ExxonMobil donations to global warming deniers

Disinformation campaigns have a lot of similarity with terrorism.  Similar to terrorism, it only takes a few "dis-informers" to have a tremendous impact on the public.  Only a few airline bombers have forced all travelers to go through major inspections and loss of privacy to reduce the threat.  Only a few anti-global warming advocates with little or no scientific data can force the rest of the world to have to expend major resources to prove the deniers wrong.  The tobacco industry was very successful for many decades by using similar techniques to keep the public from believing that smoking caused cancer.  The climate deniers are doing the same thing.  We all know that the Koch Brothers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to protect the coal industry by paying climate-denying scientists and politicians.  However companies like ExxonMobil seemed to suddenly become "good citizens of the world" around 2007 when they began saying that they now wanted to protect the climate and would no longer spend stockholders money on political donations or contributions to "bad science."  According to this article in The Guardian, by Suzanne Goldenberg it appears they lied.    If she was able to find this in Exxon Mobil's accounting, imagine how much money they may have spent in hidden ways, or channeled through executives and employees.  And this is just ONE oil company!

What still amazes me is how many people I've met, including well-educated friend whom I think of as being rather level-headed, who believe the global warming deniers, or somehow believe that the subject is "controversial" or "undecided" due to so many opposing viewpoints.  It shows me how VERY effective a disinformation campaign can be!  It seems that so many people listen to just "sound bites" and really don't look at the actual data, and the sources of the data presented.  Only a few "bought off" members of US congress and senate are necessary to keep the doubt alive in the public's mind.