thacker, paul

<div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">see phase 4 delay</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">new</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/topic/fti-consulting">https://www.huffpost.com/topic/fti-consulting</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/climate-denial-energy-in-depth_n_5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371">https://www.huffpost.com/entry/climate-denial-energy-in-depth_n_5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">eNVIRONMENT</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Fossil Fuel Giants Claim To Support Climate Science, Yet Still Fund Denial</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fourteen oil and gas companies are funding a website that attacks scientists and undermines their work.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Paul D. Thacker</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Dec. 18, 2019,</b>&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">overtime to show that</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">our climate commitment is</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Most energy companies now acknowledge that burning fossil fuels is warming the planet. And yet many continue to fund disinformation about industry’s role in climate change and its harm to human health.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the latest example, documents and recordings reviewed by HuffPost show that the Independent Petroleum Association of America has spent almost $2 million a year for the last two years on Energy In Depth, a “research, education and public outreach campaign” that regularly attacks scientists whose research is critical of industry. The campaign has received financial backing from 14 different oil and gas companies including Shell, Occidental Petroleum, BP, Chevron and Halliburton.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>These revelations come as world leaders adjourn the COP25 in Madrid,</b>&nbsp;an international summit held to discuss detailed ways to address the rapidly warming planet. In a recent review, scientists writing for&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Lancet stated that climate change will affect the health of every child born today as populations face weather extremes, food and water insecurity and changing patterns of infectious disease. “The only solution is to get rid of fossil fuels in power production, industry and transportation,” Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, said upon releasing the report.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Announcing Energy in Depth in a 2009&nbsp;</b>press release now removed from its website, the Independent Petroleum Association of America described EID as a campaign to combat new environmental regulations, especially on hydraulic fracturing. EID’s website includes fact sheets, videos and analysis, and promises to clearly explain oil and gas development while “straightening out the myths you may have hea</span>rd.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Although it’s not apparent from the EID website, many of the site’s writers are employees of<b>&nbsp;FTI Consulting</b>, a global consulting firm that has come under scrutiny for its work for oil and gas companies, Monsanto, Delta Air Lines and the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a front group created to stop universal health care. The documents reviewed by HuffPost provide further insight into the specific funders of EID and how FTI Consulting helps companies burnish their images.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At a 2014 oil and gas conference in Brazil, FTI explained how Energy in Depth helped generate and guide media “behind the scenes,” influencing hundreds of articles and opinion pieces. Most importantly, FTI claimed that the site and its surrogates had the ability “to say, do and write things that individual company employees cannot and should not.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At the IPAA’s 2017 retreat, an employee told members that the site is “a bunch of companies that have come together to fight some of this fake news that’s out there about our industry.” An attendee recorded the session and provided it to HuffPost.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“EID has now grown into what many consider the industry’s lead research and rapid response platform,” states an IPAA report presented at a June 2019 board of directors meeting. The report adds that EID helps beat back attempts to stop fossil fuel extraction and addresses research that finds fracking harmful.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>EID has posted several pages attacking the research of Harvard scholars Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran, calling their published study that showed Exxon Mobil misled the public on the dangers of climate change “incomplete” and “activist.” In another example, EID points to Exxon Mobil-funded research to undermine the scholars’ studies.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“This EID case demonstrates that although fossil fuel companies now claim to support climate action, they continue to misrepresent scientific work in order to protect profits and protect themselves from liability or responsibility,” said Supran, a research fellow studying the history of science.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“When science threatens their interest, they attack or attempt to undermine it,” said Oreskes, a professor of history of science. “And when they can’t do that, they attempt to discredit the scientists who produced it.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Although fossil fuel companies now claim to support climate action, they continue to misrepresent scientific work in order to protect profits and protect themselves from liability or responsibility.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">- Geoffrey Supran, Harvard research fellow</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>On EID’s website, Rebecca Simons, field director for Energy In Depth-Mountain States, excoriated Lisa McKenzie, an assistant professor in the department of environmental and occupational health at the University of Colorado whose published studies find air pollution caused by fracking to be harmful to humans</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;In a Denver Pos<b>t op-ed,</b>&nbsp;Simons dismissed McKenzie’s research, writing that it allows “activists” to argue that “energy production is somehow a pernicious threat to public health.</span>” According to her LinkedIn page, Simons left FTI Consulting this year to join Encana, one of the energy firms that helped start EID.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“They attack anyone without using evidence,” said McKenzie. “They respond sometimes before they could even have read a study.” Earlier this month, public health scholars published a perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine noting that fracking is linked to water contamination, air pollution, radiation releases and ecosystem damage.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jeff Eshelman, senior vice president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America and founder of EID, said in an interview that he was not familiar with the academics whom EID has criticized, but emphasized that&nbsp;<b>America now has the cleanest air in 20 years thanks to natural gas.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Since 1929, IPAA’s mission has been to tell the truth about the importance of America’s natural gas and oil resources to consumers and policy makers,” said Eshelman. “We are a 90-year-old advocacy association. That’s quite obvious and transparent.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Several of the fossil fuel companies behind Energy In Depth have made statements avowing the science on climate change and the need to take action.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">“Burning fossil fuels is the primary contributor to CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere,” states BP in a handout on climate change.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">“The world needs to take urgent action to tackle climate change,” Shell states on its website. “Our ambition is to make sure the energy we sell is in tune with society as it moves towards that goal.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HuffPost contacted the oil and gas companies that funded EID and asked them to explain their support for a group that attacks researchers working on climate change. Shell, BP and Chevron were asked to explain why they support such actions while simultaneously embracing the science on climate change.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“Your questions are better addressed to EID or IPAA,” said Ashley Alemayehu, a spokesperson for Exxon Mobil, the parent company of XTO Energy.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“BP has not provided funding or been a member of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) since January 2014,” wrote BP spokesperson Jason Ryan.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The other companies did not respond.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Eshelman told HuffPost that while his organization runs the EID website, he hired FTI Consulting to support it.<b>&nbsp;In the past, FTI Consulting worked on behalf of several companies to defeat fracking regulations in Europe.</b>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Earlier this year, a member of the European Parliament complained about potential violations of lobbying transparency after FTI sent mailers to members of Parliament promising to donate 50 euros to UNICEF for answering a “perception audit” and agreeing to a meeting with FTI. FTI sent the letters on behalf of Eurogas, an association for Europe’s gas industry. And over the summer, a columnist at The Guardian referenced dozens of pages of internal court documents that pointed to<b>&nbsp;FTI as part of Monsanto’s plan to destroy the columnist’s reputation.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“We will have to refer you to IPAA for any comment on IPAA or EID,” said FTI spokesperson Matthew E. Bashalany<b>. He added that FTI does not comment on clients, per company policy.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">While most Americans aren’t familiar with IPAA, the organization has close ties to the Trump administration, which denies much of the science on climate change. Shortly after Donald Trump took office, the IPAA celebrated when he picked the group’s former attorney David Bernhardt for the No. 2 spot at the Department of the Interior.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“We know him very well, and we have direct access to him, have conversations with him about issues ranging from federal land access to endangered species, to a lot of issues,” the IPAA’s political director told a group of gathered industry representatives at the time, according to a secret recording of an IPAA meeting provided to the Center for Investigative Reporting.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump recently appointed Bernhardt as secretary of the Interior Department, and the IPAA has cultivated other powerful Trump appointees. A flyer for the IPAA’s annual conference last month listed two Trump officials as speakers:<b style=""> Larry A. Kudlow, </b>director of the National Economic Council, and Andrew Wheeler, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“All of this — both the attacks themselves and individual companies’ efforts to conceal their involvement — tells me the industry is scared,” said Ben Franta, a Stanford graduate student whom EID targeted for noting that the fossil fuel industry has a history of hiding what it knows about climate change. “It’s scared of the truth. And it should be, because the truth doesn’t look good for the fossil fuel industry.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This story has been updated with comment from a BP spokesperson.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">----</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">lnx some</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...<span style="font-size: 1.125rem; font-family: ProximaNova;">t the IPAA’s 2017 retreat, an employee told members that the site is “a bunch of companies that have come together to fight some of this fake news that’s out there about our industry.” An attendee recorded the session and provided it to HuffPost.</span></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none; font-family: ProximaNova;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">“EID has now grown into what many consider the industry’s lead research and rapid response platform,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6571148-IPAA-BOD-Meeting-2019.html" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="states an IPAA" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6571148-IPAA-BOD-Meeting-2019.html" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="9" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">states an IPAA</a>&nbsp;report presented at a June 2019 board of directors meeting. The report adds that EID helps beat back attempts to stop fossil fuel extraction and addresses research that finds fracking harmful.</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none; font-family: ProximaNova;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">EID has posted several pages attacking the research of Harvard scholars Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran, calling their&nbsp;<a href="https://eidclimate.org/exposed-harvard-study-omitted-evidence-to-allege-exxonmobil-misled-public-on-climate/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="published study" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://eidclimate.org/exposed-harvard-study-omitted-evidence-to-allege-exxonmobil-misled-public-on-climate/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="10" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">published study</a>&nbsp;that showed Exxon Mobil misled the public on the dangers of climate change “incomplete” and “activist.” In another example, EID points to&nbsp;<a href="https://cdn.exxonmobil.com/_{/media/global/files/energy-and-environment/Neuendorf-Report.pdf}" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Exxon Mobil-funded research" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://cdn.exxonmobil.com/_{/media/global/files/energy-and-environment/Neuendorf-Report.pdf}" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="11" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">Exxon Mobil-funded research</a>&nbsp;to undermine the scholars’ studies.