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Google Made Large Contributions To Climate Change Deniers (theguardian.com) 170

The Guardian is reporting that Google has made "substantial" contributions to some of the most notorious climate deniers in Washington despite its insistence that it supports political action on the climate crisis. McGruber writes: Among hundreds of groups the company has listed on its website as beneficiaries of its political giving are more than a dozen organisations that have campaigned against climate legislation, questioned the need for action, or actively sought to roll back Obama-era environmental protections. The list includes the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a conservative policy group that was instrumental in convincing the Trump administration to abandon the Paris agreement and has criticised the White House for not dismantling more environmental rules. Google is also listed as a sponsor for an upcoming annual meeting of the State Policy Network (SPN), an umbrella organisation that supports conservative groups including the Heartland Institute, a radical anti-science group that has chided the teenage activist Greta Thunberg for "climate delusion hysterics". SPN members recently created a "climate pledge" website that falsely states "our natural environment is getting better" and "there is no climate crisis".

Google has defended its contributions, saying that its "collaboration" with organisations such as CEI "does not mean we endorse the organisations' entire agenda".

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Google Made Large Contributions To Climate Change Deniers

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  • by Dallas May ( 4891515 ) on Friday October 11, 2019 @11:00AM (#59296046)

    Google said in a statement, "At Google, we don't support the sacking of European cities, murder of tans of thousands, and taxation of trade by ruthless war lords. But Genghis Khan does support strong pro-business policies that Google supports."

    • Google said in a statement, "At Google, we don't support the sacking of European cities, murder of tans of thousands, and taxation of trade by ruthless war lords. But Genghis Khan does support strong pro-business policies that Google supports."

      This. Please mod this up!

      We need to constantly expose corporations for their lies & deceptions & constantly remind the public of their misdeeds. Corporations are the problem: They corrupt our governments, they pollute our environment, they impoverish the majority of us, & extract obscene amounts of money from us in the process. We need more democracy & less corporate power.

      • No, we need to boycott them. When your Android dies, but something less evil. Wean yourself off YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, etc.

        Denouncing them without you taking action is what they count on. Not using their shit hurts them financially, and they won't change until enough of us give them the middle finger.

        To anyone using Google services or products , stop aiding and abetting evil (same applies to Facebook and Twitter - you won't die).

    • "Climate change deniers", the summary says, are people who "campaigned against climate legislation, questioned the need for action, or actively sought to roll back Obama-era".

      Would that by chance be legislation proposed by a Congresswoman who recently said "the world is going to end in 12 years due to climate change"?

      Or perhaps a more distinguished stateman, a REAL leader of the global warming movement, a Senator and later vice president who said California would be underwater by 2020? (While making tens of

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

        "Climate change deniers", the summary says, are people who "campaigned against climate legislation, questioned the need for action, or actively sought to roll back Obama-era".

        That's a garbage definition. Deniers deny that climate change exists despite being less qualified to make that determination than the people who say it does. You can campaign against climate legislation (etc.) even if you think AGW is real; you can either think it's less serious than claimed, or you can just want to watch the world burn.

        • by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 ) on Friday October 11, 2019 @01:06PM (#59296550) Journal
          Can you point to someone who denies that climate is changing? They may disagree with the magnitude (as all the models tend to run much, much hotter than real life), or doubt the reasons, but I don't think there are many people out there who actually deny it's changing. And has always changed.
          • Can you point to someone who denies that climate is changing?

            You mean aside from all the people who are like "It's not happening at all, and if it is we didn't cause it, and if we did it's not really that bad..." etc.?

          • by haruchai ( 17472 )

            "Can you point to someone who denies that climate is changing?
            Spend a little time on Watts Up With That and you'll find quite a few

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Friday October 11, 2019 @01:31PM (#59296642) Homepage Journal

          TFA mentions the specific groups. They are denying that there is any action we can take or that the companies who pay them are responsible for what is happening.

          Denial takes many forms, often designed to trick you with pseudo science and even by pretending to be trying to fix the problem in a way that just happens to benefit their paymasters.

          • CEI publishes many papers every year. Actually that's pretty much what they do - publish papers. So I'm sure you'll have no problem finding that statement in one of their papers.

            Now back to reality. According to AOC, her proposal would cost $10 trillion. That's $300,000 per household. Other estimates put the cost closer to $36 trillion, or a million dollars per household. CEI says that's probably not a good idea.

