Good old Kert Davies. If you don’t know Kert he is the Research Director for Greenpeace US.
I am sure Kert won’t mind me saying that he has a slightly unhealthy obsession with climate sceptics and those who push climate denial.
He has had this obsession for a while. It was Kert who was behind the amazing pioneering Exxon Secrets database that laid bare the brutal extent of Exxon’s funding of climate denial.
He later turned his attention to the secretive Koch brothers, and their funding of the climate denial movement. This important research has been republished around the world, as people began to understand the far reaching influence of the Koch’s.
And Kert keeps digging, looking at the climate denial movement.
Yesterday Greenpeace released a briefing paper detailing how the Press Secretary for Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, Andrea Saul, was involved with DCI Group, a firm that was on contract to Exxon at the height of the oil company’s campaign to undermine climate change science.
DCI Group is a top public relations firm that has represented a range of clients including the Burmese junta and has orchestrated front group campaigns for Microsoft as well as for Exxon.
For Exxon, DCI’s efforts included campaigns to undermine climate legislation as well as and pushing counter messages on the connection between extreme weather and climate change.
Saul has been Romney’s press secretary since 2011. She is frequently the public face and voice of the Romney’s campaign, including articulating Romney’s contradictory positions on climate change.
However, between 2004 and 2007, Saul helped orchestrate a major campaign to undermine climate science. The Greenpeace briefing paper outlines how Saul:
• Advanced the opinions of contrarian scientists and corporate-funded pundits on the Exxon-funded Tech Central Station, a purported news web site;
• Sought to promote contrarian voices into the debate over hurricanes and climate change in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina;
• Promoted the views of a scientist who had no training in climate change to undermine a study on climate change effects on the Antarctic ice sheet;
• Led a public relations campaign to undermine scientific consensus on the science of climate change;
• And pushed out press releases for a front group linked to lobbyist Grover Norquist designed to undermine pending climate change legislation.
One person who was a target of the DCI-smear campaign was climate scientist Michael Mann: “Andrea Saul and the others at DCI Group who carried out this attack on climate scientists and their work helped to delay any serious actions to combat climate change and its impacts, at great cost to society.”
To this Kert adds that “It’s clear that Saul was part of campaigns that spread anti-science misinformation that has had far-reaching effects on public understanding of climate change. Voters deserve to know if Saul’s views on climate and science are shaping Romney’s policies”.
Currently Saul’s role in shaping Romney’s climate and science policy is not known.
Paul, I hope I am not entirely what I read elcapiesly when I am in the mood for something trashy Daphne, thanks all around. Piling them all up like that was very satisfying.Emily, thanks! Visitng one’s books is a nice thing to do from time to time. I agree that it definitely lifts the spirits as well as forestalls the feeling one has nothing to read Helen, I feel no pressure to read. You are looking at my retirement savings whisperinggums, I was considering sorting the stacks into a finer granularity but then I’d have been at it for way too long so settled for fiction and nonfiction I love my red room. I am sure your stacks against the wood wall are just as lovely.Litlove, thank, thank you. Clean up is in process and people are surprisingly upbeat in general. diane, I was going for nice and neat so i am glad I have achieved it. I hope I can get to read them soon too Leox, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! I can read a little Spanish but can’t write it so we are a fine pair I plan to start studying Spanish next summer so perhaps eventually I will be able to read and write with some proficiency.Lua, thank you! I’d be happy to come visit and tidy up your piles for you Iris, I do. I am a very lucky girl Colleen, thank you on both counts. I do believe a reader’s idea of soon is more like before I die. Sylvia, thanks for the additional link to more photos. The one of the woman reading in bed is great. I think my favorite is the one of the man in the beautifully appointed room with books messily piled everywhere. You are right, Nature never lets us forget our place in one way or another.Iliana, thanks! What a nice friend to give you the Kertesz book as a present! Cameron, vacations and book piles are two of my favorite things Arti, thank you. No, they are not all of my TBR books. On the shelves about the piles on the floor TBR books and mixed with books I have read and there are shelves throughtout the house that are mixed as well. I haven’t been to a giant book sale in ages but it is just as well Emily, glad to know the Vollman book is good. Before I knew about the single volume version I was tempted to purchase the entire huge set when I saw it on sale at a bookstore that was going out of business. It was such a bargain. The the praticality of having the space for all the volumes kept me from doing it.cipriano, LOL! Why thank you Smithereens, I believe typhoons are more like hurricanes as they are big widespread storms that occur over water.Tornadoes happen on dry land and drop down from the clouds. They are odd creatures that can destroy an entire town or hopscotch around flattenin one building on a block and leaving all the others undamaged. Glad you like my piles. I hope Mr. Smithereens stops frowning at your piles Miss Rosemary, thanks! Now I am curious about what your bookshelf looks like Danielle, the joys of living in the midwest, yes? If you do some shelf and pile rearragning you must share photos!Grad, thank you and we will