ExxonMobil Accused of Misleading Public

Cambridge, Mass. -- A recent report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a non-profit environmental advocacy group based here, claims that ExxonMobil created an "enormously successful" campaign that funded groups to confuse the public on the scientific consensus concerning global warming, reported ABC News.

The report was "an attempt to smear our name and confuse the discussion of the serious issue of [carbon dioxide] emissions and global climate change," ExxonMobil spokesman Dave Gardner told ABC News via email. In a later statement, Gardner removed the comment, but emphasized that "many of the [report's] conclusions are inaccurate."

The report, entitled "Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to "Manufacture Uncertainty" on Climate Change," alleges that between 1998 and 2005, the company gave nearly $16 million to 43 groups and 16 individuals to "manufacture uncertainty" about greenhouse gases, in an attempt to stall any legislation on the subject. The UCS -- which began in 1969 as a collaboration between students and faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to the organization's Web site -- stated that the figures came from ExxonMobil corporate reports.

"ExxonMobil has, in a cynical and manipulative strategy, helped create a kind of echo chamber to amplify the views of a carefully-selected group of spokespeople whose work has been largely discredited by the scientific community," Seth Schulman, the report's primary author, said in a conference call with reporters last week.

Additionally, the report states that "public opinion can be easily manipulated because science is complex, because people tend not to notice where their information comes from and because the effects of global warming are just beginning to become visible."

Most climate scientists contend that human activities have caused the greenhouse gas effect that is warming the globe, and ExxonMobil agrees, the report stated.

"Even with many scientific uncertainties, the risk that greenhouse gas emissions may have serious impacts justifies taking action," Exxon's Gardner said. "What is clear today is that greenhouse gas emissions are one of the factors that contribute to climate change, and that the use of fossil fuels is a major source of these emissions."

However, its contributions to organizations -- the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the George C. Marshall Institute, Heritage Foundation and the Media Research Center -- are an attempt to skew evidence of global warming, the UCS stated.

ExxonMobil is currently reviewing the organization's funding, and stated that one of the groups the UCS claims to have received funding -- the Competitive Enterprise Institute -- has not received any of ExxonMobil's money in 2006.

"Our support extends to a fairly broad array of organizations," Gardner said in the email to ABC News. "Our financial support does not connote any substantive control over or responsibility for the policy recommendations or analyses they produce."