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Interfaith Stewardship Alliance

<p><b>The Interfaith Stewardship Alliance</b> is a coalition of religious leaders, clergy, theologians, scientists, academics, and other policy experts committed to bringing a proper and balanced Biblical view of stewardship to the critical issues of environment and development. The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship forms the guiding philosophy of the ISA. As part of its recently launched “Cornwall Network,” the coalition is working with numerous churches, educational institutions, and other entities around the world to promote the principles of the Cornwall Declaration on these critical public policy issues.

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<h3>KEY DEEDS</h3>

<p>25 July, 2006

Hosted a panel discussion with The Heritage Foundation; "Call to Truth, Prudence and the Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming." Speakers included David R. Legates, E. Calvin Beisner, and Kenneth Chilton. The event was hosted by Becky Norton Dunlop.

Source: <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=142#src0">Heritage Foundation Press Release (2006)</a>

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<h3>KEY PEOPLE</h3>

<p><a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=18"><b>David R.&nbsp;Legates</b></a>

Speaker

Source: <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=142#src0">Heritage Foundation Press Release (2006)</a>

<a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=273"><b>Becky&nbsp;Norton Dunlop</b></a>

Event Host

Source: <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=142#src0">Heritage Foundation Press Release (2006)</a>

<a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=231"><b>E. Calvin&nbsp;Beisner</b></a>

Speaker

Source: <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=142#src0">Heritage Foundation Press Release (2006)</a>

<a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=808"><b>Kenneth W.&nbsp;Chilton</b></a>

Speaker

Source: <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=142#src0">Heritage Foundation Press Release (2006)</a>

<a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=1038"><b>Paul&nbsp;Driessen</b></a>

Co-Author

Source: <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=142#src2">Interfaith Stewardship Alliance "Call to Faith"</a>

<a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=19"><b>Roy W.&nbsp;Spencer</b></a>

Co-Author

Source: <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=142#src2">Interfaith Stewardship Alliance "Call to Faith"</a>

<a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=1008"><b>Ross&nbsp;McKitrick</b></a>

Co-Author

Source: <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=142#src2">Interfaith Stewardship Alliance "Call to Faith"</a>

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<h3>PEOPLE</h3>

<p><a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=258"><b>Fr. Robert A.&nbsp;Sirico</b></a>

Advisory Board

Source: <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=142#src1">ISA website</a>

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<h3>SOURCES</h3>

<p><a id="src" name="src"> </a><a id="src0" name="src0"> </a><b>Heritage Foundation Press Release (2006)</b>

<a href="http://www.heritage.org/press/events/ev072506b.cfm">http://www.heritage.org/press/events/ev072506b.cfm</a>

<a id="src1" name="src1"> </a><b>ISA website</b>

<a href="http://www.interfaithstewardship.org/pages/advisors.php">http://www.interfaithstewardship.org/pages/advisors.php</a>

<a id="src2" name="src2"> </a><b>Interfaith Stewardship Alliance "Call to Faith"</b>

<a href="http://www.interfaithstewardship.org/pages/article.php?&id=160">http://www.interfaithstewardship.org/pages/article.php?&id=160</a>

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<a href="http://">http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2010/10/16/206882/glenn-beck-cornwall-alliance-exxonmobil-climate-change/</a>

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The Cornwall Alliance appears to be a creation of a group called the <a href="http://www.jamespartnership.org/">James Partnership</a>, a nonprofit run by Chris Rogers and Peter Stein, according to documents filed with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. Rogers, who heads a media and public relations firm called <a href="http://cdrcommunications.com/services/">CDR Communications</a>, <a href="http://www.cvtogether.org/aboutus.html">collaborates</a> with longtime oil front group operative <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=25">David Rothbard</a>, the founder and President of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and Jacques Villarreal, a lower level <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jacques-villarreal/7/21/567">staffer</a> at CFACT, for his James Partnership group. In the past, Rogers’ firm has <a href="http://cdrcommunications.com/about/clients/">worked</a> for the Bush administration and for the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Council_for_National_Policy">secretive</a> conservative planning group, the Council for National Policy.

