Exxon announced in February that they had given up funding climate sceptics (or skeptics, for you Americans) to great fanfare. But when our researchers looked into their tax records we discovered that Exxon was in fact lying. They’d abandoned a couple of high-profile institutes, but continued funding 14 organisations in the “Crisis? What crisis?” racket.
Since 1998, Exxon has spent more than 22 million US dollars trying to undermine the scientific consensus that Global Warming is real, that it’s related to human activity, and that their own product is one of the chief culprits.
This prompted one wag, Greenpeace pal Gillo, to write an impassioned appeal for a little pocket money, in “Dear Exxon, I am a climate sceptic:“
Dear Exxon, I *AM* a climate skeptic, I might not have the charm of the American Enterprise Institute and I am definitely more boring than the Heartland Institute, but you need someone who supports you in the bloggers community! Dear Exxon, we are buddies, I donât need $2.1 million but isnât it possible to put me in the list for your 2007 grants?
If bloggers had been around in 1938, I suspect the equivalent would have been a signup form for the Neville Chamberlain Hitler Appeasement Fan Club.