Climate Change

U.S., Oil Companies Oust Climate Change Scientist

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

The Bush administration, Exxon-Mobil and other energy companies successfully connived behind the scenes to oust climatologist Robert Watson from leadership of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nation's international scientific panel on climate change. Meanwhile, an extensive research survey published in March confirms that global warming is already affecting life on earth.

No
Main Source: 
The Guardian (UK), April 20, 2002
Topics: 
Climate Change
Corporations
Science
U.S. Government

Global Climate Coalition Melts Down

Submitted by Laura Miller on

The Global Climate Coalition, a front group for the auto, oil, coal and other industries responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions that are changing the climate, recently announced that has disbanded, explaining that it "has served its purpose by contributing to a new national approach to global warming.

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Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, February 27, 2002
Topics: 
Front Groups
Climate Change
Corporations

Goofing on Global Warming

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

When it comes to global warming, science writers seem to do a better job of getting the facts straight than editorial writers. University of Illinois scientists recently published research in Nature which shows a local pattern of cooling in parts of the Antarctic. The scientists' published research made it clear that this local cooling does not contradict the evidence of global warming.

No
Main Source: 
San Francisco Chronicle, February 4, 2002
Topics: 
Journalism
Climate Change

Denying Global Warming Bad For ExxonMobil's Reputaion

Submitted by Laura Miller on

PR trade publication O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports: "Robert Monks, Chairman of LENS Investment Management and Ram Trust Services, has filed a resolution calling for the separation of the Chairman and CEO positions at ExxonMobil because he believes the current holder of the posts, Lee Raymond, and his denial of the global warming problem is destroying the reputation of the energy giant. Monks says Raymond's 'extreme position' and negative public image is the reason that ExxonMobil's stock is 'undervalued compared to its peer group when it should be at a premium.'"

No
Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, December 18, 2001
Topics: 
Climate Change
Corporations

Companies Feel Kyoto Backlash

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

American companies are suffering a knock to their corporate reputations internationally due to the Bush administration's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. "The media tends to repeat the oversimplified view that companies supporting the Protocol are environmentally friendly, and those that don't are not," complains PR Week writer Eleanor Trickett.

No
Main Source: 
PR Week, August 6, 2001
Topics: 
Climate Change

Oops

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

PR Watch reported in 1997 that the Burson-Marsteller PR firm created the Global Climate Coalition. They've never challenged this statement prior to July 2001, but after they issued a denial we checked our files, and it looks like we were wrong. This doesn't change the fact that B-M has been a major force behind industry campaigns to block measures aimed at preventing global warming. For a report on what they've actually done, read our correction.

No
Main Source: 
http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q4/correction.html
Topics: 
Climate Change
Public Relations

Global Warming Sweepstakes--This Time It's Cool

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

In 1997, we noted that the anti-environmentalist Junk Science Home Page was sponsoring a Global Warming Sweepstakes as a way of opposing measures that combat global warming. Well, two can play at that game. Act for Change/Working Assets just announced its own sweepstakes, which supports measures to combat global warming.

No
Main Source: 
http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/flo?y=mBhP0BCLWA0oI0PxG0BE&rid=89098
Topics: 
Climate Change
Public Relations

Cold War Rhetoric Fuels Global Warming

Submitted by John Stauber on

Daniel J. Popeo, a former Nixon and Ford staffer, founded and runs the heavily corporate-funded Washington Legal Foundation, one of many business front groups smearing serious health and environmental concerns as "junk science." In its June 9 New York Times advertisement (p. A19) Popeo employs his trademark hysterical McCarthy-era Cold War rhetoric to accuse environmentalists of conspiring with "envious foreign competitors and international bureaucrats" to destroy the American economy and "satisfy an ideological agenda."

No
Main Source: 
http://www.wlf.org/howtosup.htm
Topics: 
Climate Change
Corporations
Think Tanks

ExxonMobil Emerges as Major Funder of "Greenhouse Skeptics"

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil group, has become a major funder of the most visible "greenhouse skeptics", most of whom who have traditionally been funded by the coal industry -- including S. Fred Singer, Patrick Michaels, Robert Balling and Sherwood Idso. Now the Guardian of London reports that ExxonMobil is planning a public relations offensive to win back consumers and investors, amid fears the company is losing the war of words over climate change.

No
Main Source: 
http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=3645&metho…
Topics: 
Climate Change

What Global Warming?

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

ExxonMobil's stubborn refusal to acknowledge the fact that burning fossil fuels has a role in global warming is creating a backlash against the world's biggest company. Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and People & Planet launched a campaign in the U.K. earlier this month to boycott Esso gasoline, supported by a variety of prominent politicians, celebrities and writers.

No
Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, May 23, 2001
Topics: 
Climate Change

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