Difference between revisions of "Science and Public Policy Institute"

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In its mission statement on its website, the SPPI's claims that it '<i>is a nonprofit institute of research and education dedicated to sound public policy based on sound science. Free from affiliation to any corporation or political party, we support the advancement of sensible public policies for energy and the environment rooted in rational science and economics.  Only through science and factual information, separating reality from rhetoric, can legislators develop beneficial policies without unintended consequences that might threaten the life, liberty, and prosperity of the citizenry'</i><nowiki>[original italics]</nowiki><ref>Science and Public Policy Institute [http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/our_mission.html Our Mission] Accessed 15th January 2009</ref>.
 
In its mission statement on its website, the SPPI's claims that it '<i>is a nonprofit institute of research and education dedicated to sound public policy based on sound science. Free from affiliation to any corporation or political party, we support the advancement of sensible public policies for energy and the environment rooted in rational science and economics.  Only through science and factual information, separating reality from rhetoric, can legislators develop beneficial policies without unintended consequences that might threaten the life, liberty, and prosperity of the citizenry'</i><nowiki>[original italics]</nowiki><ref>Science and Public Policy Institute [http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/our_mission.html Our Mission] Accessed 15th January 2009</ref>.
  
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The SPPI claims to be free from affiliation from any corporation. However, its President [[Robert Ferguson]] headed the [[Center for Science and Public Policy]] (CSPP) in 2003 which received funding from oil company [[Exxon Mobil]] to the tune of $40,000 in 2001 and $230,000 in 2002<ref>Lee, J. (2003) [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802E1D91131F93BA15756C0A9659C8B63  Exxon Backs Groups That Question Global Warming] ''New York Times'' 28th May 2003. Accessed 15th January 2009</ref>. The CSPP is also a think tank working to dismiss the issues of global warming. According to its website, the CSPP is a project of [[Frontiers of Freedom]]<ref>Centre for Science and Public Policy [http://www.scienceandpublicpolicy.com/ Home Page] Accessed 15th January 2009</ref>, a right wing think tank with principles based on individual freedom, free enterprise and a limited government<ref>Frontiers of Freedom [http://www.ff.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=69 What We Believe] Accessed 15th January 2009</ref>. Sourcewatch claims that the SPPI was formerly the CSPP<ref>SourceWatch [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Science_and_Public_Policy_Institute Science and Public Policy Institute] Accessed 15th January 2009</ref> (on first inspection this connection is unclear and requires clarification) which would certainly not make it free from vested corporate interests.
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The SPPI claims to be free from affiliation from any corporation. However, its President [[Robert Ferguson]] headed the [[Center for Science and Public Policy]] (CSPP) in 2003 which received funding from oil company [[Exxon Mobil]] to the tune of $40,000 in 2001 and $230,000 in 2002<ref>Lee, J. (2003) [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802E1D91131F93BA15756C0A9659C8B63  Exxon Backs Groups That Question Global Warming] ''New York Times'' 28th May 2003. Accessed 15th January 2009</ref>. The CSPP is also a think tank working to dismiss the issues of global warming. According to its website, the CSPP is a project of [[Frontiers of Freedom]]<ref>Centre for Science and Public Policy [http://www.scienceandpublicpolicy.com/ Home Page] Accessed 15th January 2009</ref>, a right wing think tank with principles based on individual freedom, free enterprise and a limited government<ref>Frontiers of Freedom [http://www.ff.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=69 What We Believe] Accessed 15th January 2009</ref>. Sourcewatch claims that the SPPI was formerly the CSPP<ref>SourceWatch [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Science_and_Public_Policy_Institute Science and Public Policy Institute] Accessed 15th January 2009</ref>. Both the SPPI and the CSPP continue to operate, with the two organisations using separate websites. They both operate from units at 209 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington D.C., with [[Robert Ferguson]] as President with the SPPI and Executive Director with the CSPP and [[Willie Soon]] as Chief Science Researcher of both organisations<ref>Center for Science and Public Policy [http://www.ff.org/centers/csspp/misc/press1/hg/20040922.htm New Study Released on the Safety of the Fish We Eat] 22nd September 2004. Accessed 22nf Janaury 2009</ref> <ref>American Council on Science and Health [http://ff.org/centers/csspp/misc/opeds/hg/20050818.htm More on Eating More Fish] Centre for Science and Public Policy. 2005. Accessed 22nd January 2009</ref>.
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Chief Policy Advisor for the SPPI, [[Christopher Monckton]] also has connections with the CSPP where he wrote the 'IPCC Fourth Assessment Report 2007: Analysis and Summary' for the Center<ref>Monckton, C. (2007) [http://www.ff.org/centers/csspp/pdf/20070201_monckton.pdf 'IPCC Fourth Assessment Report 2007: Analysis and Summary'] Center for Science and Public Policy. February 2007. Accessed 22nd January 2009</ref>. SPPI's Science Advisor, [[William Kininmonth]] also has connections with the CSPP publishing his book, 'Unmasking “An Inconvenient Truth'<ref>The Heartland Institute [http://www.globalwarmingheartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=21278 Unmasking “An Inconvenient Truth] Accessed 22nd January 2009</ref>. The connections between the two organisations are not easy to uncover. The CSPP does not advertise its Board or staff and the information to be found is scant and scattered. Could it be that the organisations are indeed one and the same? What is clear is that at the very least they are tightly connected to each other through being located in the same building and sharing of key personnel.
  
