The DeSmoggers of the AIDS movement

onJul 6, 2007 @ 09:30 PDT

When it comes to denying overwhelming scientific evidence it seems that climate change does not hold the entire market. A recent article in Science magazine covered a new website called AIDStruth.org that seems to have a very similar mandate to that of DeSmogBlog.

AIDStruth was launched by AIDS researchers, clinicans and activists fed up with a small but very vocal group of people skeptical of the link between HIV and AIDS. Their website features a section called “Debunking the Denialist Myths” and another providing information on “AIDS Denialists.”

According to AIDStruth founder Nathan Geffen, “Many people who had fought denialism in the early 1990s had lost interest in the subject, but in South Africa, it was at its peak. South Africa has more people living with HIV than any other country, and it’s also been a place where AIDS denialism has had political support with terrible results.”

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.