it was announced that Dilbert would move to Universal Uclick (a division of Andrews McMeel Universal, now known as Andrews McMeel Syndication) beginning in June 2011, where it remained until 2022.


title: Dilbert

text: The comic strip originally revolved around Dilbert and his "pet" dog Dogbert in their home. Many early plots revolved around Dilbert's engineer nature, bizarre inventions, and megalomaniacal ambitions. Later, most of the action moved to Dilbert's workplace and the strip began to satirize technology, workplace, and company issues. The strip's popular success is attributable to its workplace setting and themes, which are familiar to a large and appreciative audience. Adams said that switching the setting from Dilbert's home to his office was "when the strip really started to take off". The workplace location is Silicon Valley.


title: Dilbert

text: "Dilbert" portrays corporate culture as a Kafkaesque world of bureaucracy for its own sake, where office politics preclude productivity, employees' skills and efforts are not rewarded, and busy work is praised. Much of the humor involves characters making ridiculous decisions in reaction to mismanagement.


title: Dilbert

text: The strip's central character, Dilbert is a technically-minded single white male. Until October 2014, he was usually depicted wearing a white dress shirt, black trousers and a red-and-black striped tie that inexplicably curved upward. After October 13, 2014, his standard apparel changed to a red polo shirt with a name badge on a lanyard around his neck. He is a skilled engineer but has poor social and romantic lives.


title: Dilbert

text: The unnamed, oblivious manager of the engineering division of Dilbert's company. Scott Adams states that he never named him so that people can imagine him to be their boss. In earlier strips he was depicted as a stereotypical late-middle-aged balding middle manager with jowls; it was not until later that he developed his signature "pointy hair" and the jowls disappeared. He is hopelessly incompetent at management, and often tries to compensate for his lack of skills with countless group therapy sessions and business strategies that rarely bear fruit. He does not understand technical issues, but always tries to disguise this, usually by using buzzwords he also does not understand. The Boss treats his employees alternately with enthusiasm or neglect; he often uses them to his own ends regardless of the consequences to them. Adams himself wrote that "He's not sadistic, just uncaring". His level of intelligence varies from near-vegetative to perceptive and clever, depending on the strip's comic needs. His utter lack of consistent business ethics, however, is perfectly consistent. His brother is a demon named "Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light", and according to Adams, the pointy hair is intended to remind one of devils' horns.


title: Dilbert

text: One of the longest serving engineers, Wally was originally a worker trying to get fired to get a severance package. He hates work and avoids it whenever he can. He often carries a cup of coffee, calmly sipping from it even in the midst of chaos or office-shaking revelations. Wally is extremely cynical. He is even more socially inept than Dilbert (though far less self-aware of the fact), and references to his lack of personal hygiene are not uncommon. Like the Pointy-haired Boss, Wally is utterly lacking in ethics and will take advantage of any situation to maximize his personal gain while doing the least possible amount of honest work. Until the change to "business dorky" wear of a polo shirt, Wally was invariably portrayed wearing a short sleeved dress shirt and tie. Adams has stated that Wally was based on a Pacific Bell coworker of his who was interested in a generous employee buy-out program—for the company's worst employees. This had the effect of causing this man—whom Adams describes as "one of the more brilliant people I've met"—to work hard at being incompetent, rude, and generally poor at his job to qualify for the buy-out program. Adams has said that this inspired the basic laziness and amorality of Wally's character. Despite these personality traits Wally is accepted as part of Dilbert, Ted, Alice, and Asok's clique. Although his relationship with Alice is often antagonistic and Dilbert occasionally denies being his friend, their actions show at least a certain acceptance of him. For Asok, Wally serves as something of a guru of counter-intuitive "wisdom." For Dilbert, Wally is both someone who, at times, exasperates him, and at other times seems to serve as the only other co-worker who "gets" Dilbert's frustrations with company idiocy and bureaucracy. While Dilbert rages at the dysfunction of the policies of the company, Wally has learned to use the dysfunction to cloak, even justify, his laziness.


title: Dilbert

text: One of the more competent and highest paid engineers. She is often frustrated at her work, because she does not get proper recognition, which she believes is because she is female, though in reality it is likely because she has a quick, often violent temper, sometimes putting her "Fist of Death" to use, even with the Pointy-haired Boss. Alice is based on a woman that Scott Adams worked with named Anita, who is described as sharing Alice's "pink suit, fluffy hair, technical proficiency, coffee obsession, and take-no-crap attitude."


