Research Confirms ExxonMobil and Koch funded Climate Denial
Unearthing America’s Deep Network of Climate Change Deniers A new […]
Unearthing America’s Deep Network of Climate Change Deniers
A new study attempts the first tally of those driving the peculiarly American strain of climate change denial.
Bloomberg: The American public has turned away from outright denial of climate change. Sixty-three percent of adults describe the problem as “serious” in the latest opinion poll from the Washington Post and ABC News, a dip from the 69 percent who held that view in June. The minority who remain skeptical of climate science—a group that includes presidential hopefuls and powerful lawmakers—can count on a dedicated network of several thousand professional supporters.
New research for the first time has put a precise count on the people and groups working to dispute the scientific consensus on climate change. A loose network of 4,556 individuals with overlapping ties to 164 organizations do the most to dispute climate change in the U.S., according to a paper published today in Nature Climate Change. ExxonMobil and the family foundations controlled by Charles and David Koch emerge as the most significant sources of funding for these skeptics. As a two-week United Nations climate summit begins today in Paris, it’s striking to notice that a similarly vast infrastructure of denial isn’t found in any other nation.
The role of ExxonMobil and the Kochs in influencing climate denial hadn’t been empirically studied before now, according to Justin Farrell, an assistant professor of sociology at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the author of the new paper. He said the flow of money from group to group and person to person is often opaque to researchers.
ExxonMobil has maintained for years that it does not fund denial of climate change. A spokesman pointed out that the company’s $100 million founding commitment to Stanford University’s Global Climate & Energy Project was made in 2002, right in the middle of the period covered by the Nature Climate Change study. Representatives for any of the Koch family foundations could not be reached for comment.
Last week, meanwhile, Farrell published a separate study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that sought to show how funding from corporate donors shapes public thought and opinion on climate science. “Corporate funding influences the actual language and thematic content of polarizing discourse,” he wrote. “These effects were visible over time.”
Over the 20 years under review, climate contrarianism increased the most in major media sources—more even than in presidential speeches or congressional floor statements. Farrell’s research took him through 40,785 documents from contrarian groups; 14,943 from the New York Times, Washington Times, and USA Today; 1,930 from U.S. presidents; and 7,786 from Congress.
For Robert Brulle, a sociology professor at Drexel University who has conducted research on the topic, Farrell’s research helps define how climate denial works. “Corporate funders create and support conservative think tanks,” which then pass off climate misinformation as valid. The mainstream media pick up on it, which helps shape public opinion.
“This brings up the following question,” Brulle said. “Why is the media picking up and promulgating the central themes of climate misinformation?”
Read the entire article Unearthing America’s Deep Network of Climate Change Deniers @Bloomberg.
Research Confirms ExxonMobil, Koch-funded Climate Denial Echo Chamber Polluted Mainstream Media
Desmogblog: The analysis of 20 years’ worth of data by Yale University researcher Dr. Justin Farrell shows beyond a doubt that ExxonMobil and the Kochs are the key actors who funded the creation of climate disinformation think tanks and ensured the prolific spread of their doubt products throughout our mainstream media and public discourse.
“The contrarian efforts have been so effective for the fact that they have made it difficult for ordinary Americans to even know who to trust,” Dr. Farrell told the Washington Post which was first to cover the news of the study’s release. “This counter-movement produced messages aimed, at the very least, at creating ideological polarization through politicized tactics, and at the very most, at overtly refuting current scientific consensus with scientific findings of their own,” Dr. Farrell said.
Read the entire article Research Confirms ExxonMobil, Koch-funded Climate Denial Echo Chamber Polluted Mainstream Media @Desmogblog.
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