 
==History==
 
==History==

Revision as of 12:35, 22 January 2009

Background

The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) is a think tank based in the U.S. which promotes the views of global warming skeptics.

In its mission statement on its website, the SPPI's claims that it 'is a nonprofit institute of research and education dedicated to sound public policy based on sound science. Free from affiliation to any corporation or political party, we support the advancement of sensible public policies for energy and the environment rooted in rational science and economics. Only through science and factual information, separating reality from rhetoric, can legislators develop beneficial policies without unintended consequences that might threaten the life, liberty, and prosperity of the citizenry'[original italics][1].

The SPPI claims to be free from affiliation from any corporation. However, its President Robert Ferguson headed the Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP) in 2003 which received funding from oil company Exxon Mobil to the tune of $40,000 in 2001 and $230,000 in 2002[2]. The CSPP is also a think tank working to dismiss the issues of global warming. According to its website, the CSPP is a project of Frontiers of Freedom[3], a right wing think tank with principles based on individual freedom, free enterprise and a limited government[4]. Sourcewatch claims that the SPPI was formerly the CSPP[5]. Both the SPPI and the CSPP continue to operate, with the two organisations using separate websites. They both operate from units at 209 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington D.C., with Robert Ferguson as President with the SPPI and Executive Director with the CSPP and Willie Soon as Chief Science Researcher of both organisations[6] [7].

Chief Policy Advisor for the SPPI, Christopher Monckton also has connections with the CSPP where he wrote the 'IPCC Fourth Assessment Report 2007: Analysis and Summary' for the Center[8]. SPPI's Science Advisor, William Kininmonth also has connections with the CSPP publishing his book, 'Unmasking “An Inconvenient Truth'[9]. The connections between the two organisations are not easy to uncover. The CSPP does not advertise its Board or staff and the information to be found is scant and scattered. Could it be that the organisations are indeed one and the same? What is clear is that at the very least they are tightly connected to each other through being located in the same building and sharing of key personnel.

History

Campaign to undermine scientific consensus on climate change

An Inconvenient truth

In 2007, The Sunday Times[10] reported that The SPPI had funded Christopher Monckton in the making of a film Apocalypse No, to be distributed to schools which 'attacked' the scientific consensus on climate change by denying that human impact was an issue. Monckton also funded the distribution of the film The Great Global Warming Swindle which too aimed to dispel the evidence of human impact. The making of such films was in reponse to Al Gore's film 'An Inconvenient Truth', which won two Oscars and saw Gore receiving a joint Nobel prize.

