Critics forecast real damage from Kansas Sen. Mike Thompson’s disinformation on climate, COVID

In December 2018, a longtime Kansas City meteorologist announced he was leaving the field but not retiring.

“I’ve just come to a fork in the road and I’m turning onto a new path with the excitement you feel at the beginning of a journey whose conclusion is uncertain,” said Mike Thompson, who delivered the weather for 27 years on WDAF, now Fox4.

A year later, Thompson revealed his path: politics. The Shawnee Republican was appointed to fill an unexpired term in the Kansas Senate and elected to a full four years last fall.

After just two years Thompson, 64, has emerged as an influential conservative voice in a chamber packed with conservatives, buoyed by recognition from his television days and leadership of the committee that vets all energy policy.

Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican who picked Thompson to chair the Senate Utilities Committee, described him as a “very important” member of the Republican caucus.

“He is a principled conservative and is extremely knowledgeable and articulate on a number of issues,” Masterson said in an email.

But critics say Thompson, who spent more than three decades explaining science on television, is promoting scientific misinformation on climate and public health as a senator. The changes in climate are a natural phenomenon, he says. And COVID-19 vaccines may be risky.

Kansas public health groups say such misstatements have complicated efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19, which Thompson calls “the Wuhan virus.” Kansas climate activists worry he has stopped state-level climate change legislation in its tracks.

Thompson will have a new platform Friday when he joins a panel of Kansas lawmakers to discuss state-level responses to federal vaccine mandates that are expected to be imposed on certain industries.

Thompson defended his scientific views in an email, saying his positions are the product of research, 45 years in meteorology and a willingness to think outside the mainstream.

“Some of the greatest discoveries in science came because someone had the temerity to think outside the box,” Thompson wrote in response to a question about the impact of his views on COVID-19.

“I always told my kids not to jump off a cliff just because everyone else was doing so. The same advice applies here.”

But Kansas activists, public health organizations and the American Meteorological Society said Thompson is harming science, not advancing it.

“It’s a concern that all of us in the scientific community share,” said Keith Seitter, executive director of the AMS. “All of us are concerned when somebody uses credentials that can be taken by the public in ways that make the public feel they ought to be able to trust this person and what they’re saying, and using that position to promote information that’s not correct.”

Thompson’s marginal viewpoints aren’t confined to COVID and climate. In July 2020, he told the Kansas Reflector that he didn’t subscribe to evolution. “I’m not a Darwinist,” he said. “I don’t believe in the apes evolving into man.”

Rolling back the clock

Until 2019, Thompson was certified as a broadcast meteorologist by the American Meteorological Society. Certification requires coursework in meteorology, mathematics and computer science plus two years of full-time broadcast experience.

But Thompson’s position on climate change — that it is not man made and not dangerous to human life — is in conflict with most climate scientists and the official position of the professional society for meteorologists. The AMS in recent years has urged politicians to recognize the risks of climate change and work for solutions.

Seitter of the AMS said Thompson’s training as a meteorologist makes his fringe positions especially concerning.

“All of us were trained to behave scientifically, to think scientifically, to make our decision based on evidence,” he said. “It’s disheartening when someone that has that training abandons it.”

In explaining his views on climate, Thompson said the AMS’s credibility was undermined because it had been “co-opted” into the “scam” of promoting policies based on man-made climate change.

“The climate has changed on its own, sometimes quite violently and dramatically, for as long as the earth has been in existence. If you want to actually talk about the climate, you have to be willing to engage in an honest discussion about what truly drives the climate on this planet.

‘Climate change’, as used by many people today…is not about climate, it’s about a political ideology,” Thompson wrote.

Thompson’s chairmanship of the Senate Utilities Committee gives him significant power over the Legislature’s consideration of energy policy.

He earned that position, Masterson said, because of his “deep knowledge” of the issues. Masterston said he performed well in addressing utility rates following February’s cold snap and championing a bill that stops local governments from imposing caps on how much energy can come from any one source.

“Thompson spent decades as a meteorologist studying weather patterns for a living,” Masterson wrote. “He knows and understands the science behind the climate debate like few others.”

But advocates for climate action in Kansas, including the Sierra Club and Kansas Interfaith Action, said they are concerned Thompson is in a unique position to influence the state’s future capacity to deal with climate challenges.

Kansas has one of the most robust wind energy industries in the nation. Forty percent of the state’s electricity is generated by wind and it has quickly become one of the biggest industries in the state.

Advocates said they were preparing to push this year for the state to establish an energy plan and new efficiency standards.

