CORPORATE CLIMATE DENIAL

Most people are familiar with the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It is composed of many of the world’s top climate scientists and has accurately predicted the effects of global warming, as we are experiencing them now.

An organization that is less known is the NIPCC, or the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change. This organization was set up specifically to torpedo the findings of the IPCC.  Its goal is to prevent environmental legislation from hampering the profits of the smokestack industries.

Fred Singer: Liar for Hire

The NIPCC has very few members, but huge resources, including massive funding and support from top political powers.  One of its main spokesmen, Fred Singer, was a high level nuclear physicist, but not a climate scientist. He received funding from the Heartland Institute, which is well funded by polluting industries.

The NIPCC produced a pamphlet that mirrored the IPCC pamphlet on climate change. Where the IPCC showed global temperatures rising, the NIPCC showed them dropping. The NIPCC graphs were not the work of scientific study, but contrived documents made from cherry picked data.

These pamphlets were distributed throughout congress, and caused considerable confusion. They were very effective in derailing environmental legislation.

Among Singer’s other activities were attacks on climate scientists, and forcing changes in official documents to distort scientific findings. Prior to attacking the science on climate change, he worked to confuse the public about the dangers of tobacco. He worked for decades to protect industry profits at the expense of public health and well-being. It is a long and sordid story, as documented in the book Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway.

It is amazing that an organization such as NIPCC is able to operate unchecked. Deceiving members of congress, to prevent legislation that will protect the lives and health of American citizens, should be a serious crime.  However, it is not illegal.  A view of Singer and NIPCC gives a peek behind the curtain showing how things operate in the bowels of our system.   To see some of the major players in climate denial blowing their own cover, please see the video Merchants of Doubt. It is entertaining as well as highly educational.