ExxonMobil Launches New Blitz by Climate Skeptics
Think-tanks take oil money and use it to fund climate deniers
ExxonMobil cash supported concerted campaign to undermine case for man-made warming
The Independent (U.K.), Feb, 7, 2010
An
orchestrated campaign is being waged against climate change science to
undermine public acceptance of man-made global warming, environment
experts claimed last night.
The
attack against scientists supportive of the idea of man-made climate
change has grown in ferocity since the leak of thousands of
documents on the subject from the University of East Anglia (UEA) on
the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit last December.
Free-market,
anti-climate change think-tanks such as the Atlas Economic Research
Foundation in the US and the International Policy Network in the UK
have received grants totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds from the
multinational energy company ExxonMobil. Both organisations have funded
international seminars pulling together climate change deniers from
across the globe.
Many
of these critics have broadcast material from the leaked UEA emails to
undermine climate change predictions and to highlight errors in claims
that the Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. Professor Phil
Jones, who has temporarily stood down as director of UEA's climactic
research unit, is reported in today's Sunday Times to have "several
times" considered suicide. He also drew parallels between his case and
that of Dr David Kelly, found dead in the wake of the row over the
alleged "sexing up" of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of
Iraq. Professor Jones said he was taking sleeping pills and
beta-blockers and had received two death threats in the past week
alone.
Climate
sceptic bloggers broadcast stories last week casting doubts on
scientific data predicting dramatic loss of the Amazon rainforest. All
three stories, picked up by mainstream media, questioned the
credibility of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the
way it does its work. A new attack on climate science, already dubbed
"Seagate" by sceptics, relating to claims that more than half the
Netherlands is in danger of being submerged under rising sea levels, is
likely to be at the centre of the newest skirmish in coming weeks.
The
controversies have shaken the IPCC, whose chairman, Dr Rajendra
Pachauri, was subjected to a series of personal attacks on his
reputation and lifestyle last week. A poll this weekend confirmed that
public confidence in the climate change consensus has been shaken: one
in four Britons – 25 per cent – now say they do not believe in global
warming; previously this figure stood at 15 per cent.
Professor
Bob Watson, the chief scientific adviser to the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and former chairman of the
IPCC, said yesterday that the backlash is the result of a campaign: "It
does appear that there's a concerted effort by a number of sceptics to
undermine the credibility of the evidence behind human-induced climate
change." He added: "I am sure there are some sceptics who may well be
funded by the private sector to try to cast uncertainty."
A
complicated web of relationships revolves around a number of right-wing
think-tanks around the world that dispute the threats of climate
change. ExxonMobil is a key player behind the scenes, having donated
hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few years to climate
change sceptics. The Atlas Foundation, created by the late Sir Anthony
Fisher (founder of the Institute of Economic Affairs), received more
than $100,000 in 2008 from ExxonMobil, according to the oil company's
reports.
Atlas
has supported more than 30 other foreign think-tanks that espouse
climate change scepticism, and co-sponsored a meeting of the world's
leading climate sceptics in New York last March. Called "Global
Warming: Was It Ever Really a Crisis?", it was organised by the
Heartland Institute – a group that described the event as "the world's
largest-ever gathering of global warming sceptics". The organisation is
another right-wing think-tank to have benefited from funding given by
ExxonMobil in recent years.
A
large British contingent was present at the event, with speakers
including Dr Benny Peiser, from Lord Lawson's climate sceptic
think-tank, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF); the botanist
David Bellamy; Julian Morris and Kendra Okonski from the London-based
International Policy Network; the weather forecaster Piers Corbyn;
Christopher Monckton, a former policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher; and
Professor David Henderson, a member of GWPF's advisory council.
Speakers at the event also included two prominent climate bloggers who
associate with Paul Dennis, a 54-year-old climate researcher at the
University of East Anglia who has been questioned by police
investigating the theft of climate data.
In
a posting on the blog of the climate sceptic Andrew Montford on Friday,
Mr Dennis insisted: "I did not leak any files, data, emails or any
other material. I have no idea how the files were released or who was
behind it."
But
he confirmed that he had been in email contact with Stephen McIntyre,
who runs climateaudit.org – a site that was one of the first to receive
an anonymous link to the original leaked data from UEA.
Mr
Dennis said he emailed Mr McIntyre to alert him to a "departmental
email saying that emails and files were hacked" and that "police had
copies of my email correspondence with Steve McIntyre and Jeff Id [a
pseudonym for the climate sceptic Patrick Condon]. They said it was
because I had sent the emails that they were interviewing me."
The
UEA researcher also has connections with another prominent sceptic,
Anthony Watts, with whom he has posted and who spoke beside Mr
McIntyre. Mr Dennis was not available for comment.
Bob
Ward, the policy director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate
Change at the London School of Economics, said: "A lot of the climate
sceptic arguments are being made by people with demonstrable right-wing
ideology which is based on opposition to any environmental regulation
of the market, and they are clearly being given money that allows them
to disseminate their views more widely than would be the case if they
didn't have oil company funding."
But
Dr Richard North, a climate change sceptic and blogger, rejected claims
of a conspiracy as "laughable" and denied having any links to vested
interests. "Anybody who knows me knows I'm a loner. Nobody tells me
what to do or dictates my agenda."
ExxonMobil
said in a statement: "We have the same concerns as people everywhere –
and that is how to provide the world with the energy it needs while
reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
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