            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              Why do people price national policies as a "per household" amount, when in fact the cost is never paid by just households and never equally by all of them?

              Also even if it does "cost" $10 trillion, how much will you get out of it? How can you measure the value of investments like job creation?

              This is why sound countries suck at infrastructure projects, BTW. Voters who don't understand the basics of how government works, people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

        • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          You can campaign against climate legislation (etc.) even if you think AGW is real; you can either think it's less serious than claimed, or you can just want to watch the world burn.

          Agreed. That definition is crap.

          Deniers deny that climate change exists despite being less qualified to make that determination than the people who say it does.

          I wouldn't say that deniers are necessarily less qualified than supporters, on average. The vast majority of people who are talking about global climate change are not s

          • So my reaction when I read this story was, "Is your theory really so weak that it cannot stand scrutiny? If not, why are you so horrified that someone might fund someone who doesn't believe your theory?"

            I can't speak for everyone, but I don't think any significant number of people are concerned that people are spending money trying to disprove AGW. Every time someone does that, they wind up confirming it. Plus, I'd love to not believe in it myself. Reality doesn't really give two fucks what I want, unfortunately.

            What we're (or at least I'm) concerned about is people spending money on anti-AGW propaganda which conflicts with scientific understanding, because it conflicts with progress. It only supports the

            • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

              What we're (or at least I'm) concerned about is people spending money on anti-AGW propaganda which conflicts with scientific understanding, because it conflicts with progress. It only supports the status quo.

              But does it, really? I would argue that the controversy keeps the environment in the forefront of people's minds, which makes it more likely that politicians will pay attention to it and take actions that improve the environment. Without the controversy, the public could easily lose interest, and poli

              • But does it, really? I would argue that the controversy keeps the environment in the forefront of people's minds,

                People who know AGW is a thing are just disgusted by that stuff and try to avoid it. But it still encourages the denialists.

                Without the controversy, the public could easily lose interest, and politicians might stop bothering to care about the issue at all.

                No, because people will keep being angry with them as long as they don't address it. AGW is my #1 political issue because I consider it most important, not because of denialism.

      • by Ichijo ( 607641 ) on Friday October 11, 2019 @12:43PM (#59296476) Journal

        Would that by chance be legislation proposed by a Congresswoman who recently said "the world is going to end in 12 years due to climate change"?

        She misquoted the IPCC report which actually said something like "we have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe [theguardian.com]". Do you understand the difference?

        The summary suggests that if you don't go along with the most ridiculous climate change hysteria, you're just a denier.

        You're a denier if you believe Big Oil--who have a HUGE financial incentive (and the money to support it) to keep people enslaved to their cars--more than scientists, who only want to discover and share the truth. You should learn to be more skeptical!

        • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          You're a denier if you believe Big Oil--who have a HUGE financial incentive (and the money to support it) to keep people enslaved to their cars--more than scientists, who only want to discover and share the truth. You should learn to be more skeptical!

          Big Oil actually owns a lot of patents in solar power production, and those companies are highly active in producing power through other means (both in manufacturing the hardware and in building the infrastructure). Big corporations are very good at diversify

          • It's not just that energy companies (Big Oil) have diverse investments, they also fund a bunch of climate research directly.
            For example: The East Anglia Climate Research Unit - one of the big name climate change research centers - was founded by money from British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell.

            Big Oil spends billions a year on research for biofuels, carbon capture, solar, batteries, improved ICE efficiency, and so on. Biofuels are close to $400 million, solar over $1.5 billion, etc.
            By comparison, the He

        • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

          by Shotgun ( 30919 )

          You're a denier if you believe Big Oil--who have a HUGE financial incentive (and the money to support it) to keep people enslaved to their cars--more than scientists, who only want to discover and share the truth. You should learn to be more skeptical!

          I like how you cast dispersion on one set of scientist while canonizing another set. One set is demonic; the other angelic. When you hear someone describing the global warming cult as a religion, you'll now know why.

          • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

            I like how you cast dispersion on one set of scientist while canonizing another set.

            I love how you denialists keep up with your BS even when Koch-funded scientists agree that climate change is real and humans are the cause.

            When you hear someone describing the global warming cult as a religion, you'll now know why.

            Your projection is noted, denialist.

