Global Warming and the Shame of Misleading Think Tanks

You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2007, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos? Please let me know.

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OK, more than two months have gone by since I began my "crusade" to uncover organizations that want to muddy the waters about Global Warming or, for the politically correct or politically cowardly, "Climate Change," I'd like to point to a resource that lists objective, democratic-sounding (small D) organizations that are trying to calm the storm of how to address Global Warming, and how to address it now. Clearly debate on issues of public importance is to be encouraged, but when is it necessary to debate whether or not the sun rises in the east and sets in the west?

There is clearly nothing "wrong" with the concept of "think tanks" in which experts form an organization to investigate political, technological, or other controversial topics of the day. The problem comes when the think tanks are deliberately deceptive in their motives, their actions, and even their names. The BP logo noted below is really an "in your face" depiction of a very environmentally friendly image fronting for a company involved in an industry that is the source of the problem.

When Michael Moore produces a film, only those completely unfamiliar with his work would be surprised at his liberal, pro-labor perspectives. (I personally wasn't quite sure what to make of the connections Moore implied between the Bush family and the Bin Laden family and other friends from Saudi Arabia in Fahrenheit 9/11, but knowing Moore's perspective, I wasn't blind-sided by this portion of his expose and I did not accept them at face value.)

There is a directory of think tanks from a Japanese organization called NIRI, the National Institute for Research which, according to Wikipedia, is "Its objective is to conduct independent research to contribute to the resolution of contemporary complex social issues in many areas, including politics, economics, international affairs, society, new technologies, and administration." It also maintains a list of think tanks around the world including those in the United States from 2005 (suggesting that some think tanks specific to Global Warming or Climate Change may have formed after this directory was published):

• American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Asia Society / New York, NY, United States
  
  
• The Aspen Institute / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Association on Third World Affairs, Inc. (ATWA) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Atlantic Council of the United States (ACUS) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Atlas Economic Research Foundation / Fairfax, VA, United States
  
  
• Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE) / Berkeley, CA, United States
  
  
• The Brookings Institution / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• California Budget Project (CBP) / Sacramento, CA, United States
  
  
• Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs (CCEIA) / New York, NY, United States
  
  
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• The Carter Center / Atlanta, GA, United States
  
  
• Cascade Policy Institute / Portland, OR, United States
  
  
• Cato Institute / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Center for Defense Information (CDI) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Center for National Policy (CNP) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Center for Public Policy and Contemporary Issues-Institute for Public Policy Studies, University of Denver (CPPCI) / Denver, CO, United States
  
  
• Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Center of International Studies, Princeton University (CIS) / Princeton, NJ, United States
  
  
• The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (CCFR) / Chicago, IL, United States
  
  
• Committee for Economic Development (CED) / New York, NY, United States
  
  
• The Commonwealth Institute / Cambridge, MA, United States
  
  
• The Consensus Council, Inc. / Bismarck, ND, United States
  
  
• Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) / New York, NY, United States
  
  
• DEMOKRITOS SOCIETY OF AMERICA (DSA) / Alamo, CA, United States
  
  
• Discovery Institute / Seattle, WA, United States
  
  
• Earth Policy Institute / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• East-West Center (EWC) / Honolulu, HI, United States
  
  
• EastWest Institute (EWI) / New York, NY, United States
  
  
• Economic Growth Center (EGC) / New Haven, CT, United States
  
  
• Economic Policy Institute (EPI) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Economic Strategy Institute (ESI) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• The Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) / Philadelphia, PA, United States
  
  
• The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies / Notre Dame, IN, United States
  
  
• Henry L. Stimson Center / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• The Heritage Foundation / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace / Stanford, CA, United States
  
  
• Hudson Institute / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• The Independent Institute / Oakland, CA, United States
  
  
• The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Institute for the Future (IFTF) / Palo Alto, CA, United States
  
  
• Institute for International Economics (IIE) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Institute for Research on Poverty (IPR) / Madison WI, United States
  
  
• Inter-American Dialogue (IAD) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• International Research Center for Energy and Economic Development (ICEED) / Boulder, CO, United States
  
  
• Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies / Notre Dome, IN, United States
  
  
• Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (JCPES) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• The Mansfield Center for Pacific Affairs (MCPA) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation (MMMF) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Milken Institute / Santa Monica, CA, United States
  
  
• National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) / Cambridge, MA, United States
  
  
• National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) / Dallas, TX, United States
  
  
• National Health Policy Forum (NHPF) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development / Berkeley, CA, United States
  
  
• The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government / Albany, NY, United States
  
  
• New America Foundation / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• The Nixon Center / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Northeast-Midwest Institute / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• OMB Watch / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Population Council / New York, NY, United States
  
  
• Project for the New American Century (PNAC) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) / San Francisco, CA, United States
  
  
• The RAND Corporation (RAND) / Santa Monica, CA, United States
  
  
• Regional Research Institute (RRI) / Morgantown, WV, United States
  
  
• Resources for the Future (RFF) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• The Rockford Institute / Rockford, IL, United States
  
  
• Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) / New York, NY, United States
  
  
• Social Science Research Council (SSRC) / New York, NY, United States
  
  
• The Southern Center for International Studies (SCIS) / Atlanta, GA, United States
  
  
• Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP) / San Diego, CA, United States
  
  
• Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), U.S. Army War College / Carlisle, PA, United States
  
  
• United States Institute of Peace (USIP) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• The Urban Institute / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• US-Japan-China Comparative Policy Research Institute (CPRI) / San Jose, CA, United States
  
  
• Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies (VIPPS) / Nashville, TN, United States
  
  
• The Washington Institute for Near East Policy / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI) / New York, NY, United States
  
  
• Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy (Weidenbaum Center) / St. Louis, MO, United States
  
  
• Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• World Peace Foundation / Cambridge, MA, United States
  
  
• World Policy Institute (WPI) / New York, NY, United States
  
  
• World Resources Institute (WRI) / Washington, DC, United States
  
  
• Worldwatch Institute / Washington, DC, United States
  

Accessed 30 December 2007, http://www.nira.go.jp/ice/nwdtt/2005/IDX2/index8.html#UnitedStates, © 2005, National Institute for Research's World Directory of Think Tanks, Japan, ISBN: 4-7955-6024-2 C3002.