In 2019 the climate activist and UCL Geography Professor Mark Maslin wrote that oil companies were spending $200 million a year promoting something he termed “climate change denial”. The ‘dark forces’ claim has been in regular use ever since. The Guardian recently reported Big Oil was “wringing humanity dry”, noting once again the annual $200m spent on climate change lobbying. Great story. Shame there is no actual evidence to back it up.
That can be concluded from a major new work from the investigative journalist Ben Pile. He traces the Maslin claim to a Forbes article, which in turn was based on the work of InfluenceMap, an international think tank at the “cutting edge of climate and sustainability issues”. InfluenceMap claims to use a funding methodology based on “best available records”, but Pile notes the presence of a “tower of estimates”. This is largely guessing, “not the discovery of a cache of receipts”, he observes.
In more detail, Pile notes that this stack of assumptions involves defining areas of corporate activity that might be used for climate lobbying and then estimating spending associated with these activities, and then further estimating the proportion of spending directed at climate change related issues, before finally categorising as ‘lobbying’ or ‘branding’ based on whether the activity pertains to a political agenda. Overall, Pile concludes, “it is just guesses”. The work is “performative” in nature, and gives the impression of an investigation in order to make real one of green ideology’s major articles of faith.
He goes on to note: “And so the idea of an entire industry of climate denial servicing the interests of big oil companies has become the most respectable conspiracy theory at all levels of society – the online troll is as comfortable reproducing the smear as the chair of the internationally-renowned scientific organisation.”
Of course there is no reason why Big Oil, which includes Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Chevron and Total, cannot spend money in the course of contributing to the energy debate. Fossil fuels provide over 80% of global energy needs and make huge contributions to society, including the pumping of billions of pounds into state funds and individual pension schemes. The oil business is a lawful enterprise that has helped provide humankind with a current standard of living almost unimaginable to the vast majority of people that existed previously. But the actual evidence indicates they have been keeping a lowish profile in the current debate, possibly taking the view that when the madness of Net Zero subsidies, they will still be required to provide 80% of the world’s energy.
Emeritus Professor Richard Linden of MIT notes that the current climate narrative – from ‘settled’ science to Net Zero – is “absurd”, but trillions of dollars currently says it is not absurd. Pile’s latest work – an excellent examination of many of the sources funding climate and Net Zero extremism – goes into great detail about many of the green billionaire foundations that bankroll everything from activist scientists, political campaigns and parts of the mainstream media, including, of course, the Guardian. The Daily Sceptic has reported on many of these activities, noting for instance the funding of green propaganda in schools and the provision of Armageddon-friendly copy for newsrooms and TV meteorologists.
To provide an insight into the vast amount of money available to fund the green agenda, Pile tabulated the information below estimating all the annual grants made by InfluenceMap’s own benefactors.
In total, InfluenceMap’s funders alone are making grants of about $1.2 billion every year to fund climate change lobbying. And these are only the funds with which InfluenceMap has a direct relationship. There are many others, including the Rockefeller family, Bezos, Bloomberg, Gates along with the Hewletts, Packards and Gettys.
Set against this, Pile goes on to note that in a small Westminster office building at 55 Tufton Street, scene of Extinction Rebellion paint-throwing and protests, is a clutch of small think tanks including the Global Warming Policy Foundation that are, as he gently puts it, “somewhat misaligned to the dominant ideologies of woke Western politics and media”. In total, Pile estimates the income of all nine campaigning organisations at just $6.7m.
Pile is able to show that billions of dollars have been poured into “manifestly false” philanthropic foundations with the money claimed to have been used to construct narratives, to found fake civil society organisations, to actively misinform the public, policymakers, governments and intergovernmental agencies, and to buy favours from or into research organisations, media companies and public institutions. Any contrary influence from Big Oil simply does not compare, he adds.
