Smug Glenn Beck Not Smart Enough to Come Up with Van Jones Attacks

Glenn Beck, idiot wannabe provocateur of Fox News, is undoubtedly more than happy to take the credit for Van Jones’ resignation as green jobs adviser to the Obama administration – but the fact is, he just isn’t doesn’t have the brainpower to be the mastermind behind the attacks.

Beck launched a vicious smear campaign against Jones, accusing him of being a communist and 9/11 truther among other things, on national television. But the campaign was actually orchestrated by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative think-tank that’s also responsible for a vast global warming denial campaign.

From DeSmogBlog:

On Fox News forum AFP’s director of policy, Phil Kerpen brags about how his organization brought down Van Jones:

“I spent the next two weeks researching everything I could find about Jones and the Apollo Alliance (much of which is still to be published, including a forthcoming paper from the Capital Research Center next month), the national umbrella organization for coordinating between the environmentalists, the labor unions, and the social justice street organizers that Jones has served as a board member and a primary national spokesman for.”

This was all then fed to Glenn Beck who gleefully took it to town and hammered away on Van Jones. No kidding, Beck is bent on bringing this administration to its knees and rallying the right-wing fringe players to follow suit. And it won’t stop here, the likes of Kerpen and AFP have found their rallying cry: “Don’t argue clean energy, but instead paint Obama’s policies as a socialist/communist plot to control America.”

There’s no doubt that Jones made a mistake when he signed that 9/11 petition – but he’s not a Truther, nor do any of the other epithets thrown at him recent weeks apply. David Roberts of Grist wrote two excellent articles about the whole debacle that refute the accusations made against Jones (Cleaning Some of the Fox Off Van Jones and Thoughts on Van Jones’ Resignation).

Is it any surprise that Americans for Prosperity has received vast amounts of cash from Exxon in the past? This is an anti-green organization that will do anything to preserve the status quo, and they’re happy to take down anyone in their way. Beck is just their puppet.

Link [DeSmogBlog]

Monsanto’s Greenwashing More Outrageous than Ever

It’s a dubious honor, but one that Monsanto doesn’t seem too eager to refuse. The world’s most hated corporation has been aggressively greenwashing its reputation for years and has recently stepped up its efforts to claim that its earth- and people-unfriendly practices are “sustainable”.

In fact, Monsanto’s website is packed full of sickeningly misleading claims about how their iron grip on the world’s food supply is actually good for us and for the environment. There are dozens of different ways in which this is just plain wrong – but The Guardian has focused on one in particular: Monsanto’s thirst for water.

Monsanto trumpets its patented water-efficient seeds, so one would expect the company to be sensitive about its own water usage. However, on the Hawaiian island of Molokai – where Monsanto is the largest employer and does a lot of reseach into genetically modified crops – this corporate giant has caused water shortages.

From The Guardian:

Nature on Molokai has suffered badly from the invasion of Monsanto and other big-farm companies. In recompense, Monsanto puts money into a Nature Conservancy programme on the island to “preserve biodiversity and protect water sources”.

The company has nonetheless gained a bad reputation there as a water bully. As a local journalist wrote there last year in the Molokai Dispatch, “Monsanto’s thirst for more water” threatens its future on the island. “Like most large corporations, Monsanto’s number one priority is to maximise profits. In this case it means planting as many acres as possible, and using a lot of water,” wrote Todd Yamashita.

Recently, during a drought that emptied reservoirs and forced the local irrigation company to demand 20% water cutbacks from local farmers, Monsanto insisted on the right to take more water and lobbied for a new aquifer to be tapped.

Of course, this is only one small example of Monsanto’s jaw-dropping offenses. The capacity for evil that this company has is seemingly endless. Learn more:

Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear
Millions Against Monsanto Campaign
Monsanto – SourceWatch
MonsantoWatch
The World According to Monsanto (Documentary)

Link [The Guardian]
Photo credit: Greenpeace

Big Oil Refuses to Let American Flags into Astroturf Rally

You’d think that Big Oil would be more than happy to wave a bunch of American flags around while holding their fake grassroots rallies – especially in Texas, of all places. Yet activists bearing the old Stars & Stripes were turned away at the American Petroleum Institute rally in Houston, where oil company employees gathered to hear oil billionaire Drayton McClane Jr. whine about Obama’s clean energy plans.

Check out the video:

Partial transcript from Wonk Room:

ACTIVIST: They said, “We won’t let you have an American flag either.” They said they won’t let you have this, and then the guy touched this, the American flag.

ANOTHER ACTIVIST: I got an email from Freedomworks saying, “Come, it’s free, free food,” doodah doodah. And then I get here and they say, “Well, it’s against fire code to let people in the door.” And then, they let all these people in. Granted, one of the people was Drayton McLane. He’s got more money than God, so, I guess…

Umm, it’s pretty obvious that the uninvited people trying to get into this rally are on the side of Big Oil, so WTF are they worried about? As if the old dude bearing a book called ‘Liberal Facism’ is a spy for the ‘other side’.

