ExxonMobil continuing to fund climate sceptic

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Voici deux articles intéressants.

 

Il y a maintenant des preuves évidentes et des aveux de la compagnie Exxon Mobil d'avoir financé des groupes qui publient des sites web, des livres, etc. de déni des changements climatiques. Ils ont tout intérêt financier en ce sens!

 

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ExxonMobil continuing to fund climate sceptic groups, records show

 

Records show ExxonMobil gave hundreds of thousands of pounds to lobby groups that have published 'misleading and inaccurate information' about climate change

 

* David Adam, environment correspondent

* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 July 2009 16.51 BST

* Article history

 

Exxon

 

The world's largest oil company is continuing to fund lobby groups that question the reality of global warming, despite a public pledge to cut support for such climate change denial, a new analysis shows.

 

Company records show that ExxonMobil handed over hundreds of thousands of pounds to such lobby groups in 2008. These include the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) in Dallas, Texas, which received $75,000 (£45,500), and the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC, which received $50,000.

 

According to Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, at the London School of Economics, both the NCPA and the Heritage Foundation have published "misleading and inaccurate information about climate change."

 

On its website, the NCPA says: "NCPA scholars believe that while the causes and consequences of the earth's current warming trend is [sic] still unknown, the cost of actions to substantially reduce CO2 emissions would be quite high and result in economic decline, accelerated environmental destruction, and do little or nothing to prevent global warming regardless of its cause."

 

The Heritage Foundation published a "web memo" in December that said: "Growing scientific evidence casts doubt on whether global warming constitutes a threat, including the fact that 2008 is about to go into the books as a cooler year than 2007". Scientists, including those at the UK Met Office say that the apparent cooling is down to natural changes and does not alter the long-term warming trend.

 

In its 2008 corporate citizenship report, published last year, ExxonMobil said it would cut funds to several groups that "divert attention" from the need to find new sources of clean energy.

 

The NCPA and Heritage Foundation are included among groups funded by ExxonMobil, according to details of its "2008 Worldwide Contributions and Community Investments" published recently.

 

Ward said: "ExxonMobil has been briefing journalists for three years that they were going to stop funding these groups. The reality is that they are still doing it. If the world's largest oil company wants to fund climate change denial then it should be upfront about it, and not tell people it has stopped."

 

In 2006, Ward, then at the Royal Society, wrote to ExxonMobil to challenge the company's funding of such lobby groups. The move, revealed in the Guardian, prompted accusations of censorship and debate about whether experts should "police" the distribution of scientific information.

 

In an article on the Guardian website, Ward writes: "I have now written again to ExxonMobil to point out that these organisations publish misleading information about climate change on their websites, and to seek guidance on how to reconcile this fact with the pledge made by the company. I believe that the company should keep its promise by ending its financial support for lobby groups that mislead the public about climate change."

 

ExxonMobil said it annually reviews and adjusts its contributions to policy research groups. A spokesman said: "Only ExxonMobil speaks for ExxonMobil and our position on climate change is clear. We have the same concerns as people everywhere, and that is how to provide the world with the energy it needs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We take the issue of climate change seriously and the risks warrant action."

 

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009...ceptics-funding

 

 

 

Why ExxonMobil must be taken to task over climate denial funding

 

ExxonMobil should keep its promise by ending its financial support for lobby groups that mislead the public about climate change, writes Bob Ward

 

* Bob Ward

* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 July 2009 17.03 BST

* Article history

• Bob Ward is the policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science.

 

I first encountered Exxon Mobil's lobbying efforts on climate change in October 2000, when I and other staff from the Royal Society, together with representatives from UK government departments and other organisations, attended a briefing at the company's offices in London.

 

The speaker, Brian Flannery, who was the company's science, strategy and programs manager, presented claims that action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would be economically damaging. He also questioned the scientific evidence that underpinned national and international regulations, such as the Kyoto protocol. I left the meeting rather bemused by what I had heard.

 

I did not realise it at the time, but this meeting was part of a wider campaign by the oil company to resist restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, including those applied to the burning of fossil fuels. In the United States, the company was engaged in intensive lobbying efforts against the Kyoto protocol, including advertisements that questioned the scientific basis for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

 

In March 2006, I wrote an internal memo for colleagues at the Royal Society about climate change and the media. It pointed out that Exxon Mobil had published inaccurate and misleading information about the science of climate change, and had also funded campaigns by lobby groups that were attempting to convince the public that greenhouse gas emissions were not the main driver of global warming. The memo noted that some environmental organisationshad been misinforming the public as well about climate change, for instance by citing it as the cause of individual extreme weather events.

 

I shared a copy of the memo in April 2006 with the Guardian, which reported the key points. I was immediately contacted by Greenpeace, which asked for details of the misleading statements and offered to correct them. Exxon Mobil also approached me to request a discussion.

 

So in June 2006, I met with two members of Esso's public relations staff. I drew attention to a report it published in February 2006 called Tomorrow's Energy: A Perspective on Energy Trends, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Future Energy Options (no longer on Exxon's website), which overplayed the uncertainties about the evidence for greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change.

 

They complained that the company's position had been "misunderstood", but also revealed that it was planning to discontinue funding for several lobby groups that had been most active in publishing misleading information. I thought that Exxon Mobil might be at last adjusting its position to be consistent with the scientific evidence.

 

Then in September 2006, the company sent me its 2005 corporate citizenship report. It too overplayed the uncertainties about the scientific evidence, so I wrote to one of the staff with whom I had met previously to register my concern. I also enquired about the pledge to stop funding lobby groups which published misleading information about climate change.

 

Following coverage of my letter by the Guardian, I was attacked by lobby groups that were funded by Exxon Mobil, accusing me of "censorship".

 

Exxon Mobil wrote to the Royal Society to complain that I had treated it "unfairly".

 

The Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne told fellow MPs that the company had hinted that my departure from the Royal Society was linked to the letter I had written. This was untrue: I had received an offer in July 2006 to move to another job and had given the Royal Society two months notice – long before I wrote the letter.

 

Other unconnected to Exxon Mobil made risible efforts to discredit me. Dominic Lawson, a columnist for the Independent, laughably accused me of using the letter to promote the publication of George Monbiot's book Heat.

 

Since that time, Exxon Mobil has repeatedly briefed journalists that it would stop funding for some lobby groups. In March 2009, I wrote to Exxon Mobil to welcome the end of its support for some groups, but asked about its continued donations to other organisations that still publish inaccurate and misleading information about climate change. The company drew attention to a pledge in its 2007 corporate citizenship report to cease funding in 2008 for lobby groups that "divert attention" from discussions about energy and climate change.

 

A few weeks ago, ExxonMobil revealed that it made contributions in 2008 to lobby groups such as the National Center for Policy Analysis and the Heritage Foundation in order to "promote informed discussion". So I have now written again to ExxonMobil to point out that these organisations publish misleading information about climate change on their websites, and to seek guidance on how to reconcile this fact with the pledge made by the company. I believe that the company should keep its promise by ending its financial support for lobby groups that mislead the public about climate change.

 

• Bob Ward is the policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science.

 

 

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-...n-mobil-climate