Global warming conspiracy theory
Encyclopedia
Global warming conspiracy theory refers to an allegation that the data with which the theory of anthropogenic
global warming
is derived has been tampered with, adulterated, achieved through anecdotal means and/or is being misrepresented so as to inaccurately accuse mankind of causing global climate change. The anti-anthropogenic movement, referred to here as "The Conspiracy Movement", does not deny the existence of global climate change - only its anthropogenic nature. Furthermore, there are sub-categories of the conspiracy theory; "global warming hoax", and "global warming fraud". Each make similar claims, though the underlying reasons for the alleged dishonesty differ making the details of "who", "what" and "why" extremely diverse. Proponents of conspiracy theory criticize their opponents for citing scientific consensus
as evidence for the theory's accuracy, pointing out that "consensus" in science has never been interchangeable with factual data.
broadcast by Channel Four in the United Kingdom
on 12 August 1990. The program was part of the Equinox
series, and it asserted that scientists critical of global warming theory were denied funding. Although the program uses the word conspiracy in its title, Patrick Michaels
downplayed the idea, saying, "It may not quite add up to a conspiracy, but certainly a coalition of interests has promoted the greenhouse theory; scientists have needed funds, the media a story, and governments a worthy cause".
In a speech given to the US Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works on July 28, 2003, entitled "The Science of Climate Change", Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla) concluded by asking the following question: "With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people?" He has claimed "some parts of the IPCC process resembled a Soviet-style trial, in which the facts are predetermined, and ideological purity trumps technical and scientific rigor." Inhofe has suggested that supporters of the Kyoto Protocol
such as Jacques Chirac
are aiming at global governance
.
A Washington Post article describing the views of global warming skeptics quotes retired hurricane researcher William M. Gray
as having "his own conspiracy theory," saying, "He has made a list of 15 reasons for the global warming hysteria. The list includes the need to come up with an enemy after the end of the Cold War, and the desire among scientists, government leaders and environmentalists to find a political cause that would enable them to 'organize, propagandize, force conformity and exercise political influence. Big world government
could best lead (and control) us to a better world!'" In this article, Gray also cites the ascendancy of Al Gore
to the vice presidency as the start of his problems with federal funding. According to him, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
stopped giving him research grants, and so did NASA
.
The March 1, 2007 issue of Whistleblower
magazine, a publication of the conservative WorldNetDaily
website, is titled "HYSTERIA: Exposing the secret agenda behind today's obsession with global warming," and asserts that "all the main players –- from politicians and scientists to big corporations and the United Nations –- benefit from instilling fear into billions of human beings over the unproven theory of man-made global warming".
Commenting on criticism of the Lavoisier Group
by Clive Hamilton
, the Cooler Heads Coalition
notes that "Hamilton accuses the Lavoisier Group of painting the UN's global warming negotiations as "an elaborate conspiracy in which hundreds of climate scientists have twisted their results to support the 'climate change theory' in order to protect their research funding" and adds, "Sounds plausible to us."
Retired geography
professor Tim Ball wrote in a February 2007 interview, "You’ve got this incestuous little group that is controlling the whole process both through their publications and the IPCC. I’m not a conspiracy theorist and I hate being even pushed toward that, but I think there is a consensus conspiracy that’s going on."
A 2007 Minority Report of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
(updated in 2009) originally citing support of 400 "dissenting scientists", and growing to 700 dissenting scientists. The report challenges man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. According to Steven Dutch in the department of Natural and Applied Sciences at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay in a paper titled, "650 Climate Skeptics?" over 58% of the names listed had no climate related qualifications whatsoever and so lacked the knowledge to effectively judge the results. Less than 16% were qualified in climate science to even voice an opinion on the matter and many of those had quibbles over minor matters which did not contradict the global warming theory. At least one of these scientists publicly complained that his name was included against his knowledge and wishes and in contradiction to his own opinion.
In 2009 conservative journalist James Delingpole wrote of a powerful and very extensive body of vested interests opposed to geologist Ian Plimer
..."governments like President Obama’s, which intend to use ‘global warming’ as an excuse for greater taxation, regulation and protectionism; energy companies and investors who stand to make a fortune from scams like carbon trading; charitable bodies like Greenpeace which depend for their funding on public anxiety; environmental correspondents who need constantly to talk up the threat to justify their jobs.".
