How can you not love Google? They provide top quality services, often for free, like my Gmail account, and now they are speaking out on global warming and have set up a $1 billion philanthropic arm, Google.org, dedicated to addressing the great issues of our time.

Google.org aspires to use the power of information and technology to address the global challenges of our age: climate change, poverty and emerging disease. - Google.org

Just makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over to know that one of the world's largest companies is climbing on the bandwagon.

One of the reasons they are practically printing money is that they have re-invented how you place ads on the internet. When I write an email with my handy dandy Gmail account, they pick out key words, phrases, addresses, phone numbers and offer me relevant directions, automatic storage of contact information and links to learn more about topics discussed therein. No wonder they can afford to install one of the world's largest solar installations on their roof. As you might imagine I write a lot of emails that involve the terms 'climate change' and 'global warming'. And sure enough Gmail finds those hot words and pulls up some links. Today's was a link to a Climate Change Conference. I clicked the link and was carried to the website for the Heartland Institute where I was to learn a terrible truth; global warming is a hoax and they are helping everyone understand that individuals like myself preaching this terrible alarmist dogma have no founding in credible science, are comparable to Nazi eugenists, we hate America, we want to sabotage the economy, emissions reductions would cost 2.4 million jobs in the US alone and we like to murder cute little kittens. Ok, I added that last one, but you get the point. The purpose of this 'scientific' conference is not so much to discuss the findings of the scientific community or seek economically responsible methods of addressing the numerous negative impacts of unchecked carbon emissions, but to:

...generate international media attention to the fact that many scientists believe forecasts of rapid warming and catastrophic events are not supported by sound science, and that expensive campaigns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are not necessary or cost-effective. -- Invitation letter from Heartland (PDF)

RealClimate, a valuable climate change resource site put together by (actual) leading climate scientists, said the following in a post titled What if you held a conference, and no (real) scientists came?

:

At regular scientific conferences, an independent scientific committee selects the talks. Here, the financial sponsors get to select their favorite speakers. The Heartland website is seeking sponsors and in return for the cash promises "input into the program regarding speakers and panel topics". Easier than predicting future climate is therefore to predict who some of those speakers will be. We will be surprised if they do not include the many of the usual suspects e.g. Fred Singer, Pat Michaels, Richard Lindzen, Roy Spencer, and other such luminaries (for those interested in these scientists' links to industry sponsors, use the search function on sites like sourcewatch.org or exxonsecrets.org). -- Real Climate

So I could easily go off on a rant here about pseudo-scientists and skeptics backed by oil interests; like how Heartland received $561,500 from ExxonMobil between 1998-2005 including $15,000 for Climate Change Efforts in 2004. They attack Al Gore hoping to discredit the entire peer-reviewed body of scientific research by slinging mud at the poster boy. And they have all kinds of fun twisting language and bending statistics. In short, it's a great big misinformation campaign , and worth an exposé, but what really burns me is Google. Here they are, after preaching climate sensitivity and environmental awareness, and reaping great PR for their efforts, yet selling out to the highest bidder.