The Royal Society has had enough. Britain's premier scientific academy has taken the gloves off in a letter it sent to Exxon offices on 4 September, 2006. The society demands that ExxonMobil (Esso here in Canada) stop funding bogus scientists and institutions that seek to confuse public opinion about global warming.
The Society's Bob Ward castigated Exxon:
"It is very disappointing that the ExxonMobil 2005 Corporate Citizenship Report, like "Tomorrow's Energy", leaves readers with ...an inaccurate and misleading impression of the evidence on the causes of climate change that is documented in the scientific literature."
"...I also told you of my concerns that ExxonMobil has been giving funds to organizations that have been misinforming the public about the science of climate change."
Since 1998, Exxon has funelled more than $12-million to groups that exist to sow doubt about the danger of global warming and its causes. You might want to think of that next time you're passing an Esso or an Exxon gas station. They're using our money to pay people to confuse and mislead us.
While Exxon tries to deceive the public with claims that there are big gaps in the existing science, the Society was having none of it:
"The IPCC's conclusions have been endorsed by te world's other leading scientific organisations. For example, the science academies of the G8 nations plus Brazil, China and India, in June 2005 published a joint statement on 'Global response to climate change'. The statement pointed out that 'it is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities.'
For more on Exxon's campaign to fund the so-called skeptics, go to www.exxonsecrets.org/
This is the sort of spin the for-hire skeptics, such as Frederick Seitz, like to spread:
"We are living in an increasingly lush environment of plants and animals as a result of the carbon dioxide increase. Our children will enjoy an Earth with far more plant and animal life than that with which we now are blessed. This is a wonderful and unexpected gift from the Industrial Revolution."
It was attached to a letter written by Seitz, entitled Research Review of Global Warming Evidence. The lead author of the "review" that followed Seitz's letter is a Christian fundamentalist called Arthur B Robinson. He is not a professional climate scientist. It was co-published by Robinson's organisation - the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine - and an outfit called the George C Marshall Institute, which has received $630,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998. The other authors were Robinson's 22-year-old son and two employees of the George C Marshall Institute. The chairman of the George C Marshall Institute was Frederick Seitz.
Author George Monbiot has recently written a book, "Heat", that exposes the denial industry. According to The Guardian:
"For years a network of fake citizens' groups and bogus scientific bodies has been claiming that the science of global warming is inconclusive. They set back action on climate change by a decade. But who funded them? Exxon's involvement is well known but not the strange role of Big Tobacco."
Monbiot illustrates how it was Big Tobacco, in the form of Phillip Morris, that started the paid skeptic movement:
"Had it not been for the settlement of a major class action against the tobacco companies in the US, we would never have been able to see what happened next. But in 1998 they were forced to publish their internal documents and post them on the internet.
"Within two months of [an EPA report on secondhand smoke], Philip Morris, the world's biggest tobacco firm, had devised a strategy for dealing with the passive-smoking report. In February 1993 Ellen Merlo, its senior vice-president of corporate affairs, sent a letter to William I Campbell, Philip Morris's chief executive officer and president, explaining her intentions: "Our overriding objective is to discredit the EPA report ... Concurrently, it is our objective to prevent states and cities, as well as businesses, from passive-smoking bans."
"To this end, she had hired a public relations company called APCO. She had attached the advice it had given her. APCO warned that: "No matter how strong the arguments, industry spokespeople are, in and of themselves, not always credible or appropriate messengers."
"So the fight against a ban on passive smoking had to be associated with other people and other issues. Philip Morris, APCO said, needed to create the impression of a "grassroots" movement - one that had been formed spontaneously by concerned citizens to fight "overregulation". It should portray the danger of tobacco smoke as just one "unfounded fear" among others, such as concerns about pesticides and cellphones. APCO proposed to set up "a national coalition intended to educate the media, public officials and the public about the dangers of 'junk science'. Coalition will address credibility of government's scientific studies, risk-assessment techniques and misuse of tax dollars ... Upon formation of Coalition, key leaders will begin media outreach, eg editorial board tours, opinion articles, and brief elected officials in selected states."
Here in Canada we can't be smug. The skeptic/denial business is alive and well and it's being funded by Alberta's "oil patch". They count - you guessed it - Stephen Harper as a supporter.
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