Could it be any more clear that this was anything but a grassroots rally? It was one big oil industry whack-a-thon. You would think that these pro-oil citizens (the real ones, not the energy employees) would have caught on by now that the oil industry doesn’t give a shit about them.

Link [Wonk Room]

More Climate Bill Forgery: Big Oil Lobbyists Fake Public Opposition

You can smell the desperation of the dirty energy industry from a mile away. It’s the smell of a slow death, a filthy, oozing, gangrenous smell that emits from Big Oil and Big Coal as they attempt to lie, cheat and steal their way to maintaining the status quo.

Last month, lobbyists working for a coal industry front group were caught red-handed forging anti-climate-bill letters to a member of Congress. Now, it’s been revealed that the American Energy Alliance (the unholy spawn of the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute) is faking broad public opposition to the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

From the NRDC:

According to the AEA’s round-up release:  “In Newspapers Coast-to-Coast, Energy Rationing Bill Continues to Get Exposed for What it is: A Job Killer.” And how do our oily friends reach that conclusion?  In a move that is unlikely to represent a threat to the future of scientific polling, AEA bases its claims on eight letters to the editor and one op-ed.

What do the selected editorial page items tell us?  First, AEA is apparently endorsing flat-out, wild-eyed howling-at-the-moon denial of global warming science.   Take this “op-ed” found in the Springfield (MO) News Leader:

“I told you in my column on July 10 that global warming was a hoax. Just when I thought the cap and trade lunatics could not be any more ignorant, along comes the Democrat-controlled Congress with the Waxman-Markey bill on climate change. Cap and tax or con and tax are all better names for this abhorrent bill.”

Message: AEA appears to be 100 percent comfortable in embracing this full-throated, know-nothing approach to trashing the consensus view on global warming science.

The NRDC asks, “Couldn’t we just do the same thing by collating positive letters to the editor from across the nation?” and then proceeds to quote from seven such supportive letters – which actually appear in major publications, not BFE pennysavers.

Scruples: lobbyists do not haz dem.

Link [NRDC]
Photo credit: I Can Has Cheezburger?

Lobbyist Group Forges Anti-Climate-Bill Letters, Then Lies About It

A couple weeks ago, The Huffington Post warned readers to be on the lookout for dirty tricks orchestrated by right-wing groups attempting to derail the climate bill. Sure enough, a Washington D.C. based lobbyist group got caught sending five forged letters purportedly from Hispanic voters and the NAACP to a congressman in the hopes that it would sway his vote.

It didn’t work. Congressman Tom Perriello of West Virginia voted in favor of the Waxman-Markey climate bill, and lobbyist group Bonner & Associates is taking the heat for its abhorrent tactics.

Congressman Ed Markey announced that he would hold an official House hearing into the forgeries, saying:

“This fraud on Congress shows that some opponents of clean energy have resorted to forgery and theft to block progress.  This is an appalling abuse, and Congressman Tom Perriello deserves great credit for seeing through it and casting a vote that will create clean energy jobs in Virginia and throughout the United States. I encourage all Members of Congress to be on the lookout for other suspicious and illegal materials. My Select Committee will immediately begin an investigation of the extent and scope of this activity.”

Not that Bonner & Associates are actually admitting any wrongdoing. The group blames a ‘temporary employee’ who supposedly sent out the letters unbeknownst to the rest of the firm.

Nice try, says The Huffington Post – Bonner has a history of tricking people into supporting their causes. HuffPo found a 2002 story by the Baltimore Sun, which called out another forgery in the group’s past:

Donna J. Stanley, director of Associated Black Charities, was ready to mobilize for political battle after she received a fax marked “urgent” this week.

The fax told her she needed to sign an attached petition “today” to prevent 600,000 of Maryland’s poor and disabled from losing access to affordable prescription drugs. The fax, sent to dozens of community leaders, had the markings of a grass-roots effort, including grammatical errors and a handwritten cover letter.

But the appeal was actually generated by a sophisticated Washington lobbying firm trying to defeat several bills before the General Assembly supported by advocates for the poor.

So, how’d they explain that one away? Jack Bonner said it was “a great exercise in the First Amendment”. Bonner & Associates had allied itself with a puppet group for the pharmaceutical industry, using the organization’s letterhead to fool legislators into thinking they were hearing legitimate concerns from voters.

Abolishing the practice of lobbying lawmakers, and imposing strict term limits on all politicians – wouldn’t that go a long way toward cleaning up our government? Lobbyists clearly have no scruples when it comes to getting favors for Big Oil, Big Pharma and other corporate entities intent on putting greed before the good of the earth and its people.

