Don’t Worry Everyone, Fossil Fuel Billionaire Gina Rinehart Says Climate Change Isn’t Man-Made

Mining magnate and Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart told students to “research for the facts” on climate change and asserted that humans do not cause global warming in a wild speech at her old school.

Rinehart, whose mining fortune is worth a quiet $31 billion, essentially said ‘gaslight, climate deny, girlboss’ in a 16-minute pre-recorded speech directed at students of the elite private school she once attended.

However, it’s worth noting that St Hilda’s only played the first five minutes of the speech to students, which “did not include specific messaging about climate change, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

It goes without saying that we should be listening to scientists when it comes to climate change, and not billionaires who made their fortune mining fossil fuels with no regard for the environmental impacts. However, in what surely can’t be a good look for the elite and extremely expensive private school she once attended, Rinehart claimed her climate change-denying nonsense was based on the “scientific facts that [she] had the benefit of learning” at school.

“I’m grateful that I had a real education, not one based on propaganda, but facts, and rationale. I continue to believe that facts and rationale should provide the basis for education, it concerns me greatly that the current generation of school leavers and attendees, too often miss such important basics, as too often propaganda erodes these critical foundations,” she said in the lengthy speech, which has now been posted in-full on her website in an incredible self-own.

“It’s very important in my view that today’s parents or guardians, and grandparents, ask their children each and every day, what they are learning at school, counter any propaganda, and address their concerns with the teachers directly, and of course, the principal.”

Throughout the speech, Rinehart mentions Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which she asserts is not the truth at all, urging students to “do their own independent research.”

With quite literally no scientific evidence to back her claims, Rinehart went on a 16-minute rant about how climate change is allegedly not man-made, and is simply the result of natural influences like — and I quote — our “distance from the sun.”

Be Wary Of Info Tied To Money, Says Billionaire

Before going on to name drop actual scientist Marie Curie – who likely would’ve, you know, believed the science on climate change, Rinehart urged students to be careful about information tied to emotion or money.

“Please be very careful about information spread on emotional basis, or tied to money, or egos, or power-seekers, and always search for the facts,” she said. “Even if the tide is against you, and it’s not considered popular. Facts may not be popular, but that shouldn’t mean, they should be overlooked.”

The irony of a multi-billionaire climate change denier urging people to look at facts and to be wary of information tied to money is simply…perfect. It also goes without saying that absolutely nothing Gina Rinehart said in her 16-minute speech is based in fact or science.

A spokesperson for the school clarified to the SMH that St Hilda’s climate science teachings follow the Western Australia School Curriculum. There is no assertion that St Hilda’s is teaching false narratives about climate change.

Junkee has reached out to Gina Rinehart and her company Hancock Prospecting for comment.