Is "Climate Change Opposition" Well Funded?

A common theme against those who disagree with the man-made global warming theory is that they are funded by the fossil fuel industry.  In fact, there is even a website where one can look up a "denier" and find out whether he or she had any funding from the oil, chemical or gas industry.

Claiming a scientist is affiliated with these industries is to taint any results that disagree with the current "consensus." The suggestion is that if that's where they get funding, of course they'll find results that protect those interests.  Greenpeace, the Scientific American, the Smithsonian and many others have articles on how much "dark money" is spent to convince the public our current climate change is normal (or "deny climate change," as they put it).  According to the Smithsonian, upwards of a billion dollars flows to them.  Scientific American says, "In all, 140 foundations funneled $558 million to almost 100 climate denial organizations from 2003 to 2010."

Rarely, however, does the bias get reported the other direction.  It is difficult to parse out exactly how much is actually directly supporting the current "consensus," just as it is likely the Scientific American numbers above do regarding opposition funding, but using the US Government Accounting Office data from 2018, I found the following:

$50.5 billion by Federal govt from 2003 to 2010 was spent in support of the man-made global warming research:

• 2003 - $5 bln
• 2004 - $6 bln
• 2005 - $6 bln
• 2006 - $5 bln
• 2007 - $6 bln
• 2008 - $6.25 bln
• 2009 - $7.75 bln
• 2010 - $8.5 bln

(Source: http://www.gao.gov/key_issues/climate_change_funding_management/issue_summary#t=0)

An additional $21.4 billion is spent in the category of technology and international spending. (Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/legislative_reports/fcce-report-to-congress.pdf)

A graph of the above looks like this:

This is just from in the United States federal government funding.  Not included are all the environmental organizations. foundations, billionaires and movie stars trying to stop climate change: Sierra Club, Greenpeace, George Soros, Leonardo DiCaprio, etc.  Then, if we include funding across the world outside the U.S., that number would be staggeringly larger.

Then, consider that the UN just called for $2.4 trillion to be spent on mitigating climate change.

If one were looking at bias, follow the money.

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Further reading:

• Many wind and solar generating facilities are being built that require a fossil fuel powered backup electricity generator--so that industry wins either way.
• Renewable Energy Depends on Fossil Fuels
• Renewables Work Just Fine--Provided There's a Diesel in the Shed
• Let’s Do Follow The Climate Money!