Link [The Huffington Post]

Cancer Patient Fined for Cleaning Up Litter

All Paul McCarthy of the Greenfield area of Pittsburgh wanted to do was help his neighborhood live up to its name. The 62-year-old former city electrician began cleaning up litter and overgrowth along a section of town called ‘The Run’, piling it along the sidewalk for Public Works to pick up. Only they didn’t, and those piles have led to legal troubles for McCarthy, who’s currently being treated for cancer.

McCarthy’s efforts have led to fines because, according to the city, he didn’t do enough. While the ill man toiled over trimming weeds along sidewalks and gathering debris, he wasn’t bagging the waste or coordinating his efforts with Public Works. But McCarthy had repeatedly called the city’s help line when he noticed the trash, and got no response.

From the Post-Gazette:

To Rob Kaczorowski, city Public Works Department’s deputy director of operations, fighting litter is all about communication and coordination — something Mr. McCarthy’s vigilante clean-up push lacked.

“We’re all for volunteer efforts, but it has to be coordinated,” Mr. Kaczorowski said. “Some of the stuff he does, I think he does to aggravate us.”

Bill Smith, executive director of the Greenfield Organization, said his group does mass clean-ups with city help, but added that there’s a place for Mr. McCarthy’s approach.

“From my perspective, this is the kind of thing the city wants people to do,” he said. Public works staff “are put out because this is creating a little more work for them.”

McCarthy got citations twice. The Department of Public Works had concluded that it was the only way to stop him, and it worked: McCarthy is no longer bothering to clean anything up. The Post-Gazette reports that new bags and cups have started to accumulate.

A 62-year-old cancer patient wants to help make the city he lives in more beautiful, and gets fined for it. Awesome. Great job, Pittsburgh Public Works.

Link [Post-Gazette]

10 B.S. Statements in the Climate Change Debate

When people who don’t know what they’re talking about spew utter hogwash about an important issue to people who don’t really grasp the issue in the first place, can anything important ever get done? Unlikely – and that’s the reality we’re living today as both parties of government debate climate change in front of an American public that can’t tell they’re being bullshitted.

WorldChanging is paying attention, and sorting out the truth from the half-truths, misrepresentations, lies and propaganda. They’ve put together the Top 10 Bogus Statements (BS) in the US Climate Debate, with a reality check following each one.

Check out the first two:

No. 10 BS: The United States can’t make a firm commitment to reduce greenhouse gases until China and India do.

Reality check: With this statement, international climate negotiations assume the stature of an Alphonse and Gaston routine. The modern version – “I’m not going to do the right thing until you do the right thing” – would be comical if it weren’t so childish and potentially tragic.

Why shouldn’t the United States make a hard commitment to cut carbon before China, India and other developing nations do? We’re responsible for most of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today. We have been emitting them with abandon for generations.

On the other hand, many developing nations such as China and India are attempting to pull millions of their people from poverty. I don’t believe they deny their obligation to help solve the climate problem. In fact, many of China’s clean energy goals are more aggressive than ours. But they want the leeway to help their people approach the standard of living people enjoy in the U.S.

What the hell: Let’s be big about this and agree to go first. If the US is worried about a trade disadvantage with countries that don’t have carbon regulation, then let’s institute a “border adjustment” – the price those countries should pay for not agreeing to hard targets.

No. 9 BS: Coal will be with us for a long time to come.

In a recent interview with Grist, the chief White House environmental advisor, Nancy Sutley of the Council on Environmental Quality, said: “[C]learly coal is a part of our energy mix now and it’s likely to be so in the future… [E]ven if we were to stop using coal tomorrow, it’s used around the world and we have to deal with its environmental impacts.”

Reality check: Of course we must deal with coal’s environmental problems, but the best way to do that is to stop using it. Accepting that coal is part of our future is not the policy that motivates us to find substitutes. And whether we can deal with its environmental impacts is open to question. We don’t yet have and may never find a cost-effective and safe way to permanently sequester huge amounts of carbon dioxide from coal. If the technology ever is perfected, it will significantly increase the price of electric power from coal, while the price of power from renewable resources is coming down.

Then there’s mountain top removal and all the other environmental damages and carbon emissions associated with extraction and production (See No. 7 below). Let’s shoot for an international climate agreement that sets specific near-term targets for phasing out coal power, along with an aggressive program to replace it worldwide first with natural gas, then with renewable low-carbon fuels.

Head on over to WorldChanging for the rest, which includes statements about domestic oil production, mountaintop coal removal, putting a price on carbon and more.

Link [WorldChanging]
Photo credit: Flickr user dullhunk

“30,000 Global Warming Petition” Debunked

We can always count on DeSmogBlog to call out the lies of global warming deniers – and explain why they’re wrong in a way that’s easy to understand, and backed up by facts. They’ve done it again with the “30,000 Global Warming Petition” that’s being touted by skeptics as evidence that the scientific community shares their doubts about anthropogenic global warming.

