[Dialogue] Scientists' Report Documents ExxonMobil's Tobacco-like Disinformation Campaign on Global Warming Science Oil Company Spent Nearly $16 Million to Fund Skeptic Groups, Create Confusion

[Harry Wainwright]

Union of Concerned Scientists
Citizens and Scientists for Environmental Solutions
www.ucsusa.org 




January 3, 2007

Scientists' Report Documents ExxonMobil's Tobacco-like Disinformation
Campaign on Global Warming Science Oil Company Spent Nearly $16 Million to
Fund Skeptic Groups, Create Confusion 

ExxonMobil Report 

WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 3-A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists
offers the most comprehensive documentation to date of how ExxonMobil has
adopted the tobacco industry's disinformation tactics, as well as some of
the same organizations and personnel, to cloud the scientific understanding
of climate change and delay action on the issue. According to the report,
ExxonMobil has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a
network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on
global warming science. 

"ExxonMobil has manufactured uncertainty about the human causes of global
warming just as tobacco companies denied their product caused lung cancer,"
said Alden Meyer, the Union of Concerned Scientists' Director of Strategy &
Policy. "A modest but effective investment has allowed the oil giant to fuel
doubt about global warming to delay government action just as Big Tobacco
did for over 40 years."

Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to
"Manufacture Uncertainty" on Climate Change details how the oil company,
like the tobacco industry in previous decades, has 

*	raised doubts about even the most indisputable scientific evidence 
*	funded an array of front organizations to create the appearance of a
broad platform for a tight-knit group of vocal climate change contrarians
who misrepresent peer-reviewed scientific findings 
*	attempted to portray its opposition to action as a positive quest
for "sound science" rather than business self-interest 
*	used its access to the Bush administration to block federal policies
and shape government communications on global warming

ExxonMobil-funded organizations consist of an overlapping collection of
individuals serving as staff, board members, and scientific advisors that
publish and re-publish the works of a small group of climate change
contrarians. The George C. Marshall Institute, for instance, which has
received $630,000 from ExxonMobil, recently touted a book edited by Patrick
Michaels, a long-time climate change contrarian who is affiliated with at
least 11 organizations funded by ExxonMobil. Similarly, ExxonMobil funds a
number of lesser-known groups such as the Annapolis Center for Science-Based
Public Policy and Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow. Both groups promote
the work of several climate change contrarians, including Sallie Baliunas,
an astrophysicist who is affiliated with at least nine ExxonMobil-funded
groups. 

Baliunas is best known for a 2003 paper alleging the climate had not changed
significantly in the past millennia that was rebutted by 13 scientists who
stated she had misrepresented their work in her paper. This renunciation did
not stop ExxonMobil-funded groups from continuing to promote the paper.
Through methods such as these, ExxonMobil has been able to amplify and prop
up work that has been discredited by reputable climate scientists.  

"When one looks closely, ExxonMobil's underhanded strategy is as clear and
indisputable as the scientific research it's meant to discredit," said Seth
Shulman, an investigative journalist who wrote the UCS report.  "The paper
trail shows that, to serve its corporate interests, ExxonMobil has built a
vast echo chamber of seemingly independent groups with the express purpose
of spreading disinformation about global warming."

ExxonMobil has used the laudable goal of improving scientific understanding
of global warming-under the guise of "sound science"-for the pernicious ends
of delaying action to reduce heat-trapping emissions indefinitely.
ExxonMobil also exerted unprecedented influence over U.S. policy on global
warming, from successfully recommending the appointment of key personnel in
the Bush administration to funding climate change deniers in Congress. 

"As a scientist, I like to think that facts will prevail, and they do
eventually," said Dr. James McCarthy, Alexander Agassiz Professor of
Biological Oceanography at Harvard University and former chair of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's working group on climate change
impacts. "It's shameful that ExxonMobil has sought to obscure the facts for
so long when the future of our planet depends on the steps we take now and
in the coming years." 

The burning of oil and other fossil fuels results in additional atmospheric
carbon dioxide that blankets the Earth and traps heat. The amount of CO2 in
the atmosphere has increased greatly over the last century and global
temperatures are rising as a result. Though solutions are available now that
will cut global warming emissions while creating jobs, saving consumers
money, and protecting our national security, ExxonMobil has manufactured
confusion around climate change science, and these actions have helped to
forestall meaningful action that could minimize the impacts of future
climate change. 

"ExxonMobil needs to be held accountable for its cynical disinformation
campaign on global warming," said Meyer.  "Consumers, shareholders and
Congress should let the company know loud and clear that its behavior on
this issue is unacceptable and must change." 

Contacts

Reporters: Join our
<http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press-notification-signup.html> notification
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For general media inquiries, please call our press office at 202-331-5420.

Press Contacts:

EMILY ROBINSON
Press Secretary
202-331-5427
 <mailto:erobinson at ucsusa.org> erobinson at ucsusa.org 

 

AARON HUERTAS
Assistant Press Secretary
202-331-5458 
 <mailto:ahuertas at ucsusa.org> ahuertas at ucsusa.org

RICH HAYES
Media Director 
202-331-5437
 <mailto:rhayes at ucsusa.org> rhayes at ucsusa.org 


C Union of Concerned Scientists

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