      • That's BS. If that were the case, the climate scientists would be "deniers" simply because they question each others' work, with the goal of verifying the work was done correctly.

        Yes, some folks out there misunderstand the situation and send the wrong message as a result. That doesn't mean the main message, "Barring a miracle, human civilization will be critically/fatally damaged if we don't get serious about cutting GHG emissions," is wrong.

        I also couldn't find that $40K/year number you quoted. Further
        • If the United States had a million trillionaires, the "tax the uber-wealthy" plan could work for a lot of things.

          Unfortunately, there are a LOT of middle-class people and very, very few super wealthy people. Taking ALL of the income earned by very wealthly people would fund the government for between 6 minutes and 12 hours, depending on how you choose to define "very wealthy".

          I think it was last year the Democrats proposed a tax and "wealthy" people and it turned out that in order to raise enough funds, "w

          • There are between 11,000,000 and 14,000,000 people worth more than a million (you know, what we call millionaires), so what are you doing running around as if there's less than a million millionaires?
            • Yes, there are 40 million people over age 65, and only 30% of those (the 12 million you mentioned) have saved enough to pay their bills for the rest of their life. That is indeed a problem.

              Does that have anything to with having the 25 uber wealthy people pay the $7.6 trillion that government spends in the US every year?

              Are you suggesting that we take away everyone's retirement in order to pay for the a few months of government spending?

          • Combined, some of the most GHG-contributing businesses make hundreds of billions of dollars in profit a year. No civilization means no business, so if they want to make profits in the future, they need to fight climate change today.
      • Nobody said that. It's more like a sliding scale, hitting primarily red states and wealthy people with coastal views, causing $700 billion in damages from increased storms, floods, fires, crop failures, insalation, etc if we haven't completed 80% in 8 years, and 100% in 11 years.

        Inaction is not your friend, it just exponentially increases both the cost and the intensity.

        • > primarily red states and wealthy people with coastal views, causing $700 billion in damages from increased storms, floods, fires, crop failures, insalation

          Okay, let's assume you're right. The cost of inaction is $700 billion.

          According to AOC, the cost of her proposal is $10 trillion.
          Other estimates put the cost of her proposal at $32 trillion.

          So - doing nothing might cause $700 billion costs.
          AOC's plan comes at a cost of about $28 TRILLION.

          Given those choices, I'll take "do nothing" for a savings of $

      • Wow, you got modded 4 insightful? Slashdot has become complete trash.

        • Either everybody on Slashdot suddenly turned insane, or it's reasonable to think that maybe we don't actually have to spend $300,000 - $3,000,000 per household just because AOC said we should.

          Sometimes sports fans have a really hard time accepting it when their team does something dumb. Sometimes politics fans are the same way.

    • Totally of topic, but in his own day, Genghis Khan was heavily cheered by the Europeans. Chaucer wrote a story about him, for example. The word "yahoo" came from Mongolian. This is mainly a result of the mongols destroying the enemies of the Europeans at the time.
  • Not everything (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Shaitan ( 22585 ) on Friday October 11, 2019 @11:00AM (#59296054)

    Unless that is the only thing those organizations do I fail to see the point. It sounds like they are conservative organizations and Google is a business. I imagine there is quite a bit they do which is in line with Google's business needs.

    Also, Google doing evil is hardly newsworthy anymore. What needs more attention is that corporations are being allowed to leverage cash to influence politics. Cash should not influence politics at all but Google is a stack of paper, it shouldn't get a voice, the people who work there or own shares already have their own vote. ONE vote each and that should be without regard to dollars.

    • It's way too late for that in the US where you can't run for any office without big campaign donations.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

        It's way too late for that in the US where you can't run for any office without big campaign donations.

        Unless you run on a liberal platform like AOC or Sanders, you mean? I guess we know which wing applies money to the mouth location, and which just talks a lot of shit.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

      Unless that is the only thing those organizations do I fail to see the point.

      So you fail. So what? At least some of these organizations do little else, like the "Competitive Enterprise Institute".

      Also, Google doing evil is hardly newsworthy anymore. What needs more attention is that corporations are being allowed to leverage cash to influence politics.

      And this is a story about it, and you fail to see the point.

      • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        "At least some of these organizations do little else, like the "Competitive Enterprise Institute""

        That may well be. My argument was with the tone and suggestion of the summary that supporting someone who disagrees on a single point is necessarily bad.

