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[Guest guest]

Oil firms fund climate change 'denial'

 

David Adam, science correspondent

Thursday January 27, 2005

 

Guardian

Lobby groups funded by the US oil industry are targeting Britain in a

bid to play down the threat of climate change and derail action to cut

greenhouse gas emissions, leading scientists have warned.

 

Bob May, president of the Royal Society, says that " a lobby of

professional sceptics who opposed action to tackle climate change " is

turning its attention to Britain because of its high profile in the

debate.

 

Writing in the Life section of today's Guardian, Professor May says the

government's decision to make global warming a focus of its G8

presidency has made it a target. So has the high profile of its chief

scientific adviser, David King, who described climate change as a bigger

threat than terrorism.

 

Prof May's warning coincides with a meeting of climate change sceptics

today at the Royal Institution in London organised by a British group,

the Scientific Alliance, which has links to US oil company ExxonMobil

through a collaboration with a US institute.

 

Last month the Scientific Alliance published a joint report with the

George C Marshall Institute in Washington that claimed to " undermine "

climate change claims. The Marshall institute received £51,000 [$120,000

CAN] from ExxonMobil for its " global climate change programme " in 2003

and an undisclosed sum this month.

 

Prof May's warning comes as British scientists, in the journal Nature,

show that emissions of carbon dioxide could have a more dramatic effect

on climate than thought. They say the average temperature could rise

11C, even if atmospheric carbon dioxide were limited to the levels

expected in 2050.

 

David Frame, who coordinated the climate prediction experiment, said:

" If the real world response were anywhere near the upper end of our

range, even today's levels of greenhouse gases could already be

dangerously high. "

 

Emission limits such as those in the Kyoto protocol would hit oil firms

because the bulk of greenhouse gases come from burning fossil fuel

products.

 

Prof May writes that during the 1990s, parts of the US oil industry

funded sceptics who opposed action to tackle climate change. A

Scientific Alliance spokesman said today's meeting was sponsored but

funders did not influence policies. ExxonMobil said it was not involved.

 

One adviser is Sallie Baliunas, an astrophysicist at the Harvard

Smithsonian Centre, who is linked to the Marshall Institute. In 1998 Dr

Baliunas co-wrote an article that argued for the release of more carbon

dioxide. It was mass-mailed to US scientists with a petition asking them

to reject Kyoto.

 

Tony Blair yesterday attempted to urge George Bush to sign a climate

change accord. At the World Economic Forum he said climate change was

" not universally accepted " , but evidence of its danger had been " clearly

and persuasively advocated " by a very large number of " independent

voices " .

 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

 

What you see is what you get

You've made your bed, you better lie in it

You choose your leaders and place your trust

As their lies wash you down and their promises rust

You'll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns

And the public wants what the public gets

But I don't get what this society wants