Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island testified earlier this month on the Senate floor about nefarious money laundering and other secret deals that are behind a collective action to deny climate change. He referred to this network as "the Beast." Below is an excerpt of this powerful speech.
"There isn't just lying going on about climate change, there's a whole carefully built apparatus of lies. This apparatus is big, and artfully constructed: phony-baloney organizations designed to look and sound like they're real; messages honed by public relations experts to sound like they're truthful; payroll scientists whom polluters can trot out when they need them; and the whole thing big and complicated enough that when you see its parts you could be fooled into thinking it's not all the same beast. But it is. Just like the mythological Hydra: many heads, same beast....
The purpose of this network, to quote the report, is "a deliberate and organized effort to misdirect the public discussion and distort the public's understanding of climate." To misdirect and distort. The coordinated tactics of this network, the report shows, "span a wide range of activities, including political lobbying, contributions to political candidates, and a large number of communication and media efforts that aim at undermining climate science. That is the Beast."
—Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Senate Floor, February 4, 2014