Monday, November 25, 2013

Connect the dots (special Red State edition)

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In the popular debate about climate change, the "debate" is often framed as one group of scientists arguing for the objective reality of climate change, and another group of scientists who are skeptical of climate change, or at least the anthropogenic aspects of it. Take for example this fairly recent article in Forbes magazine that connects the dots in a very interesting way...

The Coming Revelation Of The 'Global Warming' Fraud Resembles The Obamacare Lie: In this article a contributor to Forbes known as Peter Ferrara explains how climate change and Obamacare are both "designed" by liberals to take away personal rights of people (Obamacare) and industries (global warming) in order to give them both over to the government, and of course, the U.N.

So how does Mr. Ferrara come to the conclusion that global warming is a sham? He mentions criticism of the AR-5 that comes from a group of Scientists that contributed to the document Climate Change Reconsidered II.These scientists claim that the evidence for climate change is shaky, and inconclusive. In the article he mentions four specifically, Craig Idso, Robert Carter, S. Fred Singer, and Willie Soon. Lets see if we can find any of these fellows on a google search...

Heartland Institute faces fresh scrutiny over tax status: Apparently the organization know as the "Heartland Institute," which bankrolled the Climate Change Reconsidered II, is being accused of purposefully undermining scientific discoveries about climate change. This institute is funded by donations from many large corporations, and private donars (which are normally anonymous, more on that later.) According to this article, the Heartland Institute paid Craig Isdo's organization $11,600 a month to produce this paper, and  S. Fred Singer made a paltry $5,500 a month for his contributions. Don't feel too sorry for Fred though, according to this website his organization (of which he has been the sole member of for 20 years) has accumulated over $1.5M tax free, mostly from the Heartland Institute.

Lets look another individual on the list, Robert Carter. There are a few tidbits concerning him on the internet

Australian University Dumps Bob Carter, Advisor To Multiple Global Climate Science Denial Groups: According to this article, Bob Carter has been removed from an unpaid adjunct professorial status (how do you get fired from working for free) and it seems that last year he was offered $1,667 a month for his work with the Heartland Institute. Skeptical Science is even keeping tabs on Bob over here, in a effort to document his claims.

So what about Willie Soon? It appears that in 2003, he produced research that argued current climate conditions are unremarkable when compared to climate events in the past 1,000 years. According to this article, that study was underwritten by $53,000 from the American Petroleum Institute. According to this article by the Boston Globe about Soon...
Over the last dozen years, he has received research funding of more than a $1.2 million from sources such as ExxonMobil; Southern Company, a foundation run by the Koch brothers, conservative energy moguls; and industry trade group American Petroleum Institute, according to public documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Greenpeace, the environmental advocacy group.
The four researchers cited in this article all have ties to Heartland Institute, as well as other organizations with a vested interest in continuing with a "business as usual" approach to climate change. The next logical question is  who funds the Heartland institute? In a leaked document, the following people and organizations were documented giving to the institute: GlaxoSmithKline, Microsoft, GM, anonymous private donations (one donor gave 14M over several years), tobacco and alcohol companies, as well as...
     

Yep, you guessed it the Koch brothers! So there you have it, the evidence against climate change comes from a report that argues against the  IPCC's findings, which comes from research backed by private organizations and individuals, which have a strong vested interest in denying climate change. And what about Peter Ferrara, the articles author? Besides writing for Forbes, he just happens to be the "Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy for the Heartland Institute." Now we truly have gone full circle.

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