</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none; font-family: ProximaNova;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">“This EID case demonstrates that although fossil fuel companies now claim to support climate action, they continue to misrepresent scientific work in order to protect profits and protect themselves from liability or responsibility,” said Supran, a research fellow studying the history of science.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">...o<span style="font-size: 1.125rem;">n EID’s website, Rebecca Simons,</span><span style="font-size: 1.125rem;">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/06/new-report-provides-facts-to-activist-health-concerns-on-oil-and-gas-developments/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="field director for Energy In Depth-Mountain States" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/06/new-report-provides-facts-to-activist-health-concerns-on-oil-and-gas-developments/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="12" style="font-size: 1.125rem; box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">field director for Energy In Depth-Mountain States</a><span style="font-size: 1.125rem;">, excoriated Lisa McKenzie, an assistant professor in the department of environmental and occupational health at the University of Colorado whose published studies find air pollution caused by fracking to be harmful to humans. In a</span><span style="font-size: 1.125rem;">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/06/new-report-provides-facts-to-activist-health-concerns-on-oil-and-gas-developments/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Denver Post op-ed" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/06/new-report-provides-facts-to-activist-health-concerns-on-oil-and-gas-developments/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="13" style="font-size: 1.125rem; box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">Denver Post op-ed</a><span style="font-size: 1.125rem;">, Simons dismissed McKenzie’s research, writing that it allows “activists” to argue that “energy production is somehow a pernicious threat to public health.” According to</span><span style="font-size: 1.125rem;">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-simons-72325324" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="her LinkedIn page" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-simons-72325324" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="14" rel="nofollow" style="font-size: 1.125rem; box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">her LinkedIn page</a><span style="font-size: 1.125rem;">, Simons left FTI Consulting this year to join Encana, one of the energy firms that helped start EID.</span></p><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">“They attack anyone without using evidence,” said McKenzie. “They respond sometimes before they could even have read a study.” Earlier this month, public health scholars published a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1913663" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1913663" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="15" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine</a>&nbsp;noting that fracking is linked to water contamination, air pollution, radiation releases and ecosystem damage.</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">Jeff Eshelman, senior vice president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America and founder of EID, said in an interview that he was not familiar with the academics whom EID has criticized, but emphasized that America now has the cleanest air in 20 years thanks to natural gas.</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">“Since 1929, IPAA’s mission has been to tell the truth about the importance of America’s natural gas and oil resources to consumers and policy makers,” said Eshelman. “We are a 90-year-old advocacy association. That’s quite obvious and transparent.”</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">Several of the fossil fuel companies behind Energy In Depth have made statements avowing the science on climate change and the need to take action.</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">“Burning fossil fuels is the primary contributor to CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp-country/en_au/about-us/what-we-do/climate-change-brochure.pdf" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="states BP" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp-country/en_au/about-us/what-we-do/climate-change-brochure.pdf" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="16" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">states BP</a>&nbsp;in a handout on climate change.</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">“The world needs to take urgent action to tackle climate change,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/the-energy-future/what-is-shells-net-carbon-footprint-ambition.html" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Shell states" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/the-energy-future/what-is-shells-net-carbon-footprint-ambition.html" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="17" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">Shell states</a>&nbsp;on its website. “Our ambition is to make sure the energy we sell is in tune with society as it moves towards that goal.”</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">HuffPost contacted the oil and gas companies that funded EID and asked them to explain their support for a group that attacks researchers working on climate change. Shell, BP and Chevron were asked to explain why they support such actions while simultaneously embracing the science on climate change.</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">“Your questions are better addressed to EID or IPAA,” said Ashley Alemayehu, a spokesperson for Exxon Mobil, the parent company of XTO Energy....</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">"<span style="font-size: 1.125rem;">BP has not provided funding or been a member of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) since January 2014,” wrote BP spokesperson Jason Ryan.</span></p><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none; font-size: medium;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">The other companies did not respond.</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none; font-size: medium;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">Eshelman told HuffPost that while his organization runs the EID website, he hired FTI Consulting to support it. In the past, FTI Consulting&nbsp;<a href="https://books.google.es/books?id=CdKNDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT62&lpg=PT62&dq=cuadrilla+and+FTI+consulting&source=bl&ots=I5Bl6aN-EL&sig=ACfU3U18xG8b-mZysSi2bpHTTh5VukH7KA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjM473dlormAhWPERQKHUbbBL4Q6AEwGHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=cuadrilla%20and%20FTI%20consulting&f=false" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="worked" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://books.google.es/books?id=CdKNDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT62&lpg=PT62&dq=cuadrilla+and+FTI+consulting&source=bl&ots=I5Bl6aN-EL&sig=ACfU3U18xG8b-mZysSi2bpHTTh5VukH7KA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjM473dlormAhWPERQKHUbbBL4Q6AEwGHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=cuadrilla%20and%20FTI%20consulting&f=false" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="18" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">worked</a>&nbsp;on behalf of several companies to defeat fracking regulations in Europe. Earlier this year, a member of the European Parliament&nbsp;<a href="https://euobserver.com/institutional/145783" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="complained about potential violations" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://euobserver.com/institutional/145783" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="19" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">complained about potential violations</a>&nbsp;of lobbying transparency after FTI sent mailers to members of Parliament promising to donate 50 euros to UNICEF for answering a “perception audit” and agreeing to a meeting with FTI. FTI sent the letters on behalf of Eurogas, an association for Europe’s gas industry.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/08/monsanto-roundup-journalist-documents" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="And over the summer" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/08/monsanto-roundup-journalist-documents" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="20" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">And over the summer</a>, a columnist at The Guardian referenced dozens of pages of internal court documents that pointed to FTI as part of Monsanto’s plan to destroy the columnist’s reputation.</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none; font-size: medium;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">“We will have to refer you to IPAA for any comment on IPAA or EID,” said FTI spokesperson Matthew E. Bashalany. He added that FTI does not comment on clients, per company policy.</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none; font-size: medium;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">While most Americans aren’t familiar with IPAA, the organization has close ties to the Trump administration, which denies much of the science on climate change. Shortly after Donald Trump took office,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/oil-executives-predicted-expanded-influence-in-trumps-interior-department/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="the IPAA celebrated" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://www.revealnews.org/article/oil-executives-predicted-expanded-influence-in-trumps-interior-department/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="21" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">the IPAA celebrated</a>&nbsp;when he picked the group’s former attorney David Bernhardt for the No. 2 spot at the Department of the Interior.</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none; font-size: medium;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">“We know him very well, and we have direct access to him, have conversations with him about issues ranging from federal land access to endangered species, to a lot of issues,” the IPAA’s political director told a group of gathered industry representatives at the time, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/recording-reveals-oil-executives-laughing-about-unprecedented-access-to-trump/" target="blank" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="secret recording" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/recording-reveals-oil-executives-laughing-about-unprecedented-access-to-trump/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="22" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">secret recording</a>&nbsp;of an IPAA meeting provided to the Center for Investigative Reporting.</p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none; font-size: medium;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">Trump recently appointed Bernhardt as secretary of the Interior Department, and the IPAA has cultivated other powerful Trump appointees. A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ipaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2019-IPAA-90th-Annual-Meeting-Schedule_members.pdf" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="flyer for the IPAA’s annual conference" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://www.ipaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2019-IPAA-90th-Annual-Meeting-Schedule_members.pdf" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="23" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">flyer for the IPAA’s annual conference</a>&nbsp;last month listed two Trump officials as speakers: <b>Larry A. Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, and Andrew Wheeler, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.</b></p></div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text " style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 30px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: none; font-size: medium;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.56;">“All of this — both the attacks themselves and individual companies’ efforts to conceal their involvement — tells me the industry is scared,” said Ben Franta, a Stanford graduate student whom&nbsp;<a href="https://eidclimate.org/something-tells-us-this-attempt-by-activists-to-make-apiknew-a-thing-is-going-to-fail-again/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="EID targeted" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="https://eidclimate.org/something-tells-us-this-attempt-by-activists-to-make-apiknew-a-thing-is-going-to-fail-again/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="article_body" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="24" style="box-shadow: rgb(0, 90, 255) 0px -1px 0px inset; color: rgb(0, 90, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.3s ease 0s;">EID targeted</a>&nbsp;for noting that the fossil fuel industry has a history of hiding what it knows about climate change. “It’s scared of the truth. And it should be, because the truth doesn’t look good for the fossil fuel industry.”</p></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">=</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">via drilled</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/the-new-denial-is-delay-at-the-breakthrough?s=r" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/the-new-denial-is-delay-at-the-breakthrough?s=r</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><b style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">the New Denial Is Delay</font></b></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How an attempt to revolutionize the environmental movement became a push to delay action on climate change.