Avaaz

=<div>target, 2nd 2/18</div><div>=</div><div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/02/20/youtube-promoting-kochs-climate-change-denial-network">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/02/20/youtube-promoting-kochs-climate-change-denial-network</a></div><div>
</div><div><article class="post-8052 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail category-climate category-democracy category-environment category-featured-investigations category-koch category-news entry" style="box-sizing: inherit; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><div class="entry-content" style="box-sizing: inherit; float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 1048.09px;">YouTube’s two billion monthly users are being subjected to climate change denial, even after its parent company, Google, committed to fighting harmful misinformation about science.A report published by the nonprofit activist network Avaaz details the wide reach of this climate disinformation and points to dozens of companies and even multiple environmental organizations that advertise on videos that deny the existence of manmade climate change. Money from these ads goes to the videos’ creators, incentivizing the production of climate disinformation.YouTube’s algorithms promote videos that feature climate change denial, most prominently by way of its “Up Next” feature. Seventy percent of the time users spend on YouTube is driven by the company’s recommendations. Climate misinformation content pops up in YouTube searches for the terms “global warming,” “climate change,” and “climate manipulation.”Of the four egregious anti-climate science videos analyzed in depth by Avaaz, three feature men who are, or have been, part of the <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/climate/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">climate change denial</a> network spearheaded by billionaire oil magnate Charles Koch. This Koch network, which includes think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, the Property and Environment Research Center, and the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=CO2_Coalition" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">CO2 Coalition</a>, has been the subject of much reporting, but its reach into YouTube, the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">preferred platform</a> for U.S. teenagers, has been less thoroughly examined.Multiple videos highlighted by Avaaz were created by <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/01/16/right-wing-prageru-triples-revenue-two-years/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">PragerU</a>, a right-wing content producer that publishes disinformation on an array of topics including climate science, racism, and free-market capitalism and is funded by the 501(c)(3) Prager University Foundation. The group itself has not received direct donations from Koch’s family foundations in the past several years, but it has gotten money from DonorsTrust, a donor-advised fund sponsor used by Koch to disperse donations (over $55,000 since 2017), and larger amounts from foundations run by Koch network donors the Wilks brothers (close to $3.3 million from two family foundations since 2015), and from Koch network donors the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Lynde_and_Harry_Bradley_Foundation" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Bradley Foundation</a> and <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bradley_Impact_Fund" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Bradley Impact Fund </a>(nearly $1.1 million since 2015).<h2 class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">“No significant warming in the 21st century”</h2>PragerU’s video, “What They Haven’t Told You about Climate Change,” features a climate change denier who is affiliated with Koch-funded think tanks. Patrick Moore, who has been an <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200207210210/https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/patrick-moore" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">energy and climate adviser</a> at the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Heartland Institute</a> and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150904171309/http://co2coalition.org/about/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">chairman of the board</a> of the CO2 Coalition, <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">falsely</a> claims in the video that there has been “no significant warming in the 21st century.”The Heartland Institute, which once received funding from ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute, hasn’t gotten direct donations from Koch’s family foundations in recent years, but DonorsTrust and sister nonprofit Donors Capital Fund combined to give the institute over $10.6 million from 2014-18. The <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mercer_Family_Foundation" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">family foundation</a> of billionaire GOP mega-donor <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_Mercer" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Robert Mercer</a> gave close to $2.6 million during that time period, and other Koch network donors such as the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ed_Uihlein_Family_Foundation" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Ed Uihlein Family Foundation</a> ($354,000), the Bradley Impact Fund ($211,000), and the Searle Freedom Trust ($150,000) also contributed.The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a lobbying group for oil makers including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Koch Industries, donated $75,000 to the Heartland Institute in 2017. Two executives of Flint Hills Resources, a subsidiary of Koch Industries that produces oil and petrochemicals, are members of the group’s <a href="https://www2.afpm.org/forms/committee/CommitteeFormPublic/view?id=FBF00000030" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">board</a>.The Heartland Institute’s climate disinformation campaign does not stop at the U.S. border. A new investigation by the European investigative nonprofit Correctiv reveals that the Heartland Institute is <a href="https://correctiv.org/en/top-stories-en/2020/02/11/the-heartland-lobby/?utm_campaign=Carbon" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">supporting climate change deniers in Germany</a> and is working with a YouTube personality affiliated with the far-right political party Alternative für Deutschland.The CO2 Coalition received over $50,000 from the Charles Koch Foundation and the Charles Koch Institute from 2016-18. Three other Koch network foundations have contributed larger sums since 2016: the Sarah Scaife Foundation ($417,000), the Mercer Family Foundation ($320,000), and the Thomas W. Smith Foundation ($175,000).