Climate Hustle

Climate Hustle premiered in Paris, France, on 7 December 2015, coinciding with the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference.[8] Its U.S. premiere was held on 14 April 2016 at the Rayburn Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and was followed by a discussion panel that included former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and David Legates, a climatologist and geology professor at the University of Delaware whose work is funded by Koch Industries and other fossil-fuel sponsors.[9] It was moderated by conservative writer Brent Bozell.[3][10] U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith, Republican of Texas, was set to attend but instead prepared opening remarks which included an accusation that U.S. government agencies had tampered with climate data.[11]

It was shown for one day in 400 theaters across the United States on 2 May 2016.

In an interview with Variety about the film, Palin explained her passion for the issue, offering an anecdote about her 2008 lawsuit against the U.S. government, challenging the polar bear's placement on the threatened species list under the Endangered Species Act. Palin took issue with the forecasting data produced by biologists and environmental groups that showed a threat due to declining Arctic sea ice, although a federal judge backed the scientists' original findings.[7]

The film's cinema engagement is managed by Fathom Events and SpectiCast.[10]

The film's basis is in a rejection of the overwhelming scientific consensus about climate change and the impact of human activities on it.[3]

The Guardian was critical of the film's "[dismissing] global warming as an excuse for government takeover and [making] the outrageously false claim that rising carbon emissions are beneficial."[11] The Washington Post called it a "tour through the arguments that some holdout scientists do still make to undermine mainstream climate concerns."[4] The Post challenges the validity of several of the film's claims directly, which it characterizes as "the same things they've been arguing for many years, albeit with regular touch-ups."[4]

Ars Technica likened the film's style to a "Gish Gallop", calling it "a fast-paced, uninterrupted delivery of superficial and false claims about climate science" which forms "an 80-minute-long list of all the climate 'skeptic' blogosphere's favorite claims."[5]

The film features a number of expert testimonies in support of its claims. According to Scott K. Johnson of Ars Technica, those who "could fairly call themselves climate scientists [are] drawn from the small stable of familiar contrarians that cycle through Congressional hearing when contrarian witnesses are in demand" while others are "straight out of the Rolodex of the Heartland Institute".[5]