The Lyndon LaRouche
organization claims that a scientific conference in 1975 was the origin of the "Global Warming Hoax".
Former journalist Lord Monckton
claims that the draft agreement for the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 would establish a world government. This claim has been endorsed by the right-wing Australian opinion columnist Janet Albrechtsen
. Monckton appeared in an episode of Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura
, in which he stated that a scientific paper submitted to the IPCC did not include the criticizing peer reviews, which were deliberately omitted. He has also claimed a shortage of accounting for carbon dioxide fertilization and too heavy weighting compared to other proxies for tree ring data used to create the IPCC 1996 report's hockey stick graph.
by Michael Crichton
describes a conspiracy by scientists and others to create public panic about global warming. The novel includes 20 pages of footnotes, described by Crichton as providing a factual basis for the non-plotline elements of the story.
and individuals such as
to promote the idea of global warming
Some claim terminology such as "conspiracy theorists" and "denialists"
(previously used for Holocaust denial
) is sometimes used to lump together criticism of hypothetical political influences on IPCC management with extremists. Some opponents of the mainstream assessment believe media oversimplification is a risk, claiming scientific consensus about humans having some effect on climate is universal but with more disagreement existing about the quantitative magnitude of AGW relative to natural forcings. Claiming to be concerned if encouragement of groupthink
could occur, some believe that the influence of oil company funds could be popularly overstated while underestimating hypothetical improper influences within regular funding sources for research.
Roy Spencer, a climatologist working at UAH and NASA, does not believe in a universal conspiracy amongst scientists, not one with Illuminati
-like connotations, but has claimed that "most of the scientific uncertainties and caveats are minimized with artfully designed prose contained in the Summary for Policymakers (SP) portion of the report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." According to him: "The public has the mistaken impression that a lot of climate research has gone into the search for alternative explanations for warming [...] If you submit a research proposal to look for alternative explanations for global warming (say, natural climate cycles), it is virtually guaranteed you will not get funded."
Steve Connor links the terms "hoax" and "conspiracy," saying, "Reading through the technical summary of this draft (IPCC) report, it is clear that no one could go away with the impression that climate change is some conspiratorial hoax by the science establishment, as some would have us believe."
In a piece headed Crichton's conspiracy theory, Harold Evans described Crichton's theory as being "in the paranoid political style identified by the renowned historian Richard Hofstadter
," and went on to suggest that "if you happen to be in the market for a conspiracy theory today, there's a rather more credible one documented by the pressure group Greenpeace," namely the funding by ExxonMobil
of groups opposed to the theory of global warming
The documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle
received much criticism. George Monbiot
described it as "the same old conspiracy theory that we’ve been hearing from the denial industry for the past ten years". Similarly, in response to James Delingpole, Monbiot stated that his Spectator article was "the usual conspiracy theories [...] working to suppress the truth, which presumably now includes virtually the entire scientific community and everyone from Shell to Greenpeace and The Sun to Science magazine."
Former UK Secretary of State for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, David Miliband
presented a rebuttal of the main points of the film and stated "There will always be people with conspiracy theories trying to do down the scientific consensus, and that is part of scientific and democratic debate, but the science of climate change looks like fact to me." John Houghton
, previously co-Chair of the IPCC, said, "The most prominent person in the programme was Lord Lawson
, former Chancellor of the Exchequer who is not a scientist and who shows little knowledge of the science but who is party to the creation of a conspiracy theory that questions the motives and integrity of the world scientific community, especially as represented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)."
Furthermore, despite the conspiracy theories revolving around climate change, there has been no successful attempt by these conspiracy theorists to scientifically falsify claims made and conclusions arrived at by climatologists in regard to global warming or climate change.
, but some doubt the seriousness or the urgency of the problems; others remain non-committal or are stuck in outright denial. Investigators claim to have uncovered denialist campaigns to negate the science and the threat of global warming, or at least to 'manufacture controversy'. They claim that fossil fuel corporations have kept the global warming debate alive long after most scientists had reached their conclusions, that these doubts have influenced policymakers in both Canada and the US, and that they have helped to form government policies.