        "So you fail. So what?"

        So it is a comment thread and I'm expressing my opinion. That is what this space is for.

        It is an example of black and white thinking as presented. Just because a third party does something you don't agree with or oppose doesn't mean you c

  • by beepsky ( 6008348 ) on Friday October 11, 2019 @11:01AM (#59296060)
    > A spokesperson for Google said it sponsored organizations from across the political spectrum that advocate for “strong technology policies”.
    So they donated to them because of political reasons completely unrelated to climate policy.

    Jesus, shut the fuck up. Organizations can have more than one dimension, and donating to them because they support one thing doesn't mean you support them in literally everything they have and will ever do. The world is not black and white
    • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Friday October 11, 2019 @11:14AM (#59296094) Homepage Journal

      Jesus, shut the fuck up. Organizations can have more than one dimension, and donating to them because they support one thing doesn't mean you support them in literally everything they have and will ever do.

      What is one positive thing the CEI has done?

      • CEI successfully appealed a Google class-action settlement that would have given the lawyers millions of dollars while giving the plaintiffs not even a coupon. In fact, they've done that in several dozen cases. Unfair class-actions settlements is one of their activist issues.

        • CEI successfully appealed a Google class-action settlement that would have given the lawyers millions of dollars while giving the plaintiffs not even a coupon.

          So why did Google give them money? To get them to stop? Are they the Yelp of class-action lawsuits?

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by e3m4n ( 947977 )

      I love how the social bullying system now labels everyone a 'denier' or 'hate group' on anything and anyone that disagrees with them. Then they claim 'the time for debate is past, it is a settled science'. Yea right. If it was a 'settled science' then their predictions would be 100% accurate, which they aren't. Whether the planet is warming slower than they predicted, or its warming faster than they predicted, it doesnt fucking matter, they still predicted wrong, and by a big margin. In fact they were so w

      • by MobyDisk ( 75490 ) on Friday October 11, 2019 @12:07PM (#59296318) Homepage

        Your entire rant is so vague and clueless it could about absolutely anything. You could post it in reply to a discussion about raising interest rates, terraforming mars, or impeachment, and by changing a few words it would totally fit.

        If it was a 'settled science' then their predictions would be 100% accurate,

        Wrong. The fact that planes can fly is "settled science" but our predictions about laminar flow of air across a wing shape are not 100% accurate. Yet we still build planes successfully! The fact that human CO2 emissions contribute to global warming is "settled science" but our predictions about specific temperature increases in different areas of the globe are not 100% accurate. Yet we still can build levies and plant trees successfully.

        they still predicted wrong, and by a big margin.

        Who is this mysterious "they" and what prediction is wrong by a "big margin?" Is "they" the entire scientific community? Your generalizations are so sweeping as to become meaningless.

        so wrong they got caught altering scientific measurements

        Who are you accusing, and what exactly are you accusing them of? Again, sweeping nonsense statements.

        There have already been some pretty insane proposals coming from these 'settled scientists'

        What the heck is a "settled scientist." You are just making up terms. What proposals from who? Making more stuff up.

        Who modded that post to 5???

        • Who modded that post to 5???

          Maybe Google is making large donations of modpoints to climate denialists

      • I love how the social bullying system now labels everyone a 'denier' or 'hate group' on anything and anyone that disagrees with them.

        Yes, the stereotyping and prejudice based on a single aspect of a multi-faceted, complex individual is wrong. What we need is more professional discourse based on data.

        Then they claim 'the time for debate is past, it is a settled science'. Yea right. If it was a 'settled science' then their predictions would be 100% accurate, which they aren't. Whether the planet is warming slower than they predicted, or its warming faster than they predicted, it doesnt fucking matter, they still predicted wrong, and by a big margin.

        No, climate change is not "settled science", whatever that means. I personally think the discussion of and the pointed use of the term "settled science" is mostly a red herring and strawman because I'm not sure that term is all that useful. We still have earnest scientists trying to test the arguably settled science of relativity. Regardi

      • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

        I love how the social bullying system now labels everyone a 'denier'

        Hardly everyone. Deniers are called deniers, because you reflexively deny things you don't like out of petulant butthurt. See also, antivaxxers and Young Earth Creationists.