Kevin Grandia delves into the petition’s sordid beginnings, the inability to verify any of the identities of the so-called ‘experts’ that signed the petition and the fact that out of all the signers, only .001% actually have a background in climatology – 39 out of 30,000.

When I think I’m having chest pains I don’t go to Dermatologist, I go to a Cardiologist because it would be absurd to go to skin doctor for a heart problem. It would be equally absurd to look to a scientist with a background in Medicine (of which there are 3,046 on the petition) for an expert opinion on the science of climate change. With science broken down into very narrow specialties a scientific expert in one specialty does not make that person an automatic authority in all things science.

In this way the logic of the 30,000 petition is completely flawed, which isn’t surprising given its questionable beginnings.

The petition and the documents included were all made to look like official papers from the prestigious National Academy of Science. They weren’t, and this attempt to mislead has been well-documented.

Along with the petition there was a cover letter from Dr. Fred Seitz (who has since deceased) a notorious climate change denier (and big tobacco scientist), who over 30 years ago was the president of the National Academy of Science.

Read more about why this petition reeks of bullshit over at DeSmogBlog.

Link [DeSmogBlog]

Right-Wing Pundit Freak Out Over ‘Madoff-Waxman-Markey’ Bill

The climate bill that many environmentalists have decried as weak and ineffectual is being touted by right-wing pundits as a vast conspiracy to take their money (shocking, eh?). The usual suspects – Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin – are frothing at the mouth and waving pitchforks over the prospect of the bill being passed in the Senate.

From the NRDC Switchboard:

Among the most unhinged of the commentators has been the venerable Rush Limbaugh.  According to this host, the Waxman-Markey legislation should be called “Madoff-Waxman-Markey” because “this bill is a con game.”  You can see the Dittohead in Chief bloviate here courtesy of our friends at Media Matters.

In case you think Rush was alone in being off his rocker in comparing some of America’s most visionary lawmakers with the nation’s most notorious financial crook, check out Mr. Sensitivity, Glenn Beck’s rantings.

Beck suggests that lawmakers and the mainstream media have somehow colluded to use the death of Michael Jackson (!) to keep the public’s attention off climate change.   I promise you that we are not making this up:

“… it pays for everyone to be extra-vigilant.  Who stands to benefit from cap and trade? Why do we need to do it now? What does a ‘green banking center’ have to do with cooling the Earth?  And, most importantly, is there still a chance to stop this insanity in the Senate or will our politicians there simply wait for the next celebrity death before once again convening in the middle of the night to sell America out to highest bidder?”

Even worse is Michelle Malkin’s witch hunt, complete with wanted poster, of the eight GOP senators who have dared to support a cap-and-trade solution to climate change.

The NRDC goes on to question the legality/morality of shady campaigns by the Fox News-fueled “Tea Party Patriots” – be sure to give it a read.

But, when it comes down to it, the motivations of each side are telling. For what purpose, ultimately, would people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin raise hell over a climate bill that doesn’t even measure up to the standards of environmentalists? Simple – getting attention, so they can make more money.

On the other hand, we dastardly environmentalists act out of the greedy desire to prevent humans from making the world uninhabitable for our own kind (as well as millions of other species). We’re so evil, aren’t we?

Link [NRDC Switchboard]

Climate Bill Will Cost Consumers Way Less than Republicans Claim

Republicans have spent the last couple months circulating false claims about how much the House climate change bill would cost consumers, with estimates skyrocketing into the ridiculous. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann recently claimed that the cost of climate action would be between $3,128 and $4,000 per household, and called for “armed and dangerous” opposition against climate action.

The Congressional Budget Office has put an end to all of the partisan speculation, confirming that climate change legislation would cost the average household a mere $175 a year by 2020, with the poorest 20% of households actually netting $40 annually.

From The Washington Post:

The costs would result from higher prices for carbon-based fuels, offset by a complex series of tax breaks and free allowances, new technologies and behavioral changes, and impacts on corporations and their profits.

The CBO, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, said it did not take into account any indirect benefits of slowing climate change, which are substantial but difficult to quantify.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman  Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said the CBO report shows that his bill is “effective and affordable.”  Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the bill’s lead co-sponsor, said it showed that the cost would be about the same as a postage stamp a day for the average household.

But Michael Steel, a spokesman for House  Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), said that the CBO analysts “got an unrealistically low number for cost per family because they didn’t factor in the millions of American jobs that will move overseas if the United States imposes this tax and our foreign competitors, like China and India, do not. I don’t know what color the sky is in a world where that won’t happen, but I’m sure you can ask the unicorns.”

