Exxon Mobil Funds Groups to Counter Climate Change Thinking

There are many news stories that show that Exxon Mobil is trying to undermine the conventional thinking that it is the actions of humans that is the major contribution to global warming and climate change. Whilst the majority of the world's scientists are convinced that humans are causing global warming, that leads to climate change, by actions such as burning fossil fuels, Exxon seems to be alone amongst oil companies in supporting groups that are spreading misinformation to try and counter the scientists finding. Here are some news stories that highlights Exxon's stance.

Exxon Backs Groups That Question Global Warming

The Common Dreams News Center reported in 2003 how Exxon

"At the same time, the company [Exxon], the world's largest oil and gas concern, has increased donations to Washington-based policy groups that, like Exxon itself, question the human role in global warming and argue that proposed government policies to limit carbon dioxide emissions associated with global warming are too heavy handed.

Exxon now gives more than $1 million a year to such organizations, which include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Frontiers of Freedom, the George C. Marshall Institute, the American Council for Capital Formation Center for Policy Research and the American Legislative Exchange Council."

More recently (June 2006) the Common Dreams News Center reported

"Environmentalists, meanwhile, spit blood at the very mention of the name ExxonMobil for a variety of reasons - the company's willingness to spend millions of dollars to refute the significance or even the existence of global warming, and the role of energy companies in exacerbating it; its extraordinary lobbying, more energetic than any of its rivals', to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas exploration; and its continuing refusal to make good on its full compensation payments to the victims of the 1988 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound in Alaska."

In 2004 Friends of the Earth reported on a study to calculate the global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions caused by ExxonMobil. In the report they say

"ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil company, has caused some five per cent of global, man-made, climate changing carbon dioxide emissions over the last 120 years...."

They go on to say

"Friends of the Earth chose ExxonMobil for an assessment because it has repeatedly attempted to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change and actively resisted attempts to limit carbon dioxide emissions through law."

The Environmental Defence Fund (EDF), in 2005, reported in detail where some of ExxonMobil's funding to Climate Sceptics and noted that

"In 1998, Exxon devised a plan to stall action on global warming. The plan was outlined in an internal memo (see the memo [PDF]). It promised, "Victory will be achieved when uncertainties in climate science become part of the conventional wisdom" for "average citizens" and "the media." "

The Mother Jones website reports that

"ExxonMobil has pumped more than $8 million into more than 40 think tanks; media outlets; and consumer, religious, and even civil rights groups that preach scepticism about the oncoming climate catastrophe. Herewith, a representative overview."

Global Warming is the Biggest Environmental Fraud of All Time

"Global Warming The Biggest Environmental Fraud Of All Time"

This headline was found in adverts from www.globalwarming.org who receive funding from Exxon. Other marketing messages in their adverts included

"Global Warming
It Doesn't Exist. Never Has. Dare To Learn The Truth"