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Paul D. Thacker</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In October 2004, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, the founders of a scrappy Bay Area think tank called The Breakthrough Institute, published “<a href="https://thebreakthrough.org/articles/the-death-of-environmentalism" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thebreakthrough.org/articles/the-death-of-environmentalism&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw1rU0Xza4Nq8yXIEjwA7Gcj" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">The Death of Environmentalism</a>,” an essay that argued the environmental movement had failed. To knock back critics, the duo constantly underlined their environmental credentials and years of experience providing public relations advice to green groups like the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seeking to define themselves as different from run-of-the-mill climate skeptics, Shellenberger&nbsp;<a href="https://grist.org/article/little-doe/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://grist.org/article/little-doe/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw3ZV1xMnPv7JSPD5zfnj3Pb" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">told a reporter</a>&nbsp;around that time, “We’re not like Bjorn Lomborg or whatever.” Lomborg, of course, is the Danish climate contrarian best known for the fact-challenged book&nbsp;Cool It&nbsp;and, more recently,&nbsp;False Alarm.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A few years after seeking to differentiate the </font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Breakthrough Institute from Lomborg,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.brown.edu/academics/political-theory-project/global-climate-change-end-world-we-know-it" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.brown.edu/academics/political-theory-project/global-climate-change-end-world-we-know-it&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw13ZbIoM1Wt1IWTyYPVuSwQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Shellenberger </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">joined&nbsp;</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">the Danish writer on a panel at Brown University, where both urged more tempered rhetoric on climate change. As reported by the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.browndailyherald.com/2008/04/16/janus-forum-panel-urges-tempered-climate-rhetoric/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.browndailyherald.com/2008/04/16/janus-forum-panel-urges-tempered-climate-rhetoric/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw0WzJBbjhftAa20AcmkFeYq" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Brown Daily Herald</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, Shellenberger argued that climate change experts dismissed him and Lomborg because policy experts did not allow for their “alternative voices.”</span></font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[janus forum pix]</font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>More than a decade later, Shellenberger has left the Breakthrough Institute, but little else has changed. Both Shellenberger and Lomborg have released new books—as in the past, experts immediately savaged them</b>. In a review at Yale 360, Pacific Institute emeritus president Peter Gleick&nbsp;<a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/07/review-bad-science-and-bad-arguments-abound-in-apocalypse-never/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/07/review-bad-science-and-bad-arguments-abound-in-apocalypse-never/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw01qE-wpkI_pAJhLNBGEJT3" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">wrote</a>, “Bad science and bad arguments abound in 'Apocalypse Never' by Michael Shellenberger.” Taking a pickaxe to Lomborg’s book&nbsp;<em>False Alarm</em>, Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/books/review/bjorn-lomborg-false-alarm-joseph-stiglitz.html" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/books/review/bjorn-lomborg-false-alarm-joseph-stiglitz.html&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw2K64zx4CioEJ054vUk1pw8" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">in the New York Times</a>, “This book proves the aphorism that a little knowledge is dangerous. It’s nominally about air pollution. It’s really about mind pollution.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">--</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A decade after the Breakthrough Institute burst on the scene firing shots at Big Green, Shellenberger<span style="font-weight: 700;">&nbsp;</span>followed Sierra Club president Mike Brune onto the stage for&nbsp;<a href="https://fortuneconferences.com/brainstorm-green-2014/2014-preliminary-speakers/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://fortuneconferences.com/brainstorm-green-2014/2014-preliminary-speakers/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw27qjPiFbxn3g6rBBmtihSl" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Brainstorm Green</a>, Fortune Magazine’s 2014 conference for environmental leaders.</span>&nbsp;After opening remarks from Brune, dressed the part of an environmental nonprofit boss in boring suit and tie, Shellenberger stepped up to the podium in slacks and a fitted shirt—uniform-ready to host an inspiring Ted Talk.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He then proceeded to berate Brune for failing to offer real solutions to climate change.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">By this point, Shellenberger no longer felt the need to namecheck his environmental roots before launching a missile at Big Green. He recounted how, in contrast to Brune and his ineffective Sierra Club, he and Breakthrough co-founder <b>Ted Nordhaus</b> had successfully lobbied for the New Apollo Project, a coalition advocating for cleantech and renewable energy.&nbsp;<b>Shellenberger added that the New Apollo later convinced the Obama administration to put $150 billion into a stimulus bill.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After leaving the podium, Shellenberger sat down next to Brune to continue the debate. <b>Brune then punched back, “We operate differently from your Breakthrough Institute. We are not a think tank; we are a group that gets results...on the ground.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With a grin and a shrug,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YioOKuV4kqU&feature=youtu.be" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DYioOKuV4kqU%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw2o5XJuhyFTx1bpA8B43uHC" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Shellenberger quipped</a>, “We had pretty good results with the stimulus, actually.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The sparring was vintage Breakthrough: tiny, Left Coast think tank smacks down Big Environment for sclerotic thinking and green solutions less palatable than last week’s stale, organic, whole grain muffins.&nbsp;<b>Also standard: Shellenberger’s Apollo parable relied on a string of selective facts, loudly paraded onto stage for political theater.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Started in the early 2000s, the</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Apollo Alliance </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">banded together dozens of labor unions and green groups in a coalition that advocated for federal funding to advance technologies and create jobs for clean energy.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Members included everyone from the NAACP, SEIU, Greenpeace, Tides Foundation, League of Conservation Voters, and the AFL-CIO.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Anyone who was anyone began&nbsp;</span><a href="https://grist.org/article/apollo1/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://grist.org/article/apollo1/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw3kmO7jpIw9MdGrDbQ4S5o5" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">adopting Apollo-like rhetoric</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, including Bill Clinton, and&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Nation</b><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">editor and publisher Katrina Vanden Heuvel. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Not surprisingly, a f<b style="">ounding board member&nbsp;</b><b style=""><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20050325024605/http://www.apolloalliance.org/about_the_alliance/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://web.archive.org/web/20050325024605/http://www.apolloalliance.org/about_the_alliance/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw2R7rQhDcIhP-ZzEw2N39eY" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">of Apollo was the Sierra Club’s executive director</a>, which makes it odd that Shellenberger would try to seize sole credit for the coalition’s purported success, let alone use it against Brune.</b></span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In reality, Nordhaus and Shellenberger were two of the many, many people that helped get the coalition off the ground. And in 2005, nearly a decade before that public spat with Brune,&nbsp;</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Shellenberger</span><a href="https://grist.org/article/apollo1/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://grist.org/article/apollo1/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw3kmO7jpIw9MdGrDbQ4S5o5" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">&nbsp;announced that he had left</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Apollo over disagreements with members. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a recent interview with&nbsp;<em style="">Drilled,&nbsp;</em>Shellenberger put it more bluntly: “I was shitcanned from Apollo over ‘Death of Environmentalism.’”</span></b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Despite that happening more than fifteen years ago, Shellenberger still references his time with the Apollo Alliance when plugging his tale</b> as a hero to save the planet from climate change</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. In January </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">2020, for example,&nbsp;<a href="https://science.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Shellenberger%20Testimony.pdf" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://science.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Shellenberger%2520Testimony.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw2yE9MoYQGcZ-WzYt2yQpK5" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">when he testified</a>&nbsp;before the House Science Committee,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Shellenberger noted “In 2003 I co-founded the Apollo Alliance to advocate for a Green New Deal, which we called a ‘New Apollo Project.’” He added that Obama’s stimulus (passed in 2009) funded many Apollo proposals for renewables, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In speaking with&nbsp;<em>Drilled</em>, Shellenberger claimed to have had a hand in that stimulus as well, after meeting with Obama’s policy team. “And the Obama people, they got it right away,” Shellenberger said. “And then the rest is history. They basically were like, ‘Yeah, we want to do a big investment in clean energy.’ And that was the stimulus investment.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">A recently retired Hill staffer, who did not want his name in the media, said he worked for decades on appropriations for the House but never heard of the Breakthrough Institute.</b>&nbsp;He wondered how Shellenberger—or anyone—could claim personal credit for passing billions of dollars in renewable energy policy with just one or two meetings, when the Hill is swarming with professional lobbyists working around the clock.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“He’s constantly reinventing his story to build the appearance of power and access,” said Kert Davies,</b>&nbsp;who spent 13 years at Greenpeace examining energy policy, before founding the Climate Investigations Center in 2013. Davies said he first met Shellenberger in the early 2000s, when Shellenberger was vying to get a communications contract with Greenpeace. &nbsp;<b>“He takes credit for things [that happened] years after he was boosted from the Apollo Alliance. He can say whatever he wants, and it’s all vapor because the organization is now gone.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“They aren’t players up here on the Hill,” a Democratic Committee staffer said of The Breakthrough Institute. This staffer has spent almost two decades in Congress working on environmental and climate change policy but is not authorized to speak to the media. “They spend most of their time shooting spitballs at mainstream environmental organizations and that makes them a bright, shiny object to some journalists.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nonetheless, when Nordhaus and Shellenberger flew from California to Washington in 2009 to discuss climate policy, NPR interviewed them outside the Senate Dirksen Office Building, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105834436" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId%3D105834436&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw09gz66rhkrzfreYXPt6_Jk" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">reported their funder Peter Teague’s claims</a>&nbsp;that President Obama had adopted Breakthrough’s “language and visionary rhetoric.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">--</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jockeying to position themselves as the smart, thoughtful adults on environmental policy is core to the Breakthrough model, and to Shellenberger's approach post-Breakthrough as well,&nbsp;<b>along with constant bashing of “Big Environment</b>.” In 2005, after Greenpeace created the website Exxon Secrets to track the oil company’s funding for climate change disinformation, Mother Jones published a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2005/05/some-it-hot/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2005/05/some-it-hot/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw1JKbI7PmA1OoapM3zETLOw" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">sprawling investigation&nbsp;</a>detailing how Exxon was throwing buckets of cash at forty organizations that attacked the scientific consensus on climate.