SOURCE: MotherJones.com, 2005-{05/06} issue | local copy (html, captured 2020-10-02)
This page last modified: 2020-10-02 18:05:32 -0700 (PST)
Article by Mother Jones.
[2020-10-02] Though dated, this document is historically important, and surprisingly currently relevant.
Some key "skeptics" show up again and again in the echo chamber funded by ExxonMobil.
Sallie Baliunas: a Harvard-Smithsonian Institute astrophysicist, has, along with colleague Willie Wei-Hock Soon, been giving deniers scientific cover since the mid-1990s. They began by claiming solar effects could account for the rise of the global thermostat. After that theory was debunked, Baliunas and Soon wrote a paper-partially funded by the American Petroleum Institute-for Climate Research that claimed that the 20th century hasn't been all that warm. Their conclusions have been praised as the epitome of "sound science" by deniers, including Sen. James Inhofe. The journal's editor, meanwhile, said the paper should never have been published. Baliunas and Soon are each connected to at least four ExxonMobil-funded groups.
Paul Driessen [Heartland Institute | local copy (html, captured 2020-09-30)]: See "Black Gold?"; at least five connections to ExxonMobil-funded groups.
Patrick J. "Pat" Michaels: University of Virginia climatologist and Cato Institute Fellow. One of the most widely cited skeptics, Michaels has received substantial funding from energy companies. Author of "The Satanic Gases and Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media." At least seven connections to ExxonMobil-funded groups.
Steven J. Milloy: A columnist for FOXNews.com and publisher of JunkScience.com and CSRWatch.com. Milloy also runs the Advancement of Sound Science Center and the Free Enterprise Action Institute. Those two groups-apparently run out of Milloy's home-received $90,000 from ExxonMobil. Key quote: The date of Kyoto's implementation will "live in scientific and economic infamy." At least five Connections to ExxonMobil-funded groups.
Disinformation troll Steven J. Milloy is now [2020-10-01] the Director of the Heartland Institute.
Siegfried Fred Singer (dec. 2020-04-06). A godfather of global warming denial, author of The Scientific Case Against the Global Climate Treaty and Hot Talk, Cold Science: Global Warming's Unfinished Debate. Key quote: "There is no convincing evidence that the global climate is actually warming." At least seven connections to ExxonMobil-funded groups.
NOTE [2020-10-02]: Given the age of this article, many of the original links were 404; while I fixed some (and removed many, for clarity -- not having the time presently to fix all errors), refer to the source article for the original citations and links, most which can be resolved through Internet Archive and other web searches.
|
Organization |
Funding |
Hot Air |
Fun Fact |
|
$155,000 |
Calls CO2 caps "a misguided attempt to solve a problem that may not even exist." |
Advised by an American Enterprise Institute fellow. |
|
|
Advancement of Sound Science Center |
$40,000 |
Run by FOX News.com's Steven J. Milloy. |
|
|
$250,000 |
"Science questions must be addressed before the United States and its allies embark on a path as nonproductive as that of the Kyoto Protocol." |
Group netted nearly a million dollars from ExxonMobil from 2000-2003 but the real science bashing was in 2001 when they got a quarter million. |
|
|
$90,000 |
[American Council On Science and Health, 1997-10-01] "A Position Paper of The American Council on Science and Health: policymakers can safely take several decades to plan a response to global warming. |
Patrick J. Michaels and S. Fred Singer are advisors. |
|
|
$960,000 |
[American Enterprise Institute, 2004-04-22] "Don't Worry, Be Happy" climate article |
|
|
|
$712,200 |
Cites Patrick J. "Pat" Michaels' paper for ALEC that claims "global warming could actually save lives." | |
Launched attack on "Sons of Kyoto" state legislation in January 2004. |
|
|
$427,500 |
"Answering questions about global warming takes more than a few thermometers, an agenda and a press release." |
Sallie Baliunas is an advisor; honored Senator James Inhofe for "supporting rational, science-based thinking and policy-making." |
|
|
$49,500 |
They got this amount in 2001 when the office was headed by Robert C. Balling, a well known climate change "skeptic." |
||
|
Atlas Economic Research Foundation [now: Atlas Network] |
$440,000 |
