Global Warming Watch: ExxonMobil links to Dr Richard Lindzen.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

ExxonMobil links to Dr Richard Lindzen.

Climate change deniers are having a ball lately. Dr Richard Lindzen does another opinion piece claiming that dissenting scientists are intimidated into silence: Climate of Fear: Global-warming alarmists intimidate dissenting scientists into silence.

So how is it that we don't have more scientists speaking up about this junk science? It's my belief that many scientists have been cowed not merely by money but by
fear.

So why is Dr Richard Lindzen, a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at MIT, being so brave and noble in his dissent? It turns out he has a dossier on ExxonSecrets.org which documents foundations he works for that receive funding from ExxonMobil. Ten years ago the guy was getting paid $2,500 a day to consult to the oil and coal industry. They got what they paid for, it is reported that he is a good climate scientist: Spinwatch: The global warming sceptics: Climate Change

In some cases, scepticism has been good for climate science. US scientist Richard Lindzen, regarded as an outstanding climatologist, has forced his colleagues to address issues such as the role of convection, cloud and water vapour. But most of the handful of scientists around the world that could be called sceptics - and they are mostly not climatologists - do not, as Lindzen does, publish in the recognised peer-reviewed literature, science's method of fact-checking and filtering out bad science.

However, Climate of Fear is not about Dr Richard Lindzen's scientific works, it is about policy, which is why it lands in the OpinionJournal of the WSJ.

...plus a willingness to debase climate science into a triangle of alarmism. Ambiguous scientific statements about climate are hyped by those with a vested interest in
alarm, thus raising the political stakes for policy makers who provide funds for more science research to feed more alarm to increase the political stakes.

Therefore it is reasonable to ask who may be behind Dr Lindzen's words while we consider them.

:: DOSSIER::RICHARD LINDZEN

DETAILS
Richard Lindzen
Professor of Meteorology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Member, Annapolis Center Science and Economic Advisory Council.Member, National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Lindzen was a member of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but takes issue with the general conclusions drawn from the IPCC's report. His prolific writings assert that climate change science is inconclusive, and has testified multiple times before Congress.

Ross Gelbspan reported in 1995 that Lindzen "charges oil and coal interests $2,500 a day for his consulting services; his 1991 trip to testify before a Senate committee was paid for by Western Fuels, and a speech he wrote, entitled 'Global Warming: the Origin and Nature of Alleged Scientific Consensus,' was underwritten by OPEC." ("The Heat is On: The warming of the world's climate sparks a blaze of denial," Harper's magazine, December 1995.) Lindzen signed the 1995 Leipzig Declaration.

ORGANISATIONS
The Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy
Member, Science and Economic Advisory Council
Source: Annapolis Center website 3/04
http://www.annapoliscenter.org

Tech Central Science Foundation or Tech Central Station
Contributing Writer
Source: Tech Central Bio Lindzen

Cato Institute
Contributing Writer, Reason Magazine
Source: Cato Institute website 4/04
http://www.cato.org

The Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy receives funding from ExxonMobil:

Total funding to The Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy from Exxon corporations since 1998: $US NaN

1998 - $183,500 ExxonMobil Corporate Giving
Source: ExxonMobil 1998 grants list

2000 - $190,000 ExxonMobil Foundation40K project support 50K 'policy conferences'.100K 'discussion making light of scientific uncertainty'
Source: ExxonMobil Foundation 2000 IRS 990

2001 - $27,500 ExxonMobil Corporate Giving
Source: ExxonMobil 2001 Annual Report

2001 - $35,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
Source: ExxonMobil 2001 Annual Report

2002 - $50,000 ExxonMobil Corporate Giving children's asthma
Source: ExxonMobil 2002 Annual Report

2002 - $70,000 ExxonMobil Foundation general support
Source: ExxonMobil 2002 Annual Report

2003 - $27,500 ExxonMobil Corporate GivingGeneral Operating Support/Annual Dinner
Source: ExxonMobil 2003 Corporate Giving Report

2003 - $75,000 ExxonMobil Corporate GivingProject Support
Source: ExxonMobil 2003 Corporate Giving Report

2004 - $75, 000 ExxonMobil Foundation
Source: Exxon Giving Report 2004

Tech Central Science Foundation gets their bit:

2003 - $95,000 ExxonMobil FoundationClimate Change Support
Source: ExxonMobil 2003 Corporate Giving Report

As does the Cato Institute.

2001 - $20,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
Source: ExxonMobil 2001 Annual Report

2002 - $25,000 ExxonMobil Foundationgeneral support
Source: ExxonMobil 2002 Annual Report

2002 - $5,000 ExxonMobil Corporate Givingannual gala dinner
Source: ExxonMobil 2002 Annual Report

2003 - $25,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
Source: ExxonMobil 2003 Corporate Giving Report

2004 - $15,000 ExxonMobil FoundationEnvironmental Education and Outreach
Source: Exxon Giving Report 2004

He is very strong in his condemnation of global warming alarmism.

But there is a more sinister side to this feeding frenzy. Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves libeled as industry stooges, scientific hacks or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis.

One is left feeling Climate of Fear would have been more balanced if he also acknowledged that the top climate scientist in the US, James Hansen, speaks out strongly of White House censorship of climate science. How could he miss that when his charge is so similar. Methinks a campaign of climate science obfuscation is underway.

More articles on the global warming skeptics and how they operate.