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Senators then sent Exxon a letter demanding that they cease paying for the “<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/senators-call-on-exxon-to-stop-funding-climate-change-denial-lobby" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.desmogblog.com/senators-call-on-exxon-to-stop-funding-climate-change-denial-lobby&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw1qWVfIUaRmyEA3pXlGHblB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">effective climate change denial myth</a>” and Britain’s <b>Royal Society&nbsp;</b><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6772861-Royal-Society-Letter-to-Exxon.html" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6772861-Royal-Society-Letter-to-Exxon.html&source=gmail&ust=1648735985760000&usg=AOvVaw3-X-VFynXgjpqrUizIh-od" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">called on Exxon</a>&nbsp;to stop financing American groups that “misinformed the public about climate change.”</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[royal soc ltr]</font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In response, Nordhaus and Shellenberger&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sfgate.com/green/article/Look-who-s-in-denial-about-global-warming-now-2497542.php" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sfgate.com/green/article/Look-who-s-in-denial-about-global-warming-now-2497542.php&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw3QP1v_JlNPa0SJPU6aqOYO" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">penned a 2007 op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle</a>&nbsp;(“Look who's in denial about global warming now”) that <b>belittled Mother Jones for investigating Exxon’s finances and Greenpeace for creating Exxon Secrets. “The truth is that global warming deniers have had little impact on public attitudes,” the duo wrote.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Eight years after this Nordhaus-Shellenberger op-ed, Inside Climate News, The Los Angeles Times, and The Columbia School of Journalism published another large-scale investigation of what Exxon knew about climate change and the company’s subsequent deception.<b> Once again Shellenberger defended Exxon.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shellenberger’s denial that Exxon suppressed or spun what it knew about climate change back in the 1970s was even &nbsp;referenced by mainstream climate denialists.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;In his climate denier bible,<b>&nbsp;The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change, CFACT&nbsp;</b><a href="https://www.cfact.org/about/#staff" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cfact.org/about/%23staff&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw2UYVhHvHMcqaWHcNrVqJH" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">communications director Marc Morano</a>&nbsp;cites Michael Shellenberger as proof that Exxon in “many cases advocated for climate policy” and that if the company did spend on denial it was “a drop in the bucket compared to green money.”</span></font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[exxon knew myth grfx]</font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change]</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Both Shellenberger and Morano are lifelong comms experts who now claim to be reporting on these issues as “journalists.” In the documentary Purple Mountains, Morano says, “I come at these issues as an investigative journalist.</b>”&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On the website of his new organization Environmental Progress, Shellenberger's<a href="https://environmentalprogress.org/founder-president" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://environmentalprogress.org/founder-president&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw3Ug_hfh8SI-eNS4zrInK_i" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">&nbsp;bio reads,</a>&nbsp;“Michael is a leading environmental journalist who has broken major stories.” <b>These stories Shellenberger cites are posts at his Forbes blog, not pieces that go through the usual processes of reporting, editing, and fact-checking that constitute journalism.</b></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In another troubling example of Breakthrough’s ties to climate denial, a&nbsp;<b><a href="https://thebreakthrough.org/people/reihan-salam" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thebreakthrough.org/people/reihan-salam&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw2hC_KF3nrsSFZpOkwi3l8Q" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">member of their board</a>&nbsp;is Reihan Salam, president of the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Manhattan Institute.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Four years back, 19 Senators took to the Senate floor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/senators-call-out-web-of-denial-blocking-action-on-climate-change" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/senators-call-out-web-of-denial-blocking-action-on-climate-change&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw3UVcxTuLRVEKxmMy-xzGik" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">in a week-long event&nbsp;</a>to denounce the Manhattan Institute and other fossil fuel-funded groups that deny climate science and stymie legislation. Today, the Manhattan Institute still lobbies against climate policy and spends much of its time putting out&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/03/wind-and-solar-proponents-arithmetic-problem/#slide-1" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/03/wind-and-solar-proponents-arithmetic-problem/%23slide-1&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw0gS1S3Rz-DrPdIEaYdga5" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">reports</a>&nbsp;that poke holes in renewable energy technology.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>According to Exxon Secrets, the&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13GOM83_vbVI6PNqKIU0IyvAvrC-xhXdfcqabkK1b918/edit#gid=1113014887" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13GOM83_vbVI6PNqKIU0IyvAvrC-xhXdfcqabkK1b918/edit%23gid%3D1113014887&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw3bn4gt8Mu_IbK7ZTlRlKYk" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Manhattan Institute has received</a>&nbsp;$1.39 million from Exxon since 1992, with $75,000 donated in 2018, the last year for which records are available.</b>
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Beltway insiders may dismiss their influence on policy, but since launching the Breakthrough Institute in 2003, Nordhaus and Shellenberger have generated gigawatts of media buzz along with a pile of disapproval, taller than a West Virginia coal mountain.<b>&nbsp;Scientists and environmentalists have noted the duo’s penchant for portraying the fossil fuel industry as a tiny corporate Goliath picked on by David, the environmental giant.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But Breakthrough’s comparisons of &nbsp;international green groups with oil companies and industry groups make for poor math, said Robert J.<b> Brulle</b>, a Visiting Professor of Environment and Society at Brown University. &nbsp;When&nbsp;<b>Brulle looked at the money spent on lobbying &nbsp;for climate change in America for one year, he found that environmental groups made up only 3.30% of all funding, with various industry sectors spending the rest.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Their counterintuitive narratives, headlined with sparkly buzzwords and backfilled with selective facts, make sense when you remember that Nordhaus and Shellenberger forged their expertise in public relations.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In the tech-crazed,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;libertarian&nbsp;</span>San Francisco of the early 2000s, Breakthrough’s ideology perhaps made sense to those who saw the environmental movement as stuck in the past, unwilling to embrace necessary technology, and too resistant to corporate solutions.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;This has caused a few moments of public embarrassment for Breakthrough such as promoting fracking as a “<a href="https://thebreakthrough.org/articles/coal-killer" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thebreakthrough.org/articles/coal-killer&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw3xx-4nieI0EMCXcKM7Gmx" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">clean energy</a>” alternative. Today, Breakthrough eagerly embraces nuclear and solar energy, and cheerleads for GMO agriculture, as preferred technologies to electrify and feed the world. Shellenberger, meanwhile, is all in on nuclear—part of the difference of opinion that drove him out of Breakthrough in the first place.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Over the years, Breakthrough also began defending oil companies and cozying up to climate contrarians.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Denying that they traffic in climate denial, while constantly ending up in the same room with contrarians and climate denialists, is a common dilemma for the Breakthrough crowd, as are spine twisting arguments to soften human impacts on the planet and hype technology solutions. It’s a subtle, more modern version of denial and catnip to some journalists.&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When celebrated data cruncher Nate Silver relaunched his 538 website in 2014, for example, one of his first hires was Breakthrough Fellow<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Roger Pielke Jr.</span></b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A professor of science policy at the University of Colorado, Pielke Jr. has a long track record of contrarian writing on climate change and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/dec/26/republicans-congress-climate-change-testimony-risk" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/dec/26/republicans-congress-climate-change-testimony-risk&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw1eckEAeAVa1OI2bRG2Wakc" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">receiving invite</a>s to promote his views at congressional hearings from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/29/15109876/climate-change-science-committee-hearing-republicans-consensus" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/29/15109876/climate-change-science-committee-hearing-republicans-consensus&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw2Yog_VH-0_TFUPbAhDYoH2" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Republicans</a></b>,&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">who deny the science of climate change. The deceased, famed climate science policy scholar Stephen Schneider once&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hillheat.com/articles/2012/07/31/stephen-schneiders-criticism-of-roger-pielke-jr-a-self-aggrandizer-trickster-and-careerist" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.hillheat.com/articles/2012/07/31/stephen-schneiders-criticism-of-roger-pielke-jr-a-self-aggrandizer-trickster-and-careerist&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw3egMf2WnqJvHwAivP5ttCT" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">referred to Pielke Jr.</a>&nbsp;as a “self-aggrandizer who sets up straw men, knocks them down, and takes credit for being the honest broker to explain the mess.”</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>It only took Pielke Jr. a brief time as a 538 contributor to live up to Schneider’s claim.</b> In a baffling article, Pielke Jr. diminished the effect climate change has on damages caused by hurricanes, blasting Silver with a category 5 level shit storm. When Silver then appeared on “The Daily Show” to discuss the new launch of 538,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.salon.com/2014/03/28/nate_silver_responds_to_climate_backlash_on_the_daily_show/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.salon.com/2014/03/28/nate_silver_responds_to_climate_backlash_on_the_daily_show/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw06AOYo9aYfZFz6Q0hvvurB" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Jon Stewart jabbed</a>, “You are taking a rash of shit in a week and a half like no one I've seen in a long time."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After Silver commissioned a&nbsp;<a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mit-climate-scientist-responds-on-disaster-costs-and-climate-change/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mit-climate-scientist-responds-on-disaster-costs-and-climate-change/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw2GEOMXW9Z71v3RwrK1wCHp" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">response by an MIT scientist</a>&nbsp;that largely debunked the analysis by Pielke Jr., he later left 538. Rushing to protect their Senior Fellow, the Breakthrough’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.energycentral.com/c/ec/ipcc-sides-roger-pielke-jr" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.energycentral.com/c/ec/ipcc-sides-roger-pielke-jr&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw3cjx8BQtU6lAfiOXUhLZGY" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Alex Trembath then posted</a>&nbsp;a blog arguing that the science actually agreed with Pielke Jr.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since that event, scientists have now begun to cite climate change&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-can-now-blame-individual-natural-disasters-on-climate-change/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-can-now-blame-individual-natural-disasters-on-climate-change/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw1rZsfMB5XJlMtS7AK5vE_u" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">as the cause</a>&nbsp;for specific natural disasters, and have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/08/hurricane-harvey-climate-change-global-warming-weather/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/08/hurricane-harvey-climate-change-global-warming-weather/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw2BekM2roDcSxHWm2kjDuK2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">published research</a>&nbsp;explaining how climate change has likely increased hurricane wind speeds and the amount of rain hurricanes dump on cities. A few months ago, a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/22/11975" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pnas.org/content/117/22/11975&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw3Z8LSCvrB3OkKaGyLVolvN" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">found that human-caused global warming is making</a>&nbsp;larger hurricanes more common.