<h2 class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">U.N. climate models “flawed by design”</h2>Patrick Michaels, previously the longtime director of the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for the Study of Science, is currently a <a href="https://cei.org/content/pat-michaels-joins-cei-senior-fellow" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">senior fellow</a> at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), where he focuses on climate at its Center for Energy and Environment. Cato <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/05/us-think-tank-shuts-down-prominent-center-challenged-climate-science" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">shuttered</a> its Center for the Study of Science in May 2019 after Michaels left. According to Michaels, “They informed me that they didn’t think their vision of a think tank was in the science business.”In a clip from a Fox News interview, titled on YouTube as “The truth about global warming,” Michaels claims that all but one of the United Nations’ 32 climate models are “flawed by design to vastly over-predict warming,” a statement Avaaz says is misinformation.The Cato Institute, which was co-founded by Charles Koch and had the late David Koch on its board of directors, is funded by numerous Koch network donors, including the two Koch foundations, which gave $9.3 million from 2014-18. Since 2014, Cato’s donors include:<ul class="ul1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Adolph Coors Foundation: $300,000</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Atlas Economic Research Foundation: $111,545</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Bradley Impact Fund: $521,000</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Charles Koch Foundation: $9,084,937</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Charles Koch Institute : $240,450</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Donors Capital Fund: $655,000</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">DonorsTrust: $4,579,150</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Dunn Foundation: $2,250,000</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">F.M. Kirby Foundation: $82,500</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">John William Pope Foundation: $270,175</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: $1,125,000</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Mercer Family Foundation: $1,200,000</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Pierre F. and Enid Goodrich Foundation: $220,000</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Sarah Scaife Foundation: $515,000</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Searle Freedom Trust: $1,410,000</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Thomas D. Klingenstein Fund: $20,422</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Thomas W. Smith Foundation: $20,000</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">William H. Donner Foundation: $85,000</li></ul>The two Koch foundations gave CEI $288,000 from 2014-17. DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund combined to give nearly $3.9 million to CEI since 2014, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the Searle Freedom Trust have all contributed over $1 million since then.The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers gave $95,000 to CEI from 2015-17, and another industry trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, has donated $70,000 to CEI since 2015.<h2 class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">“No evidence that CO2 emissions are the dominant factor” in climate change</h2>Another PragerU video, “Climate Change: What Do Scientists Say?” features <a href="https://www.cato.org/people/richard-lindzen" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Richard Lindzen</a>, a former senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for the Study of Science. Lindzen claims, “There is no evidence that CO2 emissions are the dominant factor [in climate change],” which is decidedly <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">false</a>.In 2017, Lindzen wrote a letter to Trump urging him to back out of the Paris Climate Agreement, claiming that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. Twenty-two current and former faculty members at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Lindzen had been a professor, then <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06032017/climate-change-denial-scientists-richard-lindzen-mit-donald-trump" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">wrote to the president</a> to make it clear they did not share Lindzen’s views.<h2 class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">The Advertisers</h2>Avaaz found over 100 advertisers on climate disinformation videos. Many are major brands such as Samsung, L’Oréal, Decathlon, Danone, Warner Bros. One in five ads came from green or ethical brands including Greenpeace International, WWF and Save the Children. A number of the advertisers told Avaaz that they were unaware their ads were running on these videos and financially supporting their creators.To stem the spread of falsehoods and misinformation around climate change, Avaaz recommends that YouTube:<ul class="ul1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">“Detox the YouTube algorithm” by ending its “free promotion of misinformation and disinformation videos.”</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">“Demonetize disinformation” by including disinformation and misinformation in YouTube’s monetization policies so that advertisers cannot advertise on such videos and content creators can’t make money from them.</li><li class="li1" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">“Correct the record” by using fact-checkers to let users know when they’ve watched false or misleading videos and issue corrections along with them.</li></ul>“Avaaz believes that YouTube has the opportunity to be a trailblazer in the fight against misinformation…” reads the report. “Now is the time for YouTube to act more systematically and more urgently to implement solutions, like the recommendations described above, to ensure this new decade is not plagued by the disinformation problems started in the last one.”“Similarly, advertisers must both ensure that they follow through on their own corporate social responsibility commitments and track what kind of content their advertising revenue is inadvertently funding.”YouTube says that to combat misinformation, it removes content that violates the company’s Community Guidelines. However, false information doesn’t violate the guidelines unless it includes hate speech or harassment, incites violence, or is a scam.The following statement from a YouTube spokesperson to CMD explains other ways it attempts to reduce the spread of misinformation:<blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 40px;">We can’t speak to Avaaz’s methodology or results, and our recommendations systems are not designed to filter or demote videos or channels based on specific perspectives. We’ve significantly invested in <a href="https://youtube.googleblog.com/2019/01/continuing-our-work-to-improve.