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if governments are successful in promoting
sustainable or alternative energy sources.
in 2008 from ExxonMobil, has supported
more than thirty foreign think tanks “that
espouse skepticism about the science of
climate change.” United States industry is
exporting its brand of politicized corporate
climate science. This is bad news, because
global consensus and cooperation are es-
sential in making the changes needed to
slow the release of greenhouse gases that
bring about climate change.
A report in March 2010 revealed that
Koch Industries, one of the largest and
wealthiest private corporations in Amer-
ica, is a leading contributor to global warm-
ing deniers and groups opposing clean
energy reform, even outspending Exxon-
Mobil: between 2005 and 2008 ExxonMobil
spent $8.9 million, while foundations con-
trolled by Koch Industries doled out $24.9
million to the climate denial lobby. Recipi-
ents of Koch money include the Heritage
Foundation ($1,620,000), the Cato Institute
($1,028,400), and the Atlas Economic Re-
search Foundation ($113,800).
Conservative, pro-business groups and
fossil fuel industries are the main sources
of funding for the parade of climate change
deniers. The following is a sampling com-
piled by the Union of Concerned Scientists
of funding sources for anti-global warming
advocacy organizations. Each organization
takes a different spin on climate change,
but ultimately they all share the goal of de-
laying or defeating, by creating doubt, the
major policy changes to combat climate
change.
the carbon lobby
ExxonMobil, Western Fuel Industries, and
the American Petroleum Institute are among
the leading sources of funding for conser-
vative think tanks that promote doubt over
global warming science and oppose clean
energy policy.
Between 1998 and 2005 ExxonMobil
gave almost $16 million dollars to anti-
global warming advocacy organizations.
In 2008 the company publicly announced
that it would stop funding anti-global
warming organizations, but it still funds
select groups. According to its own web-
site, ExxonMobil continues to channel tens
of thousands of dollars to groups such as
the Heritage Foundation and the National
Center for Policy Analysis, a group in Texas
that according to its website believes the
causes of warming are unknown and “the
cost of actions to substantially reduce CO 2
emissions would be quite high and result
in economic decline, accelerated environ-
mental destruction, and do little or noth-
ing to prevent global warming regardless of
its cause.” Further, industry-funded groups
in the United States are spreading cash to
support climate change skeptics in other
countries. One reporter, Josh Harkinson,
found that the Atlas Economic Research
Foundation, a group based in the United
States which received around $100,000
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