"As the science behind global warming becomes increasingly sketchy, many environmentalists clutch even harder to their views." Atlas Economic Research Foundation [now: Atlas Network] fellow, Deroy Murdock, "You call this global "warming"?" The Washington Times, May 31, 1996. |
|
|
$75,000 |
One of the modern right's most respected think tanks |
Patrick J. "Pat" Michaels is a Senior Fellow. |
|
|
$115,000 |
Right-wing nonprofit watchdog group |
"Scientists disagree about climate change, but you wouldn't know that from the [Kyoto] treaty. It is based on a theory that man-made carbon dioxide, or CO2, gas emissions caused by industrial activities have created the so-called 'global warming' effect." CRC President, Terrence Scanlon, "Outside View: Hot air blows away," United Press International, February 8, 2002. |
|
|
$40,000 |
"Not only is the scientific basis of global warming increasingly uncertain, but Kyoto will also ultimately prove to be an economic disaster for Europe -- and the developing world," CNR President, Tim Evans, "Kyoto will chill the global economy," The Daily Telegraph (letter), October 2, 2004. |
Siegfried Fred Singer offers up his contrarian commentary> on their website. |
|
|
$40,000 |
Called the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment "as phony as a three-dollar bill." |
Paul Driessen is a Senior Policy Adviser. |
|
|
$55,000 |
Calls CO2 emissions "a force for good, enhancing the organic matter that sustains all of humanity." |
||
|
$305,250 |
"The science behind global warming is inconclusive, and to teach otherwise is fearmongering." Peggy Venable, Director of Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy in, "Groups criticize proposed texts; Conservatives duel liberals over books," San Antonio Express-News, September 7, 2001. |
In 2001 Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy fought to get rid of global-warming talk in school textbooks |
|
|
$252,000 |
Website features "some surprisingly clean facts about SUVs." |
Paul Driessen is a Senior Fellow; Sallie Baliunas and Patrick J. "Pat" Michaels are advisers. |
|
|
$1,380,000 |
Likens the danger of global warming to that of "an alien invasion." |
Competitive Enterprise Institute: Steven J. Milloy was an adjunct scholar, 2005-2009 | screenshot. |
|
|
$40,000 |
Says there is no "convincing, real evidence that humans are disrupting the earth's climate." |
This year's Martin Luther King Day civil rights honoree was Karl Rove. |
|
|
$35,000 |
Funds the Cooler Heads Coalition's denialist website, GlobalWarming.org |
Patrick J. "Pat" Michaels is an adviser. |
|
|
Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies ["Federalist Society"] |
$30,000 |
[Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation, 1999-09] The Power to Make Law: Can the EPA Regulate CO2 Under the Clean Air Act? (Internet Archive, 2007-02-21 snapshot; pdf). "The mounting evidence over the most recent years demonstrates that the forecasts for global warming were greatly exaggerated. This new evidence suggests that global warming may not even be occurring." |
|
|
Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE) |
$100,000 |
Montana-based thinktank |
"Given the uncertainty around warming, and the fact that some models predict that temperature increases of up to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit would have beneficial effects, increasing our adaptability to change may be more important than cutting emissions." FREE's Research Associate John C. Downen, "Resiliency is the Key to Climate Change," Bozeman Daily Chronicle, November 13, 2002. |
|
$60,000 |
Vancouver B.C. [Canada]-based thinktank questions the "still-speculative risk of global warming." Chief Scientist Kenneth Green, "Old school environmentalists need to become more business-minded," The Vancouver Province, June 2, 2003. |
Willie Wei-Hock Soon and Sallie Baliunas co-authored the Fraser Institute's "Global Warming: A Guide to the Science." |
|
|
$50,000 |
Another of Steven J. Milloy's projects, registered to his home address |
||
|
$612,000 |
"To listen to eco-radicals tell the story, it is a proven scientific fact that the climate is warming and that mankind is responsible -- Nothing could be farther [sic] from the truth." |
Paul Driessen is a Senior Fellow. |
|
|
$310,000 |
"Challenging global warming (and promoting missile defense) since 1989." |
Sallie Baliunas. is a Senior Scientist; Patrick J. "Pat" Michaels is a visiting scientist. |
|
|
$312,500 |
