Cooler Heads = Warmer Globe
Update/Edit: See http://www.xanga.com/bartoncii/592088342/item.html for more info on funding of the groups mentioned below, Bartoncii's blog. He also has a wonderful story to tell about the different types of nuclear energy and their history. It can never hurt to have more information.
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I went surfing today, as I often do, to see what I could see.
http://www.globalwarming.org/ was an interesting site. I became concerned when I read yesterday's entry:
"May 18, 2007
Scientifically Incorrect Statements in IPCC WGI
Prof. Roger Pileke Sr, Climate Science weblog, May 18 2007
Prof Roger Pielke Sr, a climatologist at the University of Colorado, identifies two scientifically incorrect statements in the report of Working Group I (The Scientific Basis) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In particular, he says of the claim that predicting climate is easier than predicting weather is "such an absurd, scientifically unsupported claim, that the media and any scientists who swallow this conclusion are either blind to the scientific understanding of the climate system, or have other motives to promote the IPCC viewpoint."
So I did a little digging.
This gentleman, Andrew Dessler, is an associate professor in the Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on the physics of climate change. He has a blog which has directly engaged Mr. Pileke and others
http://sciencepoliticsclimatechange.blogspot.com/2006/08/ipcc.html
regarding the science - and politics - of global warming. I expect to be spending some time there in the near future.
Globalwarming.org is is a project of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a sub-group of the National Consumer Coalition.
Now, I had extreme difficulty finding a website for the National Consumer Coalition. I'm still looking. According to the CHC:
"The NCC is coordinated by Fran Smith, Consumer Alert's executive director, and the NCC's issue work is done by its sub-groups of which three have already formed. Each sub-group focuses on a specific issue, such as internet privacy, global climate change, and health care"
I found that Myron Ebell, director of global warming and international environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, is the Cooler Heads group leader.
Well Whaddya know!
- Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
- Americans for Tax Reform - Receives funding from
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
Carthage Foundation; see Scaife Foundations
JM Foundation
John M. Olin Foundation
Sarah Scaife Foundation; (see Scaife Foundations : Fortune founded on Gulf Oil but now under the auspices of Jennie Scaife has gone somewhat more moderate in its giving)
R.J. Reynolds (tobacco)
Philip Morris (tobacco)
Tobacco Institute (speaks for itself)
Jack Abramoff's clients, the Chiefs of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas and the Coushattas tribe of Louisiana both gave $25,000 in 2001 and according to SOURCEWATCH, AATF received a cut of funds for laundering the money - American Legislative Exchange Council = $56,000.00 in 2006 from ExxonMobil
- American PolicyCenter - think tank run by Tom DeWeese.
- Association of Concerned Taxpayers
- Center for Security Policy - (Boeing, Lockheed-Martin contributors in 2002)
- Citizens for a Sound Economy - Founded by Koch Industries: According to Media Transparency, between 1985 and 2002, CSEF received $16,928,712 in 108 separate grants from only twelve foundations:
Koch Family Foundations (David H. Koch Foundation, Charles G. Koch Foundation, Claude
R. Lambe Foundation)Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
Philip M. McKenna Foundation,
Inc.Scaife Foundations (Scaife Family, Sarah Mellon Scaife, Carthage) [17]
In 2002, CSEF gained $920,000 in grants from three of
these foundations, accounting for a little under one-quarter of the
organisation's revenue. The Claude R. Lambe Foundation was the most generous
contributing $700,000 for general operating costs while the Scaife Foundation
donated $175,000 and the John M. Olin Foundation $45,000.
Other CSE funders
(not included in above funding total) have included:Enron (oil pipeline? Afghanistan?)
- Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow = $70,000.00 in 2006 from ExxonMobil
- Competitive Enterprise Institute - In response to an inquiry from the Guardian, Exxon announced that the company “stopped funding the Competitive Enterprise Institute this year.” (source, Media Transparency)
- Consumer Alert - Consumer Alert received about $10,000 from the food industry in 2000. (Frances Smith of Consumer Alert spoke at FDA Consumer Roundtable, December 13, 2000)
Funded by such companies as Chevron, Eli Lilly and Philip Morris. [The Observer, by Cockburn & Silverstein, 5/26/96]
Funding from Philip Morris, American Cyanamid, Exxon, Eli Lilly, Elanco, Pfizer, Anheuser, Busch, Coors, and Chevron. Corporations provide more than 60% of the group's funding. [Health News & Review, 6/22/93]
ExxonMobil issued grants of $25,000 in 2003 and 2004 - Fraser Institute, Canada
- Frontiers of Freedom = $140,000.00 in 2005 and $180,000 in 2006 from ExxonMobil (source for 2005 info: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/)
- George C. Marshall Institute = $115,000.00 in 2005 & $85,000 in 2006 from ExxonMobil (source for 2005 info: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/)
- Heartland Institute (when are they going to learn that name sends a chill down one's spine?) = 119,000.00 in 2005 & $115,000.00 in 2006 from ExxonMobil (source for 2005 info: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/)
- Independent Institute [Independent Institute has received $70,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998. 1998$10,000 ExxonMobil Corporate GivingSource: ExxonMobil 1998 grants list...2000$5,000 ExxonMobil Foundationgeneral supportSource: ExxonMobil Foundation 2000 IRS 990. ...2001$5,000 ExxonMobil FoundationSource: ExxonMobil 2001 Annual Report....2002$10,000 ExxonMobil FoundationSource: ExxonMobil 2002 Annual Report....2003$10,000 ExxonMobil FoundationSource: ExxonMobil 2003 Corporate Giving Report....2005$30,000 ExxonMobil FoundationSource: ExxonMobil 2005 DIMENSIONS Report (Corporate Giving)
- Instituto Bruno Leoni, Italy
- Junkscience.com*
- National Center for Policy Analysis = $75,000.00 in 2006 from ExxonMobil
- National Center for Public Policy Research = $55,000.00 in 2006 from ExxonMobil
- Pacific Research Institute = $75,000.00 in 2006 from ExxonMobil
- Seniors Coalition (financial information page HERE)
- 60 Plus Association According to their website: "The 60 Plus Association is a non-partisan seniors advocacy group with a free enterprise, less government, less taxes approach to seniors issues. 60 Plus has set ending the federal estate tax and saving Social Security for the young as its top priorities. 60 Plus is often viewed as the conservative alternative to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). "
- Small Business Survival Committee - Received $40,000.00 in from Philip Morris. According to Sourcewatch "On the SBSC's "Issues Analysis" webpage, http://www.sbsc.org/SbscIssues.asp , in the "Energy and the Environment" menu, one can find an assortment af articles attacking environmental laws, regulations and proposals. Subjects covered include global warming, mercury, air pollution, the Endangered Species Act, MTBE, and CAFE standards. These articles promote free market solutions, criticize the "bad science" in environmentalists' claims about mercury and global warming, promote SUVs, and support the House Republican energy plan."
*JunkScience.com, a supposedly defunct organization run by Steve Milloy which gets its own little blurb, below which received a LOT of money from ExxonMobil over the years. Mr. Milloy begs for donations on his site. It's not clear exactly what he does with the money. I'll get back to you on that.
According to Sourcewatch, "In October 2006, two US Senators, Olympia Snowe, (R-Maine), and Jay Rockefeller, (D-W.Va.) wrote to ExxonMobil's chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, asking that it "end any further financial assistance" to groups "whose public advocacy has contributed to the small but unfortunately effective climate change denial myth." The Senators singled out the Competitive Enterprise Institute and TechCentralStation as such groups.
They wrote that "we are convinced that ExxonMobil's long-standing support of a small cadre of global climate change skeptics, and those skeptics' access to and influence on government policymakers, have made it increasingly difficult for the United States to demonstrate the moral clarity it needs across all facets of its diplomacy."
You can read the ABC News Report HERE or cut and paste the following link:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2612021&page=1
So, folks, if you see a site that seems biased one way or the other, check out the funding. To be fair, I am going to check out the funding of the groups that say that Global Warming is real, is now, and can be catastrophic if action is not taken on a global scale starting NOW. Talk to y'all later!
ok I'm tired of futzing with the layers and layers of html this thing uses. Whatever.
