We understand that sponsorship of an event or conference is a common occurrence and that these sponsorships do not automatically indicate that the company endorses the variety of political viewpoints that may be presented at these events. However, given the magnitude and urgency of the climate crisis that we are now facing, we find it imperative to ensure that the climate-related views espoused at LibertyCon do not reflect the values of your companies going forward.
Google provided a $25,000 sponsorship, while Facebook and Microsoft contributed $10,000 each.In a statement to Mother Jones, a Google spokesperson said that “Google’s sponsorship or collaboration with a third party organization doesn’t mean that we endorse the organization’s entire agenda or agree with other speakers or sponsors.” Microsoft claimed that the company “work[s] with many groups on technology policy issues and do not expect or anticipate that any organization’s agenda will align to ours in all policy areas.”But the notions being peddled at LibertyCon are ones that these companies have openly disavowed—last year, Microsoft unveiled plans for “reducing emissions in manufacturing and advancing environmental research,” while Google made renewable energy commitments. After President Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw from the Paris Accord, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that stopping climate change “is something we can only do as a global community, and we have to act together before it’s too late.”As you are well aware, the spreading of misinformation can be dangerous to our society. Today’s coordinated campaign to deny climate change, or to put a positive spin on its effects, is not unlike that of the tobacco companies which once sought to discredit their product’s link to cancer. Their propaganda kept the nation from addressing a public health crisis for years, leading to many preventable deaths. We cannot afford to make the same mistake again with climate change.