A Reintroduction to the Climate Denying Duo Known as the Koch Brothers

The Koch brothers use the media to promote their climate denying circus of lies. Here is a succinct summary of their environment killing crusade.


The Koch Brothers

Koch Industries is the second largest privately held company in America and the company's owners Charles and David Koch are tied as the fifth wealthiest people in the nation, worth a combined $43 billion. They earned their fortunes through a host of climate change causing industries including oil refining, ranching, mining, paper products, fertilizer, and chemicals. They own companies like Georgia Pacific, Invista, Koch Pipeline Company, Flint Hill Resources , Koch Fertilizer and Matador Cattle Company. If you shop for toilet paper, beef, and fuel you are likely to be indirectly funding the most successful climate change denial machine of the 21st century.

Koch Media Stooges

Glenn Beck was guest of honor at the Koch's semiannual event early this year. Other attendees included Philip Anschutz, owner of the Examiner newspapers and the Weekly Standard; Charles Krauthammer, syndicated columnist and Weekly Standard contributor; Stephen Moore, Wall Street Journal editorial board member; and Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor for The National Review.

Buying Climate Denial Controversy

The Kochs have spent $31.3 million since 2005 on organizations that deny or downplay climate change because they have a vested interest in ignoring environmental conerns.

Their campaign of denial includes support for the blog Planet Gore. The Koch brothers also weild their influence by financing the work of organizations like the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

The Koch's have provided financial support for numerous climate denial front organizations. The Cato Institute has received $13 million from Koch family foundations since 1998. The National Review's Jim Manzi is part of the Manhattan Institute which has received $1.5 million in Koch family money, Phil Kerpen of Americans for Prosperity has accepted $5.5 million from the Kochs, Jonathan Adler of the Federalist Society has been the beneficiary of $2 million in Koch money, and the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI) has received $1.2 million in Koch money.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related Posts
Right Wing War Against Sustainability
Greenpeace Exposes the Koch Brothers
Koch Industries Financing Climate Denial
Koch Industries' Environmental Crimes
Koch Industries Destroys the Environment and Funds Climate Denial
Lego and Mattel Bow to Greenpeace Pressure and Eliminate Unsustainable Packaging
Nike and H&M Bow to Greenpeace's Detox Challenge
Social Action Driving Businesses to Adopt Sustainable Practices
Greenpeace Turns 40
Cooperation Between Environmental Organizations and Businesses
Greenpeace and the Revolutionary Power of Social Media Driving Corporate Changes
Greenpeace Campaign is Asking Facebook to Defriend Coal
Greenpeace's Ranking of Electronic Companies
Greenpeace's Best Green Electronics
Greenpeace's G20 Checklist
Video: Greenpeace Spoofs Volkswagen's Dark Side
Obama's 2009 Visit to Canada: Tarsands Protest

Right Wing War Against Sustainability

A right wing front-group funded by big oil has launched a misinformation campaign against environmental groups and companies that are working to engage more sustainable practices. In a widely distributed letter they dismiss renewable energy and threaten to boycott companies for being more environmentally responsible.

This propaganda campaign comes from a group known as Consumer Alliance for Global Prosperity (CAGP) which is a front-group formed in August of 2010. They are behind a campaign they call "Pulp Wars" which attacks environmental groups and corporations that have agreed to stop sourcing pulp products and palm oil from Indonesia.

The spokesman for CAGP is Andrew Langer, who is the founder and president of the Institute for Liberty (IFL), one of two listed supporters of CAGP. CAGP was exposed as a front group in a New York Times article by Mike Mcintire. The other supporter is Frontiers of Freedom, a right wing front group funded by Exxon, the Koch brothers, and Phillip Morris.

On 23 November, 2010, CAGP created a report entitled "Pulp Wars" which attacks environmental groups and corporations who have tried to limit deforestation in Indonesia. The report is politically motivated propaganda and contains numerous inaccuracies.

