Climate and Atmospheric Circulation

The fallout continues from a very comprehensive New Yorker report exposing Koch Industries massive ideological machine with an opinion piece in the Sunday New York Times by columnist Frank Rich called: The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party.

Out in front of this controversy is a group called the Americans for Prosperity that has recieved millions from Koch Industries and has been touring the United States spreading misinformation about the realities of climate change and organizing local tea party protests.

Here is the background research we have put together over the years on the Americans for Prosperity and Koch Industries:

Background on Americans for Prosperity (AFP)

Background on Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity

Comprehensive background and history of Koch Industries

Background on Koch Industries - company holdings and investments

Background on Koch Industries and lobbying in Washington, DC

Background on Koch Industries and George Mason University

<!--break-->

A year ago, these groups seemed to be at the peak of their influence, needing only the Senate's approval for a landmark climate-change bill. But they lost that fight, done in by the sluggish economy and opposition from business and fossil-fuel interests.

Now the groups are wondering how they can keep this loss from becoming a rout as their opponents press their advantage and try to undo the Obama administration's climate efforts. At two events last week in Wisconsin, environmental groups seemed to be trying two strategies: defiance and pleading for sympathy.Neither one drew enough people to fill a high school gym.

<!--break-->

Virginia Attorney General and global warming denier Ken Cuccinelli has been rebuffed by a state Circuit Court judge who ruled today that Cuccinelli's politically-charged subpoena against the University of Virginia and climate scientist Michael Mann lacked an “objective basis.”

Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. ruled that Cuccinelli’s subpoena failed to include a "reason to believe" that Mann violated Virginia fraud statutes by receiving research grants from the state to study climate change.  Cuccinelli is seeking years’ worth of documents related to Mann’s work at UVA, but his political attacks on climate science and efforts to waste Virginia taxpayers’ money will have to return to the drawing board. 

In his six-page ruling Judge Peatross wrote:

"What the Attorney General suspects that Dr. Mann did that was false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth is simply not stated."

Dr. Mann, who now works at Penn State University, said in a statement: "It is a victory not just for me and the university, but for all scientists who live in fear that they may be subject to a politically-motivated witch hunt when their research findings prove inconvenient to powerful vested interests.”
<!--break-->

But the victory is likely to be short-lived.  Any hopes that Cuccinelli would finally end his political circus act and focus on fighting real crime in Virginia were dashed when he immediately announced intentions to re-file the civil investigative demand.   

Extensive independent reviews of Mann’s work have all concluded the climate scientist has been nothing but honest and transparent.  Mann’s only ‘crime’ in Cuccinelli’s eyes is that he is a leading scientist conducting research that confirms humans have dangerously altered the climate.   

For that he must be smeared at taxpayers’ expense, according to Cuccinelli, whose crusade against science and reason is sure to continue. 

LiveScience.com - Hurricane Earl is gathering strength over the Atlantic, and NASA scientists are flying planes into the heart of the storm to catch Earl in the act of intensifying.

AFP - New Orleans residents Sunday marked five years since Hurricane Katrina and the devastating floods that followed with a memorial service in the Lower Ninth Ward, where the storm hit hardest.

AP - Hurricane Earl lashed northern Leeward Islands with heavy rain and strong winds Monday after strengthening into a Category 2 storm. Hotels were shut tightly overnight as tourists sought shelter inside their rooms.

AFP - US President Barack Obama, marking the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, praised the city's resilience and pledged support for rebuilding "until the job is done."

AP - Five years after Hurricane Katrina's wrath, President Barack Obama sought to reassure disaster-weary Gulf Coast residents Sunday that he would not abandon their cause.

AP - Gulf Coast residents tried to put Hurricane Katrina behind them on Sunday, marking its fifth anniversary by casting wreaths into the water to remember the hundreds killed. But part of the catastrophe lives on, in abandoned homes still bearing spray-painted circles indicating they had been searched and whether bodies were found inside.