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Friday 9 December 2011
by: Christine Shearer, Conducive Chronicle [3] | News Analysis
http://www.truth-out.org/will-fossil-fuel-companies-face-liability-climate-change/1323803340
In a recent article [4] in National Journal, Americans for Prosperity [5] (AFP) President Tim Phillips said there is no question that AFP and others like it have been instrumental in the rise of Republican candidates who question or deny climate science: “We’ve made great headway. What it means for candidates on the Republican side is, if you … buy into green energy or you play footsie on this issue, you do so at your political peril.”
AFP is a section 501(c)(4) [6] organization, meaning it does not have to disclose its donors, but has been tied to significant funding [7] from the Koch Family Foundations [8] - founded by the billionaire Koch brothers of Koch Industries – as well as smaller donations from companies like ExxonMobil. Koch Industries [9] and ExxonMobil [10] are among the largest funders of studies questioning climate change science, often drawn upon by conservative politicians to legitimize their view that regulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is not needed because the science is still under debate.
These organizations and their supporters say they are just funding their own independent studies of climate change science. Yet these studies almost all go against observable scientific data [11] to question global warming – so much so that one study funded in part by the Kochs that confirmed a rise in average world land temperature [12] was regarded as an anomaly. Which raises the question: if these studies are largely designed not to shed light on climate change, but to create doubt and confusion to delay greenhouse gas regulations, why is it legal, and do those deliberately spreading misinformation face liability?
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