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{{distinguish|George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies|George C. Marshall Foundation}}
{{short description|Former American nonprofit conservative think tank}}
{{Infobox institute
| name              = George C. Marshall Institute
| image             = Marshall Institute Logo.gif
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| motto             = "Science for Better Public Policy"
| founder           = [[Frederick Seitz]], [[Robert Jastrow]], [[William Nierenberg]]
| established       = {{start date and age|1984}}
| dissolved         = {{end date|2015|8}}
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| focus             = Energy, environmental, and defense policy
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|budget= Revenue: $309,750<br>Expenses: $1,086,309<br>([[Fiscal year|FYE October 2015]])<ref>{{cite web | url=http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/222/222569466/222569466_201510_990.pdf | title=George C. Marshall Institute | date=19 January 2016 | website=Foundation Center | access-date=27 February 2017}}</ref>
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| location          = [[Arlington, Virginia]]
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| country           = [[United States]]
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}}
The '''George C. Marshall Institute''' ('''GMI''') was a nonprofit [[conservatism|conservative]] [[think tank]] in the United States.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Cushman Jr.|first1=John|title=Critics Rise Up Against Environmental Education|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/22/us/critics-rise-up-against-environmental-education.html|access-date=28 December 2015|newspaper=New York Times|date=April 22, 1997}}</ref> It was established in 1984 with a focus on science and public policy issues and had an initial focus in [[Military policy|defense policy]]. Starting in the late 1980s, the institute advocated for views in line with [[environmental skepticism]], most notably [[climate change denial]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-inquisition-of-climate-science/9780231157193|title=The Inquisition of Climate Science|last=Powell|first=James Lawrence|date=2011|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231527842|pages=101–103}}</ref> The think tank received extensive financial support from the [[Petroleum industry|fossil fuel industry]].<ref name=":0" />
Though the institute officially closed in 2015, the climate-denialist [[CO2 Coalition|CO<sub>2</sub> Coalition]] is viewed as its immediate successor. GMI's defense research was absorbed by the [[Center for Strategic and International Studies]].<ref>{{cite news |title= Think tank that cast doubt on climate change science morphs into smaller one |last=Vaidyanathan |first=Gayathri |date=December 10, 2015 |work=[[Environment & Energy Publishing|E&E News]] |url=http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060029290 |access-date=2023-09-01}}</ref>
==History==
The George C. Marshall institute was founded in 1984 by [[Frederick Seitz]] (former President of the [[United States National Academy of Sciences]]), [[Robert Jastrow]] (founder of NASA's [[Goddard Institute for Space Studies]]), and [[William Nierenberg]] (former director of the [[Scripps Institution of Oceanography]]). The institute's primary aim, initially, was to play a role in defense policy debates, defending [[Ronald Reagan]]'s [[Strategic Defense Initiative]] (SDI, or "Star Wars"). In particular, it sought to defend SDI "from attack by the [[Union of Concerned Scientists]], and in particular by the equally prominent physicists [[Hans Bethe]], [[Richard Garwin]], and astronomer [[Carl Sagan]]."<ref name=Oreskes/> The institute argued that the [[Soviet Union]] was a military threat.<ref name=Oreskes/> A 1987 article by Jastrow<ref>Robert Jastrow, "America has Five Years Left!", ''[[National Review]]'', Vol. 39, February 13, 1987</ref> argued that in five years the Soviet Union would be so powerful that it would be able to achieve world domination without firing a shot.<ref name=Oreskes>Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, 10 August 2010, "[http://www.scienceprogress.org/2010/08/distorting-science-while-invoking-science-2/ Distorting Science While Invoking Science] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100919104142/http://www.scienceprogress.org/2010/08/distorting-science-while-invoking-science-2/ |date=2010-09-19 }}", ''Science Progress''</ref> When the [[Cold War]] instead ended in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the institute shifted from an emphasis on defense to a focus on [[environmental skepticism]], including [[global warming denial]].<ref name=Oreskes/>