Boehner’s office is hardly known for responsible and accurate number crunching. It was Boehner who initially claimed the $3,128 – $4,000 figure, citing some math done using a study by an MIT professor on a two-year-old cap and trade bill. But John Reilly, who conducted the study, says Boehner inflated the cost 10-fold by ignoring the offsetting benefits.

Eh, you know how it is. You can smell the desperation of Republican lawmakers from a mile away. They’ll do anything to con Americans into siding with them.

Link [The Washington Post]
Photo credit: [Jezebel] + [Esquire]

Green Hell: Heritage Foundation Spews Anti-Environment Nonsense

Quick, Republicans – git yer guns! Environmentalists are infiltrating the government, courtrooms, boardrooms and classrooms. Insidious!

The Heritage Foundation, known to be anti-environment, put on a little presentation about a book called Green Hell, which describes a “brave new world” in which a powerful and secretive group called “Greens” are working to tear the American lifestyle out of conservatives’ greedy little hands. The author of the book, Steve Milloy, reads an excerpt and then rails on about stupid, cowardly, secretive “Greens”.

“Throughout Green Hell, you will encounter, up close and personal, the myriad encroachments and invasive oversight mechanisms of your day-to-day life that are lurking behind a shiny label that reads ‘green’.”

It’s hilarious, really. Milloy even went through the trouble of classifying us ‘Greens’ into distinct groups. I kid you not: there are the “fanatical nature worshippers”, the “do-gooders”, the “profiteers” like Al Gore, then there are the “cowards, particularly scientists and politicians who know or are concerned about what the score is with modern environmentalism but are too timid, too afraid of standing against the tide.”

“Finally,” he continues, “there are the ‘true greens’, the ones that are running the show behind the curtain. The ones that exploit the fanatics, the do-gooders, the profiteers to advance their anti-people, anti-freedom, anti-free enterprise, anti-science agenda.”

Holy crap, did that guy just say WE’RE anti-science? It gets better.

Noting that a book about Ronald Reagan states that what the former president disliked most about Communists was that they were “secretive and deceitful”, Milloy says “Fast forward 60 years, and we see Greens acting the same way. Secretive and deceitful. What’s so secretive about the greens, you ask? They act out in the open, don’t they? Yes and no. Yes, they tell you they want us to be green, but no, they don’t tell you why they want us to be green.”

“So why do they want us to go green? Isn’t it all about the environment and saving the planet? Not at all. The environment is a shield behind which they advance their social and political agenda.”

Anti-science conservatism at its most paranoid.

Link [Twilight Earth]
Photo credit: Monsterland Toys

Corporate Bottled Water Takes the Greenwash to Twitter

“Bottled water is the greenest, healthiest drink on the shelf!” repeats @BottledH20Babe on Twitter over and over and over again. Is she a bot? No, but she is a lame greenwashing tool of the bottled water industry.

Why would someone like this, whose sole purpose is to make inane claims about the earth friendliness of bottled water and argue with anyone who believes differently, be on Twitter in the first place?

Simple. The International Bottled Water Association is getting scared. People around the world are wising up to the fact that bottled water is wasteful and bad for the environment. The bottled water industry has gotten accustomed to making mind-boggling profits, and a movement to reduce bottled water consumption is a threat to their bank balance.

BottledH20Babe, whose Twitter profile links directly to the International Bottled Water Association website, has a single retort to those who tell ‘her’ why drinking water is bad: “It’s better than soda.” Truly deep and thought-provoking. It makes me want to run out and buy a bunch of bottled water right now.

The association’s website, Bottled Water Matters, actually has a petition (!) asking people to tell elected officials that “I, the undersigned, drink bottled water and understand that it is a safe, healthy, high-quality beverage choice. Bottled water is a modern-day choice because of its convenience and good taste.”

Wow, corporate bottled water spooks. You’re really killing us with your breathtaking logic. Luckily the Union of Concerned Scientists has a quick summary of reasons bottled water ISN’T green, and it actually makes sense.

Fossil fuel consumption. Approximately 17 million barrels of oil—enough to run 1 million cars for a whole year—are used to make plastic water bottles, according to the Pacific Institute. The burning of oil and other fossil fuels (which are also used to generate the energy that powers the manufacturing process) emits global warming pollution into the atmosphere.

Water consumption. The growth in bottled water production has increased water extraction in areas near bottling plants, leading to water shortages that affect nearby consumers and farmers. In addition to the millions of gallons of water used in the plastic-making process, two gallons of water are wasted in the purification process for every gallon that goes into the bottles.

Waste. Only about 10 percent of water bottles are recycled, leaving the rest in landfills where it takes thousands of years for the plastic to decompose.

Bottled water is not and never will be green. We don’t need lighter plastics – we need people to wake up to the simple fact that what’s in those disposable bottles is, in many cases, exactly the same as what comes out of their tap.