United States Secretary of the Interior
Bruce Babbitt
stated on the Diane Rehm Show (WAMU-FM, July 21, 1997):
Greenpeace
claims further evidence of the energy industry funding climate change denial
with their Exxon Secrets project. A further Greenpeace study from 2011 claims that 9 out of 10 climate scientist who claim that climate change is not happening, have ties to ExxonMobil
and that Koch industries
in the past 50 years have invested more than US$50 million dollars in spreading doubts about climate change. ExxonMobil announced in 2008 that it would cut its funding to many of the groups that "divert attention" from the need to find new sources of clean energy, although it continues to fund over "two dozen other organisations who question the science of global warming or attack policies to solve the crisis." A survey carried out by the UK Royal Society
found that in 2005 ExxonMobil distributed US$2.9 million to American groups that "misinformed the public about climate change," 39 of which "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence".
Anthropogenic
Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes impacts on biophysical environments, biodiversity and other resources. The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity. The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian...
global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
is derived has been tampered with, adulterated, achieved through anecdotal means and/or is being misrepresented so as to inaccurately accuse mankind of causing global climate change. The anti-anthropogenic movement, referred to here as "The Conspiracy Movement", does not deny the existence of global climate change - only its anthropogenic nature. Furthermore, there are sub-categories of the conspiracy theory; "global warming hoax", and "global warming fraud". Each make similar claims, though the underlying reasons for the alleged dishonesty differ making the details of "who", "what" and "why" extremely diverse. Proponents of conspiracy theory criticize their opponents for citing scientific consensus
Scientific opinion on climate change
The predominant scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth is in an ongoing phase of global warming primarily caused by an enhanced greenhouse effect due to the anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases...
as evidence for the theory's accuracy, pointing out that "consensus" in science has never been interchangeable with factual data.
Claims
The suggestion of a conspiracy to promote the theory of global warming was put forward in a 1990 documentary The Greenhouse ConspiracyThe Greenhouse Conspiracy
The Greenhouse Conspiracy is a documentary film broadcast by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 12 August 1990, as part of the Equinox series, which criticised the theory of global warming and asserted that scientists critical of global warming theory were denied funding...
broadcast by Channel Four in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on 12 August 1990. The program was part of the Equinox
Equinox (television)
Equinox was a long-running Channel 4 popular science and documentary programme. The series ran from 1986 to 2001, originally aired on a weekly basis....
series, and it asserted that scientists critical of global warming theory were denied funding. Although the program uses the word conspiracy in its title, Patrick Michaels
Patrick Michaels
Patrick J. Michaels is an American climatologist. Michaels is a senior research fellow for Research and Economic Development at George Mason University, and a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute...
downplayed the idea, saying, "It may not quite add up to a conspiracy, but certainly a coalition of interests has promoted the greenhouse theory; scientists have needed funds, the media a story, and governments a worthy cause".
In a speech given to the US Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works on July 28, 2003, entitled "The Science of Climate Change", Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla) concluded by asking the following question: "With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people?" He has claimed "some parts of the IPCC process resembled a Soviet-style trial, in which the facts are predetermined, and ideological purity trumps technical and scientific rigor." Inhofe has suggested that supporters of the Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
such as Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
are aiming at global governance
Global governance
Global governance or world governance is the political interaction of transnational actors aimed at solving problems that affect more than one state or region when there is no power of enforcing compliance. The modern question of world governance exists in the context of globalization...
.
A Washington Post article describing the views of global warming skeptics quotes retired hurricane researcher William M. Gray
William M. Gray
William M. "Bill" Gray is Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University , and head of the Tropical Meteorology Project at CSU's Department of Atmospheric Sciences. He is a pioneer in the science of forecasting hurricanes and one of the world's leading experts on tropical...
as having "his own conspiracy theory," saying, "He has made a list of 15 reasons for the global warming hysteria. The list includes the need to come up with an enemy after the end of the Cold War, and the desire among scientists, government leaders and environmentalists to find a political cause that would enable them to 'organize, propagandize, force conformity and exercise political influence. Big world government
World government
World government is the notion of a single common political authority for all of humanity. Its modern conception is rooted in European history, particularly in the philosophy of ancient Greece, in the political formation of the Roman Empire, and in the subsequent struggle between secular authority,...
could best lead (and control) us to a better world!'" In this article, Gray also cites the ascendancy of Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
to the vice presidency as the start of his problems with federal funding. According to him, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
stopped giving him research grants, and so did NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
.
