Most of the prominent organisations making the case against mainstream climate science have an avowed agenda of promoting free markets and minimal government. They often accept funding from the fossil-fuel industry. Few employ climate scientists.
1 Competitive Enterprise Institute (Washington DC)
A free-market lobby organisation that employs six experts on climate change. Two are lawyers, one an economist, one a political scientist, one a graduate in business studies and one a mathematician. They include economist Myron Ebell, most famous in the UK for a tirade on BBC radio in November 2004 in which he accused the UK government鈥檚 chief scientist David King of 鈥渒nowing nothing about climate science鈥�. The institute receives funding from ExxonMobil, the world鈥檚 largest oil company and an outspoken corporate opponent of mainstream climate science.
Advertisement
2 American Enterprise Institute (Washington DC)
Another free market think tank. The five experts it sent to the most recent negotiations on the Kyoto protocol, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December, included just one natural scientist 鈥� a chemist. Receives money from ExxonMobil.
3 George C. Marshall Institute (Washington DC)
A think tank that has been promoting scepticism on climate change since 1989. It is a leading proponent of the argument that climate science is highly uncertain. Receives money from ExxonMobil.
4 International Policy Network (London)
Free-market think tank which in November 2004 said global warming was a 鈥渕yth鈥�, and described David King as 鈥渁n embarrassment鈥�. Receives money from ExxonMobil.
5 The scientists
There are a few authoritative climate scientists in the sceptic camp. The most notable are Patrick Michaels from the University of Virginia, who is also the chief environmental commentator at the Cato Institute in Washington DC, and meteorologist Richard Lindzen from MIT. Most others are either retired, outside mainstream academia or tied to the fossil fuel industry. In the UK, three of the most prominent are Philip Stott, a retired biogeographer, former TV botanist David Bellamy, and Martin Keeley, a palaeogeologist. Keeley argues on a BBC website that 鈥済lobal warming is a scam, perpetrated by scientists with vested interests鈥�. He is an oil exploration consultant.