Link [Bottled Water Dumbassery] + [Union of Concerned Scientists]

Ad Firm Proudly Trumpets its Clean Coal Greenwashing Work

The ‘clean coal’ campaign was widely ridiculed for being utter hogwash, but that hasn’t stopped the public relations firm behind the multi-million dollar advertising blitz from proudly trumpeting its role in the greenwashing extravaganza. R&R Partners – Advertising is bragging about the work it did for the coal industry’s main front group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy (ACCCE).

From DeSmogBlog:

Rob Van Raaphorst, Account Supervisor, Public Relations at R&R Advertising and Persuasion explains that their company prepared, “a fully integrated marketing, branding and issue-advocacy campaign to educate our audiences on the importance of coal in their daily lives… Outreach consisted of grassroots, earned media, paid media and advocacy tactics that created a “surround-sound” effect targeting each of our audiences through all mediums and communications. Grassroots efforts included street teams, walking billboards, mobile billboards and recruitment and mobilization of an ACCCE Army (supporters of ACCCE and its mission) at presidential primaries, debates, conventions and other key campaign events.”

The coal industry spent $45 million on this piece of crap advertising campaign, along with $125 million in the first 9 months of 2008 lobbying against federal legislation to promote clean energy and a cap on global warming pollution.

All that money spent on ads – not cleaner technology or safety, as we saw earlier this year during several high-profile environmental disasters involving coal.

Golf claps, R&R Advertising. Give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve contributed so much to society.

Link [DeSmogBlog]
Photo credit: Not My Tribe

Burger King: Pushing a Baloney Sandwich, or Just Stupid?

Tennessee residents have begun noticing signs outside various Burger King locations that proclaim ‘Global warming is baloney’.

Memphis Flyer writer Chris Davis tried to get to the bottom of it, calling the manager at a Memphis Burger King to ask whether it was a prank or put up by the restaurant. Here’s part of the exchange:

BK: The sign was put up yesterday.
Me: And it’s not a mistake?
BK: No.
Me: It reflects the opinion of BK international?
BK: Yes.

Maybe the employee got it wrong and it’s merely the opinion of a Southern right-wing franchise owner. Maybe it’s part of a new trend to show off inappropriate political statements outside fast food restaurants. Or, perhaps BK is gearing up to debut a new flame-grilled ‘baloney’ sandwich.

We’ll soon find out, but in the meantime, Burger King looks pretty stupid.

Update: Burger King Corp says global warming is only ‘baloney’ in Memphis, and they don’t condone the message.

This statement [“Global Warming is baloney”] does not reflect a Burger King Corp. (BKC) opinion or view. The two restaurants where these signs appeared are independently owned and operated and were not authorized to display this statement. The signs have since been removed.

BKC believes in operating as a socially responsible company and is committed to making a positive impact in the communities where it lives and works.

Link [Memphis Flyer] via [The Huffington Post]

9 Incredibly Stupid GOP Statements on Climate Change & the Environment

They’re known for being largely anti-science, and many of their numbers still insist that global warming either isn’t real or isn’t caused by man. Paul Krugman declared the GOP to be “the party of stupid” last August, and they haven’t done much to dissuade the public from agreeing with him since then. From declaring the planet already saved – by Jesus – to comparing kids in the climate movement to the Hitler Youth, Republicans really do say the darndest things.

Image via: Pundit Kitchen

“[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she’s just trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet — we didn’t need Nancy Pelosi to do that.” – Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, August 12th 2008

Good news, folks! We can all sit back and relax, because the planet has already been saved. What’s that? The bible says absolutely nothing about Jesus saving the planet? Right. Well, kudos anyway to Bachmann for finding such a ridiculous and unique way to take a shot at Nancy Pelosi, the GOP’s favorite punching bag.

Image via: EarthFirst composite

“It’s odorless, colorless, tasteless, doesn’t cause cancer, doesn’t cause asthma… there’s nobody that’s ever been admitted to a hospital because of CO2 poisoning.” – Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, May 19th 2009

Brilliant reasoning there, Barton. Because, obviously, if a substance doesn’t taste or smell like anything and isn’t a carcinogen, that means it’s totally harmless! The fact that CO2 is in soda, and that we breathe it out, doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant to global warming. It’s doubtful, however, that Barton even cares whether the words coming out of his mouth make any damn sense at all.

Images via: Flickr user The Searcher & Wikimedia Commons

“The earth will end only when God declares its time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth, this earth will not be destroyed by a flood.” – Rep. John Shimkus, R-Illinois, on why he believes that climate change is not a threat

Well, you’re right there, Shimkus – man will not destroy this earth. However, we are well on our way to making it uninhabitable for humans and millions of other species. That’s probably good news to you, however, since according to the Bible that would seem to indicate the Second Coming. “In case of the rapture, this congressional seat will be unmanned!” And we will all be the better for it.

