ExxonMobil Stop Funding Anti-Climate Change Groups!
posted by: GinaMarie Cheeseman 143 days ago
Climate change skeptics are still among us. Take Republican Congressman, Rep. Joe Barton, who said in March, “I believe the earth’s climate is changing for natural variation reasons.” Barton continued, “I think mankind has been adopting, or adapting to climate as long as man has walked the earth. When it rains, we find shelter. When it is hot, we get shade. When it is cold, we find a warm place to stay.”
Back in 1995, an article in Harper’s Magazine detailed how the oil industry funded groups that downplayed climate change. The Global Climate Coalition, an oil industry public relations outlet, spent over a million dollars in the early 1990s to discredit climate change. The National Coal Association also spent money to discredit climate change.
Enter ExxonMobil in 1998 and the company’s plan to delay action on climate change. A memo outlined the plan, promising that “victory will be achieved when uncertainties in climate science become part of the conventional wisdom for average citizens and the media.” In the memo Exxon said it would recruit new scientists that lacked a “history of visibility in the climate debate.”
In 2006, environmental journalist, George Monbiot characterized ExxonMobil’s “campaign of dissuasion” as “devastatingly effective.” Recently, British newspaper, The Guardian, reported that ExxonMobil gave “hundreds of thousands of pounds” to climate skeptic groups, despite pledges that it would stop funding such groups.
The groups funded by ExxonMobil include the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), which received $75,000, and the Heritage Foundation, which received $50,000. ExxonMobil published its contributions in its recently released “2008 Worldwide Contributions and Community Investments.”
The Guardian article quoted Bob Ward from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics as saying that both the NCPA and the Heritage Foundation published “misleading and inaccurate information about climate change.”
Ward said that ExxonMobil has promised for three years that “they were going to stop funding these groups.” He added, “If the world's largest oil company wants to fund climate change denial then it should be upfront about it, and not tell people it has stopped.”
Read more: global warming
comments
Oh my goodness, Dorinne.... you're so out of touch, it is staggering. If you believe that the people running Exxon-Mobil are just "regular people" saving for their retirement, then someone is feeding you some pretty big delusion pills.
Now maybe the people working their butts off to pay for the executives' obscene salaries, and offering their throats (and life-savings) to these same thieves by investing in their own company... now THEY may be ordinary folks. Did you not read about Enron? Maybe they didn't report on that on Fox...
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"I bet that those Exxon oil barrons are mostly regular folks who hold Exxon as part of their money market fund, IRA, 401K and small stock market retirement funds."
No Dorine, I'm talking about the CEOs and executives who give themselves huge bonuses and salaries, not about regular people who may or may not have some stock in Exxon. And I didn't attack anyone, I defended Gore. And this isn't about politics, it's about science. Did you even read the rest of my post?
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Right wing oil barrons? I bet that those Exxon oil barrons are mostly regular folks who hold Exxon as part of their money market fund, IRA, 401K and small stock market retirement funds. These are surely Democrats, Republicans and Independents who are just trying to save something for their retirement years. Be careful who you attack over politics; it just may end up being your grandmother, an aunt or even your parents!!
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Amen Meridith-amen!
Plant trees for life.....On earth.....
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Margaret S.
So it's okay for right-wing oil barons to rake in the big bucks but not a Democrat? Gee, that sounds fair. Let's kill our planet with fossil fuels, which Republican leaders cash in on big time at the expense of Americans, but it's not okay for one Democrat to make money off of his side of the climate issue? WTF?
And you said Gore had his facts wrong, then cited an OPINION poll. That's right, opinion is not fact. And exactly what is wrong with his science? Can you give details about why the polar ice caps are melting so fast? I actually KNEW (RIP) a scientist who worked at the South Pole, and based on their work (the work of actual scientists, not partisan think-tanks) global warming seemed pretty darn reasonable. So until you can give me FACTUAL information about the supposed flaws of their work, put a sock in it.
Lastly, even if Gore had some facts wrong, pretty much ALL branches of science and ALL new theories are imperfect. That's why they're called theories and not facts. And most new theories are disbelieved for years before people are ready to accept change. Change like the heliocentric solar system, a round planet, etc. were denied for years before people caught on. If you're not a scientist or someone who hangs around with scientists, you've got no business telling people which science is good and which isn't.
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I have several problems with the global warming debate and legislation. First and foremost Cap N Trade is among other things a big tax on energy. Exactly where are these taxes going to go, how' ll they be used and who's going to get 'em? OR are we being scammed yet again while politicians enrich themselves or their cronies from their power to tax? Especially since the Speaker of the House will greatly enrich her own bottom line with this bill.
Next, every piece of legislation that has been passed since this President has come to office has been a rush job and even those who are voting have not been given adequate time to READ THE DARNED BILL THEY ARE VOTING ON!! For this reason alone, we should purge Congress of every incumbent and supports my contention that those who wrote the bill will be the only ones to benefit by it INSTEAD of the envrionment.
While Gore and Pickens, and even Exxon are private entities entitled to support their own interests, our politicians are not. They're supposed to support the interests of their constituents, not themselves. When they steer legislation from which they personally make money, they cast a huge shadow of doubt as to the need for punishing their constituents by restricting the energy they need to heat or cool their home or even drive their car. Ask yourself, how many car drivers does it take to use as much fuel as one Speaker flying CA to DC on a private jumbo jet for convenience sake? Why not 1st class commercial
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It is time to remove Exxons charter. They are afterall a corporation not a person, though closed door hearings gave them the rites of a person with none of the responsabilities.
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A common argument others tried telling me was that earths climat always changes and they were taking skeptical veiws that human actions are the cause of it, some even were foolishly telling me that god gave the earth to man to do with as he pleases. I heard lots of different nonsense from people about global warming even in a reply from a congressman on a petition I siggned. Many people out there are just too blind to notice the seriousness of this issue, and many blindly believe in whatever is told to them or what they hear in the media. i will continue to discuss my views and concerns for these matters stressing others not to blindly believe everything that is told to them
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What baffles me is that people actually think that if we aren't causing a climate change, that is an excuse to keep polluting the earth, making humans and wildlife sick, and denying alternatives to wasting natural resources that are going to run out soon anyway. Really?
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I would like to see the debate center on reduction in the use of fossil fuels. Even those who do not believe global climate change is taking place and that there is a human factor in the changes taking place need to look at the economics - if we import 60% of the oil we consume and pay $65.00 per barrel, we are sending something like 850 million dollars a day, some of it to people who dislike Americans - that should be reason enough for patriots to want to cut back on oil consumption. As an agriculturalist over the last 50+ years, I have seen changes taking place - if not global climate change, I invite someone to explain all the changes taking place. I have observed the crops growing in controlled growth chambers, where carbon dioxide content in the chamber is controlled at 1x (350 ppm), 2x and 3x. Independent of the carbon dioxide is the temperature - the chambers allow those to be separated and studied independently, in contrast to nature - and the data reveal increased carbon dioxide can increase vegetative growth, but the higher temperatures reduce the grain yield of food crops (e.g., rice, sorghum). It looks to me, if current trends continue, that we are reaching the end of the cheap (and readily available) food era. It is sobering . . . if the terrorists fail to make life miserable, the cost of food, feed, fiber and biofuel may.
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