Billion-Dollar-a-Year Program to Deceive Public About Global Warming Is Exposed

[unhappycamper]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Billion-Dollar-a-Year-Prog-by-Eric-Zuesse-Climate_Climate-Change_Climate-Change_Climate-Change-Deniers-131230-552.html

Billion-Dollar-a-Year Program to Deceive Public About Global Warming Is Exposed
General News 12/30/2013 at 06:14:23
By Eric Zuesse

A December 2013 academic article has documented how billionaires have made suckers of millions of people, to cause them to believe that global warming is a mere hoax, and to think that the oil companies' line on this matter is honest.

This research, by Robert J. Brulle, was published in a leading climatological journal, Climate Change, and it reports that a small number of aristocrats have collectively spent, on average, a billion dollars a year, in order to fool the American public into thinking that climate change isn't happening, and that, even if it is, it's not caused by burning fossil fuels. These aristocrats control fossil fuels corporations, such as Koch Industries, and ExxonMobil, but their money for this mass-deception campaign is laundered through far-right-wing foundations they control, to think-tanks they control, which, in turn, buy professors to provide "authority" for these distortions and outright lies. That is why the reality (a graphical presentation of which can be seen at places such as this ), though acknowledged by virtually all climatologists, is rejected, just disbelieved, by much of the public.

Listed in order, with the largest listed first, the nine foundations that account for half of this total billion-dollar-a-year expenditure, are: Donors Trust, Scaife, Bradley, Koch, Howard, Pope, Searle, Dunn's, and Richardson. Their money is then further laundered, through the following eleven think-tanks, listed here also largest-first, which collectively account for a full two-thirds of this total billion-dollar-a-year propaganda campaign: American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, Hoover Institution, Manhattan Institute, Cato Institute, Hudson Institute, Atlas Economic Research, Americans for Prosperity, John Locke Foundation, Heartland Institute, and Reason Foundation.

They, in turn, pay professors and journalists to write, both for the "news media," and for professional journals, to debunk or (in the scholarly publications) to raise questions about, global warming or its cause -- questions that are no longer even questions among actual climate scientists.


--

And the report cited in this article:

Institutionalizing delay: foundation funding and the creation of U.S. climate change counter-movement organizations
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-013-1018-7

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[groundloop]

3. I won't be impressed until it makes all the major news outlets

And I'm just too damned cynical to ever expect that to happen.

[Laelth]

6. I hear you.

Romney's a loser, though, and in our society that means he's fair game. I think this will get some media coverage (admittedly not the 24-7 coverage it would get if he were a Democrat).

-Laelth

[kristopher]

13. The lies extend beyond AGW to the technologies we need to address AGW

After all, it is the replacement of their money making machines they are primarily concerned with. So, we should also note that the anti-wind movement and the ALEC directed utility efforts to stop rooftop solar are an integrated part of the same program revealed in the OP.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

26. noted

Sadly.

[RoccoR5955]

2. K & R

Though most of us already suspected this, it's now out, and should be put in the open for all to see.
Yes, I know that the mainstream media will not cover it, that's why it is up to each one of us to cover it, as citizen-journalists!

[zbdent]

4. Repubs want people to "follow the money" on Global Climate Change ... to a point ...

up to, but not including the point where the money starts flowing like water over Niagara Falls into the pockets of the "scientists" who go on record saying "there's not enough evidence" or "It's bogus!"

[Berlum]

5. Systematic, well-financed lies make it plain where Republicon "values" originate

[drynberg]

7. Welcome to Brave New News and "Scholarlly Reports"

Really, the Koch Bros. et al giving payola to professors and journalists to freaking lie about the fate of mother earth...this is what we are dealing with.

[antiquie]

8. Don't these people have kids and grandkids? ~ nt

[Schema Thing]

9. a question I've been asking for 20 years now.

[d_r]

12. their plan

is to make all the money they can now and set their grandkids up with fortresses and land for the fall of civilization after the oil runs out. They are setting up their descendants to be the lords and barons of the new feudal system.

[Ghost Dog]

16. Yep. n/t

[antiquie]

20. I think our grandkids will be smarter than theirs.

I doubt theirs will have sustainable life skills.

[Ghost Dog]

21. They will have armed retainers.

It will become useful to be able to count on some of them in fact being on our grandkids' side.

[fascisthunter]

25. they are sociopaths

or as religious folks say, "soulless".

Difference is, if you believe, you may believe they are redeemable. Those who understand science, understand these people are not redeemable, in fact they have no conscience and never will.

[valerief]

29. None they care about, apparently. Sociopaths. nt

[mountain grammy]

10. Wow, who will tell the people what we've known for years

and is now confirmed? If the people are told, will they believe it? After all, why would those wonderful billionaires who "worked so hard" for their riches and own millions of dollars worth of wine lie to us? Why would they hoard all that wine (or art, or cars, or cash, or whatever) if the future was so bleak? Why, indeed!

After reading the umpteenth stupid letter in our local paper declaring climate change a hoax, I sent a link to the young editor from the LA Times that declared they would no longer print letters from climate change deniers. I reminded her that the newspaper is not required to print every crackpot letter in the name of free speech. Much to my surprise, she responded positively. That was two months ago and the regular, weekly rants denying climate change have miraculously not appeared.

[Ghost Dog]

22. Thank you. Communication is so important.

And the message communicated even more so.

[antiquie]

23. mountain grammy is my newest hero

Excellent work.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

27. that is fantastic! you rock!

And lucky the young woman listened to you!

[Kennah]

30. Thank you for that

I'll now be employing that link

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-climate-change-letters-20131008,0,871615.story#axzz2p7vi0orf

[mountain grammy]

32. and thank you for supplying the link that I should have included.

