Sifting Disinformation

RealClimate: Climate Science from Climate Scientists

Don't let the blog format of this site distract you from the substance of the articles it contains. When somebody is spinning the latest climate story, RealClimate posts authoritative, research-based articles in language accessible to lay readers while the controversy or deception is still fresh in headlines. The site is a collaborative effort of at least 11 scientists actively working on climate research — with Michael Mann of Penn State (author of the famous "hockey stick" graph of global temperature adopted by the IPCC) playing a principal role.

Climate Science Watch: Promoting Integrity in the Use of Climate Science in Government

This site focuses mainly on efforts by the Bush administration and other political forces to distort or censor climate science produced by government programs or with government funding. It is produced with foundation funds via the Government Accountability Project by whistleblower Rick Piltz, who revealed White House re-writes of science reports.

SourceWatch (Wiki)

Center for Media & Democracy The iconoclastic CMD has been in the anti-spin biz for years (they wrote "Toxic Sludge Is Good for You" and produce "Spin of the Day"). This wiki project amounts to a nearly encyclopedic data file on the backgrounds and finances of many of the groups and spokespeople on the anti-regulatory front, with special emphasis on climate-change denialists. If you want to know if a source is straight or bogus, go here and look them up.

Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air

How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to "Manufacture Uncertainty" on Climate Change A Jan. 3, 2006, report done for the Union of Concerned Scientists by independent journalist Seth Shulman. It documents in detail a "disinformation campaign" on climate science, funded to the tune of $16 million by ExxonMobil between 1998 and 2005.

Integrity in Science Project (Searchable Database of Sources)

Center for Science in the Public Interest This database of scientists produced by the CSPI focuses on identifying possible conflicts of interest, especially when these conflicts are undisclosed by the scientists themselves. It is a good place to discover whether a scientist has ties to, or funding from, an industry whose interests are affected by that scientist's research — whether on climate change or any other environmental subject.

ExxonSecrets.org

This searchable database site, run by Greenpeace US, focuses on backgrounding and mapping out the large and complex network of climate-change denial organizations and front groups funded by ExxonMobil. (Full use of site requires Flash 7 player.)

DeSmogBlog

This site, while cast in blog form, includes a searchable database of climate-change denialists. It is run and funded by Canadian PR magnate Jim Hoggan, founder of James Hoggan & Associates, "to clear the PR pollution that is clouding the science on climate change." Timely counter-spin.

The Heat Is Online

This blog-style site is regularly maintained by Pulitzer-winning former journalist Ross Gelbspan, author of two books about fossil-fuel industry funding of climate denialists.

Global Warming Skeptics: A Primer

Environmental Defense ED, an environmental group, assembles the basic facts about the disinformation campaign in a clear and quickly readable form, but also covers some new ground.

Activist Cash

A turnabout on some of the databases above, ActivistCash is operated by the anti-regulatory front group Center for Consumer Freedom. Much of the information comes from the IRS form 990s filed by environmental nonprofit organizations. It also includes information on individual activists and pro-environmental celebrities. Accuses ideological enemies of "false science."

Climate Change: A Guide for the Perplexed

New Scientist magazine takes a shot at debunking 26 common global-warming myths.