12/08/2004

A new website was launched today exposing the links between money from the Esso oil corporation and the think tanks, associations and individuals denying global warming. Designed as tool for journalists, www.exxonsecrets.org is freely accessible and allows media professionals to instantly discover conflicts of interest when seeking comment on climate change issues.

A wide variety of think tanks, organisations, associations and authorities with names designed to appear neutral are putting forward opinions denying or debasing the science behind global warming. Despite a veneer of independence, these so-called climate sceptics are often a front for the industry responsible for global warming pollution. Details about who is funding these groups are often not acknowledged by the media.

ExxonMobil (known as Esso in the UK) is the world’s biggest oil company. For years it has funded pseudo-science and front groups to cast doubt on the science around global warming. Since 1998, Greenpeace has documented Esso grants of more than US$12 million to groups that employ or enlist leading climate sceptics and policy detractors.

Yet these industry mouthpieces do not reveal this vital information to the journalists who interview them, preferring instead to affect an air of independence and disinterest.

So how do you do know if your interview subject is truly independent, or being paid to be a subtle industry spokesperson?

www.exxonsecrets.org, developed by Greenpeace, shows the links between Esso cash and some of the loudest climate sceptics being quoted in the media. The website includes dossiers and fact sheets for each organisation and person, with a description, history, staff bios, quotes, deeds and hidden affiliations.

Designed as a tool for journalists, researchers, and policy makers, this freely accessible site can be used to investigate the links between climate sceptic groups and how much funding comes from Esso. Searches can be made on organisations and individuals, cross referencing with other groups and individuals. (cont…)

Of course you don’t have to take our word for it. The site is fully referenced so anyone can cross check our sources - existing websites, ExxonMobil annual reports and other publicly available materials.

The next time you interview a climate sceptic – someone who denies that global warming is real or urgent or bashes policies aimed at solving the problem - ask them where they get their funding. Then check them out on exxonsecrets.org. We don’t claim that every bit of this ExxonMobil money is aimed at climate change work, but full disclosure is crucial on this issue.

EXAMPLES:

In the last year sceptic scientists funded by Esso have been quoted in numerous news items. The following are examples:-

The Financial Times; Sep 17, 2003, Iain Murray

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 Esso.

www.exxonsecrets.org reveals that:

 …last year the CEI received $465, 000 from Esso. The year before, $405,000.

The Guardian, Sep 01, 2003

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 Esso 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 Esso..

 …regularly writes for Tech Central Station, a climate sceptic website which carries banner ads for Esso 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.”

www.Exxonsecrets.org 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 Esso.

 …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 Esso in the last two years.

ENDS

For more information contact Greenpeace on 0207 865 8255.

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