Via The Guardian:
Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.
Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Travel expenses and additional payments were also offered.
[...]
The AEI has received more than $1.6m from ExxonMobil and more than 20 of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush administration. Lee Raymond, a former head of ExxonMobil, is the vice-chairman of AEI's board of trustees.
The letters, sent to scientists in Britain, the US and elsewhere, attack the UN's panel as "resistant to reasonable criticism and dissent and prone to summary conclusions that are poorly supported by the analytical work" and ask for essays that "thoughtfully explore the limitations of climate model outputs".
Climate scientists described the move yesterday as an attempt to cast doubt over the "overwhelming scientific evidence" on global warming. "It's a desperate attempt by an organisation who wants to distort science for their own political aims," said David Viner of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
[...]
Ben Stewart of Greenpeace said: "The AEI is more than just a thinktank, it functions as the Bush administration's intellectual Cosa Nostra. They are White House surrogates in the last throes of their campaign of climate change denial. They lost on the science; they lost on the moral case for action. All they've got left is a suitcase full of cash."
The article also says:
On Monday, another Exxon-funded organisation based in Canada will launch a review in London which casts doubt on the IPCC report. Among its authors are Tad Murty, a former scientist who believes human activity makes no contribution to global warming. Confirmed VIPs attending include Nigel Lawson and David Bellamy, who believes there is no link between burning fossil fuels and global warming.
Why is ExxonMobil running scared? Could it be because they just realized an obscene amount of profit?
HOUSTON ---- Oil giant Exxon Mobil topped its own record for the biggest annual profit by a U.S. company last year, racking up earnings that amounted to $4.5 million an hour for the world's largest publicly traded oil company.
I guess putting a dent in that $4.5 million an hour just scares the pants off their corporate execs. I mean, really. How could any company possibly survive on less than that?? Next thing you know they'll be standing in line at the food bank.
It's certainly not surprising that the neocon AEI would be trying to pay off scientists and economists.
AEI rents office space to the Project for the New American Century, one of the leading voices that pushed the Bush administration's plan for "regime change" through war in Iraq. AEI reps have also aggressively denied that the war has anything to do with oil.
Right. And I'm the tooth fairy.
And who is Canada's Tad Murty? He's an active member of the group called the Friends of Science. And who are the Friends of Science? And what relationship do they with the current Conservative government?
...the chief architect of the Friends of Science is Dr. Barry Cooper, Calgary University Professor and long-time confidante of Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.
Dr. Cooper is a very well-known member of the so-called “Calgary School,” a group of U of C professors attributed with the rise of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the ruling Conservative Party of Canada.
Cooper is also Stephen Harper’s fishing buddy**. With Harper and his Conservatives scrapping climate change programs and moving away from the Kyoto Accord, the Friends of Science seem to be a well-timed, well-aligned third-party endorser that can create the public doubt Harper needs. And it's all orchestrated by one of Harper's closest allies.
As the air thickens, so does the plot...
Is anyone out there still wondering why Harper used the phrase "so-called greenhouse gases"?
Suddenly, recycling my pop cans just seems so futile.
** a must read
Related: Mr. Cool - Nurturing doubt about climate change is big business
Update: The IPCC report has been released and you can find it on their site here.
During his press conference on Friday, Harper accused the opposition of not having any plans to deal with climate change. On Thursday however, the Liberals released this statement:
Mr. Dion also dispelled the Conservative misinformation about the Liberal record on climate change and the environment. He pointed out that despite the obstinate opposition of the Conservatives, and the Canadian Alliance before them, the previous Liberal government took many steps to improve the environment and reduce GHG emissions, culminating in the 2005 Budget and Project Green, which the Sierra Club of Canada called “probably the most innovative approach anywhere in the world for a government to actually reduce emissions.”
“Thanks to the previous Liberal government, Mr. Harper had the legal framework to take action; he had a full set of programs already in operation; and by sheer coincidence, his environment minister had the chairmanship of the UN Conference on Climate Change – the perfect vehicle for Canada to play a positive role in the world,” said Mr. Dion.
“But Mr. Harper squandered this opportunity, cutting $5.6 billion from climate change programs, depriving Canadians of information by removing every trace of Project Green from government web-sites, and actively and deliberately undermining the Kyoto Accord.”
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