Climate sceptic 'misled Congress over funding from oil industry'

Climate sceptic 'misled Congress over funding from oil industry'

www.guardian.co.uk

A leading climate sceptic patronised by the oil billionaire Koch brothers faced a potential investigation today on charges that he misled Congress on the extent of his funding from the oil industry.

Patrick Michaels, a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute, a thinktank founded by Charles and David Koch to promote their libertarian, anti-government views, appeared before the house energy and commerce committee in February 2009.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.guardian.co.uk

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Famous Global Warming Skeptic Scientist admits "40 percent" of his funding comes from Big Oil
Documented reasons why Koch Industries is the most vile and counterproductive company in the US
(Astro)Turf Wars - New Documentary Exposing Corporate Agenda Behind Grassroots Movements
You have all gotten in bed with the enemy.

Although this article is from today, this is not exactly "Breaking News" to anyone who understands the full scope of the public debate on climate. It is no secret that the "skeptic" side of the fence is absolutely littered with special interest groups, corporate lobbyists, and a handful of "scientific experts" who are actually nothing but paid shills for the fossil fuel industry.

So the only people who will probably find this to be "Breaking News" at all are likely the ones who I bet will just continue to IGNORE it anyway.

To those of you who are on this website because you're actually into conspiracies, instead of just harping about your political ideologies - I offer the following information below. This is a catalog of the MASSIVE DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN being waged by fossil fuel companies via astroturf lobby groups and website blogs designed to convince the world that man made climate change is nothing but a hoax...


www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Further reading/viewing on the dirty connections between Global Warming skeptics and the fossil fuel industry:

Scientists' Report Documents ExxonMobil’s Tobacco-like Disinformation Campaign on Global Warming Science

Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco’s Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science

Statement of Dr. James McCarthy: Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight House Science Committee

Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine

The Climate Killers

12 Politicians And Execs Blocking Progress On Global Warming

5 Awards For the World's Most Heinous Climate Villains





Understanding Climate-Change Skepticism: Its Sources and Strategies

THE HEAT IS ON: The warming of the world's climate sparks a blaze of denial

Climate change deniers

Google Video Link

Big Oil creates phony climate denial site, lies about it

Conspiracy theory? That'll be the deniers

Karl Rove BRAGGING that "climate is gone" once the Republicans regained control of Congress



Excellent resource debunking many of the myths and memes about climate science being engineered by these oil lobby shills:

Skeptic Arguments and What the Science Says



Two separate peer-reviewed studies that recently determined there is about a 97% consensus amongst climate scientists on AGW:

Expert credibility in climate change
Examining the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change

reply to post by mc_squared


This will be the first time I ever type this.... "S&F!"

I knew all along that big oil would spend lots of money to try to discredit the effects pollution has on the Earth. It is much like tobacco companies paying to discredit cancer claims.

This is like some type of double-conspiracy. People think climate change is the conspiracy, but the real conspiracy is the denial of climate change.

To me it is obvious that humans can easily effect the weather/climate by changing the atmosphere. Our machines are changing the atmosphere 24/7 at incredible rates, and those rates are only increasing with time..... so it is only a matter of time before we see the effects (if the effects are not already happening now).

All the effects that our increased atmospheric disruptions will cause are hard to predict, but there are inevitable effects. When looked at scientifically, the inevitable effects will not be good for humans. Our pollution must be decreased significantly, and our efficiency increased any way possible in order to avoid potential disaster.

Yes, I believe there exist people who are using the very real climate threat to scam people out of money. However, this does not disprove the threat exists, or make it any less valid, or any less important. The threat is completely real. Big oil paying to hide this reality is a disgrace to humanity, and all of Earth.

Yes, Suzanne Goldenberg is exactly the source I would be quoting on this issue.

Let's see, what could have possibly tipped me off about this hit piece?

From your article:

Patrick Michaels is a climate change sceptic and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank founded by Charles and David Koch, oil industry billionaires who also bankroll conservative Tea Party organisations

then this:

A leading climate sceptic patronised by the oil billionaire Koch brothers faced a potential investigation today on charges that he misled Congress on the extent of his funding from the oil industry.

next line:

Patrick Michaels, a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute, a thinktank founded by Charles and David Koch to promote their libertarian, anti-government views,

Well now, that's some good reportin' there Suzanne.

Of course the rest of your article goes on to explain how Democrat Henry Waxman would like Republican Fred Upton to investigate Patrick Michaels' (Cato) comments from two years ago,
as soon as incoming Upton takes over Waxman's job.

No axe to grind there, either.

Garbage hit piece.

reply to post by gift0fpr0phecy


You make no sense with this statement

Yes, I believe there exist people who are using the very real climate threat to scam people out of money. However, this does not disprove the threat exists, or make it any less valid, or any less important. The threat is completely real. Big oil paying to hide this reality is a disgrace to humanity, and all of Earth.

The threat is completely real. Big oil paying to hide this reality is a disgrace to humanity, and all of Earth

Not all Climate skeptics belong to the oil industry

The threat is completely real.