Gore's film had been distributed to schools in England. Monckton then backed Stewart Dimmock, who took the government to court for sending copies of Gore’s film to schools. The court ruled that Gore's film contained nine errors, but that it was 'broadly correct'. This is in contrast to the SPPI's report which claims 35 errors[11]. Monckton and Dimmock are connected through the right wing New Party, which advocates liberalism and free trade as amoungst its aims.

Complaints have been made by the scientists interviewed for the The Great Global Warming Swindle, which was created by Martin Durkin. The Times reports that 'two of the scientists who took part have complained that the editing gave a misleading impression of critical data and their own viewpoints'. Ofcom, which regulates broadcast media, is also reported to be examining other complaints from scientists in relation to this film.

==

According to former Boston Globe reporter Ross Gelbspan (who in 1997 wrote the book, The Heat is On, which details industry efforts to discredit climate change science), is reported to have said that the "conclusions that greenhouse gases are causing the planet to heat up are the result of the "most rigorously peer-reviewed scientific collaboration in history". He continues "The contradictory statements of a tiny handful of discredited scientists, funded by big coal and big oil, represent a deliberate -- and extremely reckless -- campaign of deception and disinformation."[12]

In an article covering the launch of a book by SPPI's Kininmonth, Fyfe reports that 'Climate change is about science, but not just about science. It's about business and politics and wielding influence'. It is also reported that there is concern amongst climate experts that 'sceptics will delay action on climate change for another decade, using the same tools of hired guns and questionable scientific evidence as the tobacco industry wielded to deny cancer links in the 1970s and 1980s'[13].

Corporate Connections

Willie Soon and Energy Industry corporate connections

SPPI's Chief Scientific Advisor, Willie Soon, has clear corporate connections with the energy industry. In 2003, He authored a study alongside Sallie Baliunas and three others, which dismissed concerns regarding climate change. The study, called Reconstructing Climatic and Environmental Changes of the Past 1,000 Years: A Reappraisal, was published in the British scientific journal, Energy and Environment. According to a report in the Seattle Post Intelligencer[14], The research was underwritten by the American Petroleum Institute, the trade association of the world's largest oil companies. They also reported that 'two of the five authors are scientists who have been linked to the coal industry and have received support from the ExxonMobil Foundation', whilst a further two of the authors are affiliated with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and are 'senior scientists' with Washington-based organization the George C Marshall Institute, which received support from ExxonMobil Corp. It is also worth noting that the Marshall Institute's President is William O'Keefe, a former executive of the American Petroleum Institute and President of 'the Global Climate Coalition, a now-defunct organization created by oil and coal interests to lobby against U.S. participation in climate treaties, such as the Kyoto Protocol'.

Soon has close links with the George C Marshall Institute, having served on the Institute’s Science Advisory Board[15]. According to Greenpeace project 'Exxon Secrets', the Marshall Institute received $715,000 in funding from Exxon Mobil between 1998 and 2006[16].

Both the SPPI and the Marshall Institute puts vast amounts of energy and resources into denying human involvement in climate change. One publication, called Shattered Consensus sums up what they are about in its description which states that 'Shattered Consensus will also shatter commonly held opinions about global warming and leave the reader with serious doubts about whether policies to "fight" climate change are warranted at all'.[17]. This implies business as usual for the industry which finances the Institute and frees them from any responsibility towards finding the solutions.

Craig Idso and Energy Industry corporate connections

SPPI's Science Advisor Craig Idso also has connections with the corporate energy industry. Idso is former Director of Environmental Science with Peabody Energy[18], which describes itself as the 'world's largest private-sector coal company, with 2007 sales of 238 million tons and $4.6 billion in revenues'. Peabody's coal products are reported to fuel approximately 10% of all U.S. electricity generation and 2% of worldwide electricity[19].

