Juliette and I were visiting family today and were discussing Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth and the summer like weather we are getting in Canada right now. My aunt asked if we thought the weather was a result of global warming and then went on to talk about how there was so much controversy amoungst the scientific community as to whether global warming was even real.

I see this belief all the time and it really concerns me. Even though almost all climatologists agree that global warming is happening and we are causing it, a small number (less than 1.5%) of well funded and vocal scientists are planting these seeds of doubt in people’s minds. A study in 2004 on all of the scientific papers on climate change published between 1993-2003 found that 75% accepted the consensus on global warming. The remaining did not take any stance and none questioned it.

Last week, the Union of Concerned Scientists stated that

ExxonMobil Corp. gave $16 million to 43 ideological groups between 1998 and 2005 in an effort to mislead the public by discrediting the science behind global warming.

They even go on to outline how many of the same organizations that the tobacco industry paid to deny that their product caused lung cancer. That campaign was lost and these groups are moving on to their new cash cows.

The UCSUSA report mirrors the findings of Britain’s leading scientific academy, The Royal Society which wrote to ExxonMobil in September asking it to stop funding groups that “misrepresented the science of climate change.”

So, next time someone tries to tell you that there is no consensus on climate change, remember the tobacco industry and their tactics.