How Donald Trump Kingmaker-Billionaires Robert and Rebekah Mercer Have Poured Millions Into Climate Science Denial

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When it comes to climate science denial, some names come easily and deservingly toย mind.

Thereโ€™s oil giant ExxonMobil โ€” a company that contributedย millions of dollars to organizations that told the public there was no risk from burning fossilย fuels.

There are the oil billionaire Koch brothers โ€” Charles and David โ€” and their ideological zeal against government regulations that drove them to pour vast amounts into groups spreading doubt on the realities of human-caused globalย warming.

But a name that has not yet reached those heights of climate science denial infamy โ€” but likely should โ€” is the Mercerย family.

Who Are theย Mercers?

A DeSmog analysis of Federal Electoral Commission returns shows Robert Mercer, the reclusive hedge fund manager, has donated $30.1 million to politics since January 2015 (a further $2.3 million has come from daughter Rebekah and wifeย Diana).

Some $15 million of Robert Mercerโ€™s money went into the Make America Number 1 super-PAC that was headed by Rebekah Mercer and that bankrolled the final months of Donald Trumpโ€™s campaign.ย One source told The Hill: โ€œThe Mercers basically own thisย campaign.โ€

But DeSmog has found the Mercers have also pumped at least $22 millionย into organizations that push climate science denial while blocking moves to cut greenhouse gasย emissions.

Trump too refuses to accept the evidence that climate change is caused by humans and has consistently called the issue aย hoax.

Before diverting to Trump, the Mercers’ cash was backing Senator Ted Cruz, who made climate science denial a main feature of his speeches.

Those positions on climate change, challenged byย every major scientific institution in the world, are identical to those of the groups and individuals theย Mercers have been handsomely funding through their own familyย foundation.

Climate science denial also fits well with Robert Mercerโ€™s reported investment in Breitbart โ€” the hyper partisan media outfit that calls climate change a hoax. Many see Breitbart as Trumpโ€™s very own propaganda vehicle โ€” the Trump Pravda.

Steve Bannon, Breitbartโ€™s former chief, was picked by Trump (or, more likely, by the Mercers) to lead his campaign. The controversial figure will be Trumpโ€™s chiefย strategist.

Climate Denialย Funded

Very little is known about what the Mercers think about climate change or, for that matter, anything else.ย  Both father and daughter avoid mediaย interviews.

But Rebekah has been described as the most powerful woman in GOP politics and is a pivotal member of the Trump team. Rebekah also runs her fatherโ€™s charitableย foundation.

So, the best way to get a handle on what the Mercers think, is to see where they spend theirย millions.

DeSmog has analyzed the Mercer Family Foundationโ€™s tax returns since 2005 and finds some $22 million has gone to groups pushing climate scienceย denial.

Across the board, the groups funded by the Mercers have misrepresented climate science, promoted fossil fuels, denigrated renewable energy, and pushed to strip powers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The Chicago-based Heartland Institute has received $4,988,000 from the Mercers,ย cashing its first $1 million check inย 2008.

The Heartland Institute holds regular โ€œinternational climate change conferencesโ€ where denialists, fossil fuel-funded scientists, and politicians come together to talkย tactics.

In 2012, the institute famously started a billboard campaign that used a picture of terrorist Ted โ€œUnabomberโ€ Kaczynski next to the phrase: โ€œI still believe in global warming. Doย you?โ€

Despite the generosity of the Mercers, the Heartland Institute does not publicly acknowledge the funding, perhaps indicative of the Mercers’ desire to stay below theย radar.

The Mercerย name was even left out of internal Heartland budget documents leaked in 2012.ย If the Mercers had asked for anonymity, then Heartlandโ€™s coyness is notย unusual.

Another organization shy about getting cash from the Mercer Family Foundation is the George W. Bush Foundation,ย the organization set up in 2006 to look after the official archive of the George W. Bushย presidency.

The George W. Bush Foundation publishes a lengthy list of its financial supporters and the Mercers are not on it.ย But tax records show the Mercers have given the Bush Foundation $4.1 million sinceย 2010.

Oregonย Petition

Alongside funding for Breitbart and the Heartland Institute, Robert Mercer has also spent $1.25 million supporting an obscure group known as the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, led by Art Robinson.

