Every year the Poor Man Institute gives out awards for a range of wanktastic behavior from the lunatic right. Highlights include the Chickenhawk of the Year award (for rhetorical courage), the Fluffy award (for egregious ass-kissing), and the Purple Teardrop With Clutched Pearl Cluster award (for melodramatic offense-taking).

Of particular interest to Gristians, however, is the Creamy Baileys Nobel Peace Prize for Science award for terrible science writing. Voting just opened and as a milestone of sorts, all five contenders are nominated for terrible writing about climate change:

Help Grist raise $25,000 by September 30 to further advance our climate reporting

1. Chad Myers, “Global warming is a cover-up for ACID OCEANS!!"
2. Camille Paglia, “A new blog will bring scientific rigor to the global warming debate“
3. Charlie Daniels, “Global warming is a yankee conspiracy!“
4. Gregg Easterbrook, “Global warming is a cover-up for KILLER ASTEROIDS … GOVERNMENT-FUNDED HADRON DEATH ORGIES … LIGHTSPEED ALIEN NUCLEAR ATTACKS!!!“
5. James Inhofe, “The IPCC agrees: Al Gore is fat”

This goes to show, among other things, that the increase in attention to climate change is tracking with an increase in mind-bendingly stupid things being written about it. Mixed blessings, as they say.

To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Here's How

You can vote for your favorite over at the Poor Man Institute. Let us know in comments who you voted for — or if the folks at PMI missed any important examples of wankery.