Global Warming Skeptic Organizations

An overwhelming majority of scientists AGREE

global warming is happening and human activity is the

primary cause. Yet several prominent global warming skeptic organizations are ACTIVELY
doubt about the facts of global warming.

working to sow

These organizations PLAY

a key role in the fossil fuel industry's "disinformation playbook," a strategy
designed to confuse the public about global warming and delay action on climate change. Why? Because the
fossil fuel industry wants to sell MORE
coal, oil, and gas even though the science clearly shows that the
resulting carbon emissions threaten our planet.

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Big Carbon wants to sell more coal,

oil, and gaseven if it means lying
about the scientific evidence showing
that the resulting carbon emissions
threaten our planet.

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Who are these groups? And what is the evidence linking them to the fossil fuel industry?
HERE'S

a quick primer on several prominent global warming skeptic organizations, including examples of

their disinformation efforts and FUNDING

sources from the fossil fuel industry. Many have received large
donations from foundations established, and supported, by the fossil fuel billionaire Koch brothers.

American Enterprise Institute

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has routinely tried to undermine the credibility of climate science,
despite at times affirming that the WEIGHT
[1]

of the evidence justifies prudent action on climate change.

For years, AEI played a role in propagating misinformation about a manufactured controversy over emails

stolen from climate scientists [2], with one AEI research fellow even claiming, There was no consensus about
the extent and causes of global warming. [3] A resident scholar at AEI went so far as to state that the
profession of climate scientist threatens to overtake all on THE LIST
of most distrusted occupations. [4]
AEI received $3,615,000 from ExxonMobil from 1998-2012 [5], and more than $1 million in funding from Koch
foundations from 2004-2011. [6]

Americans for Prosperity

Americans for PROSPERITY
(AFP) frequently provides a platform for climate contrarian statements, such as
How much information refutes carbon dioxide-caused global warming? Let me count the ways. [7]
While claiming to be a grassroots organization, AFP has bolstered its list of activists by hosting $1.84 Gas
events, where consumers who receive DISCOUNTS ON
gasoline are asked to provide their name and email
address on a petition form. [8] These events are billed as raising awareness about failing energy policies
and high gasoline prices, but consumers are not told about AFPs ties to oil interests, namely Koch Industries.
AFP has its origins in a group founded in 1984 by fossil fuel billionaires Charles and David Koch [9], and the
latter Koch still serves on AFP Foundations board of directors [10]. Richard Fink, executive vice president of
Koch Industries, also serves as a director for both AFP and AFP Foundation. [11]
Koch foundations donated $3,609,281 to AFP Foundation from 2007-2011. [12]

American Legislative Exchange Council

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) maintains that global climate change is inevitable [13]
and since the 1990s has pushed various forms of model legislation aimed at obstructing policies intended to
reduce global warming emissions.
ALEC purports to support the use of sound science to guide policy, but routinely provides a one-sided
platform for climate contrarians. State legislators attending one ALEC meeting were OFFERED
a workshop
touting a report by a fossil fuel-funded group that declared like love, carbon dioxide's many splendors are
seemingly endless." [14, 15] Another ALEC meeting featured a Fox News contributor who has claimed on the
air that carbon dioxide literally cannot cause global warming. [16, 17]
ALEC received MORE
than $1.6 million from ExxonMobil from 1998-2012 [18], and more than $850,000
from Koch foundations from 1997-2011. [19]

Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University

From its position as the research arm of the Department of Economics at Suffolk UNIVERSITY , the Beacon
Hill Institute (BHI) has published misleading analyses of clean energy and climate change policies in more
than three dozen states.
These economic analyses are at times accompanied by a dose of climate contrarianism. For example, BHI
Director David Tuerck has claimed that the very question of whether the climate is warming is in doubt
[20] Claims such as wind power actually increases pollution can be found in many of BHIs reports.
BHI has publicly acknowledged its Koch FUNDING
[21], which likely includes at least some of the
approximately $725,000 the Charles G. Koch foundation contributed to Suffolk University from 2008-2011. [22]

Cato Institute

Cato acknowledges that Global warming is indeed real But when it comes to the causes of global
warming, Cato has sent mixed messages over the years. Cato's website, for instance, reports that human
ACTIVITY

has been a contributor [to global warming] since 1975. [23] Yet, on the same topic of whether

human ACTIVITY

is responsible for global warming, Catos vice president has written: We dont know. [24]

Patrick Michaels, Director of Catos Center for the STUDY

of Science, has referred to the latest Draft
National Climate Assessment Report as the stuff of fantasy. [25] The most recent edition of Catos
Handbook for Policymakers advises that Congress should pass no legislation restricting emissions of
carbon dioxide. [26]
Charles Koch co-founded Cato in 1977. Both Charles and David Koch were among the four shareholders
who owned Cato until 2011 [27], and the latter Koch remains a member of Catos Board of Directors. [28]
Koch foundations contributed MORE

than $5 million to Cato from 1997-2011. [29]

