On Climate Change, Oil Industry Pays for Its Own Facts and Its Own Religious Doctrine

Recently a group of climate change skeptics released a list of “900+ Peer-Reviewed Papers Supporting Skepticism of ‘Man-Made’ Global Warming (AGW) Alarm." But where did those 900+ papers come from? GOOD reports that of the ten authors cited most frequently in the list, nine have financial ties to ExxonMobil.

It’s hardly news that the oil and gas industry is pouring money into research dismissing the threat of climate change. But the extent of its influence continues to be staggering. Last month, we reported on the oil industry’s wildly successful underwriting of the Religious Right’s embrace of climate change denialism. In response to some prominent evangelical leaders joining the “creation care” movement, which see environmental protection as an imperative for those who want to protect God’s creation, energy company-backed groups are joining with prominent Religious Right leaders to push a gospel that mandates human exploitation of our natural habitat.

In a relatively short amount of time, the oil and gas industry has managed to buy both its own body of questionable scientific research and its own gospel of environmental exploitation.

Here, for a refresher, is the Religious Right’s response to climate science and creation care:

 

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Climate change, climate change denialism, Exxon, Judiciary, Religious Right, Science