According to public records, the following entities are all registered to the same address, 9302-C Old Keene Mill Road Burke, VA 22015, an office park in suburban Virginia:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>- Rogers’ <a href="http://www.pagelink.com/list/US/VA/Burke/localinks">consulting firm</a>, CDR Communications

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<p>In late 2005, evangelical leaders like <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/national/08warm.html?ei=5070&en=06f33ba706df7cd9&ex=1178856000&pagewanted=all">Rick Warren</a> joined a drive to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying “millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors.” To counter this historic shift in the evangelical community, a group called the “<a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2006/07/b2000981.html">Interfaith Stewardship Alliance</a>” (ISA) was launched to oppose action on carbon emissions and to deny the existence of climate change. One of the men guiding this group was Paul Driessen, a <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20020610155111/www.global-commpartners.net/Projects_Clients/projects_clients.html">consultant</a> for ExxonMobil, the mining industry, and <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=1038">for</a> CFACT.

For “stream lining” reasons, ISA <a href="http://www.cornwallalliance.org/articles/read/isa-announces-launch-of-cornwall-network-at-senate-luncheon-weitz/">relaunched</a> as the Cornwall Alliance in 2006. With the new name came a redesigned website, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqraZawCWsY">highly produced</a> web videos, and an organized <a href="http://www.cornwallalliance.org/about/cornwall-network-of-congregations/">network</a> of churches to distribute climate change denying propaganda to hundreds of pastors around the country. The branding for the Cornwall Alliance is derived from the “<a href="http://www.pbs.org/moyers/citizensclass/is_god_green/religion_environment/">Cornwall Declaration</a>,” a 1999 document pushing back against the creation-care movement in the evangelical community. The Declaration “stressed a free-market environmental stewardship and emphasized that individuals and private organizations should be trusted to care for their own property without government intervention.” CFACT President Rothbard has been hailed as the “<a href="http://freedom21.org/conf/speakers01.html">driving force</a>” behind the Cornwall Declaration public relations effort.

CFACT is a gimmicky right-wing organization that does everything it can to try to discredit the science underpinning climate change. For instance, staffers from the group traveled to the Copenhagen conference on climate change to stage <a href="http://www.cfact.org/a/1655/CFACT-arrives-in-Copenhagen">silly</a> press conferences with Rush Limbaugh’s former producer and <a href="http://www.examiner.com/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner%7Ey2009m12d16-Greenpeace-ships-tagged-as-Ship-of-Lies-and-Propaganda-Warrior">stunts</a> aimed at mocking Greenpeace.</p>

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<img brain="false" title="Chris Rogers and David Rothbard" src="http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/rogersandrothbard.jpg" alt="Chris Rogers and David Rothbard" height="200" width="250" />But who is the “driving force” behind CFACT? According to <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/research-sponsors-behind-heartlands-new-york-climate-change-conference">disclosures</a>, CFACT is funded by at least $542,000 from ExxonMobil, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Committee_for_a_Constructive_Tomorrow">$60,500</a> from Chevron, and $1,280,000 from Scaife family foundations, which are rooted in wealth from Gulf Oil and steel interests.

CFACT and the Cornwall Alliance, according to <a href="http://mobile.www.secstate.wa.gov/charities/search_detail_cfr.aspx?cfr_id=23483">disclosures</a> filed with the Washington State Secretary of State’s office, share a common fundraising firm, ClearWord Communications Group. ClearWord has helped raise <a href="http://mobile.www.secstate.wa.gov/charities/search_detail_cfr.aspx?cfr_id=23483">millions of dollars</a> not only for CFACT and Cornwall, but also for infamous polluter front groups like FreedomWorks, the Institute for Energy Research, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Last year, Cornwall <a href="http://vimeo.com/6313873">produced</a> a video with former Sen. George Allen (R-VA) attacking clean energy legislation as part of a campaign by the <a href="http://politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/200905130008">ExxonMobil-funded</a> “American Energy Freedom Center.”

In a call to the Cornwall Alliance’s media office, spokesman Quena Gonzalez said Cornwall has no relationship to CFACT and said CFACT President Rothbard has no official capacity with his group. Gonzalez said that in “several years of working” at Cornwall, he had never heard any questions about working with CFACT, and instructed ThinkProgress to contact Calvin Beisner, the national representative for Cornwall. Beisner is a <a href="http://www.cfact.org/about/1551/CFACT-Board-of-Advisors">board member</a> of CFACT.

