ExxonMobil-Thriving on Illusion and Confusion

During the Civil War, General Robert E. Lee made cannons out of blackened logs and marched noisy troops up an down the lines to create an illusion of much greater troop strengths.  It worked. The Pinkerton spies and the press always reported much greater numbers back to the Union forces than actually existed behind Southern lines. During the Second World War, the  U.S. military deployed inflatable decoy trucks and tanks for the purpose of confusing the enemy. 

ExxonMobil is currently using the old military strategy of creating illusion and confusion to win the media battles to stop global warming:

**  Through authoritative sounding institutions, ExxonMobil has funded a bevy of decoy-scientists who are publishing documents on the web that emulate peer-reviewed science to create the illusion that many scientists are challenging the firm conclusions of thousands of peer-reviewed and published global warming studies. 

** Fund third-party surrogates like the Competitive Enterprise Institute to be host organizations for their PR stratagems.   By hiding behind others who appear objective, ExxonMobil advances its secret agenda to confuse the American public and to create cover for a reluctant Administration and support for Congressional inaction and delay. 

**  Through the CEI, they paid for an advertisement that challenges those who want to stop global warming; 

** This week a goofy parody of former Vice President Al Gore‘s film, An Inconvenient Truth, surfaced as a video produced by a self-proclaimed amateur who was in fact not an amateur but an employee of the Republican DCI  Group that has direct ties to ExxonMobil according to Antonio Regalado and Dionne Searcey of The Wall Street Journal.

By the way they handled the Exxon Valdez oil spill damages and failed to address legitimate environmental concerns while spinning an “all clean” message, ExxonMobil long ago demonstrated that it has no ecological foundation or moral compass.  They spin the media message to be what they want it to be on any given day.

By advancing its short-term corporate interests, ExxonMobil is committing crimes against the future of humanity. The failure to act in time will threaten millions of lives from more intensive hurricanes, tornadoes, coastal flooding, forest fires and severe droughts and famines.  By causing a long delay in action, ExxonMobil is bequeathing to our children a damaged and less productive planet from the ravages of global warming.  One day we will lay these deeds at ExxonMobil’s feet.