Climate change deniers have a new hero in Patrick Moore, who's tweet about a Green New Deal leading to the "mass death" has gone viral, landed him on multiple Fox News shows, and earned a glowing tweet from President Trump.

"Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace: 'The whole climate crisis is not only Fake News, it’s Fake Science. There is no climate crisis, there’s weather and climate all around the world, and in fact carbon dioxide is the main building block of all life.' @foxandfriends Wow!" The president tweeted on Tuesday morning.

Fox and Trump are billing Moore as the founder of Greenpeace, but here's a shocker: That's not accurate. Here's what you need to know about Patrick Moore.

He was involved in Greenpeace in the 1970s and 1980s. Greenpeace says he did not co-found it.

Moore, a Canadian, earned a degree in forest biology and a PhD in ecology before joining the Sierra Club and then Greenpeace, where he worked from 1971 to 1986, serving as president of Greenpeace Canada and a director of Greenpeace International. Moore and others (like Fox and President Trump) like to call him a founder or co-founder of Greenpeace. Here's what the organization has to say about it:

Patrick Moore frequently portrays himself as a founder or co-founder of Greenpeace, and many news outlets have repeated this characterization. Although Mr. Moore played a significant role in Greenpeace Canada for several years, he did not found Greenpeace. Phil Cotes, Irving Stowe, and Jim Bohlen founded Greenpeace in 1970. Patrick Moore applied for a berth on the Phyllis Cormack in March, 1971 after the organization had already been in existence for a year.

In other words: He joined Greenpeace fairly early on and played a prominent role, but, according to Greenpeace, he did not co-found it. There is, however, a dispute over the precise founders of the organization. In fact, there was a time when Greenpeace listed him as a co-founder, but the organization has since removed his name from this list and sought to distance itself from him.

So is Moore an environmentalist, as his biography suggests?

Depends on your definition of "environmentalist." After working at Greenpeace, Moore founded a public-relations consultancy called Greenspirit Enterprises. Through that company, he began representing the logging, mining, and chemical industries. "Most of these industries hired Mr. Moore only after becoming the focus of a Greenpeace campaign to improve their environmental performance," Greenpeace says on its website. "Mr. Moore has now worked for polluters for far longer than he ever worked for Greenpeace."

Moore is known for refusing to drink a glass of water he said was safe.

Moore, who is referred to as a pro-GMO spokesman, was being interviewed for a French documentary when he said a herbicide created by the company Monsanto was safe to drink. What happens next is almost too hilarious to be true. Here's the transcript:

Moore: Do not believe that glyphosate in Argentina is causing increases in cancer. You can drink a whole quart of it and it won't hurt you.



Interviewer: You want to drink some? We have some here.



Moore: I'd be happy to actually... Not, not really, but...



Interviewer: Not really?



Moore: I know it wouldn't hurt me.



Interviewer: If you say so, I have some glyphosate.



Moore: No, I'm not stupid.



Interviewer: OK. So you… So it's dangerous, right?



Moore: No. People try to commit suicide with it and fail, fairly regularly.



Interviewer: Tell the truth. It's dangerous.



Moore: It's not dangerous to humans. No, it's not.



Interviewer: So you are ready to drink one glass of glyphosate?



Moore: No, I'm not an idiot.

Now Moore is a climate change denier.

Moore has gone on the attack against Democratic presidential candidates who are in favor of policies meant to curb carbon emissions. Moore's argument is that if we begin eliminating carbon, the environmental will suffer more than if it goes unchecked. In fact, he went as far to say a Green New Deal would lead to the "end of civilization." He also referred to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a "pompous little twit" for her support of a Green New Deal.

Michael Sebastian Michael Sebastian was named editor-in-chief of Esquire in June 2019 where he oversees print and digital content, strategy and operations.

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