UCS Report Reveals: EXXON Paid To Mislead The Public

[RestoreGore]

EXXON and companies like them are murderers and liars. They are killing the Earth and those who die due to continued effects of climate change. Both my parents died of cancer because they started smoking before the dangers were known because they were lied to as well by the tobacco companies and their disinformation campaign. I am damn sure not going to sit and watch these bastards lie to our children.They MUST be held accountable:

http://ucsaction.org/campaign/1_3_07_Exxon_report?rk=21%5fOfus1E4UzE

And just as a sidenote, I called Barbara Boxer's office this morning to ask if there was a timetable in which there would be real legislation regarding this climate crisis. The woman I spoke to couldn't give me that (no surprise) and I really did not get a good feeling from that phone call regarding this issue. I guess they know Bush's veto will go right on anything they try to do, but they had better try. ONE MORE REASON TO IMPEACH HIM. So it will have to be US who DEMAND it. I also told her that Democrats need to STOP FUNDING this war and use the money for our people and our needs right here and to also address this climate crisis.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070103/ap_on_bi_ge/exxonmobil_global_warming

Group: ExxonMobil paid to mislead public Wed Jan 3, 2:15 PM ET

WASHINGTON - ExxonMobil Corp. gave $16 million to 43 ideological groups between 1998 and 2005 in a coordinated effort to mislead the public by discrediting the science behind global warming, the Union of Concerned Scientists asserted Wednesday. The report by the science-based nonprofit advocacy group mirrors similar claims by Britain's leading scientific academy. Last September, The Royal Society wrote the oil company asking it to halt support for groups that "misrepresented the science of climate change."

ExxonMobil did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the scientific advocacy group's report.Many scientists say accumulating carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from tailpipes and smokestacks are warming the atmosphere like a greenhouse, melting Arctic sea ice, alpine glaciers and disturbing the lives of animals and plants.

ExxonMobil lists on its Web site nearly $133 million in 2005 contributions globally, including $6.8 million for "public information and policy research" distributed to more than 140 think-tanks, universities, foundations, associations and other groups. Some of those have publicly disputed the link between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

But in September, the company said in response to the Royal Society that it funded groups which research "significant policy issues and promote informed discussion on issues of direct relevance to the company." It said the groups do not speak for the company.Alden Meyer, the Union of Concerned Scientists' strategy and policy director, said in a teleconference that ExxonMobil based its tactics on those of tobacco companies, spreading uncertainty by misrepresenting peer-reviewed scientific studies or cherry-picking facts.

Dr. James McCarthy, a professor at Harvard University, said the company has sought to "create the illusion of a vigorous debate" about global warming.

___

On the Net:

Union of Concerned Scientists: http://www.ucsusa.org

ExxonMobil: http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate

[whistle]

1. Repeat of Big Tobacco CEOs testimony before U.S. Congress of

....no harmful effects from smoking

[RestoreGore]

3. Yes, know that footage well...

The lying pigs.

[drm604]

6. Big tobacco may have been the first to fund misleading global warming propaganda.

If not the first then one of the earliest.
See this thread in the DU video forum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=10254

The whole video is worth watching but the part about the big tobacco connection starts around 4:50.

[Sapere aude]

2. Every once in a while we get a guest editorial in our newspaper saying that there is no proof of

global warming so we don't need to do anything about it. Or they say that it is a natural occurrence and not caused by emissions. Almost all the time the writer works for the oil industry in one way or another.

[RestoreGore]

4. I see them sometimes too...

And now I respond to them with no mercy. They are putting profit over principle and in the rprocess seeking to make this planet uninhabitable. It seems absolutely crazy to me, especially since they have to live here too. Isn't it amazing what GREED does to the human soul?

[MaineYooper]

5. check the authors' affiliations

It will no doubt be either the CEI (competitive enterprise institute), the Heritage Foundation, or one of the other Mobil/Exxon funded mouthpieces. Watch especially for Myron Ebell, a commonly trotted out "expert" with training as an economist, but not in climatology.

I already said it in another thread, but it bears repeating:

Tell your family, tell your friends. Never, ever buy gasoline from Mobil/Exxon. Never.

[JohnWxy]

7. RECOMMENDED. Some info you'll never get from MSM

This article form Mother Jones has a good spreadsheet of the many organizaations and funds received (as of early 2005).


Http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2005/05/exxon_chart.html




Put a Tiger In Your Think Tank

ExxonMobil has pumped more than $8 million into more than 40 think tanks; media outlets; and consumer, religious, and even civil rights groups that preach skepticism about the oncoming climate catastrophe. Herewith, a representative overview.

May/June 2005 Issue


and from SourceWatch:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ExxonMobil#Exxon.27s_funding_of_climate_sceptics


During 2002, ExxonMobil donated $5.6 million to public policy organizations which share its agenda, either on climate change denial or general extreme free market advocacy. These included: <3>

Acton Institute, ($30,000)
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research ($200,000)
Atlas Economic Research Foundation ($50,000)
Cato Institute ($30,000)
Center for Strategic and International Studies ($145,000)
Committee for Economic Development ($75,000)
Competitive Enterprise Institute ($405,000)
Foundation for American Communications ($175,000)
Frontiers of Freedom ($233,000)
George C. Marshall Foundation (90,000)
Reason Foundation ($50,000)

In October 2006, two US Senators, Olympia Snowe, (R-Maine), and Jay Rockefeller, (D-W.Va.) wrote to ExxonMobil's chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, asking that it "end any further financial assistance" to groups "whose public advocacy has contributed to the small but unfortunately effective climate change denial myth." The Senators singled out the Competitive Enterprise Institute and TechCentralStation as such groups. They wrote that "we are convinced that ExxonMobil's long-standing support of a small cadre of global climate change skeptics, and those skeptics' access to and influence on government policymakers, have made it increasingly difficult for the United States to demonstrate the moral clarity it needs across all facets of its diplomacy". <4>

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

9. What is the news here?

There are two groups of scientists in the "debate". The real scientists and the paid liars.

If you want to read the Mother Jones article, try this link.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2005/05/exxon_chart.html

[drm604]

8. Kick

:kick: