Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Climate Change Denial: A Note to Journalists

A recent survey of peer-reviewed studies published in Science magazine found no respected research debunking human-related activities as a major cause of climate change.
“The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change” Science Magazine (Vol 306, Issue 5702, 1686 , 3 December 2004)
Even the Bush administration’s 2002 report on climate change made this point clear.
“Greenhouse gasses are accumulating in the Earth’s atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing global mean surface air temperature and subsurface ocean temperature to rise”
US Climate Action Report (U.S. Department of State, May 2002)

The confusion in the public’s mind comes largely from a privately financed public relations campaign sponsored, at least in part, by petroleum interests.
The funding and intentions of this campaign became clear on May 28, 2003, when The New York Times broke the story. The paper discovered the following:
"Exxon now gives more than $1 million a year to such organizations, which include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Frontiers of Freedom, the George C. Marshall Institute, the American Council for Capital Formation Center for Policy Research and the American Legislative Exchange Council."
"Exxon's publicly disclosed documents reveal that donations to many of these organizations increased by more than 50 percent from 2000 to 2002."
“Exxon Backs Groups That Question Global Warming” Jennifer Lee, New York Times, May 28, 2003
Much like the “scientists” hired by the tobacco industry to find that cigarette smoke had no connection with lung cancer, these groups represent a well-funded effort to confuse the public about the science, risks, and severity of climate change.

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