Gore: Companies Fund Anti-Warming Research

ExxonMobil Rejects Allegation That It Funds Research Aimed At Misleading The Public

(AP)  Former Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday that some of the world's largest energy companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp., are funding research aimed at disputing the scientific consensus on global warming as part of a campaign to mislead the public.

ExxonMobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, rejected the allegation.

"There has been an organized campaign, financed to the tune of about $10 million a year from some of the largest carbon polluters, to create the impression that there is disagreement in the scientific community" about global warming, Gore said at a forum in Singapore. "In actuality, there is very little disagreement."

"This is one of the strongest of scientific consensus views in the history of science," Gore said. "We live in a world where what used to be called propaganda now has a major role to play in shaping public opinion."

Gore likened the campaign to that of the millions of dollars spent by U.S. tobacco companies years ago on creating the appearance of uncertainty and debate within the scientific community on the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes.

"Some of the tobacco companies spent millions of dollars to create the appearance that there was disagreement on the science. And some of the large coal and utility companies and the largest oil company, ExxonMobil, have been involved in doing that exact same thing for the last several years," Gore said.

After the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of a number of the world's top climate scientists, released a report in February that warned the cause of global warming is "very likely" man-made, "the deniers offered a bounty of $10,000 for each article disputing the consensus that people could crank out and get published somewhere," Gore said.

"They're trying to manipulate opinion and they are taking us for fools," he said.

Last year, British and American science advocacy groups accused ExxonMobil of funding groups that undermine the scientific consensus on climate change. The company said the scientists' reports were just attempts to smear ExxonMobil's name and confuse the debate.

ExxonMobil spokesman Gantt Walton said Tuesday that the company's financial support for scientific reports did not mean it influenced the outcome of those studies. ExxonMobil believes the risk that greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to climate change warrants taking action to limit them, he said.

"The recycling of this type of discredited conspiracy theory diverts attention from the real challenge at hand: how to provide the energy needed to improve global living standards while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

Gore said that with growing awareness of climate change, the world will see an acceleration in efforts to fight the problem, and urged businesses to recognize that reducing carbon emissions is in their long-term interest.

But while Washington should lead by example, he said developing nations also have to play a part.

"Countries like China, just to give an example, which will next year be the largest emitter in the world, can't be excluded just because it's technically a developing country," Gore said. "When you look at the absolute amount of CO2 each year and going forward, China will soon surpass the U.S."

As its economy expands, China faces an increased risk from the effects of climate change and must find ways to leapfrog old, polluting technologies in ways that can maintain growth, Gore said.

In June, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said China overtook the United States in carbon dioxide emissions by about 7.5 percent in 2006. China was 2 percent below the U.S. in greenhouse gas emissions in 2005, the agency said.

[one_american]

Don't you think it is at LEAST a conflict of interest for Al Gore - to own a company that sells "carbon credits" to industries, while paying for junk science "studies" that push the global-warming meme?

And he still REFUSES to debate ANYONE on the subject! He just makes a stupid statement that "the debate is over" even before any serious debate has even begun!

Al Gore will surely go down in history as the world's biggest money-grubbing charlatan Democrat...ever...ever!

And the mainstream media will be held responsible for their complicity in the "global warming" sham.

[pepperp1]

Big Al taking on the Cheney and his assistant Bush Jr. and their AEI friends and family go AL...I do not shop Exxon when possible funding deniers is just plan greed for this company with this type of sky high profits.
If only Al was Pr...

[one_american]

Don't you think it is at LEAST a conflict of interest for Al Gore - to own a company that sells "carbon credits" to industries, while paying for junk science "studies" that push the global-warming meme?

And he still REFUSES to debate ANYONE on the subject! He just makes a stupid statement that "the debate is over" even before any serious debate has even begun!

Al Gore will surely go down in history as the world's biggest money-grubbing charlatan Democrat...ever...ever!

And the mainstream media will be held responsible for their complicity in the "global warming" sham.