title: Dilbert

text: Dilbert's anthropomorphic pet dog is the smartest dog on Earth. Dogbert is a megalomaniac intellectual dog, planning to one day conquer the world. He once succeeded, but became bored with the ensuing peace, and quit. Often seen in high-ranking consultant or technical support jobs, he constantly abuses his power and fools the management of Dilbert's company, though considering the intelligence of the company's management in general and Dilbert's boss in particular, this is not very hard to do. He also enjoys pulling scams on unsuspecting and usually dull customers to steal their money. However, despite Dogbert's cynical exterior, he has been known to pull his master out of some tight jams. Dogbert's nature as a pet was more emphasized during the earlier years of the strip; as the strip progressed, references to his acting like a dog became less common, although he still wags his tail when he perpetrates his scams. When an older Dilbert arrives while time-traveling from the future, he refers to Dogbert as "majesty", indicating that Dogbert will one day indeed rule the world ... again, and make worshipping him retroactive so he could boss around time travelers.


title: Dilbert

text: Catbert is the "evil director of human resources" in the "Dilbert" comic strip. He was supposed to be a one-time character but resonated with readers so well that Adams brought him back as the HR director. Catbert's origins with the company are that he was hired by Dogbert. Dogbert hired him because he wanted an H.R. Director that appeared cute while secretly downsizing employees.


title: Dilbert

text: A young intern, he works very hard but does not always get proper recognition. Asok is intensely intelligent but naive about corporate life; the shattering of his optimistic illusions becomes frequent comic fodder. He is Indian, and has graduated from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). The other workers, especially the boss, often unwittingly trample on his cultural beliefs. On the occasions when Asok mentions this, he is normally ignored. His test scores (a perfect 1600 on the old SAT) and his IQ of 240 show that he is the smartest member of the engineering team. Nonetheless he is often called upon by the Boss to do odd jobs, and in meetings his ideas are usually left hanging. He is also seen regularly at the lunch table with Wally and Dilbert, experiencing jarring realizations of the nature of corporate life. There are a few jokes about his psychic powers, which he learned at the IIT. Yet despite his intelligence, ethics and mystical powers, Asok sometimes takes advice from Wally in the arts of laziness, and from Dilbert in surviving the office. As of February 7, 2014, Asok is officially gay, which never affects any storylines, but merely commemorates a decision by the Indian Supreme Court to uphold a British-era anti-gay law, a decision which was overturned on September 6, 2018.


title: Dilbert

text: The CEO of the company is bald and has an extremely tall, somewhat pointed cranium. He is only slightly less clueless than the Pointy-haired Boss.


title: Dilbert

text: An engineer who is often seen hanging out with Wally. He is referenced by name more often in older comics, but he is still seen occasionally. He has been accepted into Dilbert's clique. He has been fired and killed numerous times (for example, being pushed down a flight of stairs and becoming possessed), in which case a new Ted is apparently hired. In addition to this, he is often promoted and given benefits over the other employees. Ted has a wife and children who are referenced multiple times and seen on at least one occasion. Adams refers to him as "Ted the Generic Guy", because whenever he needs to fire or kill someone he uses Ted, but slowly over time Ted has become his own character.


title: Dilbert

text: Also known as Tina the Tech Writer. She has a less forceful personality than Alice and often seems to get taken advantage of by the other employees. Her job of writing technical directions for her company's software can not be an easy one as none of their products work as designed.


title: Dilbert

text: Carol is the long-suffering secretary (she prefers the title Executive Assistant) to the Pointy-haired Boss. Her hair style is a much smaller triangle than that of Alice. She hates her job, but once told Dilbert that spending time with her family of a husband and two children is like fighting porcupines in a salt mine, although when the job gets to be too much she is glad to get back to them.


title: Dilbert

text: Introduced in 2022, Dave is the strip's first black character, although he identifies as white, messing up the company's ESG and diversity scores, possibly deliberately, as it is not clear whether he is serious or not. Dave has proved controversial, with at least one newspaper chain deciding not to run the strips featuring him.


title: Dilbert

text: Elbonia is a fictional non-specific under-developed country used when Adams wants "to involve a foreign country without hurting overseas sales". He says "People think I have some specific country in mind when I write about Elbonia, but I don't. It represents the view that Americans have of any country that doesn't have cable television—we think they all wear fur hats and wallow around waist-deep in mud". The entire country wears the same clothing and hats, and all men and women


title: Dilbert

text: have full beards. They are occasionally bitter towards their wealthier western neighbors, but are quite happy to trade with them. The whole country is covered in mud, and has limited technology.


