Climate Sunday: Charlie and David Koch and the Denial Factory

Via KochCash. org

It's kind of an open secret that one of the reasons that climate denialism persists is--it's well-funded by the exact same folks who benefit from it. But it never hurts to be reminded--as The Independent's Steve Connor shows in a recent report:

A secretive funding organisation in the United States that guarantees anonymity for its billionaire donors has emerged as a major operator in the climate "counter movement" to undermine the science of global warming, The Independent has learnt. 

The Donors Trust, along with its sister group Donors Capital Fund, based in Alexandria, Virginia, is funnelling millions of dollars into the effort to cast doubt on climate change without revealing the identities of its wealthy backers or that they have links to the fossil fuel industry. 

However, an audit trail reveals that Donors is being indirectly supported by the American billionaire Charles Koch who, with his brother David, jointly owns a majority stake in Koch Industries, a large oil, gas and chemicals conglomerate based in Kansas. 

Millions of dollars has been paid to Donors through a third-party organisation, called the Knowledge and Progress Fund, with is operated by the Koch family but does not advertise its Koch connections.

Of course, this is just one of the streams of money the Kochs have put on the street to influence the debate:

 Imagine if the kind of money they have were actually invested in renewable resources instead of propaganda!