Dr. Brulle reported in 2013 that an analysis of the financial resource mobilization of the organizations that make up the climate change counter-movement (CCCM) in the United States. Utilizing IRS data, total annual income is compiled for a sample of CCCM organizations (including advocacy organizations, think tanks, and trade associations). These data are coupled with IRS data on philanthropic foundation funding of these CCCM organizations contained in the Foundation Center’s data base. This results in a data sample that contains financial information for the time period 2003 to 2010 on the annual income of 91 CCCM organizations funded by 140 different foundations. An examination of these data shows that these 91 CCCM organizations have an annual income of just over $900 million, with an annual average of $64 million in identifiable foundation support. The overwhelming majority of the philanthropic support comes from conservative foundations. Additionally, there is evidence of a trend toward concealing the sources of CCCM funding through the use of donor directed philanthropies.
As 2012 ended, a series of increasingly dire predictions regarding the impacts of anthropogenic climate change were issued (International Energy Agency 2012; World Bank 2012). These warnings were amplified when the National Research Council (2012) and the National Intelligence Council (2012), both issued reports warning of the adverse political and security impacts that such levels of warming would foster. Even as the consequences of the “settled facts” (NRC 2011: 22) of anthropogenic climate change were amplified, the level of understanding of this issue in the U.S. remained low. In response to a survey question in the fall of 2012:1 Do scientists believe that earth is getting warmer because of human activity? 43 % replied no, and another 12 % didn’t know. Only 45 % of the U.S. public accurately reported the near unanimity of the scientific community about anthropogenic climate change. This result reflects a broad misunderstanding of climate science by the general public.
A number of analyses have shown that one major factor driving this misunderstanding and an overall lack of legislative action is a deliberate and organized effort to misdirect the public discussion and distort the public’s understanding of climate change (National Research Council 2011: 35). This literature has revealed a great deal about the nature of efforts to deny and/or distort climate science. It clearly shows that a number of conservative think tanks, trade associations, and advocacy organizations are the key organizational components of a well-organized climate change counter-movement (CCCM) that has not only played a major role in confounding public understanding of climate science, but also successfully delayed meaningful government policy actions to address the issue.
In order for these ongoing efforts to continue, it is imperative that the CCCM organizations mobilize sufficient financial resources. Thus an examination of the funding sources of the CCCM can provide a deeper understanding of the institutional dimensions of this effort. To the extent that CCCM funding has been studied, the analyses have focused on the giving patterns of a few major corporate funders, primarily ExxonMobil and Koch Enterprises, and their relationships with a few highly visible CCCM organizations. The existing studies provide a provocative but limited analysis of the organizational dynamics of the denial campaign. Thus, despite the importance of the organized effort to deny climate change and thus the need to deal with it, there has yet to be a comprehensive analysis of the funding flows that maintain this campaign.
This paper initiates an analysis of the funding dynamics of the organized effort to prevent the initiation of policies designed to limit the carbon emissions that are driving anthropogenic climate change. The efforts of the CCCM span a wide range of activities, including political lobbying, contributions to political candidates, and a large number of communication and media efforts that aim at undermining climate science. This analysis focuses on the institutional building effort of the CCCM organizations that carry out these different activities. Specifically, it focuses on the financial support that enables the creation and maintenance of the organizations that constitute the core of the CCCM. This analysis centers on three questions. The first question is: What is the climate change counter-movement? Here Brulle argues that an efficacious approach to defining this movement is to view it as a cultural contestation between a social movement advocating restrictions on carbon emissions and a counter movement opposed to such action. Using this perspective, the key organizations of the U.S. CCCM are identified. This allows for an assessment of a second question, How are these organizations financially maintained? Utilizing the perspective of resource mobilization, this paper examines the financial structure of these organizations and identifies their sources of monetary support. Establishing these funding sources then allows for an assessment of the third question: How do these organizations and their funders interact to form a social movement? Utilizing network analysis, this paper traces the links between philanthropic foundations and the organizations they fund. This analysis shows the overall pattern of resource mobilization of CCCM organizations, and allows for a series of observations about the nature of the interactions between CCCM organizations and foundations.
In further developments on this subject, climate-action advocates have underestimated the strength and sophistication of decades-long fossil fuel-funded misinformation campaigns and need a coordinated set of strategies to fight back, say leading academics. Among those strategies, say the three researchers from Yale and Brown University, are promoting financial transparency, suing misinformers and their funders, and researching the vast networks of think tanks and front groups.
Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, Yale University's Professor Justin Farrell and Kathryn McConnell, together with Brown University’s Professor Robert Brulle, say people working on responses to climate change “cannot afford to underestimate the economic influence, institutional complexity, strategic sophistication, financial motivation, and societal impact of the networks” behind climate misinformation campaigns.
Brulle, who is also an academic at Drexel University, told DeSmog that after conversations with leaders of environment groups and foundations, he had concluded “there is virtually no understanding of the nature or extent of misinformation efforts and organized efforts to stop climate action.”
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