In a letter laced with lies, CAGP front man Andrew Langer tells Americans that, "Green jobs don't work." He dismisses solar energy as "pie-in-the-sky" and he has a message for CEOs who are becoming more environmentally responsible: "stop this, or else I will boycott your company and will be forced to shop elsewhere."

The right is engaged in manipulative politics, it is little wonder that America is falling behind in green economic development. The destructive propaganda coming from the right is not only highly divisive it is making America less competitive. America is being deceived by political misinformation campaigns designed to serve the partisan political interests of the old energy economy.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related Posts
A Reintroduction to the Climate Denying Duo Known as the Koch Brothers
Greenpeace Exposes the Koch Brothers
Koch Industries Financing Climate Denial
Koch Industries' Environmental Crimes
Koch Industries Destroys the Environment and Funds Climate Denial
Lego and Mattel Bow to Greenpeace Pressure and Eliminate Unsustainable Packaging
Nike and H&M Bow to Greenpeace's Detox Challenge
Social Action Driving Businesses to Adopt Sustainable Practices
Greenpeace Turns 40
Cooperation Between Environmental Organizations and Businesses
Greenpeace and the Revolutionary Power of Social Media Driving Corporate Changes
Greenpeace Campaign is Asking Facebook to Defriend Coal
Greenpeace's Ranking of Electronic Companies
Greenpeace's Best Green Electronics
Greenpeace's G20 Checklist
Video: Greenpeace Spoofs Volkswagen's Dark Side
Obama's 2009 Visit to Canada: Tarsands Protest

Video: Koch Brothers Climate Denial Machine

A short animation detailing the efforts of billionaire oil barons Charles and David Koch to undermine belief in climate change and prevent legislation that threatens their profits. By pouring money into pseudo-scientific studies and funding third parties such as think tanks and front groups (posing as everything from Senior's groups to Women's groups) the public is led to believe a genuine scientific debate is raging. In truth, as one climate denier candidly admits, those doubting the science are just a small, if brilliantly coordinated, minority.
© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related Posts
Video Linking the Kochs' and the Tea Party
The Anti-Environment Crusades of ExxonMobil and Koch Industries
Reigning in Irresponsible Oil Giants Chevron and Exxon Mobil
The Kochs' Tea Party Republicans
The Kochs' Cato Institute's Climate Denial
Koch Industries War with the EPA
Supreme Court and the Koch Brothers Clandestine War
The Koch Brothers' No Climate Tax Pledge
The Kochs' Spending on Political Influence
Koch Industries and the Tea Party's Corporate "Grassroots"
Koch Industries' Environmental Crimes
The Kochs' Mercatus Center
Koch Industries Financing Climate Denial
The Kochs' War Against Obama and the Democrats
The Kochs' Americans for Prosperity Undermines Cap-and-Trade
The Kochs' Citizens for a Sound Economy Feigned Grassroots
The Kochs' Climate Science Denial
Koch Industries War on Industry Oversight and Environmental Regulation
Koch Industries Destroys the Environment and Funds

Canadian Global Warming Denial from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Like Americans, Canadians are influenced by climate denial groups posing as think tanks. Peter Holle is the founding president of one such climate-denying think tank known as the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. This Winnipeg-based group is behind a series of ridiculous assertions related to energy and climate change.

Americans have powerful misinformation networks like the Heritage Foundation and the Mercantus Center. Canadians have the Frontier Centre for Public Policy which describes itself as an independent public policy think tank whose mission is "to broaden the debate on our future through public policy research and education and to explore positive changes within our public institutions that support economic growth and opportunity."

This so called "think tank" is really a made in Canada propaganda machine that takes a strongly cynical stance on the science supporting global warming.

One of Holle's paradoxical beliefs include the notion that first-hand extreme weather experiences make Canadians skeptical about global warming. Another one of Holle's bizarre beliefs is that “carbon dioxide is not the pollutant source of global warming.”

Holle discredits the wealth of scientific research supporting the anthropogenic origins of climate change. He ignores mainstream science that contradicts his views and recruits scientists who argue that cooling and warming cycles are part of the earth’s normal pattern.