Compares Michael Crichton to Rachel Carson and Upton Sinclair. |
Publishes op-eds by Willie Wei-Hock Soon and Sallie Baliunas. |
|
|
$340,000 |
"For the next several decades, fossil fuel use is key to improving the human condition." |
||
|
$140,000 |
Published "Happiness is a Warm Planet." |
Siegfried Fred Singer is a former Fellow. |
|
|
$15,000 |
Got funding in 2000, the same year they published Siegfried Fred Singer's article, "Cool Planet, Hot Politics: The next president needs to know that the global warming hypothesis, though politically powerful, is scientifically weak." |
||
|
$30,000 |
Published 2003 report entitled "New Perspectives in Climate Science: What the EPA Isn't Telling Us." |
Siegfried Fred Singer is a former Fellow. |
|
|
$67,000 |
A 2003 "Letter to President George W. Bush" advised that "the uncertain link between industrial emissions and global warming after a century of greenhouse gas buildup and decades of study points toward lower-range, benign warming scenarios." |
||
|
$50,000 |
"The temperature variations read in the past century could be part of a larger process that is alien to humanity." International Policy Network author Kendra Okonski edited "Adapt or Die: The science, politics and economics of climate change," London: Profile Books, 2003. p. 205 |
||
|
$15,500 |
Funding amount from 2001 when a board of scholars member opined: "The Kyoto Protocol seems to be built on the following two assumptions: First, global warming is a function of human activity (with the biggest villains being automobiles, factories, and power plants), and second, we are currently experiencing unprecedented levels of global warming. However, a review of the earth's most recent 'geological history' brings into question both assumptions and puts the entire subject in a different light." |
||
|
$50,000 |
Blasted the "networks' overwhelmingly one-sided picture of the global warming debate. |
Robert Novak dubs the Media Research Center an "indispensable counterpunch to liberal reporting." |
|
|
$40,000 |
George Mason University shop that in 2003 included an eight-page speech by Michael Crichton in its official comments to the White House Office of Management and Budget. |
||
|
$75,000 |
Kyoto could "reverse the economic progress that blacks and Hispanics have achieved in recent years." |
||
|
$205,000 |
"There is still no conclusive evidence that human activity is causing global temperatures to rise." |
Siegfried Fred Singer is an Adjunct Scholar. |
|
|
$160,000 |
In their "Questions and Answers on Global Warming," it states "There is no serious evidence that man-made global warming is taking place," and "There are many indications that carbon dioxide does not play a significant role in global warming." |
Its EnviroTruth.org website debunks "myths" of climate change, including, "Humanity is the primary cause of global climate change"; and "The consensus of world scientists, as revealed by the UN's IPCC agree: humanity is causing significant climate change." |
|
|
$145,000 |
"No one seriously claims to know whether the past warming was caused by human activities; whether further warming will occur and, if it does, whether it will result from human activities, and whether such warming in some general sense would be a bad thing." Senior fellow Benjamin Zycher, "State's Auto Emissions Bill Is Just So Much Gas," Los Angeles Times, May 8, 2002. |
||
|
$15,000 |
"Whether global warming is happening is a matter of debate" Pacific Legal Foundation attorney, Anne M. Hayes, "Legislature declares war on SUVs," San Diego Union Tribune, July 12, 2002 |
||
|
$60,000 |
Gave Bush a B- on global warming, applauding his acknowledgment of "the importance of scientific uncertainty." |
||
|
Reason Public Policy Institute [now: Reason Foundation] |
$230,000 |
Their website reads: "The sun, not a gas, is primarily to 'blame' for global warming." |
|
|
Science and Environmental Policy [Science & Environmental Policy Project] |
$10,000 |
"We should have more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere." |
Siegfried Fred Singer's pet project |
|
$95,000 |
A virtual HQ for global warming deniers |
Sallie Baliunas is a commentator; Willie Wei-Hock Soon is the science director; and Steven J. Milloy is a contributing writer. Run by former FOX News.com editor and hosted by an American Enterprise Institute fellow. |
|
|
Total 2000-2003 |
$8,678,450 |
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