title: Dilbert

text: Elbonia is located somewhere in the former Soviet bloc: A strip dated April 2, 1990, refers to the "Tiny East European country of Elbonia." It is an extremely poor, fourth-world country that has abandoned Communism. The national bird of Elbonia is the Frisbee. However, in a storyline from November 21–26, 2016, Dilbert visits Elbonia. The only location seen is his hotel room and a car rental, neither of which are covered in mud.


title: Dilbert

text: The Pointy-Haired Boss's brother Phil. His full title is Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light & Supreme Ruler of Heck. His job, one step down from Satan, is to punish those who commit minor sins. His 'Pitch-Spoon' is feared by those who do. He is known to 'Darn to Heck' people who do things like using cell phones in the bathroom, steal office supplies, or those who simply do something annoying. In one strip, it was mentioned that being in Heck is not as bad as being in a cubicle.


title: Dilbert

text: Ratbert is an escaped lab rat who lives in Dilbert's house. Ratbert was not originally intended to be a regular, instead being part of a series of strips featuring a lab scientist's cruel experiments. The character is often seen in strips set in Dilbert's home and is frequently a foil / co-conspirator in Dogbert's machinations.


title: Dilbert

text: The popularity of the comic strip within the corporate sector has led to the Dilbert character being used in many business magazines and publications, including several appearances on the cover of "Fortune Magazine". Many newspapers run the comic in their business section rather than in the regular comics section—similar to the way that "Doonesbury" is often featured in the editorial section, due to its pointed commentary.


title: Dilbert

text: Media analyst Norman Solomon and cartoonist Tom Tomorrow claim that Adams's caricatures of corporate culture seem to project empathy for white-collar workers, but the satire ultimately plays into the hands of upper corporate management itself. Solomon describes the characters of "Dilbert" as dysfunctional time-wasters, none of whom occupies a position higher than middle management, and whose inefficiencies detract from corporate values such as productivity and growth. Dilbert and his coworkers often find themselves baffled or victimized by the whims of managerial behavior, but they never seem to question it openly. Solomon cites the Xerox corporation's use of "Dilbert" strips and characters in internally distributed pamphlets:


title: Dilbert

text: Adams responded in the February 2, 1998 strip and in his book "The Joy of Work", by simply restating Solomon's argument, apparently suggesting that it was absurd and required no rebuttal.


title: Dilbert

text: In 1998, Bill Griffith, creator of "Zippy the Pinhead", chided "Dilbert" for crude drawings and simplistic humor. He wrote,


title: Dilbert

text: Adams responded by creating two comic strips called "Pippy the Ziphead", in which Dogbert creates a comic by "cramming as much artwork in as possible so no one will notice there's only one joke ... [and it's] on the reader." Dilbert says that the strip is "nothing but a clown with a small head who says random things", and Dogbert responds that he is "maintaining his artistic integrity by creating a comic that no one will enjoy". In September of the same year, Griffith mocked Adams' "Pippy the Ziphead" with a strip of the same name drawn in a simplistic, stiff, "Dilbert"-like style set in an office setting and featuring the characters Zippy and Griffy retorting, "I sense a joke was delivered. [...] Yes. It was. My one joke. Ha."


title: Dilbert

text: In the late 1990s, amateur cartoonist Karl Hörnell began submitting a comic strip to "Savage Dragon" creator Erik Larsen that parodied both "Dilbert" and the Image Comics series "The Savage Dragon". This became a regular feature in the "Savage Dragon" comic book, titled "The Savage Dragonbert and Hitler's Brainbert"—"Hitler's Brainbert" being a loose parody of both Dogbert and the "Savage Dragon" villain identified as Adolf Hitler's disembodied, superpowered brain. The strip began as a specific parody of the comic book itself, set loosely within the office structure of "Dilbert", with Hörnell doing an emulation of Adams's cartooning style.


title: Dilbert

text: Adams has invited readers to invent words that have become popular among fans in describing their own office environments, such as ""Induhvidual"". This term is based on the American English slang expression "duh!" The conscious misspelling of "individual" as "induhvidual" is a pejorative term for people who are not in Dogbert's New Ruling Class (DNRC). Its coining is explained in "Dilbert Newsletter" #6. The strip has also popularized the usage of the terms "cow-orker" and PHB.