Competitive Enterprise Institute

The COMPETITIVE
Enterprise Institute has at times acknowledged that Global warming is a reality. [30]
But CEI has also routinely disputed that global warming is a problem, contending that There is no scientific
consensus that global warming will cause damaging climate change. [31]
These kinds of claims are nothing new for CEI. Back in 1991, CEI was claiming that The greatest challenge
we face is not warming, but cooling. [32] More recently, CEI produced an ad calling for higher levels of
carbon dioxide. [33] One CEI scholar even publicly compared a prominent climate scientist to CONVICTED
child molester Jerry Sandusky. [34]
CEI received around $2 million in FUNDING
from ExxonMobil from 1995-2005 [35], though ExxonMobil
made a public break with CEI in 2007 after coming under scrutiny from UCS and other groups for its funding
of climate contrarian organizations. CEI has also received funding from Koch foundations, DATING
the 1980s. [36]

back to

Heartland Institute
While claiming to stand up for sound science, the Heartland Institute has routinely spread misinformation
about climate science, including deliberate attacks on climate scientists. [37]
Popular outcry forced the Heartland Institute to pull down a controversial billboard that COMPARED
supporters of global warming facts to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski [38], bringing an early end to a planned
campaign first announced in an essay by Heartland President Joseph Bast, which claimed the most
prominent advocates of global warming arent scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen. [39]
Heartland even once marked Earth Day by mailing out 100,000 free copies of a book claiming that climate
science has been corrupted [40] despite acknowledging that all major scientific organizations of the
world have taken the official POSITION

that humankind is causing global warming.

Heartland received MORE

than $675,000 from ExxonMobil from 1997-2006 [41]. Heartland also raked in
millions from the Koch-funded organization Donors Trust through 2011. [42, 43]

Heritage Foundation
While maintaining that Science should be used as ONE
tool to guide climate policy, the Heritage
Foundation often uses rhetoric such as far from settled to sow doubt about climate science. [44, 45, 46, 47]

One Heritage report even claimed that The only consensus over the threat of climate change that seems to
exist these days is that there is no consensus. [48]
Vocal climate contrarians, meanwhile, are described as the worlds best scientists when it comes to the
climate change STUDY

in the words of one Heritage policy analyst. [49]

Heritage received more than $4.5 million from Koch foundations from 1997-2011. [50] ExxonMobil contributed
$780,000 to the Heritage Foundation from 2001-2012. ExxonMobil CONTINUES
to provide annual
contributions to the Heritage Foundation, despite making a public pledge in 2007 to stop funding climate
contrarian groups. [51, 52]

Institute for Energy Research

The term alarmism is defined by Mirriam-Webster as the often unwarranted exciting of fears or WARNING
of danger. So when Robert Bradley, CEO and founder of the Institute for Energy Research (IER), and others
at his organization routinely evoke the term climate alarmism they do so to sow doubt about the urgency of
global warming.
IER claims that public policy should be based on objective science, not emotion or improbable scenarios
But IER also claims that the sense of urgency for climate action is due not to the science that shows the real
and growing conequences of global warming. Rather, IER suggests that researchers exacerbate the sense
[that] policies are urgently needed for monetary gain, noting that issues that are perceived to be an
imminent crisis can mean more FUNDING
IER has received FUNDING

. [53]

from both ExxonMobil [54] and the Koch brothers [55].

Manhattan Institute for Policy Research

The Manhattan Institute has acknowledged that the scientific consensus is that the planet is warming, while
at the same time maintaining that ACCOUNTS
probably unjustified. [56]

of climate change convey a sense of certitude that is

The science is not settled, not by a long shot, Robert Bryce, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow has written
in the Wall Street Journal [57]. At other times Bryce has expressed indifference to the science on climate
change. I dont know whos right. And I really dont care, he wrote in one BOOK

. [58]

The Manhattan Institute has received $635,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998 [59], with annual contributions
CONTINUING

as of 2012, and nearly $2 million from Koch foundations from 1997-2011. [60]

Sources and References

1 American Enterprise Institute. 2009. Climate Change Email Scandal Underscores Myth of Pure Science.
2 Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), 2011. Debunking Misinformation About Stolen Climate Emails in the
"Climategate" Manufactured Controversy.
3 American Enterprise Institute. 2011. Climategate (Part II)
4 American Enterprise Institute. 2010. How Climate-Change Fanatics Corrupted Science.
5 ExxonSecrets.org. 2012. Factsheet: American Enterprise Institute, AEI.
6 UCS. 2013. Unreliable Sources: How the News Media Help the Koch Brothers and ExxonMobil Spread
Climate Disinformation.
7 Americans for PROSPERITY
Consumer Energy Agenda.