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But in his book&nbsp;Apocalypse Never,&nbsp;Shellenberger resurrects Pielke Jr’s old work to breathe new life into claims that climate change is not making natural disasters worse</b>. In his classic debate-me-bro style, Shellenberger argues that<span style="font-weight: 700;">&nbsp;</span>the United Nation’s definition of “natural disaster” means that<b>&nbsp;technically&nbsp;climate change is making&nbsp;extreme weather,</b>&nbsp;not natural disasters, worse.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These Talmudic quibbles might be lost on Americans whose homes and possessions have been destroyed in climate fueled forest fires out West, or whose communities on the East coast have been drowned by hurricanes made more powerful by global warming.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Michael Shelleberger often relies on the <b>debate-me-bro routine</b> when called out for misstatements. As catastrophic fires began torching the West coast, media outlets began running stories that linked these fires with climate change. Nonetheless, Shellenberger&nbsp;<a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/09/the-last-ditch-talking-point-on-climate-change" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/09/the-last-ditch-talking-point-on-climate-change&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw2KKAwk9EtCpy3LGqDX3d8B" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">hopped on Fox News</a>&nbsp;to shout that “forest management,” not climate change was fanning the flames—a neat trick, and the same meme President Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/west-coast-facing-apocalyptic-conditions-amid-wildfires-worsened/story?id=72971021" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/west-coast-facing-apocalyptic-conditions-amid-wildfires-worsened/story?id%3D72971021&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw0A7FvTAjrjwzCJScOjeu3L" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">deployed at a Las Vegas</a>&nbsp;campaign rally to shift the public’s attention from climate change. But to Shellenberger “because we’ve focused on other things like building renewables” the western United States is now going up in smoke.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When someone then tweeted that he was wrong, he challenged that person to a debate.&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1306213240758841347?s=20" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/DoctorVive/status/1306213240758841347?s%3D20&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw1ypq24WodO39N1Moyhy-2S" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Yes, seriously.</a></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>For both Shellenberger and Nordhaus, GMOs are part of the technology fix for climate</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Nordhaus&nbsp;<a href="https://www.drillednews.com/post/ted-nordhaus-founder-and-executive-director-of-the-breakthrough-institute" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.drillednews.com/post/ted-nordhaus-founder-and-executive-director-of-the-breakthrough-institute&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw2_LmMuAboOPrTqte9ip4FY" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">described Breakthrough’s take on ecomodernism&nbsp;</a>as “you can either minimize the impact of humans on nature or harmonize human societies with nature—we don’t think you can do both, and we focus on the former.” Intensive agriculture, they agree, reduces the amount of land required to grow food, although Nordhaus is a bit more measured in his support.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If you don't want to turn the entire planet into a gigantic farm, you're gonna have to continue to figure out how to produce food more intensively,” Nordhaus said. “But obviously I think some of the GMO stuff gets oversimplified by advocates, too.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In 2015, before Shellenberger’s departure from the organization, Breakthrough released another sparkly, tectonic shifting declaration titled “<a href="http://www.ecomodernism.org/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ecomodernism.org/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw1_bc0zt7IlgwvWfwTvaqyv" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">An Ecomodernist Manifesto</a>” that bedazzled reporters</b>. To help generate buzz, they unveiled the declaration on a splashy website that documented coverage of the manifesto in multiple media outlets.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In reality, the document rehashed arguments that as humans sculpt the planet, the Earth has entered a new era. But the manifesto also added some spicy Breakthrough reasoning: human impacts are a benefit, not a deficit.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The ideological binding of The Breakthrough Institute’s 2015 “An Ecomodernist Manifesto” started coming unglued within months, when &nbsp;Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger&nbsp;</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">hopped a plane to England for an event on&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.uk2020.org.uk/events/eco-modernism-restoring-science-environment-policy/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.uk2020.org.uk/events/eco-modernism-restoring-science-environment-policy/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw1fmwvaBDeuPgVipsR-SwAS" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">restoring science to environmentalism</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Here, they planned to sell the declaration to British reporters. The press conference was hosted by </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">conservative MP Owen Paterson,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/2015/09/29/breakthrough-institute-defends-ecomodernism-launch-climate-denier-owen-paterson-despite-warnings-not" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.desmog.co.uk/2015/09/29/breakthrough-institute-defends-ecomodernism-launch-climate-denier-owen-paterson-despite-warnings-not&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw3oOtN6baphB8c47JViMzKh" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a UK climate denier</a>&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">who almost halved the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/27/uk-climate-change-owen-paterson" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/27/uk-climate-change-owen-paterson&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw1zQGktAjMzb68wU4aYFbBN" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">UK’s climate preparedness budget</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;when he was environmental secretary.</span></b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When announcing the press conference, Paterson&nbsp;<a href="http://www.uk2020.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2015-09-20-PRESS-RELEASE-Ecomodernism.pdf" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.uk2020.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2015-09-20-PRESS-RELEASE-Ecomodernism.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw1VTQAZ1cDxbSdvbvPOEt08" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">called on the public</a>&nbsp;to abandon the “relentless pessimism of the environmental movement” and warned in a&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Telegraph op-ed that “the Green Blob still infests the official bureaucracy with its influence.</span>” Other conference panelists included&nbsp;<b>Mark Lynas, a&nbsp;</b><a href="http://www.ecomodernism.org/authors" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ecomodernism.org/authors&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw2KluG4zI9wSIaNwyFd57qL" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><b>co-author of An Ecomodernist Manifesto,</b></a><b>&nbsp;and Matt Ridley,&nbsp;</b>a British science writer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/matt-ridley" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.desmogblog.com/matt-ridley&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw1lwDotZtr-7ypyW0Ngr3Ds" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">noted for climate denial screeds</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When critics argued that the event provided a platform for climate denialists, DesmogBlog reported that&nbsp;<b>Shellenberger&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/2015/09/29/breakthrough-institute-defends-ecomodernism-launch-climate-denier-owen-paterson-despite-warnings-not" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.desmog.co.uk/2015/09/29/breakthrough-institute-defends-ecomodernism-launch-climate-denier-owen-paterson-despite-warnings-not&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw3oOtN6baphB8c47JViMzKh" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">dismissed detractors with</a>&nbsp;“Fuck you all, we’re going to go to the press conference.”&nbsp;</b>Audience members still complained that Breakthrough had chosen to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/2015/09/29/breakthrough-institute-defends-ecomodernism-launch-climate-denier-owen-paterson-despite-warnings-not" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.desmog.co.uk/2015/09/29/breakthrough-institute-defends-ecomodernism-launch-climate-denier-owen-paterson-despite-warnings-not&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw3oOtN6baphB8c47JViMzKh" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">associate with climate denialists and anti-environmentalists</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nordhaus explained this strategy as sort of a means to an end in&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.drillednews.com/post/ted-nordhaus-founder-and-executive-director-of-the-breakthrough-institute" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.drillednews.com/post/ted-nordhaus-founder-and-executive-director-of-the-breakthrough-institute&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw2_LmMuAboOPrTqte9ip4FY" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a recent interview with Drilled&nbsp;</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. “I've given talks to groups of climate skeptics, climate deniers—you know, real climate deniers,” he said. “You can have a variety of viewpoints on this question without having to put a tin foil hat on. And the thing is, you get to the end of those talks and if you go, ‘OK, so who supports nuclear energy?’ </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Everybody in the room supports nuclear energy.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In late 2015, Shellenberger&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-shellenberger-019631a8/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-shellenberger-019631a8/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw0A-Vp42UWx57eDnUTFPHKE" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">left the Breakthrough Institute</a>&nbsp;to start Environmental Progress, which focuses on nuclear energy. A video at the organization’s website shows Shellenberger clad in a yellow t-shirt giving a Ted Talk.&nbsp;</b>The summer after starting his group, Shellenberger partnered with employees of the nuclear energy industry to&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">lead the&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160618232517/https://marchforenvironmentalhope.org/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618232517/https://marchforenvironmentalhope.org/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw2ZnV8B_AkIrxaFH49MW-vQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">March for Environmental Hope</a>, which was billed as the “first-ever pro-nuclear march.” Attendees—which included a half dozen Exelon employees, who flew in from jobs working at nuclear reactors scattered across the country—held protests outside the Bay area offices of Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We support our employees’ efforts to advocate on environmental and climate-related issues that are important to them,” said a spokesperson from Exelon. “However, this was a voluntary employee activity and not part of an organized campaign. All participants attended voluntarily and were not asked to represent the company or its views.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Months later,&nbsp;<a href="https://energynews.us/2016/10/26/midwest/pro-nuclear-group-targets-chicago-environmental-organization/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://energynews.us/2016/10/26/midwest/pro-nuclear-group-targets-chicago-environmental-organization/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw2ShVm-c0nNsM-0CQr7tyow" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Shellenberger led a pro-nuclear</a>&nbsp;march in Chicago that was said to be inspired by the Civil Rights March on Washington, the Stonewall Riots, and Gandhi’s Salt March. Counter protestors denounced Environmental Progress as “astroturf.”</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When not writing for the Environmental Progress website, Shellenberger sometimes amplifies&nbsp;<a href="https://www.spiked-online.com/podcast-episode/environmentalism-is-a-false-god-for-lost-souls/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.spiked-online.com/podcast-episode/environmentalism-is-a-false-god-for-lost-souls/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw2VaKy1msCX95zuSAQkodRF" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">his views on Spiked</a>, a British website funded in part by the Koch Brothers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/spiked" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.desmog.co.uk/spiked&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw1FhMVfOB-muO6czHm3Ks0g" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">that trafficks in climate denial</a>.