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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI15042544/00001
Notes
- Abstract:
- In an effort to deceive the public about the reality
of global warming, ExxonMobil has underwritten
the most sophisticated and most successful
disinformation campaign since the tobacco industry
misled the public about the scientific evidence
linking smoking to lung cancer and heart disease.
As this report documents, the two disinformation
campaigns are strikingly similar. ExxonMobil has
drawn upon the tactics and even some of the
organizations and actors involved in the callous
disinformation campaign the tobacco industry
waged for 40 years. Like the tobacco industry,
ExxonMobil has:
• Manufactured uncertainty by raising doubts
about even the most indisputable scientific
evidence.
• Adopted a strategy of information laundering
by using seemingly independent front organizations
to publicly further its desired message
and thereby confuse the public.
• Promoted scientific spokespeople who misrepresent
peer-reviewed scientific findings or
cherry-pick facts in their attempts to persuade
the media and the public that there is still
serious debate among scientists that burning
fossil fuels has contributed to global warming
and that human-caused warming will have
serious consequences.
• Attempted to shift the focus away from meaningful
action on global warming with misleading
charges about the need for “sound science.”
• Used its extraordinary access to the Bush
administration to block federal policies and
shape government communications on global
warming.
The report documents that, despite the scientific
consensus about the fundamental understanding
that global warming is caused by carbon
dioxide and other heat-trapping emissions, Exxon-
Mobil has funneled about $16 million between
1998 and 2005 to a network of ideological and
advocacy organizations that manufacture uncertainty
on the issue. Many of these organizations
have an overlapping—sometimes identical—
collection of spokespeople serving as staff, board
members, and scientific advisors. By publishing
and republishing the non-peer-reviewed works of
a small group of scientific spokespeople, Exxon-
Mobil-funded organizations have propped up
and amplified work that has been discredited
by reputable climate scientists.
ExxonMobil’s funding of established research
institutions that seek to better understand science,
policies, and technologies to address global warming
has given the corporation “cover,” while its funding
of ideological and advocacy organizations to
conduct a disinformation campaign works to confuse
that understanding. This seemingly inconsistent
activity makes sense when looked at through
a broader lens. Like the tobacco companies in
previous decades, this strategy provides a positive
“pro-science” public stance for ExxonMobil that
masks their activity to delay meaningful action on
global warming and helps keep the public debate
stalled on the science rather than focused on
policy options to address the problem.
In addition, like Big Tobacco before it,
ExxonMobil has been enormously successful at
influencing the current administration and key
members of Congress. Documents highlighted
in this report, coupled with subsequent events,
provide evidence of ExxonMobil’s cozy relationship
with government officials, which enables
the corporation to work behind the scenes to gain
access to key decision makers. In some cases, the
company’s proxies have directly shaped the global
warming message put forth by federal agencies.
Finally, this report provides a set of steps elected
officials, investors, and citizens can take to neutralize
ExxonMobil’s disinformation campaign
and remove this roadblock to sensible action for
reducing global warming emissions. ( English )
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Florida International University
- Rights Management:
- Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the user's responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.
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