The March 1, 2007 issue of Whistleblower
Whistleblower (magazine)
Whistleblower, formerly WorldNet, is the monthly news magazine companion of WorldNetDaily. Every month features a different topic or event in the news, with articles from the website as well as original articles and commentary.WorldNetDaily managing editor David Kupelian is "the driving force...
magazine, a publication of the conservative WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is an American web site that publishes news and associated content from a U.S. conservative perspective. It was founded in May 1997 by Joseph Farah with the stated intent of "exposing wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power" and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.-History:In...
website, is titled "HYSTERIA: Exposing the secret agenda behind today's obsession with global warming," and asserts that "all the main players –- from politicians and scientists to big corporations and the United Nations –- benefit from instilling fear into billions of human beings over the unproven theory of man-made global warming".
Commenting on criticism of the Lavoisier Group
Lavoisier Group
The Lavoisier Group is an organisation based in Australia that promotes scepticism of current scientific consensus on global warming. The organisation questions the fears of the effects of global warming, the idea that human activity causes it, and the wisdom of policies designed to curtail it...
by Clive Hamilton
Clive Hamilton
Clive Charles Hamilton AM FRSA is an Australian public intellectual and Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics and the Vice-Chancellor's Chair in Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University. He is the Founder and former Executive Director of the The...
, the Cooler Heads Coalition
Cooler Heads Coalition
The Cooler Heads Coalition was originally a project of the National Consumer Coalition in the United States, a project of the nonprofit organization Consumer Alert. The Cooler Heads Coalition is now financed and operated by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Its objective is described as...
notes that "Hamilton accuses the Lavoisier Group of painting the UN's global warming negotiations as "an elaborate conspiracy in which hundreds of climate scientists have twisted their results to support the 'climate change theory' in order to protect their research funding" and adds, "Sounds plausible to us."
Retired geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
professor Tim Ball wrote in a February 2007 interview, "You’ve got this incestuous little group that is controlling the whole process both through their publications and the IPCC. I’m not a conspiracy theorist and I hate being even pushed toward that, but I think there is a consensus conspiracy that’s going on."
A 2007 Minority Report of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
The United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is responsible for dealing with matters related to the environment and infrastructure.-Members, 112th Congress:...
(updated in 2009) originally citing support of 400 "dissenting scientists", and growing to 700 dissenting scientists. The report challenges man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. According to Steven Dutch in the department of Natural and Applied Sciences at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay in a paper titled, "650 Climate Skeptics?" over 58% of the names listed had no climate related qualifications whatsoever and so lacked the knowledge to effectively judge the results. Less than 16% were qualified in climate science to even voice an opinion on the matter and many of those had quibbles over minor matters which did not contradict the global warming theory. At least one of these scientists publicly complained that his name was included against his knowledge and wishes and in contradiction to his own opinion.
In 2009 conservative journalist James Delingpole wrote of a powerful and very extensive body of vested interests opposed to geologist Ian Plimer
Ian Plimer
Ian Rutherford Plimer is an Australian geologist, academic, professor of mining geology at the University of Adelaide, and a director of four mining companies...
..."governments like President Obama’s, which intend to use ‘global warming’ as an excuse for greater taxation, regulation and protectionism; energy companies and investors who stand to make a fortune from scams like carbon trading; charitable bodies like Greenpeace which depend for their funding on public anxiety; environmental correspondents who need constantly to talk up the threat to justify their jobs.".
The Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
organization claims that a scientific conference in 1975 was the origin of the "Global Warming Hoax".
Former journalist Lord Monckton
Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley
Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley is a British politician, public speaker, former newspaper editor and hereditary peer. Formerly a member of the Conservative Party, Monckton has been the Head of the Policy Unit for the UK Independence Party since November 2010. He was...
claims that the draft agreement for the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 would establish a world government. This claim has been endorsed by the right-wing Australian opinion columnist Janet Albrechtsen
Janet Albrechtsen
Janet Kim Albrechtsen is a conservative Australian opinion columnist with the News Limited-owned newspaper, The Australian. From 2005 through 2010, she was a member of the Board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia's state-owned national broadcaster.-Early life and...
. Monckton appeared in an episode of Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura
Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura
Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura is an American television series hosted by Jesse Ventura and broadcast on truTV . It premiered on December 2, 2009, and is produced by A. Smith & Co. Productions. A second season premiered on October 15, 2010...
