Motion to Censure Myron Ebell

On November 4, CEI Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy Myron Ebell sparked a major controversy in the United Kingdom when, in a BBC interview, he questioned the science behind global warming alarmism and called Sir David King, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s chief scientific adviser, an alarmist. Ebell’s comments prompted some British House of Commons members to launch a censure movement against him.

The text of the censure motion follows.

US GOVERNMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Norman Baker

Mr Peter Ainsworth

Mr David Chaytor

Mr Simon Thomas

Sue Doughty

Alan Simpson

   That this House deplores in the strongest possible terms the unfounded and insulting criticism of Sir David King, the Government’s Chief Scientist, by Myron Ebell, an adviser to US President George W. Bush, on climate change; notes that Mr. Ebell is Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, an organisation funded by, amongst others, ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute; fervently hopes that Mr. Ebell’s comments do not represent official US policy; congratulates Sir David King on the work he has done to raise the issue of global warming both at home and abroad; believes that the planet cannot afford another four years of inaction and denial from the US Administration; and calls on the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary to do everything possible to get President Bush to accept the need to take climate change seriously and ensure the US plays its part internationally in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.