| 'Friends of Science' Exposed - Anti-Kyoto Letter Debunked | 21 April 06 |
 Members of 'Friends of Science' (FoS), a climate change skeptics group, have been exposed as linked to organizations that receive funding from the petroleum industry. Some members of FoS have directly received funds from oil companies. FoS sent an open letter to Canada's Prime Minister Harper April 6, 2006 urging him to reexamine the the federal government's climate-change plans.Many individuals who signed the letter have well-documented connections to the petroleum and fossil fuel industry. Dr. S. Fred Singer is the President of The Science & Environmental Policy Project (SEPP). SEPP received multiple contributions from ExxonMobil and Singer's current CV states that he served as a consultant to several oil companies. Dr. Ross McKitrick is a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute, a think tank that received $120,000 from ExxonMobil in 2003 & 2004. Dr. Patrick J. Michaels acknowledges that 20% of his funding comes from fossil fuel sources and Dr. Michaels received over $115,000 from coal and oil interests. Dr. Sallie Baliunas worked with the Global Climate Coalition, a special interest group of coal, oil and utility companies, set up to lobby against international action on climate change. The 60 signatories to the April 6, 2006 letter describe themselves as "accredited experts in climate and related scientific disciplines". A quick scan of credentials listed reveals approximately half are economists, professional engineers, agronomists or consultants who lack expertise in the 'related scientific disciplines'. Visit ExxonSecrets.org to learn more about Friends of Science, and the fossil fuel industry View the Friends of Science April 6, 2006 open letter to Prime Minister Harper View the April 9, 2006 Telegraph (UK) article Sources: ExxonSecrets.org, Friends of Science, the Telegraph UK, Canet Canada |
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