, in which he stated that a scientific paper submitted to the IPCC did not include the criticizing peer reviews, which were deliberately omitted. He has also claimed a shortage of accounting for carbon dioxide fertilization and too heavy weighting compared to other proxies for tree ring data used to create the IPCC 1996 report's hockey stick graph.
Fictional representations
The novel State of FearState of Fear
State of Fear is a 2004 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton concerning eco-terrorists who attempt mass murder to support their views. The novel had an initial print run of 1.5 million copies and reached the #1 bestseller position at Amazon.com and #2 on the New York Times Best Seller list for...
by Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton , best known as Michael Crichton, was an American best-selling author, producer, director, and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted...
describes a conspiracy by scientists and others to create public panic about global warming. The novel includes 20 pages of footnotes, described by Crichton as providing a factual basis for the non-plotline elements of the story.
Participants
Many of those claimed to be participants in a conspiracy to promote global warming theory appear prominently in other conspiracy theories. These include organizations such as- The United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
- The Bilderberg GroupBilderberg GroupThe Bilderberg Group, Bilderberg conference, or Bilderberg Club is an annual, unofficial, invitation-only conference of approximately 120 to 140 guests from North America and Western Europe, most of whom are people of influence. About one-third are from government and politics, and two-thirds from...
- The Club of RomeClub of RomeThe Club of Rome is a global think tank that deals with a variety of international political issues. Founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy, the CoR describes itself as "a group of world citizens, sharing a common concern for the future of humanity." It consists of current and...
- Green Cross InternationalGreen Cross InternationalGreen Cross International is an environmental organisation founded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993, building upon the work started by the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil...
and individuals such as
- Al GoreAl GoreAlbert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
- Jacques ChiracJacques ChiracJacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
- Maurice StrongMaurice StrongMaurice F. Strong, PC, CC, OM, FRSC is a Canadian entrepreneur and a former under-secretary general of the United Nations. Strong's first name is pronounced "Mor'ris" with the accent on the first syllable....
- George SorosGeorge SorosGeorge Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
- Mikhail GorbachevMikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
Motives
A number of different, and sometimes contradictory, motives have been claimed for a conspiracyCabal
A cabal is a group of people united in some close design together, usually to promote their private views and/or interests in a church, state, or other community, often by intrigue...
to promote the idea of global warming
- A desire on the part of the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and its supporters to promote a system of world government or global governanceGlobal governanceGlobal governance or world governance is the political interaction of transnational actors aimed at solving problems that affect more than one state or region when there is no power of enforcing compliance. The modern question of world governance exists in the context of globalization...
.. - A desire on the part of climate science researchers to attract financial support
- A desire by the government to raise taxes
- A desire on the part of left-wing political activists to promote an agenda described by Melanie Phillips as a "left-wing, anti-American, anti-west ideology which goes hand in hand with anti-globalisation and the belief that everything done by the industrialised world is wicked."
- A desire on the part of conservativeConservatismConservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
political leaders including Margaret ThatcherMargaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
, and Helmut KohlHelmut KohlHelmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
to promote nuclear powerNuclear powerNuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
while attracting the political support of Green groups - A desire on the part of leftwing individuals to garner financial gains for themselves through business dealings related to the global warming agenda..
- A desire on the part of leftwing political leaders to promote socialismSocialismSocialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
:- According to a critical special contribution written by Lawrie McFarlane in VictoriaVictoria, British ColumbiaVictoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
's Times Colonist, "For socialism, at least in its early form, shared those same instincts—distrust of private enterprise, animus toward wealth, the urge to proselytize and faith in big government. And like environmentalism, it marched under the banner of a superior morality. (...) Environmentalism is neither religion nor science. It is a political mission, every bit as unquestioning as socialism in its heyday, and offering the same giddy promise to followers: The delicious prospect of being in the right, and better still, running things." - Czech President Václav KlausVáclav KlausVáclav Klaus is the second President of the Czech Republic and a former Prime Minister .An economist, he is co-founder of the Civic Democratic Party, the Czech Republic's largest center-right political party. Klaus is a eurosceptic, but he reluctantly endorsed the Lisbon treaty as president of...
said that "This ideology preaches earth and nature and under the slogans of their protection – similarly to the old Marxists – wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central, now global, planning of the whole world" - Nick MinchinNick MinchinNicholas Hugh "Nick" Minchin is a former Australian politician, serving as a Liberal member of the Australian Senate representing South Australia from July 1993 to June 2011, and a former cabinet minister in the Howard Government....
