skippy the bush kangaroo: gored

Monday, October 15, 2007

gored

remember that court case in england where the judge ruled that al gore's movie had "9 factual errors"? turns out that the suit was brought by someone who was backed by a very rich owner of mines in britain. ukobserver:

the school governor who challenged the screening of al gore's climate change documentary in secondary schools was funded by a scottish quarrying magnate who established a controversial lobbying group to attack environmentalists' claims about global warming...

the observer has established that dimmock's case was supported by a powerful network of business interests with close links to the fuel and mining lobbies...

dimmock credited the little-known new party [ed. note: the name of the party is the "new party"] with supporting him in the test case but did not elaborate on its involvement. the obscure scotland-based party calls itself 'centre right' and campaigns for lower taxes and expanding nuclear power.

records filed at the electoral commission show the new party has received nearly all of its money - almost £1m between 2004 and 2006 - from cloburn quarry limited, based in lanarkshire.

the company's owner and chairman of the new party, robert durward, is a long-time critic of environmentalists. with mark adams, a former private secretary to tony blair, he set up the scientific alliance, a not-for-profit body comprising scientists and non-scientists, which aims to challenge many of the claims about global warming.

not for profit? well, that can't be bad, then, can it? think again...

in 2004 the alliance co-authored a report with the george c marshall institute, a us body funded by exxon mobil, that attacked climate change claims. 'climate change science has fallen victim to heated political and media rhetoric ... the result is extensive misunderstanding,' the report's authors said.

martin livermore, director of the alliance, confirmed durward continued to support its work. 'he provides funds with other members,' livermore said.

say, are there some coal and oil stains on your grassroots there?

the scotsman had a 2003 profile of mr. durward, in which he doesn't come off as somebody whose opinions you'd trust enough to discuss science with him:

outspoken on europe, an avowed enemy of environmentalists, an opponent of "witchhunts" against drink-drivers and an advocate of letting the army sort out schools, hospitals, and roads, robert wilson menzies durward, 51, has a track record of putting his money where his mouth is when he wants to get his political point across.

and yet the lanark businessman is proving uncharacteristically reluctant to emerge from the shadows to take credit for his role in the creation of a party so right-wing that the scottish tory leader, david mcletchie, has been moved to dismiss it as "fascist and undemocratic".

sure, he's the kind of guy we want to control the debate over global warming.

addendum: al gore responds to the 9 supposed "errors."

Labels: environment, global warming, gore, judicial