Global Warming Conspiracy Theory

The suggestion of a conspiracy to promote the theory of global warming was put forward in a 1990 documentary The Greenhouse Conspiracy broadcast by Channel Four in the United Kingdom on 12 August 1990, as part of the Equinox series, which asserted that scientists critical of global warming theory were denied funding.

On the program Patrick Michaels said "It may not quite add up to a conspiracy, but certainly a coalition of interests has promoted the greenhouse theory : scientists have needed funds, the media a story, and governments a worthy cause".

Commenting on criticism of the Lavoisier Group by Clive Hamilton, the Cooler Heads Coalition notes that "Hamilton accuses the Lavoisier Group of painting the UN's global warming negotiations as "an elaborate conspiracy in which hundreds of climate scientists have twisted their results to support the 'climate change theory' in order to protect their research funding" and comments "Sounds plausible to us."

A Washington Post article describing the views of global warming skeptics quotes climatologist William M. Gray as having "his own conspiracy theory'. saying "He has made a list of 15 reasons for the global warming hysteria. The list includes the need to come up with an enemy after the end of the Cold War, and the desire among scientists, government leaders and environmentalists to find a political cause that would enable them to "organize, propagandize, force conformity and exercise political influence. Big world government could best lead (and control) us to a better world!"

The general claim that the theory of global warming is a lie promoted by members of one or more interest groups secretly acting in concert for dishonest purposes has been made on a number of occasions, using descriptions such as scam, swindle and fraud. Prominent examples include:

The Oregon Petition website states that "over 17,000 scientists declare that global warming is a lie with no scientific basis whatsoever."

Writing in the Daily Mail on 12 January 2004, Melanie Phillips stated "Far from being proved, the claim of man-made global warming is a global fraud."

The film The Great Global Warming Swindle is based on the claim that "a multibillion-dollar worldwide industry: created by fanatically anti-industrial environmentalists; supported by scientists peddling scare stories to chase funding; and propped up by complicit politicians and the media".

The term global warming conspiracy theory is a description (often, but not always, pejorative) of the claim that the theory that global warming is caused by humans is a conscious fraud, perpetuated for financial or ideological reasons.Three main motives have been claimed for a conspiracy to promote the idea of global warming

1 A desire on the part of climate science researchers to attract financial support

2 Ideological motives, described by Melanie Phillips as a "left-wing, anti-American, anti-west ideology which goes hand in hand with anti-globalisation and the belief that everything done by the industrialised world is wicked."

3 A desire to promote nuclear power while attracting the political support of Green groups, imputed to conservative political leaders including Margaret Thatcher and Helmut Kohl.

It has also been suggested that oil companies are trying to get us to use dwindling fuel resources more sparingly so they can slowly raise oil prices and continue earning vast amounts of money for a longer period than they would be able to at current oil consumption rates.