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He also runs a blog at Forbes where&nbsp;</b><b style=""><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2020/02/17/if-they-are-so-alarmed-by-climate-change-why-are-they-so-opposed-to-solving-it/#1ccd33796b75" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2020/02/17/if-they-are-so-alarmed-by-climate-change-why-are-they-so-opposed-to-solving-it/%231ccd33796b75&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw0NfJzqZpGQRktNFrzo8bOU" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">he ridicules climate policy</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;while advocating for nuclear energy. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In one example at Forbes,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/06/11/if-nuclear-power-is-so-safe-why-are-we-so-afraid-of-it/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/06/11/if-nuclear-power-is-so-safe-why-are-we-so-afraid-of-it/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw1pKLnlDy-vUNhbDAxLPuSZ" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">he cited studies by Ed Calabrese</a></span></b><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> a professor of toxicology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, as proof that fears of nuclear radiation are overblown.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Shellenberger’s story picked up on a theme first introduced by the Breakthrough Institute where they interviewed&nbsp;</span><a href="https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/energy/how-much-radiation-is-too-much" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/energy/how-much-radiation-is-too-much&source=gmail&ust=1648735985761000&usg=AOvVaw0pgPxRJzWjkYsuT4G-Hv_b" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Calabrese about his research</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As reported last year by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-secret-science-20190219-story.html" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-secret-science-20190219-story.html&source=gmail&ust=1648735985762000&usg=AOvVaw1jnrNkeWcXeMCM71rK0ATf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">The Los Angeles Times</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/epa-trump-pollution-science_n_5d163910e4b082e5536893ee?ri18n=true" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/epa-trump-pollution-science_n_5d163910e4b082e5536893ee?ri18n%3Dtrue&source=gmail&ust=1648735985762000&usg=AOvVaw27ywxJRi6kTKuLajwCuCrs" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">HuffPost</a>, Calabrese has long excited the tobacco, chemical, and nuclear industries with research calle<b>d “hormesis</b>” that argues tiny amounts of<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;pollution and radiation are actually good for people. Public health experts have dismissed Calabrese’s hormesis studies as a type of religion, although Trump officials have shown interest.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Shellenberger is a propagandist,” said Paul Dorfman, Founder and Chair of the Nuclear Consulting Group and Honorary Senior Research Associate at the University College London. Dorfman said that while some experts can make a case for nuclear energy that he disagrees with, Shellenberger is not one of them. “He’s not a scientist. He just comes up with stuff.”&nbsp;<b>Dismissing the hormesis theory as “quasi science” and “tosh” Dorfman said there is no safe dose of radiation. “This is a fact. And all the regulatory bodies know this.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“My impression is that [Shellenberger] is sincere in his views that nuclear power needs to play a larger role in combating climate change,” said David Lochbaum, a former safety instructor at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who has retired from the Union of Concerned Scientists. However, &nbsp;Lochbaum noted by email:&nbsp;<b>“Few technologies have a risk/reward scheme such that one bad day at one place can outweigh decades of good days.” He added that, in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, “Japan is re-learning this lesson.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To promote his book, Shellenberger added another piece to the canon of environmental apologist lit, a post on his <b>Forbes blog entitled “On behalf of environmentalists, I apologize for the climate scare.”</b> The post was removed a day or two later, which Shellenberger decried as censorship, and then used to promote his book.</span>&nbsp;However, Forbes confirmed with&nbsp;<em>Drilled&nbsp;</em>that they pulled the post not because of any opinions Shellenberger espoused but because in blatantly trying to sell his book in the post, he had violated the site’s guidelines about self-promotion.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Nonetheless, blogging at Forbes remains critical to Shellenberger’s profile. They are the only stories he can point to when he describes himself as a “leading environmental journalist.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We flood the American public with a tsunami of crap every day in the media,” said Gary Schwitzer, an adjunct professor at U of Minnesota School of Public Health, and Publisher of Health News Review.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He said Forbes is particularly terrible because it hosts fringe contributors with undeclared industry ties, and who write dreck. This is harmful, Schwitzer said, because it distracts the public from real news. “That’s what really pisses me off.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“In some ways, it's just like a fabulous performance art piece that he's doing right now,” Nordhaus told Drilled of Shellenberger’s campaign to promote his book. “It’s like Andy Kaufman doing environmentalism</b>&nbsp;in a way that environmentalists could sort of see how dogmatic it gets. How sort of shrill it gets, and how angry it gets. How kind of dark and conspiratorial it gets.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Despite attempts to create space between themselves and Shellenberger, Breakthrough has also helped to prop him up. Penning a tepid analysis of the recent books by Shellenberger and Lomborg, Breakthrough’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2020/08/10/alternatives-to-climate-alarmism/" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2020/08/10/alternatives-to-climate-alarmism/&source=gmail&ust=1648735985762000&usg=AOvVaw0h7cm9OhGPGbFes7p3KI2S" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Alex Trembath wrote</a>&nbsp;that each author “wisely rejects some of the more outlandish environmental orthodoxies,” and added, “In place of catastrophism, each book offers optimism.”<b>&nbsp;Trembath’s review appeared in National Review,</b>&nbsp;long a venue for climate denial and disinformation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Breakthrough does not put out high quality work,” said Robert Brulle of Brown University. “In fact, they distort research. What they do is work the refs, which is the media. And the media needs to be more discriminating.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If there’s one thing these guys are good at, it is getting the media to move a story for them,” said <b>Kert Davies</b> of Climate Investigations. Complimenting Breakthrough’s skills in public relations, Davies said their counterintuitive “man bites dog” message gives Breakthrough an advantage over environmental organizations, which keep selling the same tired story.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They are good at PR,” he said. “It’s where they came from. They’re good PR guys pretending to be experts.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-size: small; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Emily Gertz edited this piece. Amy Westervelt contributed additional reporting.</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">https://progressive.org/magazine/how-the-biotech-industry-cultivates-positive-media/</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">july 2017</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">flaking for gmo's</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">
</font></div><div style=""><p class="lead" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On April 2016, Monica Eng of WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR station, published a&nbsp;<a href="https://will.illinois.edu/news/story/why-didnt-an-illinois-professor-have-to-disclose-gmo-funding" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">critical story</a>&nbsp;revealing that the agrichemical giant Monsanto had quietly paid a professor at the University of Illinois to travel, write, and speak about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and even to lobby federal officials to halt further GMO regulation. In a grueling, year-long reporting project, Eng uncovered&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303693-bruce-chassyuofillinoisdocs.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">documents</a>&nbsp;proving that Monsanto made the payments to University of Illinois professor <b>Bruce Chassy</b>, and that he&nbsp;<a href="https://will.illinois.edu/news/story/why-didnt-an-illinois-professor-have-to-disclose-gmo-funding" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">advised Monsanto</a>&nbsp;to deposit money in the university’s foundation, where records are shielded from public disclosure.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
What she didn’t expect was the massive blowback: The university accused her of being an activist, not a journalist, and she was hounded by Twitter trolls who jumped on her story and waged a campaign to discredit her personally.</span><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I knew that this would be a big story,” Eng says.</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“I’ve worked as a professional journalist in Chicago for more than three decades,” Eng says. “I’ve uncovered questionable activity in government groups, nonprofits, and private companies. But I don’t think I have ever seen a group so intent on trying to personally attack the journalist covering the issue</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eng’s experience is just one example of a strategy first invented by Big Tobacco to smear critics, spin reporters, and tamp down information that could damage the industry’s image.</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.6em 2.6em 1em 0px; padding: 1.6em 2em 1.6em 0px; order: 0; border-top: 3px solid rgb(57, 130, 106); border-bottom: 3px solid rgb(57, 130, 106); width: 385.922px; float: left;"><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 38.22px; order: 0; font-weight: bold;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I don’t think I have ever seen a group so intent on trying to personally attack the journalist covering the issue.”</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 38.22px; order: 0; font-weight: bold;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">—Monica Eng</font></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In recent months, media outlets have reported on a disturbing trend of corporate-sponsored journalism</b>.&nbsp;<em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">The British Medical Journal</em>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j1638" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">exposed</a>&nbsp;a multiyear campaign by Coca-Cola to influence reporters covering obesity by secretly funding journalism conferences at the University of Colorado. The watchdog group Health News Review&nbsp;<a href="https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2017/04/journalism-ethics-questions-swirl-around-u-of-kansas-opioid-survey-pharma-funding/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">reported</a>&nbsp;that two journalism professors at the University of Kansas asked more than 1,100 health-care reporters about their views on opioids in a survey that was funded, in part, by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.practicalbioethics.org/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Center for Practical Bioethics</a>, a group the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/baucus-grassley-seek-answers-about-opioid-manufacturers-ties-to-medical-groups" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">U.S. Senate Finance Committee investigated</a>&nbsp;for its ties to opioid manufacturers.</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The biotech industry is particularly focused on taming controversies surrounding GMOs and the chemicals that are used on genetically modified crops, including Monsanto’s weedkiller glyphosate. The&nbsp;<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/glyphosate-now-most-used-agricultural-chemical-ever-422419" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">world’s most widely used herbicide</a>, glyphosate is critical for the successful cultivation of GMO corn and soybeans. A recent&nbsp;<a href="https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-016-0070-0" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">study</a>&nbsp;found that the chemical’s use by farmers has jumped fifteen-fold since 1996. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">identified</a>&nbsp;glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In January, a judge&nbsp;<a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-roundup-cancer-20170127-story.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">overruled</a>&nbsp;Monsanto’s objections, and the state of California will add a label with&nbsp;<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-glyphosate-california-idUSKBN19H2K1" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">a cancer warning</a>&nbsp;to the popular glyphosate-based weed killer RoundUp.</b> The Inspector General for the Environmental Protection Agency just&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/epa-inspector-general-probing-collusion-with-monsanto_us_59372108e4b0aba888b99dca" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">announced</a>&nbsp;he is investigating whether a former high-ranking EPA official colluded with Monsanto. In addition to filing lawsuits and hiring lobbyists, the chemical industry is deploying industry-allied scientists and using pro-GMO websites to discredit journalists covering glyphosate and GMOs.</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">New York Times</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;investigative reporter Danny Hakim has dealt with online abuse in recent months for writing&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/business/gmo-promise-falls-short.