[iceman_1960]

Gore is right. Many of these scientists are in the hip pocket of the polluters.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ross Gelbspan.
(Harper'S Magazine, December, 1995):

"...But while the [Global Warming] skeptics portray themselves as besieged truth-seekers fending off irresponsible environmental doomsayers, their testimony in St. Paul and elsewhere revealed the source and scope of their funding for the first time. Michaels [Dr. Pat Michaels] has received more than $115,000 over the last four years from coal and energy interests. World Climate Review, a quarterly he founded that routinely debunks climate concerns, was funded by Western Fuels. Over the last six years, either alone or with colleagues, Balling [Dr. Robert Balling] has received more than $200,000 from coal and oil interests in Great Britain, Germany, and elsewhere."

{Continued above...]

[hawksprings]

Where are all the Global Warming Sheep today? They should be on this board in droves defending Father Algore and singing his praises.

Someone posted the following question on the Heat Wave story, which bears repeating here:

"If the 'record' numbers of hurricanes in 2005 was 'proof' of human-caused global warming, what does the quietness of the 2006 and 2007 hurricane seasons prove?"

Hmmm??

...

[iceman_1960]

Continued from previous post.

"...Balling (along with [Dr.] Sherwood Idso) has also taken money from Cyprus Minerals, a mining company that has been a major funder of People for the West - a militantly anti-environmental "Wise Use" group. Lindzen, for his part, charges oil and coal interests $2,500 a day for his consulting services; his 1991 trip to testify before a Senate committee was paid for by Western Fuels, and a speech he wrote, entitled "Global Warming: the Origin and Nature of Alleged Scientific Consensus," was underwritten by OPEC. Singer [Dr. S. Fred Singer] ... has received consulting fees from Exxon, Shell, Unocal, ARCO, and Sun Oil, and has warned them that they face the same threat as the chemical firms that produced chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), a class of chemicals found to be depleting atmospheric ozone. "It took only five years to go from... a simple freeze of production [of CFCs]," Singer has written, ". . . to the 1992 decision of a complete production phase-out%u2014all on the basis of quite insubstantial science."

[Continued above...]

[iceman_1960]

Conclusion:

"The skeptics assert flatly that their science is untainted by funding. Nevertheless, in this persistent and well-funded campaign of denial they have become interchangeable ornaments on the hood of a high-powered engine of disinformation. Their dissenting opinions are amplified beyond all proportion through the media while the concerns of the dominant majority of the world's scientific establishment are marginalized. By keeping the discussion focused on whether there is a problem in the first place, they have effectively silenced the debate over what to do about it."

Source:

http://dieoff.org/page82.htm

[chbemu]

I find it hard to believe that almost no one remembers the last scare tactic claiming climate change. I remember well the early 70%u2019s when they tried to tell us we were going into another ice age because of auto emissions. I do not dispute that it is getting warmer, but mankind has little influence on the climate!! About 1100 years ago, it was warm enough that the Vikings grew crops in Greenland(where do you think the name came from), so it must have been warmer then than now. What caused it to get colder. There have been cycles of warming and cooling since the world began. This latest scare tactic is just a way to redistribute the wealth. It is all about money! I wish I knew how much good Al was getting paid.

[aeasus]

Global warming or not...how could anyone not want a cleaner planet for themselves and future generations? I just don't see why there is room for any debate on that.

[one_american]

This isn't about pollution, folks; because carbon dioxide is NOT a pollutant!

But because Al Gore thinks differently, he wants to re-write the science textbooks, too.

Al Gore just wants to bilk money out of the oil companies so that the Democrats can form a liberal dictatorship in America.

Don't you think it is at LEAST a conflict of interest for Al Gore - to own a company that sells "carbon credits" to industries, while paying for junk science "studies" that push the global-warming meme?

And he still REFUSES to debate ANYONE on the subject! He just makes a stupid statement that "the debate is over" even before any serious debate has even begun!

Al Gore will surely go down in history as the world's biggest money-grubbing charlatan Democrat...ever...ever!

And the mainstream media will be held responsible for their complicity in the "global warming" sham.

