Business-Managed Environment - Global Warming Denying Scientists

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Global Warming Denying Scientists

Corporations and their front groups have utilised a handful of dissident scientists to cast doubt on the likelihood of adverse impacts arising from global warming. These scientists, who oppose the general scientific consensus on global warming, have had their voices greatly amplified by fossil fuel interests. Such scientists do not disclose their funding sources when talking to the media or before government hearings.

When these few global warming denying scientists had become household names because they were quoted so frequently in the media, the oil industry sought to "recruit and train a team of five independent scientists to participate in media outreach... this team will consist of new faces who will add their voices to those recognized scientists who already are vocal."

Nevertheless there is still only a relatively small number of scientists arguing against the mainstream concensus on global warming and who are relied on by the various front groups and corporate funding think tanks that are campaigning against global warming legislation and regulations. These scientists perform a variety of tasks for advocacy groups and think tanks including:

write documents such as policy studies, books, articles, opinion pieces
testify at government hearings,
give speeches, for example, at forums, conferences and sponsored events
provide expert advice and editorial help
provide credibility and legitimacy through fellowships, membership of advisory panels and editorships
provide a source for citations through books and articles they write

In return the scientists receive financial and other resources, institutional positions, affiliations for their CV, and much increased public exposure for their views.

The diagram below shows the connections that many of them have with such groups, either as scientific advisors, fellows, book and report authors, or featured experts.

Associations between denial scientists and corporate-funded groups

Exxon funded network
Information from: Seth Shulman et. al., 'Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco’s Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science'. Union of Concerned Scientists, January 2007, pp. 34-5.(pdf) and ‘Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine’. Washington, DC: Greenpeace USA, March 2010, p. 4 (pdf).

References

Business-Managed Democracy

Associations between denial scientists and corporate-funded groups

© 2010 Sharon Beder http://www.herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/environment/warming/deniers.html

© 2010 Sharon Beder
http://www.herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/environment/warming/deniers.html