There will always been climate ‘skeptics’. They call themselves climate ‘skeptics’ because to be a skeptic in todays so-called ‘scientific society lends an air of credibility to people who ain’t that bright. If you don’t think something is true, you automatically have more cred than those who do. We have a weird situation where belief (even with huge amounts of documented evidence) is seen as something dubious and doubtful. Welcome to the backlash against organised religion.

I see these climate deniers as just another faith. They’re touting their religion in an attempt to gain attention and credibility.

Shame that they’re wrong. I wish climate change wasn’t happening too. I also wish Santa Claus existed and that the Tooth Fairy were real.

There are several sources who have published what i am only repeating, apparently without fear of legal recriminations themselves. Monbiot in today’s Guardian (see link given in the post above) is quite explicit:

“Far from revealing its contributors’ financial interests, the film created the impression that they have taken no money from the coal or oil industries. In truth, 10 of its protagonists have either been funded directly by fossil-fuel companies, or have received paid employment from lobby groups funded by these companies, which campaign against taking action on climate change. Tim Ball claimed in the programme that “I’ve never received a nickel from the oil and gas companies.” But he has received fees from two groups which lobby against taking action on climate change — Friends of Science and the Natural Resources Stewardship Project — both of which receive major funding from energy companies.”

It is a while since I read Leggett’s book (your copy i think!) and I dont have it with me but I was impressed by the specifics of who was paid what by whom for what. It was the same old suspects co noodling with the Saudi and US delegates in conference after conference, plotting in the lobby to sabotage the agreements any way they could.

And Alistair McIntosh has this to say in his new book “Hell and High Water” with regard to Durkin’s film:

“Meanwhile, George Marshall of the Climate Outreach and Information Network drew attention to the fact that several of Durkin’s experts were in bed with industry and political lobby groups dedicated to denying climate change…

“Another of Durkin’s interviewees, Fred Singer, was founder of The science and Environment Policy Project which, syas Marshall, ‘aggressively contradicts climate science and has recieved direct funding from Exxon, Shell, Unocal and ARCO’.

“On 4 September 2006 Exxon… had been sent an unprecedented letter from the Royal Society. This accused the company of willfully funding thirty-nine groups that ‘misrepresented the science of climate change , by outright denial of the evidence that greenhouse gases are driving climate change, or by overstating the amount and significance of uncertainty in knowledge…’ “

I havnt seen any attempt to rebut or refute any of this- it seems to me to be firmly in the public domain and equivalent in certainty to the facts of climate science themselves.

I would be careful though, saying that the people who made it are funded by oil companies… yes Leggett does talk about that, but this film is a different thing, and if you don’t have specific evidence that there have been brown envelopes passing to film-makers I would be careful… last thing we want is for Zone5 to be taken offline by a stiff solicitor’s letter!

Yes there are documented examples of organisations and individuals who argue against climate change who have been funded by oil companies, but not all of them are, and I would be wary about throwing possibly litigious claims around.

I too encounter people who fell for it, but I think we should never lose sight of the fact that climate science is very complex, and few of us are trained in it, and the data is such that it can be interpreted in different ways, ways in which someone without a deep grounding in the science can be mislead.

Ultimately a lot of people want to be misled. The one I love is David Icke’s saying, as part of his election campaign against David Davis recently (he got 110 votes, Davis over 17,000) that climate change is a ‘myth’, cooked up by the New World Order to control our lives and make us live in fear. Never could quite figure why such a thing would happen, given that climate change is a right royal pain in the arse for corporations, and the US government still denies it all. Anyway, best not to go there…

Good piece as ever, just watch you don’t end up in the libel courts, we need you here! Great to see an increased use of shorter paragraphs at Zone 5, makes it much easier to read… thanks… and have a great summer….