Here’s a piece that was highlighted in the latest SojoMail , where David Batstone has a couple of rants, one of which is on how ExxonMobile has contributed to a “thinktank” whose aim is to combat with supposed “alternative science” the overwhelming ACTUAL sceintific community consensus on global warming. (Batstone draws on a NYTimes article by Paul Krugman, (which sadly, is now behind their “pay” wall, but I found a few cut and paste sections)…..These “alternative think tanks” are noticably bereft of ACTUAL experts, but long on the “counter intelligence” aimed at trying to debunk in the mind of the public the findings of those who actually make it their life’s work to study such things. This also seems to be the pattern in the appointments of the Bush administration to agencies having to do with education, health, environment, etc. In fact, the usual pattern is to appoint people as “reward” for their campaign support, and it’s usually some lobbyist for the companies who oppose just about any type of regulation that was originally conceived as looking after the interests of PEOPLE, to protect them against the propensity for companies to be SELFISH and put their “bottom line” before the welfare of the general public (we all know that never happens). But these lobbyists have made it their vocation to particpate in such “think tanks” and gather as much psuedo science from pseudo-experts as they can, and use it to push through their preferences.

Flipping the corrupt tables by David Batstone
Krugman explains how ExxonMobil has deliberately aimed to sow confusion and doubt about the existence of global warming. When the greenhouse effect rose to public consciousness in the 1980s, we faced a paucity of scientific research validating the extent of its impact. Exxon (which at the time had not merged with Mobil) decided to take an aggressive stance, and joined with other oil industry players to form the Global Climate Coalition. The primary purpose of the coalition was to lobby against all significant emissions regulation. Krugman reports that Shell and BP, among other companies, eventually left the coalition once it became undeniable that global warming was in play. Exxon, however, adopted an ongoing strategy to undermine the science of climate change.

Krugman cites a 2004 article in the journal Science that reviews the state of scientific research around global warming. Of the 928 serious, peer-reviewed articles on climate change published in academic journals, he writes, “none of the papers disagreed with the consensus position.” Nevertheless, for the past two decades ExxonMobil has seen fit to throw money at individuals and groups offering “alternative perspectives” of global warming skeptics. The company’s attitude toward research recalls the tobacco industry studies that suggested that perhaps cigarette smoke wasn’t really that bad for you after all.