According to Science magazine (Dec. 24), the new global warming science site realclimate was set up partly in order to "counter industry-supported sites such as www.CO2science.org."

Here's the reality behind CO2science.org's supposedly lavish industry funding:

For the past seven years...we have provided everything we produce free of charge to everyone, sustaining ourselves with grants and donations from numerous sources. Over the past three years, however, income from these sources has declined dramatically, and additional cuts are on the horizon. We have tried to adjust to these changes by sequentially eliminating one full-time staff position and three part-time positions, by reducing the salaries of two of us by 50% and one of us by 100%, and by one of us selling the house in which he and his family lived to move into a smaller and less expensive home. All of these actions, however, have been insufficient to compensate for our monetary losses, and have failed to stave off the inevitable. Consequently, to continue to simply survive (which one cannot do for very long with a negative income), and to continue publishing CO2 Science, we have no choice but to limit its access to those who contribute an annual donation of $7.95, which gives them access to everything on our website except our U.S. Climate and World Temperatures and Plant Growth data bases. To also receive access to these materials, we request an extra $5.00, or a total annual donation of $12.95 or more (for those for whom this minor amount proves no problem).

I urge all those interested in the scientific issues surrounding global warming to sign up for the service provided. CO2science.org is an invaluable reference source for those interested in what the not-yet-politicized journals are saying about climate science.

The Science article says that Realclimate.org is hosted by Environmental Media Services, the communications arm of rich PR firm Fenton Communications, although this fact was unmentioned on the website when last I checked.