The vast sums spent by the Green Blob are noted, but Pile observes that members are confused as to why they are not living in a green Utopia. They have long felt it unnecessary to explain themselves, preferring to smear, fearmonger, block roads, use moral blackmail in place of reason – and invent conspiracy theories around oil companies. Furthermore, even after nearly two decades of lobbying, adequately effective green tech remains a distant dream. Wind power has been a failure, EVs are an expensive luxury and heat pumps cost multiples of gas boilers. As we have started to see all too clearly, nudge has now come to shove as activists demand that society must reorganise around the shortcomings of green technology and the ‘climate emergency’. This requires the construction of supranational political agencies in the form of technocratic bureaucracies with unprecedented power, beyond democratic control, populated by unaccountable wonks.
“Environmentalism is an elite ideology, and climate change fearmongering is a preoccupation only of the topmost parts of society. The rest of us find it implausible, somewhat ridiculous and manifestly self-serving,” Pile concludes.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
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Ther green blob is dishonest? Who could have imagined??
Thank you for another great article, Chris.
My main concern with the greeny warming bollox is that societies may be too far down the road to call a halt to some of the decisions that have been already made by governments and industry. To take one example (of many), some car makers have already abandoned / in the process of abandoning production of ICE vehicles. This industry alone is worth billions worldwide; how can they change production back to ICE from EV if the requirements of Net Zero stop due to an outbreak of common sense amongst the majority of people and governments?
What about Big Oil and Big Gas funding Climate Alarmism to suppress local competition?
What about the claims, I’m not if they’re true but they seem plausible, that Russia funded groups opposed to fracking to try and keep Europe dependent on Russian gas
Certainly NATO Secretary Stolzenburger (?) and Hilary (as Secretary of State) accused Putin, Gazprom etc of funding anti- pipeline and anti-fracking “protesters”. Not the most reliable sources, perhaps, but they did give chapter and verse of the route the money was transfered through a shell company in Bermuda.
More blatantly, just consider the arrant nonsense that Russia Today pumped out, very regularly, about the “dangers” of fracking.
Of course, the amounts ponied up by Putin (and no blame from me, Putin looking after his own investments – and Russia’s economy, why wouldn’t he?), are probably trivial compared to the American Billionaires’ “Charities” donations, including Just Stop Oil.
Interesting piece, Chris.
Haven’t yet seen Ben Pile’s book, but of course this total drivel about Big Oil funding sceptics, certainly didn’t start with Prof. Maslin in 2019!
Jim Hansen and many other key GangGreen activists have been trying to make this shit stick for decades. Initially it was also suggested that BigCoal was playing the same card, with the Koch Brothers highlighted. In fact, other than some minor payments from Oil and Coal to the Heartland Institute for research on non- climate change issues in the 1990’s, no evidence whatever.
Indeed, if evidence was there (and of course GangGreen crook Peter Gleick tried to manufacture some), the discoverer would likely have got a Nobel prize.
But Naomi Oreskes is a key purveyor of these lies. Her “Merchants of Doubt” (2010) is perhaps the key text. Also notable for writing the introduction to Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Climate Change and Equality. Oreskes is as nasty a piece of work as you could imagine.
Never a mention of BigGovernment or BigRuinables or BigWind or BigSolar or the BigTechGazillionaires.
In any case, clear factual data properly researched, openly debated with public access to that data, is what’s needed. Funding isn’t even a tertiary issue. But when you are being buried in a blizzard of lies, you don’t need to be a scientific genius to realise that the big corrupt malicious liars shouldn’t be trusted for a second.
Big Oil ???. Funny we never hear of Big Wind. Funny we never hear of Big Green. People have come to accept and actually think it necessary that their affordable reliable energy be removed and replaced with unaffordable unreliable energy, and that is all necessary to avoid a climate catastrophe, which is always 50 years away so no one alive will see much of it and when it doesn’t happen all the eco policies will already be in place by then anyway. Also the catastrophe should always be something that can supposedly be sorted, usually by huge government intervention and control over the world’s wealth and resources and every aspect of peoples lives. But most importantly it must be the case that “all scientists agree”, and if they don’t agree they either don’t know what they are talking about or are being paid by “Big Oil” , but never is any climate change proponent funded by Big Wind or Big Green, and even if they are then Bg Wind is all sweetness and light anyway. ——–All of the ingredients must be put in place so that the greatest pseudo scientific fraud “Climate Change” can succeed.