Rothbard had a central role in sparking the founding of Cornwall and is currently a partner with Chris Rogers, the man who runs Cornwall and CDR Communications. Nevertheless, under his capacity as CFACT President, Rothbard’s anti-Greenpeace publicity stunts are <a href="http://www.cornwallalliance.org/blog/item/copenhagen-update-greenpeace-gets-punked/">reported</a> regularly on the Cornwall blog as breaking news, without any acknowledgement of Rothbard’s relationship with Cornwall.

Gonzalez also said he had never heard of CDR Communications. But according to his own LinkedIn <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/quena">profile</a>, Gonzalez works for CDR Communications as the “<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=11571322&authToken=VOE6&authType=name&trk=coprofile_in_network">Director for Religion and the Environment</a>” at the firm. ThinkProgress contacted Chris Rogers on Monday, who contradicted Gonzalez and said his firm CDR Communications provides “support” for Cornwall but did not clarify.

It appears that Cornwall attempts to carefully hide its backers. Not only did Gonzalez refuse to provide much information, but Cornwall’s website is registered with a <a href="http://whois.domaintools.com/cornwallalliance.org">special service</a> to hide the identity of the person or group who purchased the domain address.

– Lee Fang, in a ThinkProgress <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/media/2010/10/15/124583/glennbeck-oil-evangelicals/">cross-post</a>.

<em>JR:&nbsp; I’m sure CP readers know how it is we had ice ages before there were SUVs (see <a title="Permanent Link to In must-see AGU video, Richard Alley explains " rel="bookmark" href="http://climateprogress.org/2009/12/21/agu-richard-alley-explains-biggest-control-knob-carbon-dioxide-in-earths-climate-history/">In must-see AGU video, Richard Alley explains “The Biggest Control Knob: Carbon Dioxide in Earth’s Climate History”</a>) — and indeed why the fact of those ice ages (and the whole paleoclimate record) should make us more worried about unrestricted emissions of greenhouse gases:</em></p>

<ul>

<li><a title="Permanent Link to Humans boosting CO2 14,000 times faster than nature, overwhelming slow negative feedbacks" rel="bookmark" href="http://climateprogress.org/2008/04/28/human-driven-co2-rise-14000-times-faster-than-nature-overwhelming-the-slow-negative-feedbacks/">Humans boosting CO2 14,000 times faster than nature, overwhelming slow negative feedbacks</a></li>

<li><a title="Permanent Link to Nature Geoscience study: Oceans are acidifying 10 times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred" rel="bookmark" href="http://climateprogress.org/2010/02/18/ocean-acidification-study-mass-extinction-of-marine-life-nature-geoscience/">Nature Geoscience study: Oceans are acidifying 10 times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred</a></li>

<li><a title="Permanent Link to Science: CO2 levels haven't been this high for 15 million years, when it was 5° to 10°F warmer and seas were 75 to 120 feet higher " rel="bookmark" href="http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/18/science-co2-levels-havent-been-this-high-for-15-million-years-when-it-was-5%c2%b0-to-10%c2%b0f-warmer-and-seas-were-75-to-120-feet-higher-we-have-shown-that-this-dramatic-rise-in-sea-level-i/">Science: CO2 levels haven’t been this high for 15 million years, when it was 5° to 10°F warmer and seas were 75 to 120 feet higher “” “We have shown that this dramatic rise in sea level is associated with an increase in CO2 levels of about 100 ppm.”</a></li>

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<p><em>Indeed, it is kind of amazing that evangelicals would cite the ice ages as evidence against human-caused climate change, since they predate the biblical creation story.

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<em>Finally, there is a growing group of evangelicals who understand the reality of climate science and the moral obligation to reduce emissions (see “<a title="Permanent Link to Creation Care Embraces Climate Change" rel="bookmark" href="http://climateprogress.org/2007/03/13/creation-care-embraces-climate-change/">Creation Care Embraces Climate Change</a>“).</em> Sadly, they aren’t as well funded.

Related Posts:</p>

<ul>

<li><a title="Permanent Link to The oily operators behind the religious climate change disinformation front group, Cornwall Alliance" rel="bookmark" href="http://climateprogress.org/2010/06/19/the-oily-operators-behind-the-religious-climate-change-disinformation-front-group-cornwall-alliance/">The oily operators behind the religious climate change disinformation front group, Cornwall Alliance</a></li>

</ul>

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