On the August 16 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, host Joe Rogan and right-wing tech billionaire Peter Thiel attacked proven climate change solutions and the science that underpins them as ineffective and ideologically driven. 

Thiel called climate science a “fake field” and falsely claimed that “we don't have great accounts of why” climate change is happening.

Rogan replied, “Well, there's certainly ideology that's connected to climate science. And then there's certainly corporations that are invested in this, this prospect of green energy and the concept of green energy, and they're profiting off of it and pushing these different things, whether it be electric car mandates or whatever it is.”

Rogan later suggested that “we’re ignoring” regenerative agriculture and that “the more carbon dioxide is, the greener it is, which is why it's greener today on Earth than it has been in 100 years.” He added, “These are all facts that are inconvenient to people that have a very specific narrow window of how to approach this.”

Rogan’s rhetoric echoes popular right-wing talking points that have been used to downplay climate change impacts and attempt to delegitimize important solutions. He has also repeatedly hosted climate deniers on his show, with seemingly no consequences from third-party platforms that host his show.

How Rogan echoes right-wing messaging on climate

Climate deniers often claim that increased carbon dioxide emissions are a net positive, even though rising temperatures are causing stronger storms, heat waves, and wildfires, harming vulnerable populations around the world. 

For example, climate denier Patrick Moore, a right-wing media darling who works as a nuclear energy consultant, has refuted the idea that carbon dioxide levels are “getting too high” due to human activity. In 2022, Moore wrote on X, “It has been known since at least 1920 that adding CO2 to greenhouses and even to open air causes a huge increase in plant growth, with no harm caused to plants or animals. The ‘climate emergency’ is a hoax.” Moore is also a member of the CO2 Coalition, a climate denial group dedicated to the idea that carbon dioxide cannot be a pollutant. 

Meanwhile, scientists have long emphasized that the risks of extreme global warming far outweigh the potential benefits of plant growth, and that climate change threatens to collapse ecosystems. One 2019 study even found that CO2 may lower the nutritional value of crop yields. 

Rogan’s comment on the “ideology” of climate science and corporations pushing “green energy” is also straight from right-wing media, which have long insisted, in bad faith, that decarbonizing the economy and transitioning to renewable energy would be ineffective and claimed that the transition is completely driven by corporate interests rather than science. 

For instance, in an April 10 op-ed for FoxNews.com, former Trump economic advisor and Project 2025 contributor Stephen Moore wrote, “The biggest corporate welfare scam ever is green.” 

And Rogan’s claim that “we’re ignoring” regenerative agriculture and planting trees as a climate solution (a favorite right-wing suggestion) doesn’t hold up. The Inflation Reduction Act allocated nearly $20 billion to farming and agriculture, part of which is being used to incentivize farmers to adopt regenerative practices that improve soil health, water quality, and resilience to climate change impacts. 

Planting trees has been a fallback climate solution for the GOP in place of policy that meaningfully supports an energy transition. For example, in 2023, House Republicans introduced legislation to plant a trillion trees while former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy discussed his intentions to boost oil and gas production. 

Scientists say that while legitimate, these types of solutions have limitations and are not silver bullets to address the climate crisis.

Joe Rogan has platformed climate deniers in the past

Rogan has previously drawn criticism for leveraging his massive reach and influence to amplify climate denial, and his podcast has hosted guests such as Michael Shellenberger and Bjorn Lomborg, who use cherry-picked and decontextualized talking points to downplay the devastating impacts of climate change and to attack climate solutions. 

He has also hosted figures who downright deny the fact that fossil fuel consumption is driving climate change or insist that the science is not settled, such as Steve Koonin, Jordan Peterson, and Randall Carlson. Carlson has appeared on the podcast at least six times and said that humans are not driving global warming and that “natural factors” are more responsible than human actions.

In February, Rogan signed a multiyear contract with Spotify after the platform’s exclusive deal with the podcast ended. Now, it’s also available on other third party platforms like Apple Podcasts, Amazon, and YouTube. While YouTube said that it would prohibit “ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change,” Apple and Amazon do not appear to have policies explicitly regarding the promotion of climate misinformation.