Guest essay by Leo Goldstein

As WUWT readers have probably noticed, using Google or other general search engines to find reliable information on anything related to climate change has become almost impossible. The search results are dominated by alarmist sites and blogs, while dissenting voices are simply drowned out.

The main reason for this imbalance is simple: a huge amount of money is pumped into alarmist research and propaganda by the US and other Western governments. Tens of billions of dollars in research grants, state mandates and loan guarantees to “clean energy” companies, substantial percentage of universities’ budgets, direct government grants to environmental NGOs, and tax deductions for “charitable” donations feed this frenzy. Certain pension funds also explore “noble ways to lose money“ (of their members, not their directors) to benefit the cause. The NASA website became a purveyor of the alarmist stories. Large corporations, including maligned “fossil fuels interests,” are totally under the government’s heel, and not only refuse to support realist research, but actively contribute to the alarmism in various ways. Unprecedentedly, FEMA now wants states to include an “assessment of climate risk” in their five year preparedness plans as a condition for funding.

A large part of this money finds its way to formerly mainstream publications and Internet bloggers, creating a huge interlinked network, many nodes of which are highly ranked by Google and other general search engines. Some of the websites and pages in this network have misleading names or titles, including words and phrases that are expected from the right side of the debate. The skeptical science is an example. Thus, alarmist pages come out on top in almost every climate search.

Google effectively has a web search monopoly. Usually, I do not give much weight to claims that Google Search unfairly discriminates against X or Y. These complaints sound like sour grapes, and Google has too much to lose and too little to gain from such actions. But the case of climate change seems totally different. Google’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, talks like a fanatical alarmist. He really believes that the orthodox alarmist position is the scientific truth. In 2014, he said: “… we should make decisions in politics based on facts. And the facts of climate change are not in question anymore. Everyone understands climate change is occurring and the people who oppose it are really hurting our children and our grandchildren and making the world a much worse place. And so we should not be aligned with such people–they’re just, they’re just literally lying” (as quoted by Paul Driessen and Chris Skates) [1].

The Google PageRank of the WUWT homepage is only 3 out of 10. I would expect it to be 6-7, and no less than 5, based on WUWT’s popularity and comparing it to unrelated websites on other subjects. It is hard to say whether Google’s “truthiness” algorithm is already involved, or it will be the proverbial other shoe. In any case, I do not see an explanation for this ridiculously low ranking other than foul play on Google’s behalf. To be fair, the climate-related results from Bing are no better than those from Google.

What can we do about it? The Climate Search page allows you to search WUWT and other good resources, which are currently drowned out in the ocean of formerly mainstream media and alarmist blogs. In fact, I used it extensively to write this article. It should be useful for both novices and experienced participants in the climate dispute.

[1] Note this expression of condemning “people who oppose it [climate change]”. Eric Schmidt is an extremely smart man. But he repeats this ritual formula, and does not notice that it is he, together with Obama and Al Gore, who try to oppose climate change, sea rise, and other natural phenomena.

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