Who's Funding Misinformation?

Finding out who's actually behind all the anti-climate, anti-renewables, anti-net-zero misinformation campaigns is sometimes pretty easy (just follow the money). As I discovered in researching The Great Greenwashing, though, it's not always so simple.

That's because you can't just set up a group called "Drilling for Dollars." Ask ExxonMobil. They've been behind funding over 100 climate-denying astroturfing organisations.

Notable families, like the Walton’s and Koch Brothers, are also known to invest millions into scam groups. A 2013 investigation found the Walton’s gave $6.3 million to a Los Angeles group called Parent Revolution. While its “…stated goal is to empower poor parents to transform their low-performing neighbourhood schools into successful ones…” in reality, the group is a front for “…private charter school operators and their wealthy allies in the [ultra-conservative] Education Reform movement who support weakening and ultimately abolishing the teachers’ unions.”

Unless one does their research, there is really no indication on the surface of how nefarious these groups are. Look at some of these names compared to what they actually do.

🌏 The European Institute for Climate and Energy is a media outlet publishing fake climate news.

🌏 The non-profit Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change are staunch believers global warming will benefit humanity.

🌏 Since 1989, the National Wetlands Coalition has worked to thwart US wetland protection policies and water down the Endangered Species Act.

The Australian Senate's new select committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy will have their work cut out for them. With any luck, though, they'll start to shine a light on these insidious groups.