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">reducing</a> recommendations of borderline content and harmful misinformation, and <a href="https://youtube.googleblog.com/2019/12/the-four-rs-of-responsibility-raise-and-reduce.html?m=1" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">raising up</a> authoritative voices on YouTube. In 2019 alone, the consumption on authoritative news publishers’ channels <a href="https://youtube.googleblog.com/2019/12/the-four-rs-of-responsibility-raise-and-reduce.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">grew</a> by 60%. As our systems appear to have done in the majority of cases in this report, we prioritize authoritative voices for millions of news and information queries, and surface information panels on topics prone to misinformation–including climate change–to provide users with context alongside their content. We continue to expand these efforts to more topics and countries.</blockquote></div><footer class="entry-footer" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"></footer></article><div class="author-box" style="box-sizing: inherit; border-top: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); float: left; padding: 20px 10px; width: 1048.09px; word-spacing: 3.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<div class="author-info-wrap" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; float: left; max-width: 75%; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px;"><div class="author-name" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">About Alex Kotch</h3></div><div class="author-description" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Alex is an investigative reporter based in Brooklyn, New York, and a contributor for the Center for Media and Democracy. A campaign finance expert, Alex helped launch money-in-politics website Sludge, and his work has been published by more than two dozen media outlets including International Business Times, The American Prospect, The Nation and Vice.com.</div><div class="author-link" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/author/alex-kotch/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">All articles by Alex Kotch</a></div></div></div></div></div><div></div><div>Silicon Valley likes to talk up its efforts to crack down on the misinformation being spread across its platforms, but as DeSmog’s Dana Drugmand reported this week, global activist NGO Avaaz has found Google-owned <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://desmogblog.cmail20.com/t/t-l-njklity-mgoiuir-y/" style="line-height: inherit; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in 0s;">YouTube selling ads</a> from major brands like Samsung and environmental groups like Greenpeace on videos promoting climate science denialism.You might have heard that the Trump administration recently targeted the U.S.’s landmark environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act, and proposed new rules to weaken its protections. Guess who’s applauding the move? <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://desmogblog.cmail20.com/t/t-l-njklity-mgoiuir-j/" style="line-height: inherit; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in 0s;">Supporters of the fossil fuel industry.</a>In case you missed it, actors Joaquin Phoenix and Martin Sheen were arrested last week at Jane Fonda’s last Fire Drill Friday protest for climate action on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://desmogblog.cmail20.com/t/t-l-njklity-mgoiuir-t/" style="line-height: inherit; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in 0s;">Check out Zach Roberts’ photos of the rally and arrests</a>.Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:editor@desmogblog.com" target="blank" href="mailto:editor@desmogblog.com" style="line-height: inherit; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in 0s;">editor@desmogblog.com</a>. Thanks, Brendan DeMelle Executive Director</div><div></div><div><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/monsanto-avaaz-glyphosate-2538134798.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/monsanto-avaaz-glyphosate-2538134798.html</a></div><div><div class="headline-container" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="headline h1" style="margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;">Monsanto 'Commands' Civic Group to Turn in All Communications Over Glyphosate</h1></div><div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2538134798" data-authors="Lorraine Chow" data-headline="Monsanto 'Commands' Civic Group to Turn in All Communications Over Glyphosate" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description"><a href="https://secure.avaaz.org/page/en/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Avaaz</a>, a civic campaigning network that counts roughly 45 million subscribers around the world, has been served with a 168-page subpoena on behalf of agribusiness giant <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/monsanto" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Monsanto</a>.The document, dated Jan. 26 and sent from New York Supreme Court, "commands" the U.S.-based organization to turn in a decade's worth of internal communications by Friday, Feb. 23.The subpoena specifically seeks a trove of documents and communications related to Avaaz's campaigns around regulating <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glyphosate" style="text-decoration-line: none;">glyphosate</a>—the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/monsanto-gop-2532428180.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">controversial star ingredient</a> in Monsanto's blockbuster weedkiller, Roundup. The organization <a href="https://avaaz.org/act/media.php?press_id=872" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">says</a> this includes their 2017 effort to stop the European Union from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/eu-glyphosate-license-extension-2513022181.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">re-issuing a 15-year license</a> for glyphosate; its 2013 effort to block a Monsanto <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/gmo-genetically-modified-organism/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">genetically-modified</a> seed factory in Argentina; and an ongoing campaign to stop the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/eu-bayer-monsanto-merger-2476270902.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">mega-merger between Monsanto and Bayer</a>.As founder Ricken Patel and his team <a href="https://secure.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_red_alert_41/" target="blank" style="text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;">pointed out</a>, that's "pretty much every single private email, document, note, chat or anything else that any Avaaz staffer has ever written or done on our campaigns to ban Monsanto's key herbicide, glyphosate."...[docs]</div></div>
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Here's what we know about Myron Ebell, Trump's top climate advisor
A protester holds a sign that reads "Myron Ebell Criminal" in Berlin, Germany.
Source: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