But with Thompson as chair of the utilities committee, that work stalled. Moti Rieber, with Kansas Interfaith Action, said he stopped advocating for a bill to begin establishing an energy plan because of Thompson’s views.

And continued growth of the wind industry is at risk as Thompson — a staunch opponent of renewable energy — pushes for new restrictions on the industry.

In an email, Thompson said any assertion that he has halted legislation to incentivize energy efficiency and carbon emission reductions is false. He argues that the wind industry is actually a financial drain on the state and utility customers.

“Would you buy a car that would only run when the wind is blowing a certain speed, or the sun is shining? If your answer is no, then explain the logic of using taxpayer dollars to replace reliable sources of generation with unreliable ones,” Thompson wrote.

Wind however, has proved reliable in Kansas. During the February cold snap in the midwest, the renewable energy source performed as expected while other energy sources faltered.

Rieber said Thompson’s positions are dangerous and essentially roll back the clock on climate activists’ work.

“We have to go back and have the same conversations we had five years ago on whether the wind industry is good,” Rieber said. “We have to keep having the argument that we thought we had already won.”

Thompson is at odds with the vast majority of the world’s climate scientists.. In August, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report from 234 scientists citing “irrefutable” evidence that human activity has warmed the planet at a rate not seen in the last 2,000 years. The changes are already evident in extreme weather events, the report said, and will worsen if greenhouse gas emissions are not sharply reduced in the near future.

While time is of the essence, climate activists don’t anticipate any emission-reducing legislation while Thompson chairs the committee.

“He’s going to have to reconcile his own personal beliefs with that of his constituent beliefs,” said Zack Pistora, a lobbyist for the Sierra club. “If he can take the opportunity to push those things aside, zoom out and see the broader public interest then maybe (progress is possible) but I’m not holding my breath.”

Thompson has given testimony to local governments in opposition to climate change policies and COVID-19 mitigation strategies. He called a regional climate action plan passed in Johnson County a “marxist” ploy to destroy freedom.

The Johnson County plan passed despite his efforts.

“I know that he’s popular in that he has name recognition but I don’t think people are necessarily running to him for science advice,” said Mike Kelly, Mayor of Roeland Park and board member at Climate Action KC said.

Prior to taking office, Thompson launched a non-profit, the Academy for Climate and Energy Analysis. According to it’s web page, Thompson seeks to educate the public using “solid, reliable, scientifically-backed information.”

Yanked from YouTube

In addition to promoting misinformation about climate science, Thompson has become one of the state’s most outspoken opponents of COVID-19 related restrictions, including mask mandates and vaccine requirements.

Masterson said he was thankful for Thompson’s “bold leadership” fighting mask and vaccine mandates.

“I stand with Mike in believing that individual health care decisions should be made by each individual, and not coerced by the government through mandates or quasi-mandates.,” Masterson said.

Thompson has no background in medicine or public health. Yet at events across Johnson County and on social media, he has raised questions about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, even as reports of serious side effects have been rare among the 414 million doses administered in America.

He has also warned that wearing masks causes more harm than good, while studies have proven that masks trap respiratory droplets that could spread the virus.

“I want to protect the liberty to choose what type of medical care people decide to accept or reject, including for their children,” Thompson said in an email. “I want them to have access to all the treatments and therapies available to combat the Wuhan virus. I want to protect jobs, many of which were impacted negatively by mask mandates and prior to that, lockdowns.”

Thompson said the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization lost credibility during the pandemic by changing guidance and that peer review does not guarantee scientific information is reliable.

In May, a Shawnee Mission School Board meeting was removed from YouTube for violating content standards. The damaging testimony came from Thompson when he claimed masks were harmful to children and ineffective at stemming the spread of COVID-19.

Throughout the pandemic he has had Facebook posts flagged and removed for misinformation.

Cindy Samuelson, with the Kansas Hospital Association, said hospitals statewide have struggled to cut through “confusing information” their patients hear about the pandemic. Their best answer, she said, has been to encourage patients to trust their own doctor.

Misinformation, Dr. Scott Pujath, president of the Kansas City Medical Society, said, has played a role in prolonging the COVID-19 pandemic and poses risks for future public health.

“Historically the person that people trusted the most was their family physician, typically during COVID people haven’t been going to their family physician as much so most of their knowledge is coming from social media,” Pujath said.

“If people continue to get their education from mostly uneducated people on social media then the negative effects for public health moving forward, I’m afraid of how bad it might be.”