In order to rebut a claim by Al Gore that “scientists espousing a skeptical view of his money-making theory are exclusively doing so for their own financial benefit,” Noel Sheppard writes in an Aug. 28 NewsBusters post:
As Sen. Jim Inhofe’s (R-Ok.) former communications director Marc Morano reported in 2007:
Newsweek reporter Eve Conant was given the documentation showing that proponents of man-made global warming have been funded to the tune of $50 BILLION in the last decade or so, but the Magazine chose instead to focus on how skeptics have reportedly received a paltry $19 MILLION from ExxonMobil over the last two decades.
But as we detailed at the time, Morano’s analysis manages to be both inaccurate and dishonest. Morano not only falsely portrayed ExxonMobil’s $19 million as the only money that climate “skeptics” receive — there are numerous other organizations that donate to, and promote, climate “skeptic” causes — he also counted an overly broad array of items, such as alternative fuels, under “man-made global warming” funding.
Sheppard then claimed that “the Science and Public Policy Institute updated and confirmed these numbers.” But the SPPI makes the same dishonest error that Morano did, comparing an overbroad “$79 billion since 1989 on policies related to climate change, including science and technology research, administration, education campaigns, foreign aid, and tax breaks” against the narrow amount donated by one company, ExxonMobil.
Sheppard has been an incredibly dishonest global warming “skeptic,” but you knew that already.