Interesting to see that Rep. Shimkus, who believes that the bible is the infallible word of god, also mentioned the ‘Age of Dinosaurs’ during this hearing. Last time I checked, the bible doesn’t mention anything about dinosaurs… but that can easily be explained away. They’re Jesus Horses!

Image via cbv.ns.ca & Wikipedia

“We don’t know what those other cycles were caused by in the past. Could be dinosaur flatulence, you know, or who knows?’ – Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-California, questioning the authors of a landmark IPCC report about a period of dramatic climate change that occurred 55 million years ago

Dinosaurs, flatulence and Republicans… the jokes write themselves.

“Kathy Dahlkemper has some wacky ideas. Take energy. She said we should make personal sacrifices such as ‘walking places’ and ‘riding bikes’.” – National Republican Congressional Committee ad for Rep. Phil English, R-Pennsylvania on his Democratic challenger Kathy Dahlkemper

Oh, those wacky Democrats. What will they think of next?

Image via: Current.com

“I’m trying to think where else this has been done – Soviet Russia, Nazi, Germany, Mussolini’s Italy,” Beck said. “In fact, the Nazis took an extra step. Not only did they indoctrinate the kids and tell them you’re probably right, you know but your parents don’t; in fact, here’s the next step: Why don’t you tell us what your parents are telling you. Are we having the new Hitler youth? Is that what this is? The new Hitler youth? I’m sorry, that’s so politically incorrect – the new green guard. Man your station, 12-year-olds, your parents just don’t know.”– Conservative radio and Fox News host Glenn Beck on Al Gore’s ‘indoctrination’ of children

What did Al Gore say to provoke that attack? He had the gall to tell a bunch of school kids, “There are some things about our world that you know that older people don’t know.” Gasp! It’s the beginning of a new Hitler Youth! Soon those kids will be recycling and turning the lights off, and if that isn’t a major threat to the poor downtrodden Republican base, I don’t know what is.

This isn’t even the first time Beck, whose Fox News show is designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator, has likened the global climate movement to the horrific mass murder of millions of innocent people. He apparently really likes the Holocaust/Nazi analogy, because in 2007 he asserted that Al Gore is using the “same tactic” to fight global warming that Hitler used to vilify Jews in Nazi Germany. Yeah.

Image via: Third Base Politics

“The idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know when they do what they do you’ve got more carbon dioxide.” – Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio

You’re totally right, Boehner. The idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen is comical.

“So, do you want to put your country first? Then let’s reduce our dependency on foreign sources of oil and promote oil and gas production at home. In other words: Drill, baby, drill! And drill now!” – Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele at the Republican National Convention in 2008

Yes, that’s right, the infamous(ly insipid) “drill, baby, drill” rallying cry that Sarah Palin made famous actually originated with the GOP’s totally fresh hip-hop Michael Steele. Is anyone surprised?

Image via: Current

“There are some monuments where the land is so widespread, they just encompass as much as possible. And the integral part of the–the precious part, so to speak–I guess all land is precious, but the part that the people uniformly would not want to spoil, will not be despoiled. But there are parts of the monument lands where we can explore without affecting the overall environment.”—Former President George W. Bush, media round table, Washington, D.C. March 13, 2001

Bushisms: pretty much the only enjoyable aspect of George W. Bush’s presidency. Even Bush himself didn’t understand what he just said. Irregardless, we will never misunderestimate our former President’s ability to turn what should have been a one-sentence statement into incoherent, misguided rambling.

‘Clean Coal’ Group Making False Claims in Online Ads

An online advertisement by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy (ACCCE), a front group for the coal and electricity industries, claims that 72% of opinion leaders support coal electricity. The ‘America’s Power’ ad, which has appeared on The Washington Post, The Hill and other news websites, redirects to a page that contains blatant falsehoods in an attempt to hoodwink the public into supporting coal.

SolveClimate took a closer look at the report. The first problem is with the ACCCE’s definition of ‘opinion leaders’, which basically translates to a tiny percentage of the American population – far too small of a number of individuals in the U.S. to be able to generalize the results of the poll. The ACCCE survey also claimed that the 72% represented “a significant increase over the past year and the highest level of support since the group began polling almost 10 years ago” – which sounds impressive until you find out that the ACCCE wasn’t even founded until 2008.

From SolveClimate:

The next claim is that “the poll shows that Americans are very optimistic about the future for coal. When asked the question ‘do you believe coal is a fuel for America’s future?’ — 69% of Americans agreed (compared to only 26% who disagreed).”

This claim is an outright lie.

According to the survey’s own methodology, 600 people who qualified as “opinion elites” were polled. It is not possible to generalize the results of a survey from a tiny selected minority out to the entire population at large. It would be like polling just my immediate family about our car buying habits and then trying to apply that to my entire community.