The institute's shift to environmental skepticism began with the publication of a report on global warming by William Nierenberg. During the [[1988 United States presidential election]], [[George H. W. Bush]] had pledged to meet the "greenhouse effect with the White House effect."<ref name=Oreskes/> Nierenberg's report, which blamed global warming on solar activity, had a large impact on the incoming Bush presidency, strengthening those in it opposed to environmental regulation.<ref name=Oreskes/> In 1990 the institute's founders (Jastrow, Nierenberg and Seitz) published a book on climate change.<ref>Robert Jastrow, William Aaron Nierenberg, Frederick Seitz, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=b7oRAQAAIAAJ Scientific perspectives on the greenhouse problem]'', Marshall Press, 1990</ref> The appointment of [[David Allan Bromley]] as presidential science advisor, however, saw Bush sign the [[United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change]] in 1992, despite some opposition from within his administration.<ref name=Oreskes/>
In 1994, the institute published a paper by its then chairman, Frederick Seitz, titled ''Global warming and ozone hole controversies: A challenge to scientific judgment.''  Seitz questioned the view that [[CFCs]] "are the greatest threat to the [[ozone layer]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=21 |title=A Conversation with Dr. Frederick Seitz |publisher=The Marshall Institute |date=1997-09-03 |access-date=2010-09-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100706081937/http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=21 |archive-date=2010-07-06 }}</ref> In the same paper, commenting on the dangers of secondary inhalation of tobacco smoke, he concluded "there is no good scientific evidence that [[passive smoking|passive inhalation]] is truly dangerous under normal circumstances."<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/10/4/375.full | title=Second hand smoke and risk assessment: what was in it for the tobacco industry? | last1=Hirschhorn | first1=Norbert | last2=Aguinaga Bialous | first2=Stella | journal=Tobacco Control | year=2001 | volume=10 | issue=4 | pages=375–382 | doi=10.1136/tc.10.4.375 | pmid=11740031 | pmc=1747615 | access-date=2 December 2019 }}</ref>
In 2012, the institute took over the responsibility for running the Missilethreat.com website from the [[Claremont Institute]]. Missilethreat.com aims to inform the American people of missile threats, thereby encouraging the deployment of a [[United States national missile defense|ballistic missile defense system]]. Since the closure of the institute, the Missilethreat.com website has been maintained by the [[Center for Strategic and International Studies]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.claremont.org/publications/precepts/id.70/precept_detail.asp |title=Announcing Missilethreat.com |publisher=Claremont Institute |date=23 March 2004 |access-date=8 February 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116214043/http://www.claremont.org/publications/precepts/id.70/precept_detail.asp |archive-date=16 January 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://missilethreat.com/about/ |title=About Missilethreat.com |publisher=George C. Marshall Institute |access-date=8 February 2013 |archive-date=15 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115060927/http://missilethreat.com/about/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Publications==
''Politicizing Science: The Alchemy of Policymaking'' is a book by the George C. Marshall Institute, edited by Michael Gough. The book, published in 2003, encourages a disinterested [[objectivity (science)|objectivity]] on the part of scientists and policymakers: Ideally, the scientists or analysts who generate estimates of [[harm]] that may result from a [[risk]] would consider all the relevant facts and alternative interpretations of the data, and remain skeptical about tentative conclusions. Ideally, too, the agency officials and politicians, who have to enact a regulatory program, would consider its costs and benefits, ensure that it will do more good than harm, and remain open to options to stop or change the [[regulation]] in situations where the underlying [[science]] is tentative.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gough|first1=Michael|title=Politicizing Science: The Alchemy of Policymaking|url=http://www.hoover.org/research/politicizing-science-alchemy-policymaking|access-date=28 December 2015|publisher=Hoover Institution|date=January 1, 2003}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=New Books from Hoover Press, Politicizing Science: The Alchemy of Policymaking, Edited by Michael Gough|url=http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20030707005535/en/Books-Hoover-Press-Politicizing-Science-Alchemy-Policymaking|access-date=28 December 2015|publisher=Business Wire|date=July 7, 2003}}</ref>
== Global warming ==
{{See also|Global warming}}
