Climate

This one comes from the Union of Concerned Scientists:

On January 3, the Union of Concerned Scientists released Smoke, Mirrors, and Hot Air: How ExxonMobil uses Big Tobacco Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science. The report documents how ExxonMobil has underwritten one of the most successful disinformation campaigns since the tobacco industry’s 40-year effort to mislead the public about the dangers of smoking. In recent years, ExxonMobil provided close to $16 million in funding to 40 groups that question the urgency of global warming. This web of organizations disseminates the views of a dwindling group of climate change contrarians. Through this sophisticated effort, ExxonMobil has manufactured uncertainty about even the most indisputable scientific evidence on global warming. Disturbingly, ExxonMobil has drawn on the same tactics, and even some of the same organizations and people as Big Tobacco.

The report also reveals how ExxonMobil’s extraordinary influence over key officials in the White House and Congress has fueled the disinformation campaign and helped to forestall federal action to reduce U.S. global warming emissions. As the new Congress convenes in 2007, it’s time to tell our senators and representatives to reject ExxonMobil’s misleading campaign.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has taken an important first step by calling for the immediate elimination of tax breaks for ExxonMobil and other major oil companies. The Senate should embrace this commitment as well, and the money saved should be redirected to support clean energy programs.