Exxon Allegedly Paid for Climate Misinformation Drive

Following in the footsteps of big tobacco, ExxonMobil paid 43 ideological groups $16 million to attack the science behind global warming, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The real scandal isn’t that Exxon paid such groups to pimp its version of “reality,” but that the media felt obligated to take an “on the other hand” approach in reporting those fringe assertions about climate change.

(h/t: Zaibatsu / digg.com)

AP via Forbes:

ExxonMobil Corp. gave $16 million to 43 ideological groups between 1998 and 2005 in a coordinated effort to mislead the public by discrediting the science behind global warming, the Union of Concerned Scientists asserted Wednesday.

The report by the science-based nonprofit advocacy group mirrors similar claims by Britain’s leading scientific academy. Last September, The Royal Society wrote the oil company asking it to halt support for groups that “misrepresented the science of climate change.”

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