| Here are more, much more but not all of it, it would take several diaries to cover this subject (A Siegel does a great job here of keeping us well informed):
$450 million: Amount spent on lobbying and political contributions by opponents of global warming action in 2008.
52: public spokespersons engaged by polluters and the ideological right to spread disinformation about global warming online and in the media.
2,340: Number of paid lobbyists working in Washington on climate change in 2008.
7 in 8: Proportion of climate lobbyists advocating against climate action.
$45 million: Amount spent on global warming denial advertising by the coal industry in 2008.
0: Number of retractions and/or corrections published by the Washington Post after running a column by George Will containing demonstrably false claims about global warming.
Just last week, scientists announced that we are experiencing the worst case scenario in terms of global warming devastating effects. I wrote two days ago in my Water News diary:
It's been a really bad week for the climate. Each day brought depressing news as scientists meeting in Copenhagen told us global warming is taking place more rapidly than expected: the seas are rising faster than predicted and the polar ice caps are melting quicker than you can say dodo. Oh, and the Amazon rain forest is doomed unless urgent action is taken
And yet we are witnessing an unprecedented all-out campaign by polluters and ideologues to prevent meaningful action. Today, ExxonMobil is the only known oil giant directly bankrolling global warming denier groups. The funding is part of its continued involvement in an orchestrated plan to manufacture uncertainty around climate science. The Arctic Sea ice cover is already approaching a new low. The new topic of speculation is not whether the Arctic ice will disappear completely in the summer months by 2080, but whether this will happen by 2018.
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