title: Dilbert

text: In 1997, Scott Adams masqueraded as a management consultant to Logitech executives (as Ray Mebert), with the cooperation of the company's vice-chairman. He acted in much the way that he portrays management consultants in the comic strip, with an arrogant manner and bizarre suggestions, such as comparing mission statements to broccoli soup. He convinced the executives to change their existing mission statement for their New Ventures Group from "provide Logitech with profitable growth and related new business areas" to "scout profitable growth opportunities in relationships, both internally and externally, in emerging, mission-inclusive markets, and explore new paradigms and then filter and communicate and evangelize the findings".


title: Dilbert

text: To demonstrate what can be achieved with the most mundane objects if planned correctly and imaginatively, Adams has worked with companies to develop "dream" products for Dilbert and company. In 2001, he collaborated with design company IDEO to come up with the "perfect cubicle", a fitting creation since many of the "Dilbert" strips make fun of the standard cubicle desk and the environment that it creates. The result was both whimsical and practical.


title: Dilbert

text: This project was followed in 2004 with designs for Dilbert's Ultimate House (abbreviated as DUH). An energy-efficient building was the result, designed to prevent many of the little problems that seem to creep into a normal building. For instance, to save time spent buying and decorating a Christmas tree every year, the house has a large (yet unapparent) closet adjacent to the living room where the tree can be stored from year to year.


title: Dilbert

text: In 1995, "Dilbert" was the first syndicated comic strip to be published for free on the Internet. Putting his email address in each "Dilbert" strip, Adams created a "direct channel to [his] customers", allowing him to modify the strip based on their feedback. Joe Zabel stated that "Dilbert" had a large influence on many of the webcomics that followed it, establishing the "nerdcore" genre as it found its audience.


title: Dilbert

text: In April 2008, Scott Adams announced that United Media would be instituting an interactive feature on Dilbert.com, allowing fans to write speech bubbles and, in the near future, interact with Adams about the content of the strips. Adams has spoken positively about the change, saying, "This makes cartooning a competitive sport."


title: Dilbert

text: Adams was named best international comic strip artist of 1995 in the Adamson Awards given by the Swedish Academy of Comic Art.


title: Dilbert

text: "Dilbert" won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award in 1997, and was also named the best syndicated strip of 1997 in the Harvey Awards. In 1998, "Dilbert" won the Max & Moritz Prize as best international comic strip.


title: Dilbert

text: "Dilbert" was adapted into a UPN animated television series starring Daniel Stern as Dilbert, Chris Elliott as Dogbert, and Kathy Griffin as Alice. The series ran for two seasons from January 25, 1999 to July 25, 2000. The first season centered around the creation of a new product called the "Gruntmaster 6000". It was critically acclaimed and won a Golden Globe award, leading to its renewal for a second season. The second season did away with the serial format and was composed entirely of standalone episodes, many of which shifted focus away from the workplace and involved absurdist plots such as Wally being mistaken for a religious leader ("The Shroud of Wally") and Dilbert being accused of mass murder ("The Trial"). The second season's two-episode finale included Dilbert getting pregnant with the child of a cow, a hillbilly, robot DNA, "several dozen engineers", an elderly billionaire, and an alien, eventually ending up in a custody battle with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the Judge.


title: Dilbert

text: The four-disc DVD called "Dilbert: The Complete Series" contains thirty episodes. The first disc contains episodes 1-7, the second disc contains episodes 8-13, the third disc contains episodes 14-21, and the fourth disc contains episodes 22-30.


title: Dilbert

text: On April 7, 2008, dilbert.com presented its first Dilbert animation. The new Dilbert animations are animated versions of original comic strips produced by RingTales and animated by Powerhouse Animation Studios. The animation videos run for around 30 seconds each and are added every weekday. On December 10, 2009 the RingTales produced animations were made available as a calendar application for mobile devices.


title: Dilbert

text: As early as 2006, Scott Adams and United Media have been struggling to get a film adaptation of the comic strip off the ground. Adams envisioned the idea as a live-action film, with Dogbert and Catbert as computer animated characters. Film director Chris Columbus was in talks to direct the film in 2007, with Tariq Jalil on board as producer.


title: Dilbert

text: In May 2010, it was announced that a live-action "Dilbert" film was in development. Ken Kwapis was announced as director, fresh off the heels of "He's Just Not That Into You" and directing several episodes for NBC's "The Office". Jahil remained as producer, with Phoenix Entertainment and Intrigue Entertainment joining the producing team.


title: Dilbert

text: In December 2017, in an interview by The Mercury News, Adams said that it would be impossible to make the film.