, Australian former leader of the Opposition in the Senate stated on the ABC program 4 Corners that "For the extreme left it [climate change] provides the opportunity to do what they've always wanted to do, to sort of de-industrialise the western world. You know the collapse of communism was a disaster for the left, and the, and really they embraced environmentalism as their new religion."
- According to a critical special contribution written by Lawrie McFarlane in Victoria
- Statements made or allegedly made by various supporters of climate change policies have been quoted as giving support to the idea that anthropogenic global warming may be used primarily for political purposes.
- According to a critical editorial written by Peter Menzies in the Calgary HeraldCalgary HeraldThe Calgary Herald is a daily newspaper published in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta.- History :The paper was first published on August 31, 1883 by Andrew Armour and Thomas Braden as The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser. It started as a weekly paper with only...
, Christine Stewart, former Canadian Environment Minister for the Liberal Party of CanadaLiberal Party of CanadaThe Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
, said in 1998 that "No matter if the science is all phoney, there are collateral environmental benefits. - According to the 1993 book Science under Siege by Michael FumentoMichael FumentoMichael Fumento is an investigative journalist, attorney, and author of five books, admired by some and cricized by others as a bigot and conspiracy theorist. A former paratrooper, he embedded a total of four times in Iraq and Afghanistan...
, former US Senator Timothy Wirth, (D-Colo) said that "We've got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing – in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.."
- According to a critical editorial written by Peter Menzies in the Calgary Herald
Criticism
Those who describe the scientific consensus on climate change as a "hoax", "fraud" or even "conspiracy" often object to the use of the terms "conspiracy theory" or "conspiracy theorists" to describe them and their views.Some claim terminology such as "conspiracy theorists" and "denialists"
Climate change denial
Climate change denial is a term used to describe organized attempts to downplay, deny or dismiss the scientific consensus on the extent of global warming, its significance, and its connection to human behavior, especially for commercial or ideological reasons...
(previously used for Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
) is sometimes used to lump together criticism of hypothetical political influences on IPCC management with extremists. Some opponents of the mainstream assessment believe media oversimplification is a risk, claiming scientific consensus about humans having some effect on climate is universal but with more disagreement existing about the quantitative magnitude of AGW relative to natural forcings. Claiming to be concerned if encouragement of groupthink
Groupthink
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without...
could occur, some believe that the influence of oil company funds could be popularly overstated while underestimating hypothetical improper influences within regular funding sources for research.
Roy Spencer, a climatologist working at UAH and NASA, does not believe in a universal conspiracy amongst scientists, not one with Illuminati
Illuminati
The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...
-like connotations, but has claimed that "most of the scientific uncertainties and caveats are minimized with artfully designed prose contained in the Summary for Policymakers (SP) portion of the report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." According to him: "The public has the mistaken impression that a lot of climate research has gone into the search for alternative explanations for warming [...] If you submit a research proposal to look for alternative explanations for global warming (say, natural climate cycles), it is virtually guaranteed you will not get funded."
Steve Connor links the terms "hoax" and "conspiracy," saying, "Reading through the technical summary of this draft (IPCC) report, it is clear that no one could go away with the impression that climate change is some conspiratorial hoax by the science establishment, as some would have us believe."
In a piece headed Crichton's conspiracy theory, Harold Evans described Crichton's theory as being "in the paranoid political style identified by the renowned historian Richard Hofstadter
Richard Hofstadter
Richard Hofstadter was an American public intellectual of the 1950s, a historian and DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University...
," and went on to suggest that "if you happen to be in the market for a conspiracy theory today, there's a rather more credible one documented by the pressure group Greenpeace," namely the funding by ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
of groups opposed to the theory of global warming
The documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle
The Great Global Warming Swindle
The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors, and questions whether scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming exists....
received much criticism. George Monbiot
George Monbiot
George Joshua Richard Monbiot is an English writer, known for his environmental and political activism. He lives in Machynlleth, Wales, writes a weekly column for The Guardian, and is the author of a number of books, including Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain and Bring on the...
described it as "the same old conspiracy theory that we’ve been hearing from the denial industry for the past ten years". Similarly, in response to James Delingpole, Monbiot stated that his Spectator article was "the usual conspiracy theories [...] working to suppress the truth, which presumably now includes virtually the entire scientific community and everyone from Shell to Greenpeace and The Sun to Science magazine."
