Climate Change: Buying the Warming Perspective

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Last week, I wrote about climate change deniers and the financial backing they've received from the fossil fuel industry--oil and gas in particular. After the post went up, I was asked about similarly questionable backing for climate change believers. And of course, it's true: People who advocate for climate change measures have also received murky financial support. Two of the most frequently-cited names I've come across are Michael Oppenheimer and James Hansen.
 
Oppenheimer is a Princeton professor and scientist who previously worked for the Environmental Defense Fund. He has been accused of receiving money to speak on behalf of the EDD, which has cast doubts on his objectivity. This is particularly controversial because he frequently appears as a climate expert on shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Nightline, and Charlie Rose.
 
Hansen is a Columbia professor and head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He received $250,000 from the Heinz Foundation, which sparked controversy because of its partisan reputation and connections to John Kerry's wife Teresa (and shortly after, Hansen endorsed Kerry for president).
 
Yes, it's understandable that these relationships have raised red flags. But they differ from those of industry-funded climate change deniers—because in neither case do the supporting organizations have a financial interest in supporting the theory of man made climate change.
 
The Environmental Defense Fund is a non-profit so legally they can't receive a kickback from their support. Similarly, while the Heinz Foundation's decision to support Hansen may have been politically motivated, it had nothing to do with a financial stake in supporting climate change action.
 
This seems to be the case with most organizations supporting global warming action. Capital Research Center maintains a database of enviro-organizations and the fiscal support they've received. The pro-climate change-action organizations I came across all seem to get their financial backing (or at least the bulk of it) from charitable foundations, not for-profit companies.
 
For instance (see link for detailed breakdown):
 
--EarthCare International
McCune Charitable Foundation
 
--Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
Colombe Foundation, Inc.; New-Land Foundation; Ford Foundation; Public Welfare Foundation; John Merck Fund; Educational Foundation of America; Energy Foundation; New Cycle Foundation
 
See also: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Rainforest Alliance
 
Compare these to the biggest funder of climate skeptics--Exxon, a for-profit behemoth whose financial security depends on working against alternative energy. The company's interest is purely fiscal, with little to indicate an ideological investment.
 
It's possible I'm missing something, and I don't doubt that some financial grubbing by climate change believers occurs. (I will also admit a bias: I strongly believe in the threat of man made global warming.)
 
(Image of a southern right whale by Michaël Catanzariti.)
 
Read more stories on the environment at YPNation.
 
Readers: Do you know of anything as egregious as Exxon-funded climate change skeptics on the other side of the issue?