title: Dilbert

text: In October 2007, the Catfish Bend Casino in Burlington, Iowa notified its staff that the casino would soon be closing for business. David Steward, an employee of seven years, then posted on an office bulletin board the "Dilbert" strip of October 26, 2007 that compared management decisions to those of "drunken lemurs". The casino called this "very offensive"; they identified him from a surveillance tape, fired him, and tried to prevent him from receiving unemployment benefits. However, an administrative law judge ruled in December 2007 that he would receive benefits, as his action was deemed as justified protest and not intentional misbehavior. Scott Adams stated that it might be the first confirmed case of an employee being fired for posting a "Dilbert" cartoon. On February 20, 2008, the first of a series of "Dilbert" strips showed Wally being caught posting a comic strip that "compares managers to drunken lemurs". Adams later stated that fans of his work should "stick to posting "Garfield" strips, as no one gets fired for that".


title: Dilbert

text: On February 29, 2016, Adams posted on his blog that he would be taking a six-week vacation. During that time, strips would be written by him but drawn by guest artists who work for Universal Uclick. Jake Tapper drew the strip on the week on May 23. The other guest artists were John Glynn, Eric Scott, Josh Shipley, Joel Friday, Donna Oatney and Brenna Thummler. Jake Tapper also drew the cartoon strip the weeks of May 23, 2016 and September 23–28, 2019.


title: Against Me!

text: Against Me! is an American punk rock band formed in 1997 in Naples, Florida, by singer and guitarist Laura Jane Grace. That same year, Grace moved to Gainesville, Florida, which is considered the band's hometown. Since 2001, the band's lineup has also included guitarist James Bowman. After releasing three studio albums through independent record labels, Against Me! moved to Sire Records for 2007's "New Wave", which reached no. 57 on the "Billboard" 200. In 2011, the band launched the record label Total Treble.


title: Against Me!

text: In 2012, Grace publicly came out as a transgender woman. After a long period of line-up changes and uncertainty surrounding the band's future, their sixth studio album, "Transgender Dysphoria Blues," was released independently in January 2014 to critical and commercial acclaim. The band's seventh full-length, "Shape Shift with Me", was released September 16, 2016.


title: Against Me!

text: Against Me! was formed in 1997 by singer/guitarist Laura Jane Grace as a solo act, amidst the breakup of her previous band(s). The first Against Me! release was an eponymously titled demo tape in 1997. It was self-released in very limited numbers. With the addition of drummer Kevin Mahon, a second demo, "Vivida Vis!" (1998), was released in limited numbers by Misanthrope Records. The band started their first tour in March 1999, a month-long tour of the East coast, during which they met Jordan Kleeman in Baltimore, Maryland. The band's first EP, "Against Me!", was released twice through Crasshole Records (once in 1999 and 2000). Grace's longtime friend James Bowman joined the band for a west coast in support of the EP, traveling in Grace's 1976 Buick LeSabre, the engine of which exploded at the end of the tour. Their first widely distributed release was the EP "Crime as Forgiven by Against Me!" (2001), released by Plan-It-X Records and Sabot Productions (run by longtime Against Me! tour manager Jordan Kleeman). While neither Bowman or Fridkin had part in the recording of "Crime as Forgiven by Against Me!", they both joined the band on tour to support it. On April 23, 2001, while heading south on I-75, returning home from their first tour as a four-piece band, their van was struck by a semi truck. They landed upside-down in a ditch. No one was harmed, but the van and equipment were destroyed, after which Bowman and Mahon left the band. The band broke up for a few months that year. A third EP, a self-titled acoustic recording by Grace and bassist Dustin Fridkin, was released in November 2001.


title: Against Me!

text: Mahon was eventually replaced by Warren Oakes, and guitarist James Bowman returned in December 2001 during the recording of the band's first album, "Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose", released in March 2002 by No Idea Records. Fridkin left during the summer of 2002 to return to college and was replaced by Andrew Seward of the Tennessee band kill devil hills, and this new lineup released the single "The Disco Before the Breakdown" (2002). This lineup remained intact until 2009.


title: Against Me!

text: Against Me! signed to Fat Wreck Chords and released their second album, 2003's "Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy". It reached no. 36 on "Billboard"'s Top Independent Albums chart and was supported by singles for "Cavalier Eternal" and "Sink, Florida, Sink". The DVD "We're Never Going Home" followed, documenting their Spring 2004 tour. 2005's "Searching for a Former Clarity" was their first album to chart on the "Billboard" 200, reaching no. 114. Against Me! supported the album with a tour of all 50 U.S. states. It spawned singles for "Don't Lose Touch" and "From Her Lips to God's Ears (The Energizer)", which also became the band's first music videos. The live album "Americans Abroad!!! Against Me!!! Live in London!!!" followed in 2006.


