A group of climate scientists who were part of Google's Science Communication Fellows effort have sent a letter to the company decrying its recent fundraiser for climate change denier Sen. James Inhofe, a "troubling alliance" that "forces us to seriously question the company’s commitment to climate change leadership."
The group of 21 scientists had been invited to the company's offices in Silicon Valley in 2011 as a part of a push “to help foster a more open, transparent and accessible scientific dialogue.”
But on Thursday the fellows sent a highly critical letter to Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and CEO Larry Page, following the search engine's July 11 announcement that it would host a fundraiser for Inhofe's re-election campaign.
"The political gridlock that has derailed efforts to address climate change in the US owes much to Senator Inhofe," the letter says. "His denial of the problem and fact-free assaults on the scientific community are designed to promote political dysfunction, to destroy the reputation of scientists, and to undermine our ability to find common ground."
"For both economic and moral reasons, Google needs to stand on the right side of history and stop supporting those who are best known for attacking scientists, denying reality and obstructing government action," the climate scientists continue.
The full letter is posted at Climate Science Watch.
Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, is one of the most ardent deniers of climate change science in the Senate. He most famously called climate change the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," and attempted to assemble a "Truth Squad" of climate change deniers to present "another view" at a climate change summit in Denmark in 2009. Though Inhofe wound up being the only member of the squad, he there described the hoax of climate change thusly: “It started in the United Nations," but “the ones who really grab a hold of this in the United States are the Hollywood elite.”
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