No it isn't, if your buying into this crap you will fall in with The Bilderberg Group agenda,


Of course the media wont tell you that other planets in the solar system are also warming up, still global warming is something i don't believe in to, nor do my freinds do.

Originally posted by Agent_USA_Supporter
You make no sense with this statement

What part of the statement doesn't make sense? You should explain yourself more clearly.

Originally posted by Agent_USA_Supporter
Not all Climate skeptics belong to the oil industry

I never claimed all climate skeptics belong to the oil industry. You seem to always put words in my mouth in every topic I speak to you in.

I will claim, however, that skeptics that do belong to the oil industry help spread denial and help create more skeptics, with lies.

Originally posted by Agent_USA_Supporter

The threat is completely real.

No it isn't, if your buying into this crap you will fall in with The Bilderberg Group agenda,

I am not "buying" anything. I have done my own logical deductions and came to my own conclusions with no external help.

It is a FACT, and is REAL.

The atmosphere controls the climate and weather, and humans are changing the atmosphere. Therefore the weather and climate will inevitably change. This is absolute and can not and will never be refuted.

According to physics, the change will not be pleasant for humans.

Originally posted by Agent_USA_Supporter
Of course the media wont tell you that other planets in the solar system are also warming up, still global warming is something i don't believe in to, nor do my freinds do.

First, the planets are NOT experiencing "global" warming, they are only experience "regional" warming. Only Earth seems to be experiencing "global" warming. You have been mislead.

sources

Second, the sun creating more sunlight (heat) is a completely separate issue from pollution increasing the insulation of Earth. So there is two issues; One issue is increasing sunlight. The other issue is increasing insulation (atmospheric changes). BOTH are problems, not just one.

Even if the sun had a steady output from now until the future, increasing pollution in the atmosphere is STILL a calculated problem. The increasing sun output AND the increasing pollution in the atmosphere is even a bigger problem when combined.

Third, even if you ignore current climate changes, and you don't care what is causing it now, the increasing pollution is STILL 100% confirmed to be a problem now and in the near future.

Man-made climate change is a reality... It has already been confirmed.

Originally posted by gift0fpr0phecy
reply to post by mc_squared

 

This will be the first time I ever type this.... "S&F!"

I knew all along that big oil would spend lots of money to try to discredit the effects pollution has on the Earth. It is much like tobacco companies paying to discredit cancer claims.

Thanks, and yeah - it's exactly like that. In many cases the denialists have literally taken the exact same people from the tobacco denying game and transposed them into the climate debate. Dr. Frederick Seitz and Fred Singer for example.

Honestly this conspiracy is really pretty damn obvious to anyone who does the slightest bit of research or independent thinking for themselves. Virtually every single skeptic talking point about climate change turns out to be a lie or at least a serious distortion of the truth.

Same goes for every "professional" skeptic - there are only a small minority of them in the first place, but the propaganda machine tries to make it look like there is this huge amount of dissent amongst scientists. It is completely untrue. Plus the handful of professional skeptics ALWAYS seem to have a paper trail of funding that leads back to Exxon, Koch, etc. I have yet to see one that doesn't.

But it amazes me how many people on ATS and everywhere else absolutely REFUSE to look at this evidence. They are so blinded by their political ideologies and their egos that they'd rather live in blissful, deluded ignorance than accept the truth. It's really really sad...

Thanks for being one of the few ATS members left around here who refuse to become just another one of these sheep.

Originally posted by Oaktree
Garbage hit piece.

lol garbage hit piece eh?

If you'd bothered reading the information provided instead of just rushing to attack it you'd see I posted a related ATS link in the OP that shows Pat Michaels admitting out of his own mouth he is funded by the petroleum industry. I also posted an article from 1995 that talks about how we was a hired gun for Western Fuels Association - a 400 million dollar consortium for the coal industry.

So garbage hit piece my butt.

But that's OK - you just go back to shutting your eyes and sticking your fingers in your ears and tell yourself whatever it is you want to hear. Denying ignorance is a lot of hard work, so just go back to sleep...

Originally posted by Agent_USA_Supporter
Of course the media wont tell you that other planets in the solar system are also warming up, still global warming is something i don't believe in to, nor do my freinds do.

Or maybe the media happens to not be reporting simply because it isn't true. Thorough Debunking Here.

You know - critical thinking involves more than believing everything you see on the internet just because mainstream media isn't reporting it. I'm pretty sure oil industry shills no how to use a computer and start a blog.

Pres Ronald Reagan's removal of Pres Carter's White House solar panels three decades ago, signaling to the oil industry a return to status quo, was below the radar of most Americans at the time, as well as a passive event.

As China and India increased their energy needs, and America went to wars over oil (first 1991 then Iraq over our "way of life"), more aggressive methods were needed to keep Americans thirsting for the old means of energy production. Drag out the industry front groups and front spokespeople to assure citizens that the status quo must be kept, nothing is wrong, move along.

We, and the world, would be different today if Pres Carter's energy policy initiatives had been promoted. We are now three decades behind, thanks to people like Mr. Michaels and his backers. The United States may have won the Space Race, but the Energy Race, the race for survival, may already be lost. And to think that at one point we were the leader.