Former UK Secretary of State for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, David Miliband
David Miliband
David Wright Miliband is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2007 to 2010. He is the elder son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband...
presented a rebuttal of the main points of the film and stated "There will always be people with conspiracy theories trying to do down the scientific consensus, and that is part of scientific and democratic debate, but the science of climate change looks like fact to me." John Houghton
John T. Houghton
As co-chair of the IPCC, he defends the IPCC process, in particular against charges of failure to consider non-CO2 explanations of climate change. In evidence to, the Select Committee on Science and Technology in 2000 he said:...
, previously co-Chair of the IPCC, said, "The most prominent person in the programme was Lord Lawson
Nigel Lawson
Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, PC , is a British Conservative politician and journalist. He was a Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Blaby from 1974–92, and served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the government of Margaret Thatcher from June 1983 to October 1989...
, former Chancellor of the Exchequer who is not a scientist and who shows little knowledge of the science but who is party to the creation of a conspiracy theory that questions the motives and integrity of the world scientific community, especially as represented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)."
Furthermore, despite the conspiracy theories revolving around climate change, there has been no successful attempt by these conspiracy theorists to scientifically falsify claims made and conclusions arrived at by climatologists in regard to global warming or climate change.
Counterclaims of conspiracy
Many people now accept the scientific consensus on climate changeScientific opinion on climate change
The predominant scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth is in an ongoing phase of global warming primarily caused by an enhanced greenhouse effect due to the anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases...
, but some doubt the seriousness or the urgency of the problems; others remain non-committal or are stuck in outright denial. Investigators claim to have uncovered denialist campaigns to negate the science and the threat of global warming, or at least to 'manufacture controversy'. They claim that fossil fuel corporations have kept the global warming debate alive long after most scientists had reached their conclusions, that these doubts have influenced policymakers in both Canada and the US, and that they have helped to form government policies.
United States Secretary of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior.The US Department of the Interior should not be confused with the concept of Ministries of the Interior as used in other countries...
Bruce Babbitt
Bruce Babbitt
Bruce Edward Babbitt , a Democrat, served as United States Secretary of the Interior and as the 16th governor of Arizona, from 1978 to 1987.-Biography:...
stated on the Diane Rehm Show (WAMU-FM, July 21, 1997):
Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
claims further evidence of the energy industry funding climate change denial
Climate change denial
Climate change denial is a term used to describe organized attempts to downplay, deny or dismiss the scientific consensus on the extent of global warming, its significance, and its connection to human behavior, especially for commercial or ideological reasons...
with their Exxon Secrets project. A further Greenpeace study from 2011 claims that 9 out of 10 climate scientist who claim that climate change is not happening, have ties to ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
and that Koch industries
Koch Industries
Koch Industries, Inc. , is an American private energy conglomerate based in Wichita, Kansas, with subsidiaries involved in manufacturing, trading and investments. Koch also owns Invista, Georgia-Pacific, Flint Hills Resources, Koch Pipeline, Koch Fertilizer, Koch Minerals and Matador Cattle Company...
in the past 50 years have invested more than US$50 million dollars in spreading doubts about climate change. ExxonMobil announced in 2008 that it would cut its funding to many of the groups that "divert attention" from the need to find new sources of clean energy, although it continues to fund over "two dozen other organisations who question the science of global warming or attack policies to solve the crisis." A survey carried out by the UK Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
found that in 2005 ExxonMobil distributed US$2.9 million to American groups that "misinformed the public about climate change," 39 of which "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence".
Further reading
- Lahsen, M. (1999). The Detection and Attribution of Conspiracies: The Controversy Over Chapter 8. In G. E. MarcusGeorge MarcusGeorge Marcus is an American anthropologist, founder of the journal and editor of the series.-Biography:Marcus served as the Joseph D. Jamail Professor at Rice University, where he chaired the anthropology department for 25 years...
(Ed.), Paranoia Within Reason: A Casebook on Conspiracy as Explanation (pp. 111-136). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226504581.