[setumstrt9]

You nailed it chbemu.

This is a way for the libs to increase taxes, especially on big business. I'm all for a clean planet, but when Al Gore tells me to change my light bulbs, and ride a bicycle, then he boards his private jet to fly to his next group tree hugging, it makes me want to puke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you crazy tree hugging granolas want to live in the stone ages thats fine, but until there is concrete proof we are increasing the temperature by more than 1 degree over the next 75 years, leave me and my taxes alone. Believe me, I pay enough taxes already.

[hawksprings]

aeasus, I want clean air and water.
I don't want Algore telling me how to live when he lives like the fat energy-hog that he is. And I don't want the government to have more control over my life and my wallet than it already has.

This issue isn't about clean air and water. It's really about control, power and money.
Follow the money for Algore and you'll see he's just as dirty as Exxon or any other "denier."

...

[one_american]

"This is one of the strongest of scientific consensus views in the history of science," Gore said. "We live in a world where what used to be called propaganda now has a major role to play in shaping public opinion."


No, Al. It's still called propaganda, and you are skilled at it, but only fools will buy it.

[chbemu]

The short version is this: YES CO2 is a greenhouse gas, BUT from all sources, natural (volcanoes, forest fires, plant respiration, plankton, animal flatulence, vegetable decay) and man-made; 99.5% comes from natural sources. Of the 0.5% that comes from man-made sources (auto, truck, fossil fuel electric plant, and industrial furnaces and heating) only about ONE-THIRD is generated by the USA.

Therefore, even if we went to ZERO emissions in the US, that would address about 0.18% of the total CO2!! India and China are the sources of most of the rest of the emissions, since they are only in the early stages of industrialization and have HUGE populations. (Last week I heard it announced that China had now surpassed the US in CO2 emissions - RPH)

But, get this, just one major unscheduled (aren't they all?) volcano would swamp the annual contribution made by the US!! We have already had SEVEN (count 'em) ice ages, all of which were driven AND cured by global warming (the last ice age ended less than 12000 years ago--very recent in geologic reckoning).

Yes, we are getting warmer very slowly. Yes, CO2 does play a role. Yes this has happened before. BUT other major factors, such as variations in solar temperature, distance of the earth from the sun (orbit wobble), the earth's albedo (reflectance from snow cover), and geologic events (volcanism) can easily swamp out small variations in CO2.

[feelfree1]

Waaahhh! Waaahhh! My globe is too warm!!!!

Just kidding. The assets of ExxonMobil and other petro-terrorist organizations should be seized and liquidated to help pay for some of the damage that they have done.

[hawksprings]

Hopefully the planet will warm to the point where Father Algore won't have to heat his pool anymore.

...

[one_american]

FeelFree1:

Then you should be thrown out of your house and denied any sort of carbon-based heating or transportation, as well - for your contribution to the problem, numbskull.

Where do idiots like you come up with hair brained ideas like that? The Daily Kos?

[pepperp1]

Gooooooooooo Big Al taking on Cheney and his assistant Bush Jr. and their AEI-Exxon friends and family go AL...I do not shop Exxon when possible, funding global warming deniers is just plan greed and for this company with this type of sky high profits.

[obiwan234]

AlGore is the single largest waste of skin...ever. Lie, cheat and steal in his purpose, noting more, nothing less.

You have to admire his genius for taking the tinniest bit of the truth and spinning a web of lies and deceit to suit his own purposes. After all he did %u201CINVENT%u201D the internet! I personally feel that if AlGore was to move to the back side of the moon, and shut his mouth the cooling trend would be immediately noticed.

[pepperp1]

Woooo the RNC Righties new fat Rosie, fat Michael Moore, Clinton ***, whah, whah, Sandy stuffed his pants, Whaha Boo Hoo, The Daily Kos whooooo be afraid those bad liberals they are coming to eat your babies check under the bed.? So yesterday sound bite assault on reason, poodles.