That's the exact link I sent to the editor.

[calimary]

35. EXCELLENT!!!! Brava!!! Hey, everybody, look what mountain grammy did!!!

I have the honor of quoting a great paragraph:

"After reading the umpteenth stupid letter in our local paper declaring climate change a hoax, I sent a link to the young editor from the LA Times that declared they would no longer print letters from climate change deniers. I reminded her that the newspaper is not required to print every crackpot letter in the name of free speech. Much to my surprise, she responded positively. That was two months ago and the regular, weekly rants denying climate change have miraculously not appeared."

See? One person CAN make a difference!

See? If they think you don't care, they won't either!

See? Constant vigilance works!

See? It CAN be done!

See? Change for the good CAN happen!

See? You CAN be heard, AND heeded!!!!!!!

All it took was one of the good guys raising her voice, being vigilant, and correcting the record. That editor should recognize that her work, and that of her paper, is being noted and will be acted upon if it's wrong. The LA Times actually has a conscience! Too bad it has to come from one of its readers rather than internal. But it takes US CITIZENS being vigilant to hold Power's feet to the fire.

GREAT lesson for us all, mountain grammy! One request - could you rerun that link here? It's good ammo for the rest of us to send to all our local papers and point to the LA Times and say - SEE? ONE of your sister papers is actually doing it correctly! I still hate saying "do the right thing" because the very word "right" has been so hijacked and perverted and misconstrued that it is now meaningless. I hope to see the day when we can freely use the word "right" again and have it mean what it really means and not yet another tip-of-the-hat to the radical WRONG. The word "right" seriously needs to be reclaimed and rehabilitated, too.

[mountain grammy]

36. Thank you! Here's the link:

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-climate-change-letters-20131008,0,871615.story#axzz2pAxsOIiM

I think our new, young, female editor is more open that the last old white man who attended all the old white man meetings around and about. Bunch of old guys collecting Social Security and Medicare sitting around griping about the evil government and all the poor people sucking down "their tax money" cause "we built it and freedom" and blah, blah, blah...

[calimary]

37. Good! Thanks, mountain grammy!

[Berlum]

11. The same Republicon assclowns probably fund the GMO-Mutant-crud-is-good-for-you propaganda scam

republicans want the proles to be dumb, weak and ill-informed.

[In-n-Out]

14. They must be making a pretty penny, if they are spending that much to lie

I suppose we won't hear much about this in the M$M, since they are owned by the same interests.

Fortunately we have the WWW to spread the word

But for how much longer, as they are working furiously to control that now, too?

[HelenWheels]

15. Of course the Koch's and Bradley's have their dirty fingers all over this nt

[nightscanner59]

17. Once superstorms begin to wallop the holy hell out of the midwest

Maybe a few will begin to accept this isn't coming from cow flatulence. How is Faux news going to explain when a good part of the state of kansas is wiped off the map by a magnificent tornado?
The ultimate state of stupidity perpetuated amongst the RWNJ's is getting truly astounding what they will blame "liberals" for, justify their greedy, racist and extreme religious intolerance, then turn it all around to whitewash all this. I was playing around on SodaHead poll site for a while, but it gets tiresome putting some sense out there for it all to get magnanimously bashed by the astounding number of RWNJ's there. Before my dad went to the nursing home, he watched Fox Nooze religiously (drove me nuts) but it gave me a glimpse of the distorted reality Fox drives home to their faithful, complete with reminders not to listen to any other sources!!
But the day I heard O'Really quote poll statistics from SodaHead made me chuckle the extent they've stooped to to "prove" their points. SodaHead comes complete with advertising banners to RW "news" sites, and the other way around.
There are a lot of elderly, paranoid individuals who subscribe whole-hog to their drivel. There is nothing, no amount of sense can soak their skulls. But there are a lot of young people there also, some who I've seen may start out mouthing the RW BS, read, keep reading, and grow silent as they begin to realize it's a construct that defies reality.
Even though it is more comfortable to stay within the realms of the likes of DU, there is an information war going on, and we have to keep launching the missiles of common sense right into their territories.

[Scuba]

19. Climate change doesn't exist, so it can't cause tornados. It's gay marriage, doncha know?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

28. hear here! n/t

[mountain grammy]

33. I was also a captive of Fox during most of 2012 caring for my 91 year old father in law in Texas.

I knew the lies, been hearing them for years, but to actually WATCH the source is amazing. My father in law was a mean man, but we talked a lot about WWII and the depression during our time together.
How could he have been so pro FDR and become such a right wing asshole? How could he have lived that long with all the benefits of Medicare and Social Security and be a right wing asshole?
I asked him that many times, without the asshole part, and he could never answer. He was so proud of the small fortune he built with his investments, but when I asked him how that would have been possible without Medicare, he agreed that it wouldn't have been.
He would have been dead broke without Medicare, but the broke would have probably happened first.

He died 4 days after election day, 2012. He made sure to have my brother in law fill in his 2012 mail in ballot because he knew I would never mark the box for Rmoney or Cruz.

[Scuba]

18. The evil Bradley Foundation: Worse than the Kochs!

[YOHABLO]

24. But they're going to build a space age arch .. that will take them to another planet.

Of course the fee will be a billion per person .. which leaves most of us out. In any case, book now for passage on S.S. SEE YAH (wouldn't wanna be yah).. it'll be just like the Love Boat.

[mountain grammy]

34. Funny! They could still trickle on us from the SS SEE YAH!!

[blkmusclmachine]

31. That's fair

and balanced

[raouldukelives]

38. Thanks investors! Your diligent donations help spread corpo-propoganda far and wide! nt