Mission: Kill Kyoto

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


“The U.N. Global Climate Treaty isn’t global” — because it doesn’t exist yet. The treaty is to be negotiated in Kyoto, Japan next month by more than 100 countries who signed the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) at the so-called Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

This ad, one of a series of five, was produced by the Global Climate Information Project, a $13 million industry-funded advertising campaign led by Shandwick Public Affairs, a Washington, D.C., P.R. firm. Their goal: to undermine the Kyoto treaty and any other attempts to limit CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, emissions that have been linked to anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change.

The most interesting aspect of this ad is that it reflects a change in strategy by the fossil fuels industry: Where they once argued that the science of climate change is unproven, now they complain that a global agreement to cut greenhouse emissions will create an unfair and unbearable economic burden for the United States. (With 4 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. generates about 22 percent of all greenhouse gases). This change of approach may have less to do with the growing scientific consensus that climate change is real and underway, than with polls showing a majority of the U.S. public now believes global warming is real, and wants preventative action to be taken.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate