Marshall Institute

Controversy and Understanding

There has been an ongoing debate about the contribution of human activities to the global warming of the past century and how they may contribute to warming that may occur during the 21st century. International efforts to reach agreement on inferences about human influence on the climate system that can be drawn from science and policy prescriptions for addressing the climate change risk have been controversial.

Effective climate policy flows from a sound scientific foundation and a clear understanding of what science does and does not tell us about human influence and about courses of action to manage risk. Much of the data collected from temperature probes and computer models used to predict climate change are themselves uncertain. Reducing these many uncertainties requires a significant shift in the way climate change research is carried out in the United States and elsewhere.

The Institute has compiled a list of commonly asked questions and answers regarding global warming and climate change. These have been posted on the institute website to further educate the public and direct policy. GMI works on a range of issues, including civic environmentalism, climate change, national defense, bioterrorism, and missile defense. GMI publishes papers and holds roundtables. Many of these roundtables have featured climate change skeptics such as Roger Bate, Willie Soon, Margo Thorning, and GMIs own Sallie Baliunas.

In 1989, GMI released a report arguing that “cyclical variations in the intensity of the sun would offset any climate change associated with elevated greenhouse gases.” Although it was refuted by the IPCC, the report was used by the George H.W. Bush Administration to argue for a more lenient climate change policy. GMI has since published numerous reports and articles attacking the Kyoto protocol and undermining climate science. GMI is a former member of the Cooler Heads Coalition.

Between 1985 and 2001, the institute received $5.5 million in funding from five foundations, including the Earhart Foundation, Sarah Scaife Foundation, and Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. In 2003, GMIs climate-change program received $95,000 from the Exxon Education Foundation, and $60,000 from the American Petroleum Institute. GMI's CEO, William O'Keefe, formerly an executive at the American Petroleum Institute and chairman of the Global Climate Coalition, is a registered lobbyist for ExxonMobil. The GMI was described in a 2007 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists as an ExxonMobil-funded “clearinghouse for global warming contrarians”. ExxonMobil still continues to provide funds to the Marshall Institute.

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