Sadly, a minority of Canadians continue to fall for the well used lie that human activity is not behind global warming.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related Posts
The Kochs' Cato Institute's Climate Denial
The Kochs' Mercatus Center
Koch Industries Financing Climate Denial
The Kochs' War Against Obama and the Democrats
The Kochs' Americans for Prosperity Undermines Cap-and-Trade
The Kochs' Citizens for a Sound Economy Feigned Grassroots
The Kochs' Climate Science Denial
Koch Industries War on Industry Oversight and Environmental Regulation
Koch Industries Destroys the Environment and Funds
Koch Industries War with the EPA
Supreme Court and the Koch Brothers Clandestine War
Video Linking the Kochs' and the Tea Party
The Koch Brothers' No Climate Tax Pledge
The Kochs' Spending on Political Influence
Koch Industries and the Tea Party's Corporate "Grassroots"
Koch Industries' Environmental Crimes
The Anti-Environment Crusades of ExxonMobil and Koch Industries
Reigning in Irresponsible Oil Giants Chevron and Exxon Mobil
The Kochs' Tea Party Republicans

The Anti-Environment Crusades of ExxonMobil and Koch Industries

Despite an increase in the number of companies that are adopting sustainable practices, major multinationals like ExxonMobil and Koch Industries are waging war on the environment. These two companies are aggresively resisting the trend towards a low carbon economy. In addition to being major producers of greenhouse gasses, ExxonMobil and Koch use their influence to lobby governments and create resistance to global-warming-related regulation, such as the Kyoto Protocol and the UN sponsored Conference of the Parties (COP). Some of their most destructive actions pertain to their funding of misinformation campaigns that fuel climate change denial.

According to a 2004 study commissioned by Friends of the Earth, ExxonMobil and its predecessors caused 4.7 to 5.3 percent of the world's man-made carbon dioxide emissions between 1882 and 2002. The group suggested that such studies could form the basis for eventual legal action.

ExxonMobil has been a leading figure in the business world's position on climate change, providing substantial funding to a range of climate change denial groups. According to Mother Jones ExxonMobil-funded a total of 40 organizations that "either have sought to undermine mainstream scientific findings on global climate change or have maintained affiliations with a small group of "skeptic" scientists who continue to do so."Between 2000 and 2003 these organizations received more than $8m in funding.

Koch Industries is the major source of funding for climate denial. From 2005 to 2008, Koch donated $5.7 million on political campaigns and $37 million on direct lobbying to support fossil fuel industries. According to the non-partisan research group the Center for Responsive Politics, between 1997 and 2008, Koch Industries donated a total of nearly $48 million to climate opposition groups. Koch Industries and its subsidiaries spent more than $20 million on lobbying in 2008 and $12.3 million in 2009.

For ExxonMobil and Koch it may be too late, however, for all but the most egregious, there is hope for redemption. The Survey of America's Greenest Brands show that even companies with very poor environmental reputations can redeem themselves and go from environmental pariah to eco-superstar by incorporating sustainable practices.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related Posts
Reigning in Irresponsible Oil Giants Chevron and Exxon Mobil
The Kochs' Tea Party Republicans
The Kochs' Cato Institute's Climate Denial
Koch Industries War with the EPA
Supreme Court and the Koch Brothers Clandestine War
Video Linking the Kochs' and the Tea Party
The Koch Brothers' No Climate Tax Pledge
The Kochs' Spending on Political Influence
Koch Industries and the Tea Party's Corporate "Grassroots"
Koch Industries' Environmental Crimes
The Kochs' Mercatus Center
Koch Industries Financing Climate Denial
The Kochs' War Against Obama and the Democrats
The Kochs' Americans for Prosperity Undermines Cap-and-Trade
The Kochs' Citizens for a Sound Economy Feigned Grassroots
The Kochs' Climate Science Denial
Koch Industries War on Industry Oversight and Environmental Regulation
Koch Industries Destroys the Environment and Funds