. 2013. AFP GA Activists Fire Major Shot Against Obamas War on

8 PR Watch. 2012. Koch's AFP Complains about Gas Prices, but Koch Speculation Helps Fuel High Prices
at the Pump.
9 Koch Industries. 2010. Koch and Americans for Prosperity/Citizens for a Sound Economy.
10 Americans for PROSPERITY
11 Americans for PROSPERITY

Foundation. About AFP Foundation: Directors.

. About AFP: Directors.

12 INVESTIGATIVE
Reporting Workshop. 2013. Koch database: donations to nonprofits.
13 American Legislative Exchange Council. 2011. ALEC Energy Principles.
14 The Cap Times. 2011. Brendan Fischer: CO2 is good for you, and other ALEC talking points.
15 Center for the STUDY
of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change. 2011. The Many Benefits of Atmospheric
CO2 Enrichment.
16 PR Watch. 2013. A Side of Climate Change Denial with Your Coffee? ALEC Dishes up Some Hard to
Swallow Spin with the Heartland Institute.
17 Climate Progress. 2012. WeatherBELL Chief Forecaster Joe Bastardi Denies Basic Physics: CO2 Cannot
Cause Global Warming
18 ExxonSecrets.org. 2012. Factsheet: ALEC American Legislative Exchange Council.
19 Greenpeace. 2011. Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group. American Legislative Exchange Council
(ALEC).
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29

Carolina Journal ONLINE . 2008. Friday Interview: Global Warming Policy Costs.
Washington Post. 2012. Climate skeptic group works to reverse renewable energy mandates.
Greenpeace. 2013. Koch Brother Fronts Flood into Kansas to Attack Wind Industry.
Cato Institute. Global Warming.
Cato Institute. 2005. Hot Enough for You? The state of the global-warming debate, and politicking.
Cato Institute. 2013. Federal Climatologists Pen Fantasy Novel.
Cato Institute. 2009. Cato Handbook for Policymakers.
Cato Institute. 2012. Cato Institute and Shareholders Reach Agreement in Principle.
Cato Institute. 2012. Cato Institute and Shareholders Reach Agreement in Principle.
Greenpeace. 2011. Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group: Cato Institute.

30 COMPETITIVE
Enterprise Institute. 2009. 10 Cool Global Warming Policies.
31 Competitive Enterprise Institute. Global Warming FAQ.
32 Competitive Enterprise Institute. 1991. Why Worry About Global Warming.
33 UCS. 2009. New Disinformation Ads Argue for More Carbon Dioxide.
34 UCS. 2013. Timeline: Legal Harassment of Climate Scientist Michael Mann.
35 UCS. 2013. Fossil Fuel Industry Funders of Climate Contrarian Groups, 2001-2011.
36 Greenpeace. Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group: Competitive Enterprise Institute.
37 UCS. 2012. Scientists Who Had Emails Stolen Ask Heartland Institute to End Attack on Climate Science.
38 UCS. 2012. Whos the Crazy One Here?
39 Heartland Institute. 2012. Do You Still Believe in Global Warming? Billboards Hit Chicago.
40 Heartland Institute. 2013. Heartland Institute Celebrates Earth Day with Release of New Book.
41 ExxonSecrets.org. Factsheet: Heartland Institute.
42 The Guardian. 2013. How Donors Trust distributed millions to anti-climate groups.
43 The Center for Public Integrity. 2013. Donors use charity to push free-market policies in states.
44 Heritage Foundation. 2013. Climate Change: The Cost of Bold Action
45 Heritage Foundation. 2013. With Climate Change Science Unsettled, a Carbon Tax is Even More Useless.
46 Heritage Foundation. 2009. Sen. Inhofe Discusses Climategate, The Greatest Scandal in Modern
Science
47 Heritage Foundation. 2013. 10 Questions for DOE Nominee Ernest Moniz.

48 Heritage Foundation. 2010. How the Scientific Consensus on Global Warming Affects American
Businessand Consumers.
49 Heritage Foundation. 2009. Global Warming Conference: The Science of Climate Change
50 Greenpeace. 2011. Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group: The Heritage Foundation.
51 ExxonSecrets.org. 2012. Factsheet: Heritage Foundation.
52 UCS. 2012. ExxonMobil Corporation.
53 Institute for Energy Research. Climate Change Overview.
54 ExxonSecrets.org. Factsheet: Institute for Energy Research.
55 Investigative Reporting Workshop. 2013. Koch database: donations to nonprofits.
56 Manhattan Institute. 2007. Realities and Uncertainties of Global Warming.
57 Media Matters. 2011. Who Is Robert Bryce?
58 Media Matters. 2011. Who Is Robert Bryce?
59 ExxonSecrets.org. 2012. Factsheet: Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research.
60 Greenpeace. 2011. Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group: The Manhattan Institute for Policy
Research.

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