The Battle of Climate Change
For most of us the question of climate change is pretty straight forward, the earth is getting warmer and we are causing it. But there are people who would rather the issue be a little bit more uncertain. Yesterday a UK Newspaper called the Independent ran a story revealing that there are those who secretly fund organisations and people who promote this uncertainty – Climate Science Attacks.
Apparently a secret organisation exists called the Donors Trust based in Alexandria, Virginia. This group is funelling millions of dollars into the counter claims of climate change doubters. Most of the wealthy backers of this group are anonymous, but an audit trail has led back to one of it’s biggest supporters- the American billionaire Charles Koch. Koch Industries you will probably not be surprised to hear is a large oil, gas and chemicals conglomerate from Kansas. In Australia, climate change and the economy is always on the political agenda and it’s worth keeping an eye on the media reports here, ABC Iview is the easiest way to get access.
Just for clarification that’s a big fossil fuel company donating money to sponsor skepticism about global warming. This is not small amounts of money either, it’s the sort of cash that gets you onto the big stage. A researcher in Philadelphia estimated that nearly half a billion dollars has been donated in the last ten years specifically to undermine climate change science.
So no vested interests there at all and I suspect we can all work out where the rest of the sponsors are from. It is perhaps worth checking out the UK Newspapers and media about this story as it develops. Normally the BBC is great at covering environmental issues and scandals like this – watch for Panorama and Newsnight for any stories. Those outside Britain can access them by using a UK based proxy server to change their IP address as explained on this site – http://thenewproxies.com/british-ip-address. It’s quite a simple process if you use the recommended software and only takes a minute or two to access media sites anywhere on the planet, essential if you want to get a proper world view of climate change news.