I know a man who runs the ‘Global Strategic Communications Council’. This is a secretive group of 100 or so public relations professionals working together to promote more ambitious climate policy. It is financed with €15 million in annual grants from foundations like IKEA, OAK, Hewlett, and European Climate, and other anonymous groups.

The network coordinates and spins climate messages toward media and politicians. They organize press conferences, train climate specialists in how to present themselves and ‘push a narrative’ in the media.

The problem is that the journalists and others they engage with are not made aware that they were interacting with a large, coordinated network funded by sometimes unnamed groups, rather than just individual members. As one person commented ‘You don’t know it’s there unless you know it’s there.’ This type of secretive, manipulative, ethically questionable sophistry is known as ‘voodoo PR.’