The far edge moves.....

The recent set to about where the middle is in the climate wars, has overshadowed a radical lurch of the gurgle of remaining denialists. DeSmogBlog is all over CEIs response to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists tieing the usual suspects to the Exxon bus. The report describes how by using organizations such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute Exxon

• Manufactured uncertainty by raising doubts about even the most indisputable scientific evidence.
  
• Adopted a strategy of information laundering by using seemingly independent front organizations to publicly further its desired message and thereby confuse the public.
• Promoted scientific spokespeople who misrepresent peer-reviewed scientific findings or cherry-pick facts in their attempts to persuade the media and the public that there is still serious debate among scientists that burning fossil fuels has contributed to global warming and that human-caused warming will have serious consequences.
• Attempted to shift the focus away from meaningful action on global warming with misleading charges about the need for “sound science.”
• Used its extraordinary access to the Bush administration to block federal policies and shape government communications on global warming.

The report documents that, despite the scientific consensus about the fundamental understanding that global warming is caused by carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping emissions, Exxon- Mobil has funneled about $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of ideological and advocacy organizations that manufacture uncertainty on the issue. Many of these organizations have an overlapping—sometimes identical—collection of spokespeople serving as staff, board members, and scientific advisors. By publishing and republishing the non-peer-reviewed works of a small group of scientific spokespeople, Exxon- Mobil-funded organizations have propped up and amplified work that has been discredited by reputable climate scientists.

CEI,which was well attached to the ice floe by the report gurgled on the way down

The Union’s report refers to groups such as CEI as global warming “deniers.” However, CEI does not deny that the global mean temperature is rising and that human activities may be responsible for some or all of the warming. “The reason we are attacked is because we don’t believe the computer model predictions and resist the cries of alarm and imminent doom. Global warming may turn out to be a problem, but if it does, then it should be dealt with in a way that will do more good than harm,”

Besides viewing their CO2 is life classic, what is especially amusing is CEI's home page advertising for their hit piece on An Inconvenient Truth. Guess the webmaster did not get the FAX (old technology).