By Graham P. Wayne

As an English environmental journalist, I’m obliged to keep track of the fluctuating fortunes of U.S. climate change politics. Britain may puff up its chest in a last-ditch attempt to retain some relevance on the world stage, but the fact remains we must look to the U.S. for leadership on climate change.

So when

that Oregon joined the Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy I felt an admiration for this courageous move in the right direction, made by a state I love. My fondness for Oregon is born of frequent trips over the border from Vancouver, where I was working in 1999 and found the people as kind as the landscape is astonishing. If we had trees like that on our west coast, the entire island would tilt over!

So it is my sad duty to report to you that in three different instances a thoroughly

survey called the Oregon Petition was cited, as though it alone disproves climate change.

The Oregon Petition is product of Art Robinson, the current chairperson of the Oregon Republican Party, evolution skeptic, doubter the HIV-AIDS connection and proponent of enhancing Oregon’s drinking water

.

The central premise of Robinson’s petition was that climate change isn’t real, and claims to have thousands of scientists signed on in agreement. This is a grossly misleading claim, as detailed

. Here in the real world we know that 97 percent of climate experts agree that the link between climate change and carbon dioxide emissions is as certain as the link between smoking and cancer.

But to fool potential signatories, included with the petition was a scientific-looking “study.” This pseudo-study was formatted to look like it was published by the premier U.S. scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, who took the unprecedented step of

exposing the deception.

This credibility camouflage is common tactic employed by climate contrarians. Lacking credibility of their own, they need to leech off of others to be taken even remotely seriously- both the UN’s IPCC and the U.S. National Climate Assessment have copycats.

The fact that climate contrarians are compelled to create alternative versions of scientific reports should tell you something. When someone is losing the scientific argument so badly they have to create an alternate reality, you know things aren’t going well for them.

So I beg of you, dear Oregon. Please keep up the good work, like the Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy. The world needs your leadership. But just as important, don’t let your good name get dragged down by climate contrarians using Oregon’s credibility as camouflage for craziness.

Graham P. Wayne is an environmental writer and blogger