Texto de referencia:
Bob Burton and Sheldon Rampton (1997) – Thinking Globally, Acting Vocally: The International Conspiracy to Overheat the Earth – PR Watch, 21/09/1977 – http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q4/warming.html
“In 1991, a U.S. corporate coalition including the National Coal Association, the Western Fuels Association and Edison Electric Institute created a PR front group called the «Information Council for the Environment» (ICE) and launched a $500,000 advertising and public relations blitz as the first salvo.”
Matthew L. Wald – Pro-Coal Ad Campaign Disputes Warming Idea – The New York Times, 08/07/1991 – http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/08/business/pro-coal-ad-campaign-disputes-warming-idea.html
“Coal-burning utility companies and coal producers, disturbed by public acceptance of the idea that burning fossil fuels will change the climate, are deciding whether to go national this fall with an ad campaign they tried in three markets earlier this year. The advertising effort was tried out in Flagstaff, Ariz.; Fargo, N.D., and Bowling Green, Ky. The campaign produced nearly 2,000 requests to a toll-free telephone line for more information, said Gale Klappa, a vice president of the Southern Company, a coal-using utility based in Atlanta.»
Ross Gelbspan (1998) – The Heat Is on: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription – Basic Books (Perseus Books Group) – Pulitzer Price – ISBN-13: 978-0738200255 – 288 Págs.
“In its 1994 annual report, Western Fuels declared quite candidly that ‘there has been a close to universal impulse in the [fossil fuel] trade association community here in Washington to concede the scientific premise of global warming … while arguing over policy prescriptions that would be the least disruptive to our economy … We have disagreed, and do disagree, with this strategy.”
Ross Gelbspan (1998) – The Heat Is on: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription – Basic Books (Perseus Books Group) – Pulitzer Price – ISBN-13: 978-0738200255 – 288 Págs.
“Western Fuels approached Pat Michaels about writing a quarterly publication designed to provide its readers with critical insight concerning the global climate change and greenhouse effect controversy … Western Fuels agreed to finance publication and distribution of ‘World Climate Review’ magazine.”
Ross Gelbspan (1998) – The Heat Is on: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription – Basic Books (Perseus Books Group) – Pulitzer Price – ISBN-13: 978-0738200255 – 288 Págs.
“Titled ‘The Greening of Planet Earth’, the video is narrated by Sherwood Idso, an active skeptic, and it features Richard Lindzen as well as a number of botanists and agronomists. (The video was produced by a company headed by Idso’s wife; the coal industry, which funded it, has purchased and circulated hundreds of copies of books and publications written by Ido.) In near evangelical tones, it promises that a new age of agricultural abundance will result from the doubling of the atmosphere concentration of CO2.”
Ross Gelbspan (1998) – The Heat Is on: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription – Basic Books (Perseus Books Group) – Pulitzer Price – ISBN-13: 978-0738200255 – 288 Págs.
«While testifying in St. Paul, Pat Michaels revealed under oath that he had received more than $165,000 in industry and private funding over the previous five years – funding he had never previously disclosed. Not only did Western Fuels fund both his publications, he disclosed, but it provided a $63,000 grant for his research. Another $49,000 came from the German Coal Mining Association. A smaller grant came from the Edison Electric Institute. Michaels also listed a grant of $40,000 from the western mining company Cyprus Minerals.» (p. 40-41)
Ross Gelbspan (1998) – The Heat Is on: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription – Basic Books (Perseus Books Group) – Pulitzer Price – ISBN-13: 978-0738200255 – 288 Págs.
«One source Michaels cited was Sherwood Idso‘s son, Keith E. Idso, a doctoral candidate at Arizona State University. Keith Idso is another skeptic who was hired by Western Fuels to testify at the St. Paul hearing.» (p. 43)
Irene Sánchez – Warming Study Draws Fire. Harvard scientists accused of politicizing research – The Harvard Crimson, 12/09/2003 – http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=348723#
“The study, co-authored by two scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, concluded that the 20th century has been neither the warmest century of the past millennium nor the one with the most extreme weather … Harvard professors have also criticized the report.”
Ross Gelbspan – Snowed – Mother Jones, 01/05/2005 – http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/05/snowed
“But the most effective campaigns have been more subtly coercive. … Western Fuels … declared in its annual report that it was enlisting several scientists who were skeptical about climate change … as spokesmen. The coal industry paid these and a handful of other skeptics some $1 million.”
