A new investigation by Mother Jones magazine has revealed that ExxonMobil
has spent at least $8 million funding a network of groups to challenge the
existence of global warming. The magazine has identified 40 think tanks,
media outlets and other organizations including the American Enterprise
Institute, the Annapolis Center For Science-Based Public Policy, the
Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Media Research Center. The report
also names a list of so-called experts that have been paid to publicly
question global warming. The list includes Steven Milloy who is a columnist
for FoxNews.com. Two groups run out of his home have received $90,000 from
Exxon Mobil. Mother Jones also reports that less than a month after
President Bush took office, an Exxon-Mobil lobbyist named Randy Randol sent
a memo suggesting certain climate experts from the Clinton administration
should be "removed from their positions of influence" A year later the Bush
administration blocked one of the scientists - Robert Watson - from his post
at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The magazine's report
comes as environmentalists are preparing to celebrate the 35th anniversary
of Earth Day on Friday.