The Union of Concerned Scientists, a science-based advocacy group, issued a report claiming that ExxonMobil has given $16 million to 43 ideological groups trying to discredit global warming between 1998 and 2005, in a coordinated effort to mislead the public about the realities of climate change. The charge mirrors one made last year by The Royal Society, Britain’s leading scientific academy.

Alden Meyer, the Union of Concerned Scientists’ strategy and policy director, said in a teleconference that ExxonMobil based its tactics on those of tobacco companies, spreading uncertainty by misrepresenting peer-reviewed scientific studies or cherry-picking facts.

Dr. James McCarthy, a professor at Harvard University, said the company has sought to “create the illusion of a vigorous debate” about global warming.

There is no debate. Thousands of studies point to the reality of man-made global warming and the dire threat it poses not just to the planet but to all of us.

It’s the height of moral bankruptcy that preserving profits used to fund ExxonMobil’s CEO’s $400 million retirement can come about only as a result of trying to confuse the public at the same time that entire ice shelves are melting and signs of imminent climate change are everywhere.

I’m probably never buying gasoline again from these bastards.

Tags: environment, exxonmobil, global-warming, petroleum