Hugh W. Ellsaesser

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

A meteorologist by training, Hugh W. Ellsaesser is a retired “guest scientist” at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and widely quoted global warming skeptic. Ellsaesser has close ties with organizations and think tanks that have been involved in the fossil-fuel industry funded war on science, specifically as it relates to O-zone depletion and climate change. Examples include, The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, the George C. Marshall Institute and the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow. [1]

Previous and Current Affiliations

• Former advisor to The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), a now-defunct industry front group organization originally created by Philip Morris and the PR company APCO Worldwide to bring into question the “unsound, incomplete, or unsubstantiated science” around the health effects of tobacco smoke. [2][3][4]

• On the Board of Academic and Scientific Advisors for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). CFACT has received $472,000 in funding from ExxonMobil since 1998. [5]"

• Listed as an “Allied Expert” for the Natural Resource Stewardship Project (NRSP). The NRSP is led by executive director Tom Harris and Chair of Scientific Advisory Committee, Dr. Tim Ball. In an Oct. 16, ‘06 CanWest Global news article about who funds the NRSP, Tom Harris, stated that "a confidentiality agreement doesn't allow him to say whether energy companies are funding his group." [6][7]

• Former Science Advisory Board, George C. Marshall Institute, a US think tank that is actively engaged in attacking the science of climate change. The Institute has received $630,000 in funding from ExxonMobil since 1998. [8][9]

• Advisor to Consumer Alert an organization, that was a “long-time recipient of PM [Philip Morris] funding.” At one point. Consumer Alert ran the “Cooler Heads Foundation” as part of the campaign to attack the science on global warming and is very closely aligned to another organization called the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a US think tank that has received over $2 million from ExxonMobil since 1998. The Consumer Alert has received $70,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998. [10][11][12]

On the Depletion of the O-zone Layer

Ellsaesser brought into question the validity of government action on ozone depletion and reducing the use of CFC’s. In a Nov. ’96 article he states: “The public has been misled to an even great extent in that the possible beneficial consequences of increased UV have been consistently ignored.” [13]

Ellsaesser has not published in 23 years

According to an ISI database search of 22,000 academic journals, Ellsaesser has not been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal since 1984.

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