Oriented

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Again, we see a clear bias toward pro-nuclear point of view, with the systematic use of recency effect to influence the user POV.

I removed a statement that was sourced by a youtube video.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_source_examples


2A02:2788:7C8:610:FDFF:58AA:F23:2BD9 (talk) 10:24, 13 February 2024 (UTC)Reply

Trouble verifying sources for claims regarding Friends of the Earth

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Apologies beforehand, this has gotten quite a bit longer than originally intended.

The article claims in the 'Fossil fuels industry' section that

Fossil fuel companies such as Atlantic Richfield were also donors to environmental organizations with clear anti-nuclear stances, such as Friends of the Earth

The sources given for this claim are

a) an article by Michael Shellenberger quote mining the biography of David Brower

b) an article by Rod Adams published on atomicinsights.com run by Rod Adams

neither of these are verifiable on top of contradicting each other. Shellenberger claims that "$500,000 in todays money" were donated, while Adams claims $200,000. I have already gone into detail on a) on the talk page of the Friends of the Earth article. The donation mentioned in the biography is to the John Muir Institue, not to Friends of the Earth.

Concerning b), this is not even about Rod Adams publishing Rod Adams, or Rod Adams being

a Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital, a non-traditional venture fund investing in advanced nuclear and deep decarbonization ventures. He is former US nuclear submarine engineer officer and founder of Adams Atomic Engines, Inc., which operated from 1993 to 2010 and was one of the earliest advanced nuclear ventures established in the U.S., whose aim was the development of a small modular reactor.

which might indicate a conflict of interest. This is about his source not checking out either. The article linked to does not even give a source, it instead links to two seperate places - an article written earlier by Adams and another weblog under www.wrongkindofgreen.org/tag/friends-of-the-earth/. Neither of these are valid sources. The article written earlier by Adams - titled "Smoking gun: Robert Anderson provided initial funds to form Friends of the Earth" claims that

In 1969, Robert O. Anderson, an oil man whose long career included a stint as the Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) (now part of BP, the company formerly known as British Petroleum), gave David Brower $200,000 to start Friends of the Earth (FOE).

The source given/linkedd to linked to for this claim is page 65 of Environmentalism: Ideology and Power by Donald Gibson. Neither that page nor any other page of that chapter mentions donations made by Atlantic Richfield to Friends of the Earth - it does however mention Anderson's hand in the creation of the John Muir Institute.

In the original article Adams goes on to mention that

Yesterday a more detailed article about Robert Anderson’s involvement in Friends of the Earth was published on ANS Nuclear Cafe.

Which is also written by Rod Adams.

In said article he finally gives a book source that actually mentions the $200,000 being donated - A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order written by F. William Engdahl.

An author having their own wikipedia page can be a good sign or a bad sign. This is what wikipedia has to say about Engdahl:

He is known for his views that the September 11 attacks, the Arab Spring and the theory of global warming are all conspiracies. He has written extensively for the LaRouche movement, Russia Today and GlobalResearch.

Needless to say Engendahl does not give any actual sources for the claims regarding the donation, or any explanation on how he might know such things.

I have taken the liberty of removing the claim regarding Friends of the Earth for the time being. 84.186.212.97 (talk) 14:51, 5 October 2024 (UTC)Reply