Idso is also Chairman for the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, another think tank critical of global warming issues with a stance of arguing that 'there is no compelling reason to believe that the rise in temperature was caused by the rise in CO2'[20]. This organisation too is funded my Exxon Mobil. Greenpeace project 'Exxon Secrets' reports that the Centre received $100,000 from Exxon between 1998 to 2006[21]. In response to criticism at such funding by industry, the Centre released a statement in which they refused to discuss their funding[22], describing it as irrelevant to their work and dismissing any conflict of interests. They did acknowledge having received funds from Exxon, describing it simply as 'some donations... a few times in the past'. According to Greenpeace, these 'few' times were $10,000 in 1998, $15,000 in 2000, $40,000 in 2003, $25,000 in 2005 and £10,000 in 2006[23]

Funding and finances

People

In 2009, SPPI list their Personnel as[24]:

  • Robert Ferguson - President. Ferguson has 26 years experience on Capitol Hill, working in both the House and Senate. This includes serving the House Republican Study Committee and the Senate Republican Policy Committee: as Chief of Staff to Congressman Jack Fields (R-TX) (1981-1997), to Congressman John E. Peterson (R-PA) (1997-2002) and to Congressman Rick Renzi (R-AZ) (2002).
  • Christopher Monckton (Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley) - Chief Policy Adviser. Monckton previously served as Special Advisor to Margaret Thatcher (1982 to 1986)

Events

In March 2008, the SPPI co-sponsored an international conference on climate change in New York called 'Global Warming:Truth or Swindle? This was advertised as an event where '400 scientists, economists, and experts will meet in New York on March 2-4 to challenge the claim that global warming is a “crisis.”' and that there is 'no scientific consensus on the causes or likely consequences of global warming'[29]

The other co-sponsers of this event where:

Alternate Solutions Institute, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform, Asociacion de Consumidores Libres, Association for Liberal Thinking, Business & Media Institute, Carbon Sense Coalition, Cascade Policy Institute, Cathay Institute for Public Affairs, Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, Center for the Dissemination of Economic Knowledge, Center of the American Experiment, Centro de Innovación y Desarrollo Humano, Centro de Investigaciones de Instituciones y Mercados de Argentina, Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Congress of Racial Equality, Discovery Institute, Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, Economic Thinking, European Center for Economic Growth, Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, Free Enterprise Action Fund, Free Market Foundation, Frontiers of Freedom Institute, Fundacion Atlas 1853, Hayek Institute, Idea Channel, Independent Institute, Institute of Public Affairs, Institut für Unternehmerische Freiheit, Instituto de Libre Empresa, [[Instituto Liberdade], International Climate Science Coalition, International Policy Network, Istituto Bruno Leoni, JunkScience.com, Liberty Institute, Lion Rock Institute, John Locke Foundation, George C Marshall Institute, Minimal Government Institute, National Center for Policy Analysis, New Zealand Business Roundtable, Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, Pacific Research Institute, Science and Environmental Policy Project and Sovereignty International.

Speakers at the event were advertised as including:

Václav Klaus, Roy Innis, John Stossel, Tim Ball, Robert Balling, David Bellamy, Bob Carter, Vincent Gray, David Henderson, Yuri A Izrael, David Legates, Patrick Michaels, Fred Michel, James J O’Brien, Tim Patterson, Benny Peiser, Andreas Prokoph, Roy Spencer, Frederick Seitz, S Fred Singer, George Taylor, Miklos Zagoni and the SPPI's own Chief Scientific Advisor Willie Soon.

