Exxon's Secret Sponsorship of Climate Skeptics

Despite the best PR efforts of industry, global warming is a growing concern to an increasing number of people in the world. That's because corporate propaganda addresses only the perception of climate change, distorting science and corrupting regulatory processes, and not the reality. The new website ExxonSecrets.org explores the links between Exxonmobil, think tanks, corporate friendly scientists, and government officials. The interactive website, sponsored by Greenpeace and based on the research of CLEAR (Clearinghouse on Advocacy and Environmental Research), illustrates how Exxonmobil has funneled over $12 million dollars since 1998 to influencing the global debate on climate change. For example, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works chair James Inhofe (R-OK), who once suggested that global warming "could be the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," has ties to both the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy, which jointly account for over $2 million of Exxonmobil largess since 1998.