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">articles</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;critical of the agrichemical industry. Google Hakim’s name and you find little mention of seventeen years at the&nbsp;</span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">Times,</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;during which time he won a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Pulitzer Prize. Instead, you’ll find articles criticizing his reporting at sites like the American Council on Science and Health (<a href="http://acsh.org/news/2017/03/15/glyphosate-nyts-danny-hakim-lying-you-11001" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">“Glyphosate: NYT’s Danny Hakim Is Lying to You”</a>) and the Genetic Literacy Project</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (</span><a href="https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/10/31/danny-hakims-new-york-times-gmo-expose-misleads/" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">“Why Danny Hakim’s New York Times GMO exposé misleads”</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">).</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The industry’s PR campaign to reframe the GMO debate and intimidate journalists through harassment and name-calling has been remarkably successful in my view,” says food author and journalism professor Michael Pollan. “I think this is partly a function of the political and public relations naiveté of many of my fellow science writers.”</font></p><hr style="background-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; order: 0; clear: both; height: 1px; border: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 1.2em auto; opacity: 0;" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One tactic industry allies employ to discredit questions about GMOs is to narrow the discussion to food safety. Pro-GMO scientists and writers&nbsp;<a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/democrats-reject-science-of-gmo/article/2003176" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">mock</a>&nbsp;experts and critics, by portraying them as loonies who think eating a bag of corn chips is akin to ingesting a bottle of arsenic. But this is a misleading line of attack, since GMO concerns are wide-ranging, including how well they are tested for safety, their&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/behind-the-monsanto-deal-doubts-about-the-gmo-revolution-1473880429" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">impact on agriculture</a>&nbsp;and the ecosystem, and the toxicity of glyphosate.</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.6em 2.6em 1em 0px; padding: 1.6em 2em 1.6em 0px; order: 0; border-top: 3px solid rgb(57, 130, 106); border-bottom: 3px solid rgb(57, 130, 106); width: 385.922px; float: left;"><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 38.22px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">“The industry’s PR campaign to reframe the GMO debate and intimidate journalists through harassment and name-calling has been remarkably successful in my view...”</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 38.22px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">—Michael Pollan.</font></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most of all, there is legitimate debate about whether industry should be engineering a crop that requires the heavy use of pesticides. Industry and its allies attempt to discredit such questions by comparing GMO critics to climate denialists and vaccine safety denialists.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hints of the biotech industry’s media tactics have leaked from court cases filed against Monsanto alleging glyphosate causes cancer. Several filings reference internal Monsanto documents that describe the company’s social media strategy called “<a href="https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/MDLLetNothingGomotion.pdf" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Let Nothing Go</a>”—a program in which individuals who appear to have no connection to the industry rapidly respond to negative social media posts regarding Monsanto, GMOs, and agrichemicals.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><a href="https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/MDLLetNothingGomotion.pdf" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Lawyers in one case told a judge that</a>&nbsp;documents show Monsanto funnels money to the Genetic Literacy Project and the American Council on Science and Health in order to “shame scientists and highlight information helpful to Monsanto and other chemic</b>al producers.”</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Industry has also secretly funded a series of&nbsp;<a href="http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/education/gsbs/documents/2-12-015BLPProspectus_000.doc" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">conferences</a>&nbsp;to train scientists and journalists to frame the debate over GMOs and the toxicity of glyphosate. The most widely attended of these events happened in 2014 at the University of Florida and in 2015 at University of California-Davis. In emails, organizers referred to these conferences as biotech literacy bootcamps, and journalists are described as “partners.” Organizers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862243-BIO-Funded-and-Political.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">included</a>&nbsp;the chairman of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida, Kevin Folta, the Genetic Literacy Project’s Jon Entine, University of Illinois’s Bruce Chassy, and consultant Cami Ryan.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While claiming to be “independent” of industry influence, Folta was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/food-industry-enlisted-academics-in-gmo-lobbying-war-emails-show.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">exposed</a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">The</em>&nbsp;<em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">New York Times</em>&nbsp;for taking money from Monsanto to promote GMOs. Shortly before the&nbsp;<em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">Times&nbsp;</em>article reported on his connection to Monsanto, Folta’s university&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gainesville.com/article/LK/20150828/SPORTS/604134071/GS/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">declared its intention</a>&nbsp;to donate these undisclosed payments to charity.</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="http://polluterwatch.com/jon-entine" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Entine</a>&nbsp;was affiliated with a now-defunct group called STATS, which&nbsp;<a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/11/15/how-self-appointed-guardians-of-sound-science-tip-the-scales-toward-industry/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">promoted</a>&nbsp;positive messages about chemicals and&nbsp;<a href="http://archive.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/54195297.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">provided</a>&nbsp;communications support for tobacco companies. Last year, Entine wrote an article&nbsp;<a href="http://nypost.com/2016/03/01/how-the-columbia-journalism-school-smeared-exxon/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">attacking professors</a>&nbsp;at Columbia Journalism School for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/when-a-journalist-crosses-from-science-to-ideology_us_5904e070e4b05279d4edbc8e" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">their investigations&nbsp;</a>of ExxonMobil’s involvement in climate change denial. Years ago, an&nbsp;<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/10/a-valuable-reputation" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">article in&nbsp;<em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">The New Yorker</em></a>&nbsp;reported on Entine’s apparent involvement in the <b>industry’s coordinated condemnation of a professor at University of California-Berkeley, whose research is critical of pesticides.</b></font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"><b style="">Besides receiving money to help Monsanto, Chassy runs&nbsp;<a href="http://academicsreview.org/about-academic-review/founders/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Academics Review</a>, </b>a site suggested to him by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Sachs-AR.pdf" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">an executive at Monsanto</a>&nbsp;who emailed, “The key will be keeping Monsanto in the background so as not to harm the credibility of the information.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>After helping plan the first conference,&nbsp;<a href="https://camiryan.com/about/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Cami Ryan</a>&nbsp;later took a job with&nbsp;<a href="https://camiryan.com/about/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Monsanto</a>.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“These are distressing materials,” says Naomi Oreskes,</b> professor of the history of science at Harvard University, after reviewing documents and emails about the conferences. Oreskes says the involvement of the American Council on Science and Health is especially problematic, given its long history of undermining the science on chemical safety and pesticides. She added: “It is clearly intended to persuade people that GMO crops are beneficial, needed, and not sufficiently risky to justify labeling.”</font></p><hr style="background-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; order: 0; clear: both; height: 1px; border: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 1.2em auto; opacity: 0;" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>After early&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3872363-Entine-Folta-BLP-Hotspots.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">discussions in 2013</a>, Entine later&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862243-BIO-Funded-and-Political.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">emailed</a>&nbsp;Folta, Chassy, and Ryan noting that the conferences needed to include people “strategically located” in key states where political battles over GMO foods were occurring. Entine&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862243-BIO-Funded-and-Political.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">added</a>&nbsp;that once the program is figured out, “I’ll take on proposing the handful of journalists and media experts that we would hope to bring on board.”</b></font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">When a journalist asked who was behind the 2015 conference at UC-Davis, Entine wrote that the biotech literacy events had university sponsorship, as well as support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the State Department, and Academics Review, which gets some industry support. In an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862246-Bruce-Chassy-on-Bootcamps.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">email</a>&nbsp;to several scientists, Chassy also claimed that universities and U.S. federal agencies were funding the literacy bootcamp conferences, and said the honoraria for presenters would be $2,500. Chassy added, “Journalists aren’t inexpensive.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But both the University of Florida and UC-Davis denied financially supporting these conferences</b>. A spokesperson from the State Department said the agency merely sent a speaker to the 2014 conference at the University of Florida. After weeks of repeated requests, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture was unable to find evidence of the federal agency’s financial support for the conferences.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So where did the cash come from? It’s a twisted money trail.</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">An&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862253-Entine-Ronald-Beachy-MOU.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">agreement</a>&nbsp;signed by Entine states that the literacy bootcamp at UC-Davis anticipated having many expenses paid by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). When contacted, BIO confirmed that it gave Academics Review $175,000 for the 2014 conference at the University of Florida and $165,000 for the 2015 conference at UC-Davis.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <b>But BIO added that the money was cycled through a nonprofit it operates called the Council on Biotechnology Information (CBI). </b>In fact, the tax forms for CBI state that it gave a total of $300,000 to Academics Review in both&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862248-CBI-Academics-Review-2014.html" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">2014</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;and&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862249-CBI-Academics-Review-2015.html" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">2015</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. And&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862291-Academics-Review-990-2015.html" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">tax forms</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;for Academics Review, which Chassy runs with his wife, note that the group spent more than $160,000 on the UC-Davis conference in 2015.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In short, the only traceable money source is the biotech industry. So, what did industry money buy?</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">A flyer for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862244-BLP-Davis-Flyer.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">2015 event at UC-Davis</a>&nbsp;lists more than a dozen faculty, including&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=27" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Jay Byrne</a>, a former public relations officer at Monsanto who now runs a PR firm that promotes GMOs. Also listed as faculty is Nina Fedoroff, a professor&nbsp;<a href="http://bio.psu.edu/directory/nvf1" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">at Penn State</a>, who also serves as a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ofwlaw.com/2016/11/01/hakims-effort-to-skewer-biotech-crops-in-sundays-ny-times/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">science adviser, and resident media critic</a>, for a law firm that represents the biotech industry.