Starting in 1989 GMI was involved in what it terms "a critical examination of the scientific basis for global climate change policy."<ref>[http://www.marshall.org/subcategory.php?id=9 'Climate Change'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051029051233/http://www.marshall.org/subcategory.php?id=9 |date=2005-10-29 }} webpage of George C. Marshall Institute website, Accessed March 2, 2008.</ref> This  was described by [[Sharon Begley]] as a "central cog in the denial machine" in a 2007 ''[[Newsweek]]'' cover story on [[climate change denial]].<ref name="newsweek">{{cite magazine |last=Begley|first=Sharon|author-link=Sharon Begley | url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/32482 | title=The Truth About Denial | magazine=[[Newsweek]] | date=13 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071021024942/http://www.newsweek.com/id/32482|archive-date=21 October 2007}} ([https://web.archive.org/web/20070820002929/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20122975/site/newsweek/page/0/ MSNBC single page version, archived 20 August 2007])</ref>
In ''[[Requiem for a Species]]'', [[Clive Hamilton]] is critical of the Marshall Institute and contends that the conservative backlash against global warming research was led by three prominent physicists—[[Frederick Seitz]], [[Robert Jastrow]], and [[William Nierenberg]], who founded the institute in 1984. According to Hamilton, by the 1990s the Marshall Institute's main activity was attacking climate science.<ref>{{cite book |first=Clive |last=Hamilton |title=Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth about Climate Change |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EuE0RmNLlp4C |year=2010 |publisher=Earthscan |isbn=978-1-84971-081-7 |page=103}}</ref> [[Naomi Oreskes]] and [[Erik M. Conway]] reach a similar conclusion in ''[[Merchants of Doubt]]'' (2010), where they identified a few contrarian scientists associated with conservative think-tanks who fought the scientific consensus and spread confusion and doubt about global warming.<ref>Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway (2010). ''Merchants of Doubt'', Bloomsbury Press, pp. 8-9.</ref> The book ''Climate Change: An Encyclopedia of Science and History'', noting that GMI received funding from the automobile and fossil fuel industries and espouses "a mix of conservative, neoliberal, and libertarian ideological positions", states that GMI has "supported authors opposed to the hypothesis of anthropogenic warming and proposed mitigation policies ... stressing the free-market and the dangers of government regulation, which they said would hurt the US economy."<ref>{{cite book | last=Black | first=Brian | date=2013 | title=Climate Change: An Encyclopedia of Science and History | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=if4jI20wxOUC&q=%22%22George+C.+Marshall+Institute%22%2C+neoliberal&pg=PA1239 | publisher=ABC-CLIO | page=1239 | isbn= 9781598847611}}</ref>
GMI was one of only a few conservative environmental-policy think tanks to have [[natural science|natural scientists]] on staff.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jacques|first=P.J.|author2=Dunlap, R.E. |author3=Freeman, M. |date=June 2008|title=The organisation of denial: Conservative think tanks and environmental scepticism|journal=Environmental Politics|volume=17|issue=3|pages=349–385|doi=10.1080/09644010802055576|bibcode=2008EnvPo..17..349J |s2cid=144975102}}</ref> Noted [[climate change deniers]] [[Sallie Baliunas]] and (until his death in 2008) [[Frederick Seitz]] (a past president of the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] from 1962 to 1969) served on its board of directors. [[Patrick Michaels]] was a visiting scientist and [[Stephen McIntyre]], [[Willie Soon]] and [[Ross McKitrick]] were contributing writers.<ref>[http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?contentid=3804&CFID=31736260&CFTOKEN=40110786 website] Environmental Defense. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050306200803/http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?contentid=3804&CFID=31736260&CFTOKEN=40110786 |date=March 6, 2005 }}</ref> [[Richard Lindzen]] served on the institute's Science Advisory Board.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Publications/PDF_Papers/McCrightDunlap2003.pdf | title=Defeating Kyoto: The Conservative Movement's Impact on U.S. Climate Change Policy | last1=McCright | first1=Aaron M. | last2=Dunlap | first2=Riley E. | date=2003 | website=Stanford University | access-date=2 December 2019 }}</ref>
In February 2005 GMI co-sponsored a congressional briefing at which Senator [[James Inhofe]] praised [[Michael Crichton]]'s novel ''[[State of Fear]]'' and attacked the "[[hockey stick graph (global temperature)|hockey stick graph]]".<ref name="mojo"/>