Ross Gelbspan – Snowed – Mother Jones, 01/05/2005 – http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/05/snowed
“The purpose of the campaign was “to reposition global warming as theory (not fact),” with an emphasis on targeting “older, less educated males,” and “younger, low-income women” in districts that received their electricity from coal, and who preferably had a representative on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Western Fuels campaign was extraordinarily successful. In a Newsweek poll conducted in 1991, before the spin began, 35 percent of respondents said they “worry a great deal” about global warming. By 1997 that figure had dropped by one-third, to 22 percent.”
Ross Gelbspan (2005) – Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled a Climate Crisis–And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster – Basic Books – ISBN-13: 978-0465027620 – 288 Págs.
“If O’Neill, who later resigned, was profoundly disappointed with the administration’s coal and oil-rich energy plan, Englehard, the CEO of Peabody Energy, was not. Peabody’s management was extremely cozy with the Cheney team. Its chief lobbyist, Fred Palmer, had, during the 1990s, headed the Western Fuels Association, a coal consortium that mounted relentless attacks on the findings of mainstream climate scientists.”
Ross Gelbspan (2005) – Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled a Climate Crisis–And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster – Basic Books – ISBN-13: 978-0465027620 – 288 Págs.
“During the 1990s, that effort had been spearheaded by Fred Palmer who, around the time of the Bush election, was hired as chief lobbyist for Peabody Energy. Prior to his hiring by Peabody, Palmer headed up the Western Fuels Association, a $400-million coal consortium that had funded a tiny handful of industry-funded ‘greenhouse skeptics’ who had long been dismissed by the mainstream scientific community. Throughout the 1990s, Palmer directed an extensive and extremely successful public relations offensive funded by the coal industry that used such prominent ‘greenhouse skeptics’ as Fred Singer, Pat Michaels, Sherwood Idso, and Robert Balling, among others.»
Kevin Grandia – Lindzen wipes hands clean of oil and gas – Desmogblog – 24/07/2006 – – http://www.desmogblog.com/lindzen-wipes-hands-clean-of-oil-and-gas
“Lindzen charges oil and coal interests $2,500 a day for his consulting services; his 1991 trip to testify before a Senate committee was paid for by Western Fuels, and a speech he wrote, entitled «Global Warming: the Origin and Nature of Alleged Scientific Consensus,» was underwritten by OPEC.”
Ross Gelbspan – ‘Vampire Memo’ Details New Propaganda Blitz by Energy Companies – Heat is Online, 27/07/2006 – http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=6021&method=full
“According to the memo, environmentalists’ efforts to combat global warming would realize the environmentalists’ «dream of an egalitarian society based on rejection of economic growth in favor of a smaller population, eating lower on the food chain, consuming a lot less and sharing a much lower level of resources much more equitably … The campaign is basically the resurrection of a similar campaign launched by the Western Fuels (coal) Association in the early 1990s.”
Carbon club – Wikipedia, 15/05/2008 – http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_Club
« En 1988, la Western Fuel Association a financé à hauteur de 250 000 dollars la réalisation d’une vidéo, The Greening of Planet Earth, qui contredit le point de vue « alarmiste » de la majorité de la communauté scientifique au sujet des causes et effets du réchauffement climatique. La théorie proposée dans cette vidéo est que le doublement des émissions de CO2 prévu au XXIe siècle augmentera la surface cultivable de 30 à 40%. Cette vidéo est distribuée par la Greening Earth Society, une association créée par la Western Fuels. Sherdwood Idso est le narrateur de cette vidéo. La Western Fuel Association a également lancé la revue World Climate Review, une tribune pour le point de vue des scientifiques ‘sceptiques‘. »
Politicization of science – Wikipedia, 03/11/2008 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politicization_of_science
“Both sides of the controversy over global warming have accused each other of politicizing the science behind climate change … In 1991, a US corporate coalition including the National Coal Association, the Western Fuels Association and Edison Electric Institute created a public relations organization called the «Information Council on the Environment» (ICE). ICE launched a $500,000 advertising campaign to, in ICE’s own words, «reposition global warming as theory (not fact).»
