How Tobacco Shills Inspired Climate Denial

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DeSmog UKโ€™s history series examines how the tobacco industryโ€™s PR tactics proved inspirational for the army of climate changeย deniers.

Dr Fred Singer and his sceptic Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) would become an increasingly important platoon in the army assembling against climateย science.

Along with the late Dr Frederick Seitz โ€“ a founder of the Marshall Institute โ€“ the SEPP would use PR tactics developed by the tobacco industry to question and undermine climateย science.

Seitz, for example, accused the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of producing scientific summaries โ€œexaggerating riskโ€ฆ solely โ€“ we suspect โ€“ to satisfy an ideological objective of aggressively constraining the use ofย energy.โ€

Meanwhile, Singer (pictured) was busy raising money. He proposed to one oil industry PR firm that they should support a $95,000 project. This would include lectures and publications designed to attack the IPCC and help โ€œstem the tide towards ever more onerous controls on energyย use.โ€

Shortly after, Singer testified at the US House of Representativesโ€™ Energy and Commerce Committeeโ€™s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that โ€œthere is no scientific consensus on ozone depletion or itsย consequences.โ€

Industry-Funded

Singer also appeared on the popular American programme Nightline to tell viewers that the climate change science had been exaggerated, but when pressed he was forced to admit that he had in the past received funding from oil companies Exxon, Shell and ARCO.

Ross Gelbspan, the American investigative journalist who first exposed Singerโ€™s oil funding, at the time raised serious concerns about the โ€œprofound conflict of interestโ€ which arises when a scientist claiming climate change is not happening is funded byย Exxon.

He asked: โ€œWhat would happen if the industry-funded โ€˜greenhouse skepticsโ€™ just happened to stumble on a clue that the warming of the planet is, indeed, intensifying โ€“ and that the findings of the IPCC have validity? Would they be willing to change the direction of their research and, in the process, risk of cutting off their industryย funding?โ€

But Singer used the SEPP not only to attack climate science but also to aggressively attack the latest research showing that even passive smoking could cause cancer, leading to millions of painful deaths โ€“ all the while being paid directly by the tobaccoย companies.

Tobaccoย Benefits

The eminent scientist drafted a report called The EPA and the Science of Environmental Tobacco Smoke, which was commissioned and funded by the industryโ€™s Tobacco Institute via the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution.

A private memo sent to Walter Woodson, senior vice president at the Tobacco Institute, provided Singerโ€™s curriculum vitae and suggested the industry lobby pay $20,000 for support in challenging the impacts of environmental tobacco smoke. A further internal document shows that the Tobacco Institute forwarded the cash to the Alexis de Tocquevilleย Institute.

Singer also benefited less directly from the millions of dollars the tobacco firms were providing to American thinkย tanks.

In January 1995, he moved into the offices of the Atlas Foundation, which had been set up by the libertarian think tank founder Antony Fisher in his tireless crusade against totalitarianism, the state andย regulations.

Atlas posted on its website: โ€œFor those who believe public policy should be based on sound science, Dr. Singer offers a wealth of information, credibility andย encouragement.โ€

The think tank was paid $475,000 by Philip Morris, the tobacco giant engaged in a fierce legal and public relations battle to deny the scientific consensus on tobaccoย smoke.

While Singer was just one pawn in a much bigger game being executed by the tobacco industry, it did not stop him learning from their public relations strategies. Later, he would apply their tactics to the task of undermining the public trust in climateย science.

โ€˜Soundย Scienceโ€™

In June 1994, a year prior to Singer moving to Atlas, Philip Morris began working with the public relations firm APCO Associates to launch The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC). This coalition falsely claimed to be a โ€œgrassrootsโ€ organisation advocating โ€œsound scienceโ€ in policy decisionย making.

Burson Marsteller โ€“ the same PR company advising the oil industry โ€“ was hired to organise and promote seminars as part of what they called the Sound Science Project. The public relations experts told the tobacco company that funding would have to be found from other interest groups if the project was to have any chance of succeeding in influencingย scientists.


Photo: Kadaltik via Flickr

โ€œIt is absolutely vital that we succeed in getting funding of the seminar from a broader group of sponsors than just PM [Philip Morris],โ€ stated one secret memo. โ€œOtherwise we would not be able to ensure the credibility of the seminar in relation to theย scientists.โ€

โ€œAnd if the seminar has not got that credibility, then outcomes of the meeting will not have great value,โ€ it continued. This advice would prove hugelyย significant.

Corporateย America

The tobacco companies took it on board. They began to reach out to other corporate giants whose profits were threatened by scientific research proving their products were dangerous to public health and the naturalย environment.

Corporate America began to resist the calls for regulations, and in the process discovered the tremendous value of free market ideology with its distrust of the state, as promoted by Friedrich Hayek, John Blundell, Fisher, the Koch brothers, and soย on.

The arguments presented by tobacco to protect its financial interests would echo the sincere beliefs of theย libertarians.

โ€œScience should never be corrupted to achieve political ends,โ€ they planned to tell the public. โ€œEconomic growth cannot afford to be held hostage to paternalistic,ย overregulation.โ€

Big Tobacco spent $100,000 setting up the Restoring Integrity to Science Coalition โ€œto educate the media, public officials and the public about the dangers of โ€˜junkย scienceโ€™.โ€

The industry would also โ€œcreate a shadow version of the US Competitive Councilโ€ฆ It would promote the need to balance environmental regulation with economicย growth.โ€

Britishย Regulations

Across the pond, the tobacco industry in Britain found some firm friends at free market think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). The pipe-smoking Lord Harris of High Cross had formed FOREST to directly challenge the governmentโ€™s attempt to set increasingly stringent regulations to reduce smoking in the interests of publicย health.

The measures being suggested were a ban on advertising and also the curtailing of smoking in offices, pubs and public spaces. FOREST argued that such regulations would undermine the economy, close down businesses and, most importantly, were a totalitarian infringement on the rights of the private individual to choose to smoke if they soย wish.

FOREST published Through the Smokescreen of โ€œScienceโ€: The Dangers of Politically Corrupted Science for Democratic Public Policy in Decemberย 1994.

Harris also chaired the advisory council with his IEA colleague professor David Myddelton, the popular author and journalist Auberon Waugh, and the soon-to-be disgraced MP Neilย Hamilton.

An Obviousย Partner

The IEA, with its long history of receiving funding from tobacco, and institutional ties to the Atlas Foundation in the US, would be an obvious partner in any initiative to bring the Sound Science initiative toย Britain.

Tom Hockaday from APCO sent an internal memo to Matt Winokur at Philip Morris in March 1994, advising that a โ€œTASSC-like groupโ€ should also be formed in Europe to counter the formulation of regulations ofย smoking.

Winokur confirmed that he knew Roger Bate at the IEAโ€™s Environment Unit, but claimed that after almost 20 years he could not remember he worked with him to establish the European Science and Environment Forum during the โ€˜90s.ย ย ย 

He told me: โ€œThis sounds like a bad line from a movie but I really have noย recollection.โ€

Next time, DeSmog UKโ€™s epic history series will focus on one humble pamphlet that would prove critical in the relentless critique of climateย science.

@brendanmontague

Photo:ย DeSmogBlog

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