Robinson was behind a long-debunked โ€œsurveyโ€ of university graduates, known as the Oregon petition. First published in 1998, the petition claimed that 30,000 โ€œscientistsโ€ had declared humans were not to blame for globalย warming.

Robinson also thinks climate change is a hoax.ย  His institute sells nuclear survival manuals, is currently stockpiling human urine for testing, and sells home schooling kits for parents worried about their children being exposed toย socialism.

Robert Mercer also supported Art Robinsonโ€™s failed 2010 Republican run forย Congress.

As well as Robert and his family donating to Robinsonโ€™s campaign committee, Robert Mercer personally gave $643,750 to a super-PAC that ran attack ads against Robinsonโ€™s Democratic opponent (that opponent, Peter DeFazio, has noted that he had co-sponsored legislation to tax hedge fund transactions).

The biggest beneficiary of Mercer Family Foundation cash is the Media Research Centerย (MRC), a group which claims credit for convincing Americans that most of the media has a โ€œliberalโ€ย bias.

The MRCโ€™s outlets regularly give favorable coverage to climate science denialism, while ridiculing credentialed climate scientists and others who place a priority on cutting greenhouse gasย emissions.

MRC alumnusย Marc Morano, communications manager at the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, recruited his former employer to help him produce the climate science denial documentary Climate Hustle. Rebekah Mercer is an MRCย director.

The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research is another group on the receiving end of the Mercers’ generosity, to the tune ofย more than $1 million sinceย 2011.ย 

The instituteโ€™s researchers tend to argue against renewable energy while promoting fossil fuels and underplaying or ignoring the impacts of climateย change.

Rebekah Mercer recently joined the instituteโ€™s board ofย trustees.

The Heritage Foundation is a relative newcomer to the Mercer familyโ€™s giving, but the think tankโ€™s positions on energy, political ideology, and climate science fit the pattern perfectly โ€” underplay and misrepresent the science, promote fossil fuels, and push for low governmentย regulations.ย 

Predictably, Rebekah Mercer is a trustee at Heritage,ย a think tank seen as influential in the Trump camp.ย The Trump team is drawing heavily from Heritage Foundation staff for its transitionย teams.ย 

On the EPA โ€œlanding teamโ€ is Heritageโ€™s David Kreutzer, who claims the recent run of record-breaking hot years globally is nothing unusual.

Rebekah Mercer is also on the board of the Moving Picture Institute (MPI), a group that helps finance and distribute movies which, according to its website, โ€œmake an impact on people’s understanding of individual rights, limited government, and freeย markets.โ€ย 

MPI even has a program to support stand-up comedians who promote this โ€œfreedomโ€ย ideology in their stand-upย routines.

Climate Denialโ€™s Most Powerfulย Ally?

Until now, the Mercer familyโ€™s funding of climate science denial groups hasย gone relativelyย unnoticed.

Most of the attention of investigative journalists had fallen on three overlapping groups that have either influenced or funded the climate science denial movement across the Unitedย States.

The first was the network of groups funded and orchestrated by the Koch brothers, who have invested millions into creating and sustaining conservative โ€œthink tanksโ€ that take positions protecting the Koch brothers’ fossil fuelย interests.

Groups like the Cato Institute (which cashed a $300,000 Mercer check last year) and Americans for Prosperity have attacked the science of human-caused climate change while challenging the legitimacy of solutions, such as renewable energy and electricย vehicles.

The second key funding stream for climate science denial organizations are two linked organizations called Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund.

Both Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund are โ€œdonor-advised fundsโ€ and are used by rich conservatives to funnel money to โ€œlibertarianโ€ causes while hiding the identity of theย donors.

A third majorย supporter of the climate science denial industry are those who stand to lose most from the public fully understanding the implications of climate change โ€” the fossil fuel industryย itself.

Companies including ExxonMobil, Peabody Energy, and Koch Industries, alongside trade groups representing the fossil fuel industry, have helped fund the machinery of doubt forย decades.

Now, Robert Mercerโ€™s fortune and the political prowess of daughter Rebekah have created another wealthy and powerful ally for the climate science denialย industry.

President-elect Donald Trump is the most powerful vehicle yet for those billionaires willing to spend big to misrepresent climate science and gamble on societyโ€™sย future.

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