"Secret Funding Helped Build Vast Network of Climate Denial Thinktanks"

"Anonymous billionaires donated $120m to more than 100 anti-climate groups working to discredit climate change science."



"Conservative billionaires used a secretive funding route to channel nearly $120m (£77m) to more than 100 groups casting doubt about the science behind climate change, the Guardian has learned.

The funds, doled out between 2002 and 2010, helped build a vast network of thinktanks and activist groups working to a single purpose: to redefine climate change from neutral scientific fact to a highly polarising "wedge issue" for hardcore conservatives.

The millions were routed through two trusts, Donors Trust and the Donors Capital Fund, operating out of a generic town house in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC. Donors Capital caters to those making donations of $1m or more.

Whitney Ball, chief executive of the Donors Trust told the Guardian that her organisation assured wealthy donors that their funds would never by diverted to liberal causes."

Suzanne Goldenberg reports for the Guardian February 14, 2013.

SEE ALSO:

"Media Campaign Against Windfarms Funded By Anonymous Conservatives" (Guardian)

"False Spontaneity of the Tea Party" (Huffington Post/Al Gore)

"Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaires" (DeSmogBlog)

"Startling Graph Shows Donors Trust the New 'Dark Money' in Climate Denial Funding" (DeSmogBlog)

"Climate Science Denier Lord Monckton Joins Creationist Pastor To Launch Extremist Political Party" (DeSmogBlog)

Source: Guardian, 02/15/2013