Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
This realisation soon brought other vested interests to take advantage of the arrange-
ment and make use of the R.J. Reynolds connection. The Company proceeded by
encouraging the creation of organisations, likely to attract anyone hostile to the idea
of seeing any part of their lives regulated by the state. An example is the GGOOB
(get government off our backs) coalition of strongly ideological groups, many of
which received considerable amounts of funding from the tobacco industry
(Apollonio and Bero
2007
: 419-427). Subsequently, spreading doubt concerning
research results unwelcome to vested interests grew into a widely used tactic.
A ten-page table of payments made by Philip Morris Inc. in
1997
can be found
in the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library. The main benefi ciaries were business-
oriented organisations, many of which would in time become the most vocal detrac-
tors from climate change science. For instance, $200,000 was donated to TASSC
(The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition), $175,000 to the Cato Institute and
smaller amounts to the Heartland Institute ($50,000) and Defenders of Property
Rights $45,000 (full 1997 list at BN 2078848138). To illustrate, a 1997 document
in the collection, a memo, 'BP and Climate Change' (BN: 2085126534/6536), pro-
vides some insight into an important coalition of companies with an interest in the
disparagement of climate science:
[Note: This is a personal view of the situation. It is based on B-M's experience of working
closely with BP on these issues and is not intended for circulation],. … In 1996, all the
major oil companies were under increasing attack from the NGOs (in Europe and the USA)
for their refusal to acknowledge the reality of climate change. [.….].
Continued:
[Lord] Browne spoke at Stanford University in May 1997. … This was the fi rst time that an
oil industry leader had accepted the evidence on climate change. Browne had broken ranks
with the industry and his peers were quick to condemn him for doing so.
Yet soon after, several other fossil fuel companies followed suit and left the
Global Climate Coalition, a grouping opposed to the reduction of greenhouse gases.
3
Two Infl uential Detractors from the Mainstream Science
I want to draw the reader's attention to the work of two individuals - neither of
which has been involved in climate change research - who have been instrumental
in bringing the science into discredit. The fi rst is Michael Crichton, anthropologist
and successful SF writer of the late twentieth century, who worked reservations
concerning climate change science into a techno-thriller,
State of Fear
(
2004
). The
topic features attacks by a group of environmental activists, who stage 'quasi-natu-
ral disasters' in order to convince the unconvinced of the reality of climate change.
The environmentalist baddies are unconcerned about any victims. Although a work
of fi ction, it is amply provided with charts and tables which give the topic a seeming
authenticity. Several scientists whose research had been cited in the novel com-
plained about its distortion. 'Our results have been misused as “evidence” against
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