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the attendees at the UC-Davis conference listed as <b>“journalists” were Hank Campbell of the website Science 2.0</b>, which regularly posts pro-GMO propaganda. Campbell is now president of the <b>American Council on Science and Health, which&nbsp;<a href="http://acsh.org/news/2017/03/24/new-york-university-journalism-academics-stop-libeling-scientists-and-doctors-11032" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">attacks</a>&nbsp;reporters for exposing scientists’ hidden ties to industry and the potential&nbsp;<a href="http://www.acsh.org/news/2017/03/01/bees-shouldn%E2%80%99t-become-next-%E2%80%98fake-news%E2%80%99-victim-10927" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">dangers of pesticides</a>.</b></font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">After reviewing conference documents, Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, said, “If journalists attend conferences that they are paid to attend, they need to be deeply suspicious from the get-go.” She added that the conference organizers were likely trying to convince journalists that anyone questioning the safety of GMOs “is anti-science and in the same category as climate change deniers.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.healthnewsreview.org/about-us/reviewers/gary-schwitzer/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Gary Schwitzer</a>, who is the publisher of HealthNewsReview and an adjunct associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, is also concerned.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Far too many journalists are sliding down the slippery slope of attending conferences that are sponsored by entities with financial interests,” he said. “This practice changes journalism [into] another form of pay-for-play.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked about the funding for the bootcamps and the financial support from industry to his organization, Entine responded, “Sorry, I’ve never heard of you. I don’t respond to activists with no history of credible reporting.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Folta said he understands the conferences were funded by BIO and he organized the events outside of work hours. “All of my funding, as always, is and has been fully disclosed in accordance with university policy,” he added.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a statement to&nbsp;<em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">The Progressive</em>, Monsanto wrote that the company collaborates with multiple organizations and provides financial support in a transparent manner to many industry organizations including CBI, of which the American Council on Science and Health is a supporting partner. Monsanto added that it does not provide funding to the Genetic Literacy Project, but ignored repeated questions about their financial support for the American Council on Science and Health.</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Chassy did not respond to queries about funding for Academics Review and the biotech conferences. But he did join Entine and Folta in sending a letter to&nbsp;<em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">The Progressive&nbsp;</em>accusing the author of unspecified “bias and harassment tactics” and “multiple false and potentially libelous insinuations and claims.”</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.6em 2.6em 1em 0px; padding: 1.6em 2em 1.6em 0px; order: 0; border-top: 3px solid rgb(57, 130, 106); border-bottom: 3px solid rgb(57, 130, 106); width: 385.922px; float: left;"><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 38.22px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">“Many reporters are simply too intimidated and afraid to report on the health and environmental effects of the agrichemical industry and its products.”</font></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gary Ruskin is codirector of&nbsp;<a href="https://usrtk.org/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">U.S. Right to Know</a>, a nonprofit that works on transparency in the food industry and receives some&nbsp;<a href="http://usrtk.org/donors/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">funding</a>&nbsp;from the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.organicconsumers.org/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Organic Consumers Association</a>. His group first got public records of industry-supported conferences.“Many reporters are simply too intimidated and afraid to report on the health and environmental effects of the agrichemical industry and its products,” he says.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Industry tars public health advocates and reporters as anti-science for raising issues the public needs to understand. That should worry us all.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">-----------</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Correction:</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An earlier online version of this story, and the version in our print edition, incorrectly stated that the University of Florida’s decision to return money to Monsanto was made after the appearance of a&nbsp;<em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">New York Times</em>&nbsp;article. The decision to do so had already been made. The original also said the&nbsp;<em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">Times</em>&nbsp;“outed”&nbsp;professor Kevin Folta’s connection to Monsanto, when in fact this&nbsp;had already been reported on elsewhere.</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.statnews.com/2018/01/30/pharmaceutical-industry-fake-news-tobacco/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.statnews.com/2018/01/30/pharmaceutical-industry-fake-news-tobacco/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pt</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Accusations of “fake news” are all the rage now, with people often throwing around the term when they read an article that tells them something they don’t want to hear. But an entire industry called </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“<b>product defense,”</b> created years ago by the tobacco industry, uses falsehoods and misdirection to protect companies from bad media and regulatory scrutiny. The pharmaceutical industry is no stranger to these tactics.</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 16px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-color: transparent;">Document archives</a>&nbsp;have revealed how tobacco companies helped create and hone product defense strategies. In my years as a reporter and during a stint as an investigator for the U.S. Senate, I’ve seen them deployed by a range of industries.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 16px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I fell into this world back in 2005, while working as an editor for the news section of Environmental Science & Technology, the top journal in the field of environmental science. After spending weeks digging through the tobacco archive, I&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/images/c/c7/Junkman_climbs_to_the_top.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-color: transparent;">wrote a story</a>&nbsp;about <b>Steven J. Milloy, a columnist for FoxNews.com who ran a website called JunkScience.com </b>and headed a shady organization called The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC).&nbsp;<a href="https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/#id=zskw0181" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-color: transparent;">In a 1993 letter</a>, the public relations firm APCO explained how it launched TASSC “to expand and assist Philip Morris in its efforts with issues in targeted states in 1994.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 16px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While I never learned if Milloy had direct ties to pharmaceutical companies, he had published a book called “</span><a href="https://books.google.es/books?id=7Hr9vkiqTXwC&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=steven+j.+milloy+AND+FDA&source=bl&ots=OEGWbuil5Q&sig=dF-5JbC75k1ZAAe5dJSKaONLJQA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4qcbH-v3YAhUGUBQKHVxDDxgQ6AEIVzAJ#v=onepage&q=fda&f=false" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-color: transparent;">Silencing Science</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” that argued regulatory agencies like the Food and Drug Administration had “eliminated science from public policy.”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> Milloy was also one of the early defenders of Vioxx</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, arguing that a study that caused the drug to be withdrawn for increasing the risk of heart attacks was a “</span><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/11/26/obesity-turkey-vioxx-over-reaction.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="background-color: transparent;">tremendous overreaction</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.”</span></font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Jon Entine and Genetic Literacy Project are Monsanto Trolls</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the founder and executive director of the Genetic Literacy Project (GLP), Jon Entine bills himself as an objective authority on science even though his contribution to the field centers on attacking scientists, journalists, and others at the behest of the corporations that pay him.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Demonstrative of this cozy relationship is a 2015 Monsanto PR plan that identified Genetic Literacy Project as one of its “industry partners.” Monsanto planned to engage GLP and numerous other similarly affiliated “independent” third parties to “protect the reputation” of Roundup and “orchestrate outcry” about the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) conclusions about glyphosate. In 2015, IARC performed an exhaustive scientific review on glyphosate and concluded the chemical is a “probable human carcinogen.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As of today, GLP has posted over 280 articles about IARC. Some of these articles include personal attacks concerning the scientists who served on the IARC Working Group tasked with evaluating glyphosate, calling them “frauds,”“liars,” and “greed-driven.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tax records show that the Council for Biotechnology Information (CBI), a chemical industry trade group, paid Ketchum public relations firm more than $11 million from 2013-2016 to run GMO Answers, a website where consumers purportedly get straight answers from “independent experts” about genetically engineered foods.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A CBI / Ketchum document unearthed in the Roundup litigation lists Jon Entine, Bruce Chassy, Kevin Folta and others as“target authors.” Entine was to rebut the review, ‘GMO Myths and Truths’ by Dr. Michael Antoniou, which asserted, “Roundup has never been tested or assessed for long-term safety for regulatory purposes but independent studies show it is highly toxic to animals and humans.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Monsanto (now Bayer) was and is a member of CBI and provides funding to GMO Answers. According to the website, the independent experts on GMO Answers “are not paid by GMO Answers to answer questions.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The notion that “experts” like Entine were not paid for their contributions to GMO Answers runs counter to an internal email from Monsanto’s Eric Sachs</b>. Sachs worked on a plan for Monsanto and other companies to support an “Academic Review” (a similar website where pro-industry academic Bruce Chassy and others could respond to and attack the work of those critical of GMOs). In the email, Sachs wrote: “From my perspective, the problem is one of expert engagement and that could be solved by paying some experts to provide responses…The key will be keeping Monsanto in the background so as not to harm the credibility of the information.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2014 and 2015, Entine partnered with Chassy and Folta to organize industry-funded conferences at the University of Florida and&nbsp;<b>UC Davis “to train scientists and journalists to frame the debate over GMOs and the toxicity of glyphosate,” as Paul Thacker reported in The Progressive.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Paul D. Thacker</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">@thackerpd</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">1/6 Emails on behind the scenes maneuvering by #Monsanto consultants and third party groups. First, @KarlHvM of @biofortified emails Agbiochatter complaining about @tomphilpott of @MotherJones and #FOIA https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6382789-Karl-Von-Mogel-Complaining.html</span>&nbsp;…</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on Twitter</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3:38 AM&nbsp;<b>- Sep 10, 2019</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See Paul D. Thacker's other Tweets</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Litigation documents show that Chassy and other pro-industry experts like him aren’t known for pulling any punches in the framing of the GMO / glyphosate debate. To the contrary, his inflammatory language discussing the pro-industry side of the debate is downright abusive.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In one document, Chassy likens reporting from a journalist discussing health risks associated with GMOs to “playing Whack-a-mole at the carnival.” He tells Daniel Goldstein, a Monsanto executive, “[w]e’ll be working on this too. Isn’t freedom of speech wonderful?”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In another email, Chassy discusses the Open Letter to Monsanto from Moms Across America, a non-profit organization critical of Monsanto and Roundup. “That’s your enemy,” Chassy says to another academic and Goldstein. “Beat the shit out of them and put them on the defensive and you won’t have this problem.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>By Baum Hedlund|</b>September 10th, 2019|Blog, Monsanto Roundup News</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">==</font></div>