By Steve Hynd
Climate change deniers like to point out that they have scientists on their side, too. But an analysis of more than 900 papers supporting climate skepticism showed that about 20 percent of those papers came from the same 10 scientists, and nine of them, according to The Carbon Brief, have ties to ExxonMobil.
Eight of the scientists were directly connected to organizations that took money from Exxon, and one other only showed up on papers written with an Exxon-affiliated scientist. Only one of those 10 could claim to be independent of the oil giant.
Despite their backing for climate-denial so that they can keep making humungous profits from an oil-dependent America, I'm pretty sure Exxon won't be slow to throw their hat into the ring when full-scale development and exploitation of oil and gas reserves uncovered by retreating Arctic ice is possible (due to global warming, duh).
Top diplomats from eight Arctic countries will meet Thursday to set down rules for opening the vast region to fishing, tourism, oil and mineral exploration as global warming melts the ice.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her colleagues from Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden will gather in Greenland's tiny capital of Nuuk to discuss how to manage the area's development while protecting its fragile ecosystem.
...Earlier this month scientists said that warming in the Arctic is occurring at twice the global average and is on track to lift sea levels by up to 1.6 metres (5.3 feet) by 2100, a far steeper jump than predicted a few years ago.
Steinberg said Washington wants the Nuuk talks to launch a task force designed to negotiate an instrument for handling Arctic oil spills.
"We know that there are significant deposits of oil and gas that were in the past difficult to access and may become more accessible over time," he said.
The United States wants the Arctic countries to be prepared to both prevent oil spills or other disasters and to create "effective mechanisms to deal with accidents should they happen," Steinberg said.
More than one fifth of the world's undiscovered but technically recoverable reserves of hydrocarbons are located north of the Arctic Circle, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
The region accounts for about 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas, USGS data shows. About 84 percent of the resources are offshore.
Notice how Arctic oils spills are a given, and only deciding how to handle them is an option on the table? A moritorium on drilling in this ecologically fragile region is a non-starter, apparently.
P.S. Exxon gave 88% of its political donations in the 2010 cycle to Republicans.
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