“Deceptive.” “Cherry-picked.” “Antiscientific.”

Those are the three words leading climate scientists are using to sum up the Department of Energy’s newest report on climate change: a 141-page disinformation doozy that calls the global scientific consensus on climate change into question. The document presents itself as a critical review, arguing that scientists have exaggerated the dangers, risks, and potential impacts of the climate crisis while ignoring the benefits associated with burning fossil fuels.

According to a recent analysis from Carbon Brief, the report makes more than 100 false or misleading claims. Here are some of its most outrageous:

• Global warming is actually driving global greening, thanks to the positive impact increased CO2 concentrations have on vegetation growth;
  
• There have been no “statistically significant” long-term trends when it comes to extreme weather; and
  
• The U.S. embracing climate action would have a negligible impact on the rate of climate change.

Every claim is supported by unpublished studies, data points taken completely out of context, or the omission of contradictory research. Prominent scientists referenced in the report are already voicing complaints over the misuse of their work.

So how did this controversial document come to be?

Unlike the latest IPCC report, which was pulled together by more than 700 scientists over the course of several years, the DOE’s report was drafted in just two months by the department’s new Climate Working Group: 5 climate skeptics hand-picked by the former fossil fuel executive Energy Secretary, Chris Wright. Not only do 10% of the report’s references come from the authors themselves, but the document also underwent only a single internal review process.

Not exactly the definition of credible.

It’s clear that the report was hastily developed as a means to justify the Environmental Protection Agency’s repeal of the Endangerment Finding, which we tackled last week. But it also slots seamlessly into the Trump administration’s larger goal: to give the dying fossil fuel industry more years to wreck the planet with impunity.

Luckily, there are a few things we can do about it.

The public comment period for the DOE’s report is open through the end of the month, which is a critical opportunity for us to throw some sand in the gears. The Washington Post and Carbon Brief are already fact-checking the report’s most erroneous claims—important work that we can help amplify. And now that the Environmental Defense Fund and the Union of Concerned Scientists have sued the DOE over this report, we can urge our state attorneys general to do the same.

We know that driving any kind of change in our current political environment is a Sisyphean task. But what the Trump administration wants more than anything is for us to throw in the towel—so it’s more important than ever for us to keep raising our voices in dissent.

Action is the antidote to despair!