Post-Inconvenient Truth

Saw Gore’s opus last night. More on that to come.
For now: just read the letters page of the Listener’s most recent issue. It features a letter by Vincent Gray of Wellington, listing a set of claims which (supposedly) counter Gore’s (supposed) alarmism.
I plugged Gray’s name into google and found his writings referenced with admiration by NZ’s own climate change denial organization, http://www.climatescience.org.nz/.
The top item on Climate Science’s site is an anti-Inconvenient Truth piece from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Exxon has given the CEI over $2million US since 1998 for, among other things, “climate change outreach”.
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Note, this doesn’t indicate Mr Gray is connected with either Climate Science or CEI – this was a two-minute google search.
Nevertheless, I am interested in Mr Gray’s activities – how closely tied is he to ClimateScience.org? (I could email or call him to ask, I guess.)
And is ClimateScience.org an example of an astroturf organization? How could I go about finding out? Any ideas, anyone?

14 thoughts on “Post-Inconvenient Truth”

  1. Likewise, a 2-minute WHOIS search: climatescience.org.nz is registered to Terry Dunleavy (MBE) who is apparently the editor and publisher of NZ Winegrower Magazine.
    He is (or was) the national convener of Bluegreens (an environmental committee providing guidance to the Nats), and he released a press release in 2001 inviting NZers to boycott “Mobil motor fuels as part of a growing international move to persuade the United States government to agree to support the Kyoto protocol on climate change.”
    Somebody on skepticforums claims to have looked up Dr. Gray’s published papers on ISI and found one paper on climate science (he’s a chemist by training) that had been cited twice. I assume you’ve already found his “NZ Climate Truth” newsletter archive?
    If you google their names together they’re all over the show.
    Links to all these can be provided.

  2. It’d be nice for the NZCSC to, y’know, list the members of said coalition on their website. All it is is links to papers/articles. Why didn’t they just call it a blog and be done with it?

  3. “this doesn’t indicate Mr Gray is connected with either Climate Science”
    In case I didn’t make the point clear before, he is — NZCSC have said so in a PR on Scoop.

  4. Are you going to write to the Listener and point out Grey’s “credentials” Morgue?
    His was the only dissenting voice, wasn’t it? People should know that the only person in disagreement is basically a lobbyist.

  5. Pearce: working on it. Seeing what else I can come up with about climatescience.
    Second link from the climatescience.org site is to an opinion piece in a generic opinion journal, that links for its scientific backup to the CEI piece from the first link.
    Third link is to a piece from the Heartland Institute, which has received $561,500 from ExxonMobil since 1998 for such items as ‘climate change efforts’.
    Ref:
    http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=41
    So the top three links on Climate Science are to pieces backed by Exxon money. Key question: are Climate Science funded themselves by an equivalent? I suspect so – but evidence is needed…

  6. I’ve found the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition’s stated goals:
    “# To publish and distribute papers and commentaries produced by members of the Coalition.
    # To audit statements by other organisations, both in New Zealand and overseas, which are published in New Zealand, or are expected to influence New Zealand public policy and public opinion.
    # To audit the forthcoming IPCC report, either on its own, or through the Asia Pacific Climate Science Coalition, or equivalent organization, if one has been established in time”
    Ref an NZCSC press release reprinted at:
    http://www.nzfoa.org.nz/news/climate_change_sceptics_get_together
    Maybe this is so small it doesn’t need funding?
    They explicitly deny any Exxon connection:
    “NZCSC numbers amongst its members persons who are alleged (by Greenpeace members, amongst others) to have received funding from Exxon-Mobil. The allegations are utterly without foundation.”
    Ref:
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0605/S00014.htm

  10. 7th and 8th are to TCS again.
    9th is to a blog, World Climate Research, and unrelated to climate change. It picks apart Gore’s account of the taking of the Earth Rise photo.
    This blog is an offshoot of a newspaper run by fuel-industry notables. It is funded by the Greening Earth Society, a Western Fuels Association project. The Western Fuels Association is a coal industry collective.
    Ref:
    http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=85
    http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=88
    http://www.westernfuels.org/operations/admin.cfm

  11. And the tenth link is to a piece by a CEI dude.
    So – if the NZCSC isn’t getting money from Exxon, why is it basically a promotional feed for Exxon propaganda?
    Letter to Listener in progress…

  13. Vince Gray was, before retirement, the Chief Scientist of the NZ Coal Research Association, and, along with his ex-CEO, Peter Toynbee, now deceased, has been active for a long time in anti-climate change activities. He makes a lot of mileage out of a self-promoted connection to the IPCC. Outside his fanaticism against any possibility that fossil-fuel burning could affect climate, he’s a nice guy, and a noted jazz musician.

  14. Peter – thanks for the background info, and for the human details. Always nice – in fact, important – to remember that these are real people being talked about, not cardboard cutout Enemies Of All That Is Good.

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