title: Against Me!

text: Against Me! moved to Sire Records for 2007's "New Wave", produced by Butch Vig. It debuted at no. 57 on the "Billboard" 200 and featured their first charting single, "Thrash Unreal", which reached no. 11 on "Billboard"'s Modern Rock Tracks chart. "White People for Peace", "Stop!", and "New Wave" were also released as singles, and "New Wave" was named as "Spin"'s album of the year. The DVD "Live at the Key Club" followed later that year. In 2008, Against Me! supported Foo Fighters on a North American tour, and Sire released the digital EP "New Wave B-Sides". In October 2008, while traveling west on I-80, en route to Salt Lake City, their tour bus hit a patch of ice; causing it to spin and land on its side in a ditch. Also, their trailer broke free from the hitch and all of their equipment was strewn in the middle of the highway. No one was harmed.


title: Against Me!

text: For the 2008 presidential election, Against Me! partnered with Rock the Vote. The PSA features footage of Against Me! performing "Stop!" The new single from their current Sire Records album New Wave. Directed by Directed by Mark Klasfeld (Foo Fighters, Gnarls Barkley, Jay-Z), it is centered on a red draped polling booth surrounded and inspired by a set of issues that come alive – everything from pro-choice/pro-life protestors defending their position to a soldier peaking through the curtain. The voting booth is a metaphor for all of the issues that are important to individuals that could be changed by voting; everything from health care to the environment. These issues intermix with the band's performance to a point where the voting booth sparks and explodes symbolizing the urgency and nature of this Presidential election. Rock the Vote's partnership with Against Me! is in keeping with the organization's 18-year-history of fusing celebrity, music, and politics in an effort to inspire, engage, and mobilize a generation to action. Rock the Vote taps into the entertainment community and youth culture to engage youth in the political process.


title: Against Me!

text: Oakes left the band in June 2009, in part to focus on running his Mexican food restaurant. In an interview with MTV Oakes wanted it to be known that he wasn't fired, but rather, his leaving the band "was really a mutual decision … it was really amicable." He said he still considers the guys in the band to be "more than friends -- they're family," and added that Boca is already carrying Against Me! guitarist James Bowman's homemade hot sauce on the menu.


title: Against Me!

text: Oakes was replaced by Hot Water Music drummer George Rebelo. The following month Fat Wreck Chords released "The Original Cowboy", an album of demo recordings from the "Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy" sessions.


title: Against Me!

text: On August 17, 2009, Against Me! headed into the studio with "New Wave" producer Butch Vig. Against Me! joined Billy Talent on tour in Canada in March 2010, and also supported the Silversun Pickups on a tour of the United States that summer, bringing along touring keyboardist Franz Nicolay.


title: Against Me!

text: Against Me! released "White Crosses", their second album with Sire, on June 8, 2010 (although it was leaked about 3 months earlier). It was supported by singles for "I Was a Teenage Anarchist", "White Crosses", and "High Pressure Low" and was their highest-charting album to date, reaching no. 34 on the "Billboard" 200. On the eve of a scheduled tour of Australia and New Zealand that September, the band suddenly cancelled all touring plans due to "a culmination of circumstances", expressing the need to "take some time off from touring to go home and sort things out."


title: Against Me!

text: Against Me! departed from Sire Records on the 29 November 2010. Following a two-month hiatus from touring, the band spoke for the first time since their tour cancellation, talking of their upcoming December 2010 shows, which saw Jay Weinberg cover for George Rebelo on drums, as he toured with Hot Water Music.


title: Against Me!

text: Throughout December 2010, Grace spoke of George Rebelo's intentions to record an album with his primary band Hot Water Music. In January 2011, Weinberg was officially confirmed as Against Me!'s new drummer. "Total Clarity", an album of demos and unreleased songs from the "Searching for a Former Clarity" sessions, was released on May 24, 2011, through Fat Wreck Chords.


title: Against Me!

text: Grace had expressed the desire to release at least one album per year for the next decade and that Grace hoped to record Against Me!'s sixth studio album in Winter 2011. As well as this, she spoke of releasing a 7" on Sabot Productions before Summer 2011, featuring two original songs. This was announced as being Russian Spies / Occult Enemies, which was released on June 14, 2011. In the same studio session, the band recorded a cover of the theme song for a season 8 episode of "One Tree Hill", which aired May 3.