Affiliations

Subsidiaries

Publications

Contact details, Resources, Notes

Contact

  • Address:
Primary Address
Robert Ferguson
Science and Public Policy Institute
5501Merchants View Square
  1. 209
Haymarket, VA 20169

Secondary Address

Robert Ferguson
SPPI
209 Pennsylvania Ave. SE
Suite 299
Washington, D.C. 20003
  • Phone:

(202) 288-5699

  • Fax:
  • Email:
Primary: bferguson@sppinstitute.org
Secondary: ferguson3490@hotmail.com
  • Website:

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org

External Resources

Notes

  1. ↑ Science and Public Policy Institute Our Mission Accessed 15th January 2009
  2. ↑ Lee, J. (2003) Exxon Backs Groups That Question Global Warming New York Times 28th May 2003. Accessed 15th January 2009
  3. ↑ Centre for Science and Public Policy Home Page Accessed 15th January 2009
  4. ↑ Frontiers of Freedom What We Believe Accessed 15th January 2009
  5. ↑ SourceWatch Science and Public Policy Institute Accessed 15th January 2009
  6. ↑ Center for Science and Public Policy New Study Released on the Safety of the Fish We Eat 22nd September 2004. Accessed 22nf Janaury 2009
  7. ↑ American Council on Science and Health More on Eating More Fish Centre for Science and Public Policy. 2005. Accessed 22nd January 2009
  8. ↑ Monckton, C. (2007) 'IPCC Fourth Assessment Report 2007: Analysis and Summary' Center for Science and Public Policy. February 2007. Accessed 22nd January 2009
  9. ↑ The Heartland Institute Unmasking “An Inconvenient Truth Accessed 22nd January 2009
  10. ↑ Leake, J. (1007) Please, sir - Gore's got warming wrong The Sunday Times. 14th October 2007. Accessed 16th January 2009
  11. ↑ Science and Public Policy Institute 35 Inconvenient Truths:The Errors in Al Gore's Movie Accessed 16th January 2009
  12. ↑ Nesmith. J, (2003) Foes of global warming theory have energy ties Seatle Post Intelligencer. 2nd June 2003. Accessed 16th January 2009
  13. ↑ Melissa Fyfe (2004) ‘The global warming sceptics’ ‘’The Age’’. 27th November 2004 . Accessed 22nd January 2009
  14. ↑ Nesmith, J. (2003) Foes of global warming theory have energy ties Seattle Post Intelligencer. 2nd June 2003. Accessed 16th January 2009
  15. ↑ George C Marshall Institute Washington Roundtable on Science and Policy 2001. Accessed 16th January 2009
  16. ↑ Exxon Secrets FACTSHEET: George C. Marshall Institute Accessed 16th January 2009
  17. ↑ George C Marshall Institute Shattered Consensus: The True State of Global Warming 14th December 2005. Accessed 16th January 2009
  18. ↑ Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change About/Chairman Accessed 16th January 2009
  19. ↑ Peabody Energy Home Page Accessed 16th January 2009
  20. ↑ Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Mission Statement Accessed 16th January 2009
  21. ↑ Exxon Secrets Exxon Mobil Factsheet Accessed 16th January 2009
  22. ↑ Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change What Motivates the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change? Accessed 16th January 2009
  23. ↑ Exxon Secrets Exxon Mobil Factsheet Accessed 16th January 2009
  24. ↑ Science and Public Policy Institute Personnel Accessed 15th January 2009
  25. ↑ Melissa Fyfe (2004) ‘The global warming sceptics’ ‘’The Age’’. 27th November 2004 . Accessed 22nd January 2009
  26. ↑ Kininmonth, W. (2007) Unmasking “An Inconvenient Truth” Centre for Science and Public Policy. February 2007. Accessed 22nd January 2009
  27. ↑ Australian Government Current details for 81 287 283 607 business.gov.au. Accessed 22nd January 2009
  28. ↑ Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change About/Chairman Accessed 16th January 2009
  29. ↑ The Heartland Institute International conference on climate change - Global Warming:Truth or Swindle? Accessed 16th January 2009
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