The Daily Background

On June 11, I posted the above video on YouTube, and also on this site. It’s of Al Gore being interviewed on the British Channel 4 television station about his film An Inconvenient Truth, and global warming in general. Since then, it has been viewed 1,698 times. As of yesterday, I’d received a few positive comments on YouTube, but no negative ones.

Well, today, somebody decided that they wanted to do the world a great service, and expose the “truth”– that Gore’s global warming film An Inconvenient Truth was based on “junk science.” This person, a user named “sbrown15″ who had uploaded zero videos during the four weeks they’ve been a member of the site had the following to say:

Political opinions and personal feelings aside… Al’s film is junk science. See: www.junkscience.com Entire movie refuted by scientific arguments: http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,05394.cfm

What’s this? Finally conclusive proof that Al Gore and the authors of all scientific peer reviewed papers on global warming are wrong, hidden away in an obscure YouTube thread?

Naturally, as the intrepid blogger, I had to investigate.

The commenter had provided two links which supposedly exposed Al Gore as some sort of science fabricator and fraud. One was to a website called JunkScience.com which is maintained by Fox News commentator named Steve Milloy.

The other link was to an op-ed written by a man named Iain Murray and published in the conservative magazine National Review. So these are hardly “politics aside” sources anyways. But there’s a lot more to it than that.

First one first. JunkScience.com and Fox News commentator Steve Milloy. If you visit JunkScience.com, the first thing you’ll probably notice is a big advertisement for shirts call DDT a “Weapon of mass Survival.” And you’ll also find a link to a page on Milloy’s website which is dedicated to shouting as loudly as possible the wonderful merits of DDT.

What is DDT? Well, it’s a pesticide that came to widespread use in the 1950s and 1960s. Following the publication of the famous book Silent Spring, which exposed the chemical as cancer-causing, and extremely dangerous to all types of wildlife, the chemical (tons of which had been sprayed on school children as a ‘vaccination,’ much to the delight of the chemical industry that was producing it) was banned in the United States, and throughout much of the world in the 1970s and 1980s.

On another part of Milloy’s website, he tries to say that cigarettes are not harmful, and that second-hand smoke is not a real danger.

I was intrigued. Who was this Steven Milloy guy, and why did he love DDT, second-hand smoke, and hate environmentalists so much?

Well guess what. Mr Milloy is secretly paid by Phillip Morris and ExxonMobil, and various other corporations. Apparently Fox News had no idea this was true, when they hired him to be a commentator and expert on all things scientific.

Shocking, I know. You can read more about Mr Milloy, and how he was exposed over at his Wikipedia entry. One down, one to go. Who was this Iain Murray guy, and what was this CEI that features his column on their website?

Well, CEI is the Competitive Enterprise Institute. It’s a conservative think tank which is funded by, (you guessed it), ExxonMobil among other large corporations. The think tank is also known for criticizing health and safety regulations and the concept of endangered species. You can read all about them over at their Wikipedia entry.

But wait, on their site, they seem to have received critical acclaim for their work! On their “About CEI” page, they have the following apparent endorsement:

Now wait a second, Bill Moyers (of PBS) is a cool dude, did he really say that? No, actually. In a January 23 2004 episode of NOW, then hosted by Bill Moyers, correspondent Roberta Baskin said it. But check out the context of the quote, and you’ll find that it was hardly a compliment:

Take a look at ExxonMobil’s Web site, showing millions of dollars going to organizations who raise doubts about global warming. The goal is to mold public opinion

[…]
This strategy was laid out six years ago in this oil industry memo, prepared with the help of Exxon. It’s called “A Global Climate Science Communications Action Plan.”

[…]
Fred Smith is president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. That oil industry memo about “achieving victory” specifically mentions the Competitive Enterprise Institute as one of the groups that can be used to create doubt about global warming. CEI is currently one of the most influential Washington think tanks.

Whoops. Not much of a stirring endorsement after all. Why the hell would they want to put that on their about page? Well they’re counting on the fact that visitors won’t do a Google search and find the full transcript of the episode.

But who is Iain Murray? Well, don’t try and look at his Wikipedia entry, because you’ll find that he shares a name with a British religious figure.

Hmm. Well that’s out. And a Google search didn’t turn much up either. I was able to find a picture of him on his CEI bio page though. What a hottie. While it might be fun to make fun of his looks, but I’d like to know a little bit more about this fellow.

And then, it occurred to me. The Milloy guy was paid by ExxonMobil, and so was CEI, the group that Mr Murray works at. He’s paid by them too. I did a check over at Source Watch, a nonpartisan database of paid corporate pundits and ’scientists’ and guess what. I found him. Here’s what their entry on Murray has to say:

Iain Murray is a frequent commentator on global warming and “sound science” who has repeatedly peddled various forms of discredited junk science, sometimes even after being informed that what he said was false.

Innnnteresting. Not only is his “science” totally wrong, he’s also another paid shill for ExxonMobil.

Well, after my quick internet searches exhaustive research on these folks, it became apparent what was going on. They were all paid by companies like ExxonMobil in order to spread disinformation and doubt about global warming.

Filed under: War on Science, Z-TDB Blog