        If it was a 'settled science' then their predictions would be 100% accurate, which they aren't.

        100% is a red herring. But climate models going back to the previous century have proved remarkably prescient in their predictions.

    • by Zedrick ( 764028 )
      > Jesus, shut the fuck up. Organizations can have more than one dimension, and donating to them because they support one thing
      > doesn't mean you support them in literally everything they have and will ever do. The world is not black and white

      Right. Let's bring back the NSDAP! They werent ALL bad, and they were big on animal welfare. That's a good thing, right?
    • Fair enough. Let's check the article to see some of the positive things that CEI has done:

      CEI has opposed regulation of the internet and enforcement of antitrust rules, and has defended Google against some Republicans’ claims that the search engine has an anti-conservative bias.

      Well, surely that balances all of the damage done by their anti-environmental lobbying.

    • Agree or disagree with the intents, it's still corporate donation intended to inflluence legislations. That's borderline immoral in my books; even if I agree with the ends I don't like the means. Corporate political power is drowning out the democratic process, and it's time to stop allowing corporations to have the same rights as people if they don't have the same responsibilities as people.

  • by cyberchondriac ( 456626 ) on Friday October 11, 2019 @11:05AM (#59296070) Journal

    The mentality behind political divisions is getting increasingly mob-like.

    • It's true that this is a possible outcome of democracy, especially when political divisions are acriminous (ie, they hate each other rather than considering the adversaries to be the loyal opposition). The problem here is that this all sends a huge signal to autocratic countries that democracy is broken and should never be attempted, and better to keep the monarch, dictator, warlord, CEO, etc.

  • The same Google? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bickerdyke ( 670000 ) on Friday October 11, 2019 @11:07AM (#59296076)

    It's the same Google that also spent huge sums on building datacenters powerd by regenerative energies and I'm sure if you would look you'd find donations to climate activists, too.

    In other words: I dare say that Google makes donations to any side.

    So either this is some kind of really evil hegemonial double-play playing each side against each other, or their charity department lost track of who is getting donations. Using the usual rule of thumb it's stupidity, not maliciousnes.

  • They've also indirectly given money to Political Group A's disinterest, as well as Political Group B's disinterest.

    Companies like this tend to spread money around in order to keep their name at the top of client's minds... "do we go with cloud services from Google, or Amazon, or Microsoft? OH yea, I remember that donation that Google gave to a branch of our company that doesn't have jack all to do with anything we really stand for... wasn't that nice? Get Google on the phone so we can chat about their cloud

  • To be fair: They did do away with the whole "Don't be evil" thing and they have shareholders to worry about. In short, they are just another soulless corp.

  • sigh (Score:2, Informative)

    a radical anti-science group that has chided the teenage activist Greta Thunberg for "climate delusion hysterics"

    Chiding Thunberg does not make one "anti science".

    Claiming that there are 57 genders, or that you can change your gender merely by dressing funny and wishing it, or that a baby isn't human until you take it home from the hospital, kinda does make one anti-science, however.

    Physician, heal thyself ...

  • It's OK to actually be friendly and nice to people who are not 100% perfectly aligned with your own, myopic view of the world. Tolerance was supposed to be a virtue, but now it's become a branded mark of shame and scorn.
  • You DO realize, I hope, that someone who simply believes government legislation isn't the way to solve climate issues doesn't make them a "denier"?

    I'm really tired of that term. I've never once attempted to argue that our climate isn't really changing. We used to have an ice age and now we don't, for example.

    Even a person like Donald Trump is known for over-simplifying practically every statement he makes about a subject. So we don't even *really* know if he denies the climate is changing. He could easi

  • You cannot purport that you support a cause while also collaborating with or providing financial or material aid or support to individuals or organizations that oppose the selfsame cause. One negates the other.
  • Seems like there are always charlatans successfully promoting a pseudoscience. Marxism and Freudian psychology are two historical examples. Both of those belief systems are absolute nonsense, but they became popular because the majority of people are not sufficiently intelligent to distinguish fake science from real science. I started college when those beliefs were in vogue and could not find anyone on the faculty with a brain in their head who believed that stuff. It was popular in the arts, humanitie

  • As in, is it illegal? It is their choice. They could give zillions to the flat earthers or Monster Raving Loony party or maybe even Donald Trump.

Get hold of portable property. -- Charles Dickens, "Great Expectations"

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