Original article (in Croatian) was published on 12/10/2024; Author: Ladislav Tomičić
Once again, unfounded claims from the CLINTEL, an organization dedicated to spreading disinformation about climate change, are circulating on social media and fringe websites.
The news, shared on Facebook, stated the following claims:
“Dramatic Turn: Scientists Declare the Sudden End of the Climate Crisis Ahead of Trump’s Return to Power.” This headline was published by the website Logično.com, and other portals such as Croative.net and slavonija24.hr also wrote about the sudden declaration of the end of the climate crisis.
“The Czech branch of the International Climate Intelligence Group (CLINTEL) held a two-day climate conference in Prague at the Czech Republic’s House of Representatives earlier this month. There, climate scientists declared and confirmed that the imagined and imaginary ‘climate crisis’ had ended.”
Of course, CLINTEL’s declaration does not mean that the climate crisis is over.
The statement that the ‘climate emergency’ is over was made after a two-day conference held on November 12th and 13th this year at the Czech Republic’s House of Representatives in Prague. The conference was organized by the Czech branch of the international group Climate Intelligence (CLINTEL).
Faktograf has written about the international CLINTEL organization several times, first in 2019 (1, 2, 3, 4). At that time, their “declaration” began spreading among Croatian internet users, falsely claiming that the climate crisis does not exist. This disinformation even appeared in Večernji list; it was picked up by their columnist at the time, who is now a Member of Parliament, Nino Raspudić.
As we wrote at the time, although CLINTEL’s declaration was signed by several hundred people, the majority of those signatories are not scientists nor do they have any relevant experience in researching climate change phenomena. Moreover, the initiators of the petition are known for their unfounded climate change denial and ties to the fossil fuel industry.
This declaration, titled “There Is No Climate Crisis,” was published in 2019 after retired Dutch geophysics professor Guus Berkhout (a former employee of Shell oil company and founder of a geological research company that collaborated with several major oil companies) and journalist Marcel Crook founded the climate skeptic organization CLINTEL.
The international journalistic organization DeSmog, founded in January 2006 with the focus on climate change issues, has extensively reported on CLINTEL. They describe CLINTEL as “a Dutch organization known for disputing the scientific consensus on climate change.”
“The organization’s main stance is that ‘there is no climate emergency.’ According to the TV program ‘Pointer,’ broadcast on Dutch television KRO-NCRV, about 800 ‘scientists, scientific workers, and experts’ who support CLINTEL ‘have done little or no climate research.’ DeSmog’s analysis found that the list of signatories includes a commercial fisherman, a retired chemist, a cardiologist, and an air conditioning engineer, along with several retired geologists. The organization has close ties to the Dutch right-wing party Forum voor Democratie (FvD) and its leader Thierry Baudet, who has cited CLINTEL’s statements in the Dutch House of Representatives. Various members of CLINTEL’s list of ‘ambassadors’ and the extended list of signatories are linked to libertarian free-market groups known for denying climate science,” the article on DeSmog states.
The unfounded nature of CLINTEL’s claims has also been addressed by Climate Feedback, a fact-checking portal specializing in debunking factually incorrect and unfounded claims about climate change. They engaged six scientists to review CLINTEL’s claims, and it was concluded that the organization has no scientific credibility and that its claims are not grounded in science.
If we set aside the fact that the end of the climate crisis was declared by an organization whose core program asserts that there is no climate crisis, the conclusion from the two-day conference of climate change science deniers cannot be considered a “dramatic turn ahead of Trump’s return to power,” nor can it play a significant role in shaping the policies humanity is trying to implement to address the consequences of human impact on the climate.Journalists from the website Raskrinkavanje.ba also wrote about the controversial articles and social media posts regarding the “declaration of the end of the climate crisis,” in an article titled “Scientists Did Not Declare the End of the Climate Crisis.”
