12/08/2004

On Sep 17, 2003 the FT ran a comment piece ‘Environmental scientists must stop crying wolf’, by Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). The article condemned environmental “alarmism” but neglected to mention that the CEI receives regular funding from ExxonMobil (known as Esso here in the U.K).

www.exxonsecrets.org reveals that:

*…last year the CEI received $465, 000 from ExxonMobil. The year before, $405,000.

The Guardian, Sep 01, 2003, Ian Sample

In September 2003 the Guardian reported new research, which showed that the earth was now warmer than it had been at any time in the past 2,000 years. Although the Guardian stated that the newly published findings were a blow to sceptics, who maintain that global warming is part of the natural climatic cycle, the paper still found one to quote:

“Scientists who do not believe that carbon dioxide is driving climate change are unlikely to run up the white flag just yet, however. Dr Sallie Baliunas at the Harvard College Observatory in Massachusetts, for example, maintains that the recent warming could all be down to changes in the strength of sunlight falling on the planet.”

www.Exxonsecrets.org reveals that Sallie Baliunas:

*…worked throughout the nineties for the American Petroleum Institute and the Global Climate Coalition - oil industry umbrella groups that actively sought to undermine the Kyoto protocol.

*…is the senior scientist at the George C Marshall institute, a think tank funded by Esso, which questions the science of global warming. The Marshall institute received $95,000 from ExxonMobil last year.

*…goes back a long way with William O'Keefe, the President of the Marshall Institute. O’Keefe previously chaired the (anti-Kyoto) Global Climate Coalition and also served as chief operating officer for the American Petroleum Institute, both of which promoted Sallie’s work. O’Keefe also happens to be a registered lobbyist for ExxonMobil.

*…regularly writes for Tech Central Station, a climate sceptic website which carries banner ads for ExxonMobil and received $95,000 from them last year for ‘climate change support’.

*…is also a policy expert for the Heritage Foundation which received $190,000 from Exxon last year

Daily Mail, Jan 12, 2004, Melanie phillips

Gaffe-prone Melanie Phillips quoted Esso funded sceptics in an article that claimed global warming was a “Global Fraud”.

www.Exxonsecrets.org reveals that:

*…Richard Lindzen, the scientist quoted by Phillips, charges oil & coal interests £2,500 a day for his consulting services.

*… Richard Lindzen also had his 1991 trip to testify before congress on Global Warming paid for by Western Fuels – a US coal company.

*…the Oregon petition cited by Phillips, was backed with a bogus scientific paper written by Sallie Baliunas and Willie Soon (both Exxon funded scientists) which was not peer reviewed but was formatted to look like an National Academy of Sciences (NAS) paper. The NAS later issued a statement disassociating itself from the petition and the article.

The Times, July 10, 2004, Maureen Shaw

“We all read the papers, watch TV or listen to the radio. But how can we be sure that we are being fully informed, especially when it comes to statistics? Global warming is a case in point… learned chap, Dr Fred Singer, has a site at www.sepp.org, where he submits a deliberately unhysterical look at science and the environment, in his The Week That Was slot. A more entertaining spin on a similar theme can be found at www.junkscience.com.”

Exxon secrets reveals that:

*… Fred Singer has been a darling of Esso since the early 1990s, and is often wheeled out to provide contrarian evidence that in fact global warming is either (1) not happening or (2) going to be great. He also works in various capacities for a plethora of Esso funded think tanks that all repeat Esso's anti-Kyoto, climate sceptic line.

*…climate sceptic think tanks which promote Dr Singer’s work have received over $ 1, 742, 000 since 1998 from ExxonMobil.

*…the Frontier of Freedom Institute - a rabidly anti-Kyoto, free-market think tank – for which Mr Singer is an Adjunct Fellow has received $427,000 from ExxonMobil in the last two years.

[Previous press release: "FAQ's on Esso's new advertising campaign"]
[Next press release: "Who does your interviewee really represent?"]