William O'Keefe, chief executive officer of the Marshall Institute, questioned the methods used by advocates of new government restrictions to combat [[global warming]]: "We have never said that global warming isn't real. No self-respecting think tank would accept money to support preconceived notions. We make sure what we are saying is both scientifically and analytically defensible."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/feb/11/20070211-112902-4433r/ | title=Global-warming skeptics cite being 'treated like a pariah' | date=11 February 2007 | website=The Washington Times | access-date=2 December 2019 }}</ref>
===Accusation of conflict of interest===
[[Matthew B. Crawford]] was appointed executive director of GMI in September 2001.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.marshall.org/CrawfordIntroduction.htm | title=The appointment of Matthew B. Crawford to the position of Executive Director | website=George C. Marshall Institute | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011214154524/http://www.marshall.org/CrawfordIntroduction.htm | archive-date=14 December 2001 | access-date=2 December 2019 }}</ref> He left the GMI after five months, saying that the institute was "fonder of some facts than others". He contended a [[conflict of interest]] existed in the funding of the institute.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-hands-on-philosopher-argues/48255 | title=A Hands-On Philosopher Argues for a Fresh Vision of Manual Work | last=Mooney | first=Carolyn | date=7 June 2009 | website=The Chronicle of Higher Education | access-date=2 December 2019 }}</ref> In ''Shop Class as Soulcraft,'' he wrote about the institute that "the trappings of scholarship were used to put a scientific cover on positions arrived at otherwise. These positions served various interests, ideological or material.  For example, part of my job consisted of making arguments about global warming that just happened to coincide with the positions taken by the oil companies that funded the think tank."<ref name="Crawford">{{cite book | last=Crawford | first=Matthew B. | date=2009 | title=Shop Class as Soulcraft | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oc4XsaqD4qsC&q=shop+class+as+soulcraft | publisher=Penguin Press | isbn=978-1594202230 }}</ref>
In 1998 Jeffrey Salmon, then executive director of GMI, helped develop the [[American Petroleum Institute]]'s strategy of stressing the uncertainty of climate science.<ref name="mojo">{{cite news | url = https://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/some_like_it_hot.html | title = Some Like It Hot | first = Chris | last = Mooney | author-link = Chris Mooney (journalist) | date = May–June 2005 | work = [[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]] | access-date = March 2, 2008}}</ref>
[[Naomi Oreskes]] states that the institute, in order to resist and delay regulation, [[lobbying|lobbied politically]] to create a false public perception of scientific uncertainty over the negative effects of [[second-hand smoke]], the [[carcinogenic]] nature of [[tobacco]] smoking, the existence of [[acid rain]], and on the evidence connecting [[Chlorofluorocarbon|CFC]]s and [[ozone]] depletion.<ref>{{cite speech | title = The American Denial of Global Warming (starting at 30:30 minutes into speech) | first = Naomi | last = Oreskes | year = 2007 | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T4UF_Rmlio | access-date = 27 February 2017}}</ref>
== Funding sources ==
[[Exxon-Mobil]] was a funder of the GMI until it pulled funding from it and several similar organizations in 2008.<ref>[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6386426.ece Anjana Ahuja and Mark Henderson "Times Cheltenham Science Festival celebrates scientific heresy ", ''The Times'', May 30, 2009.]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> From 1998 to 2008, the institute received a total of $715,000 in funding from Exxon-Mobil.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/30/uselections2008.sarahpalin1 |title= Palin fought safeguards for polar bears with studies by climate change sceptics |newspaper=The Guardian |author=Ed Pilkington |date=2008-09-30 |access-date=2010-09-28 }}</ref>
==See also==
{{Portal|Conservatism}}
* [[Americans for Prosperity]]
* [[Cato Institute]]
* [[The Heartland Institute]]
* [[Manhattan Institute]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{official website|http://www.marshall.org}}
* [https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/feb/11/20070211-112902-4433r/ Global-warming skeptics cite being 'treated like a pariah'] - Eric Pfeiffer, ''The Washington Times'' - February 12, 2007
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:George C. Marshall Institute| ]]
[[Category:Conservative organizations in the United States]]
[[Category:Organizations based in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Organizations of environmentalism skeptics and critics]]
[[Category:Political and economic think tanks in the United States]]
[[Category:Think tanks disestablished in 2015]]
[[Category:Think tanks established in 1984]]