[brianp55]

This entire effort to encourage or perhaps force Americans to reduce CO2 emissions is a non-starter. Why would we willingly assume additional burdens (financial and otherwise), when the unchecked combustion of fossil fuels on the part of the Chinese (for example) will still result in an increase in atmospheric CO2? Furthermore, with regard to these nonsensical "carbon credits", does anyone really believe that in addition to paying to run our cars (at $3.50/gallon) and heat our homes, that we are now going to be sufficiently motivated by guilt to assume the additional financial burden of having to buy carbon credits? Are they nuts?

[pepperp1]

Go Big Al, the bought and paid for GW deniers will be the first politicians and corporation to put their hand out to grab those tax revenues when their butts are in trouble, did not see Haley turning down those bucks after Katrina. Thanks for being our Champion.

[one_american]

pepperp1:

While you are crawling up Al Gore's butt, turn off the methane while you're up there, OK?

Liberal shill.

[pepperp1]

pepperp1:

While you are crawling up Al Gore's butt, turn off the methane while you're up there, OK?

Liberal shill.
Posted by One_American at 07:10 PM : Aug 07, 2007

Whoooooo the bad righting Cheney assistant Bush bot, thinks liberals are shrill, wahhhhh boo hoo, boo hoo, Rosie is fat, Kos will eat your children, Clinton got a BJ, Sandy stuffed his pants, whah wha, booo bad liberal. Talk to the hand poodle as usual you are on the uninformed side of the issue.

[tcoleman12]

What is Gore so worried about? Just because some people see him as a big dooosh bag rather than an environmental god, he feels he must shut them up? Where has the opposing view been thus far?

[thatchmo62]

You can stop all this controversy Al by debating the long list of people who've asked to debate you. Put them in their place. What are you waiting for? Afraid they may pove you wrong?

[pepperp1]

...oh and thanks Al for the Internet...lol......I do not think the righties like you, I think they are feeling inadequate again knowing their boy got in by an activist judges court ruling....lol...ouch, oooh liberals eat children.

[missingamerica]

Once upon a time some doctors disputed the very idea of "germs" and "bacteria"...of course, that kept their profit margins high because they saved money by not having to buy antiseptics or sterilize their surgical instruments.

Their patients, since they rather inconveniently died at vastly higher rates than those of more far-sighted doctors, soon put them out of business.

Unfortunately, when it comes to manmade global warming the doctor is Big Business and the patient is the Earth.

Whatever side of the global warming issue you are on, you better hope (or pray, as the case may be) that either Al Gore and the majority of the planet's scientific community are wrong or Big Business wises up.

[luigi999-2009]

Al Gore is inventing the global warming myth to make money and make himself look like a hero.

[luigi999-2009]

Al Gore is inventing the global warming myth to make money and make himself look like a hero.

[radiob-2009]

Gore said. "We live in a world where what used to be called propaganda now has a major role to play in shaping public opinion."


This statement applys to almost everything coming from politicians mouths nowdays. Both partys play the propaganda game well.

[elz523]

What is Gore so worried about? Just because some people see him as a big dooosh bag rather than an environmental god, he feels he must shut them up? Where has the opposing view been thus far?
Posted by tcoleman12 at 07:36 PM : Aug 07, 2007


Are you right wing nuts kidding? You may not suffer from global warming, but your children will. You were wrong on tobacco and millions have died. How many will die from your obfuscating on global warming? Right-wing nut = short-sighted fools.

[infidel_us]

"The earrrrth has a feeeeeeverrrr" - ALGore
I wish this arseclown would just GO AWAY! Shoo Al, shoo!!!!! Go run for president or something.

[the_quietman]

So who is funding ALGORE?

[badgersouth1]

Climate Deniers = Climate Dodos

%u201CThe Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird that lived on the islands of Mauritius. Related to pigeons and doves, it stood about a meter tall (three feet), lived on fruit and nested on the ground.

%u201CThe dodo has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th century. It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history, and was directly attributable to human activity. The phrase "as dead as a dodo" means undoubtedly and unquestionably dead.%u201D -- Wikepedia

[the_quietman]

pepperp1
what are you on?