Revealed: Google made large contributions to climate change deniers

[G_j]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/11/google-contributions-climate-change-deniers?CMP=share_btn_fb


Google has made “substantial” contributions to some of the most notorious climate deniers in Washington despite its insistence that it supports political action on the climate crisis.

Among hundreds of groups the company has listed on its website as beneficiaries of its political giving are more than a dozen organisations that have campaigned against climate legislation, questioned the need for action, or actively sought to roll back Obama-era environmental protections.

The list includes the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a conservative policy group that was instrumental in convincing the Trump administration to abandon the Paris agreement and has criticised the White House for not dismantling more environmental rules.

Google said it was disappointed by the US decision to abandon the global climate deal, but has continued to support CEI.

Google is also listed as a sponsor for an upcoming annual meeting of the State Policy Network (SPN), an umbrella organisation that supports conservative groups including the Heartland Institute, a radical anti-science group that has chided the teenage activist Greta Thunberg for “climate delusion hysterics”.

..more..

[empedocles]

1. There is a 'private agreement'/deal in around somewhere.

Private agreements are scary. I use a Canadian certified pharmacy, with the same exact product as the US product [Advair], with UK brand name, with tremendous saving on the Rx.

If you try and open one of the legitimate, certified Canadian pharmacies, you may be blocked. Big pharma lobby posts a warning on your search - and blocks the search! My research found that 'private agreements' between a pharma lobby and most servers results in the blocked computer access. [It's possible to work around the blocks with some due diligence. Probably a great profit device for big pharma though].

[gratuitous]

2. It's always projection

One of the climate change deniers' persistent points is that there's some money train dropping off gobs of cash for scientists and researchers who study climate change and on the basis of the evidence and their training conclude that the climate is being changed by human activity, and not for the better.

Turns out there's a money train dropping off gobs of cash for hacks and cranks to deny the plain evidence. Who ever would have guessed? The "surprise" is the identity of some of the cash infusers.

[dalton99a]

3. This is a must read.

SPN members recently created a “climate pledge” website that falsely states “our natural environment is getting better” and “there is no climate crisis”.

It donates to such groups, people close to the company say, to try to influence conservative lawmakers, and – most importantly – to help finance the deregulatory agenda the groups espouse.

Apart from CEI, they include the American Conservative Union, whose chairman, Matt Schlapp, worked for a decade for Koch Industries and shaped the company’s radical anti-environment policies in Washington; the American Enterprise Institute, which has railed against climate “alarmists”; and Americans for Tax Reform, which has criticised companies who support climate action for seeking out “corporate welfare”.

It has also donated undisclosed sums to the Cato Institute, which has voiced opposition to climate legislation and questioned the severity of the crisis. Google has also made donations to the Mercatus Center, a Koch-funded thinktank, and the Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action, a pressure group that said the Paris agreement was supported by “cosmopolitan elites” and part of Barack Obama’s “destructive legacy”.

[Mike 03]

4. Google hypocrites.

Google unveiled a "Circular Google" plan boasting about how environmentally conscious they were. It looked serious and ambitious. Fooled again.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. These Big Tech companies are wolves in sheep's clothing

They are interested in the same things that big oil is, profits, profits, profits, and control and power. Zuckerberg is a Right Winger, he's a greedy capitalist to the core. Heck, he started the business by stealing the entire idea from a couple of other students at Harvard. Google from the start has had a business model based on the pursuit of a global monopoly of distribution and transfer of data. These companies are not friends to the people, they are pure servants of the Oligarchy. They spend some money pretending to support progressive causes, but in the end they only serve their bottom line.

[UpInArms]

6. +1

I despise these charlatans

[G_j]

8. This

[uponit7771]

7. Are these employees of google or google the corporation itself ? The M$M conflates the two regularly