title: Against Me!

text: On June 3, 2011, the band announced that they started their own record label, Total Treble. In July 2011, the band released "Black Crosses" which were demos /alternate versions of songs from "White Crosses". In September 2011, Grace built a recording studio in Elkton, Florida, for future Against Me! projects. The studio has since been named Total Treble Studio. The first band to record an album in the studio were Cheap Girls from Lansing, Michigan, with their album "Giant Orange".


title: Against Me!

text: In May 2012 Grace publicly came out as transgender, having dealt with gender dysphoria since childhood, and began her transition. "I felt like I drop-kicked them in the face," she said of informing the other members of Against Me! "We had the most awkward hug ever, and then they left. And the second I shut the door, I was like, 'What the fuck did I just do? Gender dysphoria is the theme of the band's sixth studio album, an autobiographical account of Laura Jane Grace's experience as a trans woman and of social and body dysphoria. They began recording in February 2012 at Total Treble Studio, working without Butch Vig, who produced "New Wave" and "White Crosses". Instead, Grace was acting as both recording engineer and record producer for the album. Weinberg departed the group that December. Drummer Atom Willard filled in with the band for their 2013 Australian tour dates, and was confirmed as the band's new drummer on July 31, 2013. In March 2013, the band canceled their US tour with Bad Religion. In May 2013, bassist Andrew Seward also announced his departure from the band. Grace expressed that she felt the band wouldn't have continued under the name Against Me! were it not for the then-upcoming record having a message she wanted to spread. On June 24, 2013, Grace announced that recording for "Transgender Dysphoria Blues" was finished. Grace went on a solo tour in August in a handful of east coast US cities in support of the record.


title: Against Me!

text: In the first decade of their career, Against Me! had been consistently accused of selling out, whether because of stylistic choices they made, the record label they chose or the venues they played. Recriminations came both from former fans, who at times attempted to disrupt shows and even threatened violence, and journalists who published accusations against the band and at times advocated action against them. Grace's coming out as transgender won plaudits from many in the punk community for her integrity and rehabilitated the band's reputation.


title: Against Me!

text: On July 15, 2013, Against Me! released the "True Trans" single for free, featuring the new acoustic song "FUCKMYLIFE666" and the namesake "True Trans Soul Rebel". On August 29, 2013, Inge Johansson, formerly of the (International) Noise Conspiracy and Refused, was confirmed as the new bass player.


title: Against Me!

text: On January 21, 2014, Against Me! released "Transgender Dysphoria Blues", their sixth full-length studio album. The album was praised for its raw quality, reminiscent of Against Me!'s earlier music. It is their highest-charting album to date, reaching no. 23 on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Against Me!

text: A new live album, "23 Live Sex Acts" was recorded on the subsequent tour by the band in 2014, and was released on September 4, 2015.


title: Against Me!

text: In July 2016, the band announced their seventh studio album "Shape Shift with Me" would be released on September 16. The band also immediately released a song from the album, "333". On August 10, 2016, a second song, "Haunting, Haunted, Haunts" was released via the Adult Swim Singles Program 2016. A "Star Wars"-inspired music video for the song "Crash" was then released on August 22. On September 8, the entire album was available for streaming.


title: Against Me!

text: In October 2017, Against Me! played a special show with former bassist Dustin Fridkin for the first time since his departure from the band in 2002. The band's first album "Reinventing Axl Rose" was played in full for the first time, as well as other tracks from the era. The show was part of FEST 16. Grace revealed in August 2018 that she strongly considered disbanding Against Me! once this show had occurred.


title: Against Me!

text: Against Me! played their final show with bassist Inge Johansson in May 2018. The following month, the band played an unannounced show at Trumbullplex in Detroit, MI. The show was notable for being the first show with Andrew Seward playing bass since 2013, although no songs were played from "Shape Shift with Me". Grace officially announced in July 2018 via Instagram that after performing these shows, Seward had rejoined the band.


title: Against Me!

text: In October 2018, the band played two shows on the eve of their South American tour: one with "As the Eternal Cowboy" played front to back, and the other with "New Wave".


title: Against Me!

text: Laura Jane Grace announced in July 2018 that the band she had performed previous solo tours with since 2016, the Devouring Mothers, had recently completed a record together. "Bought to Rot" was released on Bloodshot Records on November 9, 2018. The band's members since its inception have been Grace and Willard from Against Me!, as well as long-time producer and collaborator Marc Hudson. The album is said to be heavily influenced by the works of Rowland S. Howard and Tom Petty, and includes collaborations with other artists.