During the 2015 U.N. Climate Summit in Paris, global advocacy organization Avaaz ran a campaign that named a group of seven "climate criminals" from a list of over 50,000 delegates at the summit. Ebell was among the seven notorious lobbyists who Avaaz's Acting Executive Director Emma Ruby-Sachs said were sabotaging "a global deal for ambitious climate action, despite over 3.6 million citizens around the world calling for 100% clean energy."

According to Mashable, Avaaz plastered nearly 1,000 "Wanted" posters featuring the faces of "climate criminals" outside five-star hotels in Paris. The organization also handed out flyers at important Metro stations in France's capital city with photos of the lobbyists.  

It's a moniker Ebell had been tagged with before. According to his bio, submitted to the House of Representatives, Greenpeace featured him in "A Field Guide to Climate Criminals" at the 2005 U.N. climate meeting in Montreal.
He opposes the Clean Power Plan.
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<h2>The campaign targets fossil fuel lobbyists and climate change skeptics.</h2>

For more information on the Climate Criminals of COP 21 campaign see this <a href="https://avaazmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/Climate_Criminals_Report.pdf">campaign page</a> for #ClimateCriminals.

A new <a href="https://avaazmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/Climate_Criminals_Report.pdf" target="_blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid">campaign</a> spearheaded

by global advocacy organization Avaaz targets seven fossil fuel

lobbyists and climate change skeptics who are in Paris for the COP21

climate conference.

Avaaz, which organized <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2015/nov/29/global-peoples-climate-change-march-2015-day-of-action-live" target="_blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid">hundreds of thousands</a> of

people across the globe to march in favor of a strong climate

agreement, posted more than 1,000 wanted posters near some of the city’s

top hotels on Monday morning to catch the eyes of influential

conference attendees. Avaaz volunteers also passed out flyers featuring

the lobbyists’ photos at metro stations near the conference.

“These lobbyists have come to Paris to

sabotage a global deal for ambitious climate action, despite over 3.6

million citizens around the world calling for 100 percent clean energy,”

Avaaz’s acting executive director, Emma Ruby-Sachs, said in a

statement. “Ministers must listen to their people, not polluters, and

refuse meetings with climate criminals who want to derail a deal the

whole world wants.”

The Avaaz campaign targets <a href="https://avaazmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/Climate_Criminals_Report.pdf" target="_blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid">seven individuals</a> who,

according to the organization, are “renowned for their backroom

dealings to to stop the transition to clean energy.” They are:

<ul><li>Benjamin Sporton, chief executive of the World Coal Association;</li><li>Fiona Wild, vice president of environment and climate change at mining company BHP Billiton;</li><li>Marc Morano, founder of climate skeptic site ClimateDepot.com;</li><li>Myron Ebell, director of the <a href="https://cei.org/issues/energy-and-environment" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid">Competitive Enterprise Institute</a>, a libertarian think tank that opposes cap-and-trade and greenhouse gas regulations;</li><li>Chris Horner, a global warming skeptic <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2015/10/15/alpha-natural-discloses-payments-to-climate-change-skeptic-chris-horner/" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid">accused</a> of harassing climate scientists;</li><li>Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and

founder of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, a group that has advocated

prioritizing other global problems ahead of climate change;</li><li>James Taylor, senior fellow at The Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank that says there’s no <a href="https://www.heartland.org/issues/environment" target="_blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid">consensus on global warming</a>.</li></ul>

Avaaz outlined its reasons for selecting these people in a “<a href="https://avaazmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/Climate_Criminals_Report.pdf" target="_blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid">dossier</a>” released on Monday.

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