Two recent stories take a look at two notable deniers' major conflicts of interest.
The Boston Globe discusses how the recent Monckton paper, which claims to have developed a new and more precise climate model, holds that none of the authors have any conflict of interest, despitedenier-for-hire Willie Soon's $1M+ funding from the fossil fuel industry. Did Soon inform the journal of this before publication? It seems unlikely, and the Globe's source suggests that perhaps Soon's years of fossil fuel funding should have been mentioned.
Across the pond, DeSmogUK exposes Matt 'King Coal' Ridley's clear conflict of interest. While not as prominent in the US, this British lord and science writer routinely publishes pieces promoting inaction on climate. While Ridley has been relatively forthright about the fact there are coal mines on his family estate, DeSmog adds an additional layer of interest. It turns out the local power plant that has been buying Ridley's coal can no longer use it, thanks to European climate regulations. So Ridley's railing against biomass energy production might just stem from the fact that one of his major coal customers is now switching to biomass. Maybe. Maybe it's just a coincidence and the $6 million annual profits from his coal mine have nothing to do with his climate change denial...
So while the narrative of climate denial is built on the idea that virtually every government, university and independent scientist is lying in order to jump on the global warming gravy train, in reality we see that it's the deniers with just a couple of conflicts of interest. (A couple million, at least.)
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