Mention the existence of skeptic climate scientists to any enviro-activist, and they dismiss anything those scientists say out-of-hand as an industry-corrupted conflict of interest. After all, hardcore believers in man-caused global warming have stacks of sources saying such skeptics are industry shills (clueless to how they only actually have one highly suspect source) But are enviro-activist groups shills of government regulators and/or government office-holders, or vice versa?
The Energy and Environment Legal Institute’s Chis Horner pointed to just such a situation yesterday in his WUWT guest post, complete with screencaptures of emails between an EPA official and the Sierra Club (shorter summary here). It is a situation apparently encompassing a government agency proceeding on Sierra Club approval in a manner neither organization is proud enough to share with the public. But I exposed a situation a bit rougher, in which an environmental organization was apparently working with a White House official to quash favorable opinion of skeptic scientists across the board.
The highlighted words in the fax letter below pretty much speak for themselves, another screencapture is here from the archive page 2 at “Greenpeace USA née Ozone Action” (click to enlarge):
In a nutshell, Woods Hole Research Center (not to be confused with Titanic-discovering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute) founder George Woodwell was imploring John Holdren to help him get an op-ed into the Boston Globe, which would help steer favorable public opinion away from a then-current Jeff Jacoby Boston Globe piece that was drawing significant attention to a petition signed by 17,000 scientists questioning man-caused global warming.
The situation would just be questionable considering Woodwell simply wanted John Holdren to exploit his “PSAC” (typo for PCAST, Bill Clinton’s President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology position. But the key is how Woodwell referred to working with people on “this project” both at Ozone Action – the place I’ve long described as the epicenter of the smear of skeptic climate scientists via Ross Gelbspan’s involvement – and the White House. The White House. Think about that one for a bit, how many people, even if they are heads of small research centers, get assistance from the White House when it comes to prompting newspapers to publish an op-ed. And why would anyone actually be involved in such an arrangement in the first place?
For more details on that situation, please see my 2011 American Thinker article, “White House Involved in Warmist Smear Campaign.”
Funny how global warming believers beg for an investigation of skeptic climate scientists’ funding, when that sort of thing won’t likely turn up any nefarious conspiracies to misinform the public, but instead has every potential of exposing exactly that situation between enviro-activist organizations and major government officials.