Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

What were New Zealand climate sceptics like Vincent Gray and Owen McShane doing in New York this week? They were flown there to speak at a climate sceptic conference on global warming funded by US think tanks who take money from ExxonMobil to challenge climate science.This is a new aspect to New Zealand’s Climate Science Coalition, who appear to have been taken up by the Exxon-funded climate denial industry with vigour.

I’ll get to the details, but a bit of history might be useful.

In the early 1990’s, as negotiations began for international action on climate, I was working for Greenpeace International’s climate campaign, based out of London. There, I witnessed the birth of a new industry, as big business (especially the oil, coal and gas industries), started to lobby against any action on climate. The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) was formed - and it was extremely effective, not least in the USA.

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[Originally posted by Andrew up at Greenpeace International. ]

You know that saying, “denial ain’t just a river in Egypt”? Well, there’s a bunch of guys meeting in New York right now who make a living out of it. Denying climate change that is. From NY Times reporter Andrew Revkin’s notebook:

Several hundred people sat in a fifth-floor ballroom at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square on Monday eating pasta and trying hard to prove that they had unraveled the established science showing that humans are warming the world in potentially disruptive ways.One challenge they faced was that even within their own ranks, the group — among them government and university scientists, antiregulatory campaigners and Congressional staff members — displayed a dizzying range of ideas on what was, or was not, influencing climate.

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