title: Against Me!

text: Grace confirmed that Against Me! is still continuing as a band, as a clean slate, and that an eighth Against Me! record is still planned for eventual release, but that it may be shelved and/or re-recorded following Seward's replacement of Johansson as bassist.


title: Against Me!

text: The band recorded a cover of The Jim Carroll Band's "People Who Died" for a 2018 compilation album ("Songs That Saved My Life") in aid of mental health charities. The track is the first recording with Seward back as bassist since the 2011 single "Russian Spies / Occult Enemies", and Grace used the announcement to further confirm that the band intend to record an eighth studio album together. The band began work on their eighth studio album in February 2019.


title: Against Me!

text: In May 2019, the band announced their "2 Nights / 4 Records / 48 Songs" tour. On this North American run, the band performed two shows in each city: The first dedicated to "Searching for a Former Clarity" and "New Wave", the second dedicated to "White Crosses" and "Transgender Dysphoria Blues". Support for the shows came from Chuck Ragan, Toy Guitar, Dilly Dally, Chris Cresswell, and Cursive.


title: Against Me!

text: In August 2022, Laura announced on her Patreon that Against Me! were currently in a hiatus and unsure of when they'd play together again.


title: Brooks Brothers

text: Brooks Brothers, founded in Manhattan, New York, in 1818, is the oldest apparel brand in continuous operation in America. Originally a family business, Brooks Brothers produces clothing for men, women and children, as well as home furnishings. Brooks Brothers licenses its name and branding to Luxottica for eyewear, Paris-based Interparfums for fragrances, and Turkey-based Turko Textiles for its home collection.


title: Brooks Brothers

text: As a result of store closures and poor online sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2020. Brooks Brothers announced in August 2020 that it would be purchased by Authentic Brands Group and by SPARC Group LLC (Simon Properties Authentic Retail Concepts Group LLC), a joint venture between Authentic Brands Group and Simon Property Group.


title: Brooks Brothers

text: On April 7, 1818, at the age of 45, Henry Sands Brooks (1772–1833) opened H. & D. H. Brooks & Co. on the northeast corner of Catherine and Cherry streets in Manhattan. He proclaimed that his guiding principle was, "To make and deal only in merchandise of the finest body, to sell it at a fair profit, and to deal with people who seek and appreciate such merchandise." In 1833, his four sons, Elisha, Daniel, Edward, and John, inherited the family business and in 1850 renamed the company "Brooks Brothers."


title: Brooks Brothers

text: The Golden Fleece symbol was adopted as the company's trademark in 1850. A wooly sheep suspended in a ribbon had long been a symbol of British woolen merchants. Dating from the fifteenth century, the image had been the emblem of the Knights of the Golden Fleece, founded by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. In classical Greek mythology, a magical flying ram, or Golden Fleece, was sought by Jason and the Argonauts.


title: Brooks Brothers

text: In its early history, Brooks Brothers was known for introducing the ready-to-wear suit to American customers. In the mid-nineteenth century, Brooks Brothers outfitted United States President Abraham Lincoln and considered him a loyal customer. At his second inauguration, Lincoln wore a coat specially crafted for him by Brooks Brothers. Hand-stitched into the coat's lining was a design featuring an eagle and the inscription, ""One Country, One Destiny."" He was wearing the coat and a Brooks Brothers suit when he was assassinated. As a supplier of soldiers' uniforms during the Civil War, Brooks Brothers became a target of outrage for its allegedly shoddy production. With a contract from New York State to supply uniforms for the New York Volunteers, Brooks Brothers took shredded and sometimes decaying rags, glued them together and stitched them into uniforms. They would fall apart in the rain and were the subject of ridicule from other regiments.


title: Brooks Brothers

text: The last member of the Brooks family to head the company was Winthrop Holly Brooks, who ran the company from 1935 until its sale in 1946, when the company was acquired by Julius Garfinckel & Co. Although Winthrop Brooks remained with the company as a figurehead after the acquisition, John C. Wood became the director of Brooks Brothers. Just prior to that, Wood had been the carrier of the papers for the Dumbarton Oaks Conference. Under the leadership of Wood, Brooks Brothers became even more traditional. Wood notably stated "They call us conservative, but we think that our styles are simply lacking the bizarre. We deal in what a man should wear, not what some women think he should wear."