West Australia today wrote:
When the tobacco industry was feeling the heat from scientists who showed that smoking caused cancer, it took decisive action.
It engaged in a decades-long public relations campaign to undermine the medical research and discredit the scientists. The aim was not to prove tobacco harmless but to cast doubt on the science.
In May this year, the multibillion-dollar oil giant Exxon-Mobil acknowledged that it had been doing something similar. It announced that it would cease funding nine groups that had fuelled a global campaign to deny climate change.
SourceWest Australia today wrote:
The funding of an array of think tanks and institutes that house climate sceptics and deniers also worried Britain's premier scientific body, the Royal Society. It found that in 2005 Exxon distributed nearly $3 million to 39 groups that "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence that greenhouse gases are driving climate change".
We are talking big dollars here.
Exxon paid:
$715 000 to Georce C Marshall institute.
$800 000 to Heartland institute.
$100 000 to Centre for the study of CO2
and heaps more.
And this is what their money pays for:
Interestingly the major reason for ending the funding to climate change denial groups was a shareholder revolt.In his recent book Heat, George Monbiot gives the example of the TV presenter and botanist, David Bellamy, who is also a climate sceptic. He told the New Scientist in 2005 that most glaciers in the world are growing, not shrinking. He said his evidence came from the World Glacier Monitoring Service in Switzerland, a reputable body. When Monbiot checked the service they said that the Bellamy claim was "complete bullshit". Glaciers are retreating.
Of course this doesnt come as a big suprise however its good to see firm evidence showing that massive corporations are deliberately misrepresenting climate change science in order to protect profits.
