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Billionaires Secretly Fund Vast Climate Denial Network

Hugh Pickens writes writes "Suzanne Goldenberg reports that conservative billionaires used a secretive funding route to channel nearly $120 million to more than 100 groups casting doubt about the science behind climate change, helping build a vast network of think tanks and activist groups working to redefine climate change from neutral scientific fact to a highly polarizing 'wedge issue' for hardcore conservatives. 'We exist to help donors promote liberty which we understand to be limited government, personal responsibility, and free enterprise,' says Whitney Ball, chief executive of the Donors Trust. Ball's organization assured wealthy donors that their funds would never by diverted to liberal causes with a guarantee of complete anonymity for donors who wished to remain hidden. The money flowed to Washington think tanks embedded in Republican party politics, obscure policy forums in Alaska and Tennessee, contrarian scientists at Harvard and lesser institutions, even to buy up DVDs of a film attacking Al Gore. 'The funding of the denial machine is becoming increasingly invisible to public scrutiny. It's also growing. Budgets for all these different groups are growing,' says Kert Davies, research director of Greenpeace, which compiled the data on funding of the anti-climate groups using tax records. 'These groups are increasingly getting money from sources that are anonymous or untraceable.'"

2 of 848 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Big deal... by stevew · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    How is it different than George Soros paying for the opposite services? (Which is also occurring!) It only amounts to one side adopting the other sides tricks and using them effectively for the first time.

    What a shocker!

    --
    Have you compiled your kernel today??
  2. Re:Disgusting by terec · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I don't see any objective sense in which Soros operates more openly or honestly than the Koch brothers.

    And Soros clearly is manipulating the US political process for his personal financial benefit. It's just the left is so in love with him, they hardly call him on it.