James Hoggan with Richard Littlemore (2009) – Climate Cover-up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming – Greystone Books – ISBN-13 : 978-1553654858 – 240 Págs. http://www.desmogblog.com/about-climate-cover
“In 1991, Western Fuels joined with the National Coal Association and the Edison Electric Institute to create the Information Council on the Environment (ICE). This was a not-very-arm’s-length organizationthat wopuld use its original US $500,000 budget ‘to reposition global warming as a theory (not fact)’ and ‘supply alternatiev facts to support the suggestion that global warming will be good’ [ref]… with advance planning from the D.C. public relations firm Bracy Williams and Company tested a series of messages, including:…” (p. 32)
James Hoggan with Richard Littlemore (2009) – Climate Cover-up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming – Greystone Books – ISBN-13 : 978-1553654858 – 240 Págs. http://www.desmogblog.com/about-climate-cover
“Parallel to the ICE operation, the Western Fuels Association also launched another ‘educational’ entity called ‘The Greening of Planet Earth, a 30-minute love note to carbon dioxide that is still available for viewing on You Tube. This became the first public appearance of a group of scientific experts made up of people like Sherwood Idso … The Western Fuels Association offered the video online in return for a small, tax-deducible donation to the Greening Earth Society, but it delivered hundredsof copies for free to public and university libraries across the country.” (p. 33)
Eric Pooley (2010) – The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth – Hyperion – Deputy editor of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, a former managing editor of Fortune and a former national editor, chief political correspondent and White House correspondent for Time – ISBN-13: 978-1401323264 – 481 Págs. – http://www.ericpooley.com/
“The Global Climate Coalition was not aggressive enough for some of its members, and the National Coal Association teamed up with the Western Fuels Association, a coal supplier owned by a consortium of rural electric co-ops, to bankroll another group, the Information Council for the Environment (ICE) … George H.W. Bush had just signed an acid rain cap-and-trade bill over the objections of industry, so the Coalition set out to make sure that anything that came aout of Rio would be voluntary, not mandatory.”
Eric Pooley (2010) – The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth – Hyperion – Deputy editor of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, a former managing editor of Fortune and a former national editor, chief political correspondent and White House correspondent for Time – ISBN-13: 978-1401323264 – 481 Págs. – http://www.ericpooley.com/ «On Earth day in April 1998, the same month that the Oregon Petition was released, the Western Fuels Association, one of the groups that had lunched the Information Council of the Environment, formed a new front group called the Greening Earth Society to promote ‘positive environmental thinking’ and reposition CO2 emissions not as a threat but as a boon to mankind.”
Eric Pooley (2010) – The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth – Hyperion – Deputy editor of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, a former managing editor of Fortune and a former national editor, chief political correspondent and White House correspondent for Time – ISBN-13: 978-1401323264 – 481 Págs. – http://www.ericpooley.com/
“After all, CO2 was ‘a benign gas required for life on Earth’, as Western Fuels executive Fred Palmer liked to say, and ‘an amazingly effective aerial fertilizer’ … ‘Every time you turn your car on and you burn fossil fuels and you put CO2 in the air,’ Palmer said ‘you’re doing the work of the Lord’.» Palmer, an Arizonan with sparkling, ice blue eyes, was among the coal industry’s oldest voices on the global warming issue. ‘Someone had to speak in defense of coal-fired electricity,’ wrote Ned Leonard, who worked for Palmer … [Palmer] argued that … there might be ‘some mild warming, which is nothing to be concerned about at all,’ but anything more than that was just speculation , and ‘you can’t live your life based on speculation.’.”
Integrity in Science: Balling – Center for Science in the Public Interest, 15/08/2010
“Director, Master of Advanced Study in Geographic Information System, Arizona State University, Phoenix. Received funding from fossil-fuel industry’s organizations that exceeded $679,000 from 1989 to 2002; served as science advisor to Greening Earth Society, which was founded by the Western Fuels Association. (Purtill, Corinne. Outspoken ASU Prof Draws Ire, Arizona Republic, 11/11/07, pg.1) Since the mid-1980s, more than 25 percent of funding for his research that is critical of greenhouse theory came from companies with vested interests in carbon dioxide-producing fossil fuels; received funding from ExxonMobil, the German Coal Mining Association, and the British Coal Corporation. (Slivka, Judd. Science for Hire in Debate Over Warming, Arizona Republic, 3/25/01) Received funding from and/or was underwritten by the Kuwaiti government, Cyprus Minerals Company, and other foreign coal mining corporations. (Gelbspan, R., The Heat Is On, Perseus Books, 1998 updated ed., pp. 44-6) Balling stated that he received $408,000 in research support from fossil-fuel industries in the past 10 years. (Chron. Higher Ed., 5/22/98, A41) Received over $300,000 in research funding and honoraria from oil companies and the Kuwaiti government. (Zalewski, Daniel. Ties that Bind, Lingua Franca, June/July, 1997; p. 53).”
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