Without a statistical method to correlate your data with the wider population, you cannot draw any conclusions for the wider population. The press release doesn’t even attempt to provide a margin of sampling error. Riehle also said a margin of error wouldn’t be appropriate for the poll – “It’s not statistically the same kind of animal” as a Gallup poll or other random survey of the population, he explained.

So, what it comes down to is manipulation of poll results to convince Americans that “opinion leaders”, i.e. smart people who should know, believe that coal is the fuel that we need now and heading into the future.

Surprising? Not at all. The dirty energy industries are desperate to hang on. The backlash against so-called ‘clean coal’ scares them. Stunts like this are the last pathetic gasps of a dying industry, and they know it.

Link [SolveClimate]

More Polluter-Funded Front Groups Fighting Climate Action

Let’s face it: the general public doesn’t dig too deep into the background of organizations giving them supposed ‘facts’ about climate change. So, it’s all too easy for them to hear a name like ‘American Energy Alliance’ or ‘Institute for Energy Research’ and assume that these are reputable, non-biased groups that can provide them with information they can trust. But, these groups and many others like them are actually front groups for polluting businesses and for the energy industry.

NRDC explains:

Yesterday the American Energy Alliance announced it is running radio ads in the districts of some of the members of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which is currently looking at a bill that would establish polluter penalties on global warming pollution. The ads repeat Newt Gingrich’s false- and thoroughly debunked – claim that a climate bill will cost every American $1,300 per year.

So who is the American Energy Alliance? Another offshoot of the ExxonMobil and Koch Industries families of polluter-funded advocacy, it turns out. Described by NPR as “a new advocacy organization with strong ties to the oil industry,” AEA was formed in 2008 and is led by long-time polluter-pal Thomas Pyle, who serves as President.

Pyle is also President of the AEA’s counterpart the Institute for Energy Research (IER). What’s that? Well, the tobacco industry had the Tobacco Institute to peddle its smoke screens, deceptions and other propaganda. The energy industry has the Institute for Energy Research, which Sourcewatch describes this way:  ” … founded in 1989 from a predecessor non-profit organization, [IER] advocates positions on environmental issues which happen to suit the energy industry: climate change denial, claims that conventional energy sources are virtually limitless, and the deregulation of utilities.”

As we reported yesterday, the energy industry has been perpetuating the myth that “clean energy is a dirty lie”. Not that this is any surprise. The energy industry will do practically anything to stay afloat during these times of changing public sentiment, including ignoring their own scientists’ data on climate change because it wasn’t convenient to the story they had concocted.

Link [NRDC]

Profits Before People: 7 of the World’s Most Irresponsible Companies

Money isn’t everything – or is it? To most corporations, making a profit is goal number one – but some of those companies take it way too far, sacrificing the health of the planet and its inhabitants for a bigger bank balance.  Far too many corporations turn a blind eye to the consequences of their destructive, exploitative practices. The worst of them are committing atrocities that go beyond the realm of objectionable into criminal, dumping toxic chemicals without regard to public health and employing child labor.

What makes these seven companies extra evil is the fact that they’ve committed crimes that are BOTH environmentally and socially irresponsible.

Nestle

Image via Blood in Your Coffee

More than 40% of the world’s chocolate comes from Côte d’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) in Africa, where tens of thousands of children are estimated to be working in dangerous conditions on cocoa farms. Nestle uses cocoa harvested by slave labor, and only when Senator Thomas Harkin (D-Iowa) led an investigation and introduced legislation that would require chocolate sold in the US to be labeled “slave-free” did the company act. Nestle promised that by July 2005 they would find a way to certify chocolate as not having been produced by any underage, indentured, trafficked or coerced labor, but since then, they have achieved very little.

Nestle’s bottled water business is also a major cause for concern. Nestle controls one-third of the US market and sells 70 different brand names of bottled water including Arrowhead, Deer Park, Perrier and Poland Spring. The company buys up pristine springs in some of the most beautiful natural spaces in America and builds huge factories on the sites, releasing pollution into the air and drawing enormous amounts of water out of the springs.

And, while the company claims an environmentally friendly ethic, saying it would never harm an aquifer, that’s exactly what they have done in places like Mecosta County, Michigan, damaging the watershed with excessive withdrawals, reaping huge profits and leaving the locals to deal with the consequences.

Pfizer

Image via Daylife

Air and water pollution, disregard for safety standards and experimentation on Nigerian children: these are just a few of the environmental and human rights offenses perpetrated by the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. It’s hard to imagine how Pfizer officials can bear to look at themselves in the mirror every day after what they’ve done.

Pfizer is guilty of some of the most despicable price gouging in corporate history: it keeps its HIV/AIDS-related drugs out of the hands of the world’s poor, who need them the most. Pfizer has aggressively fought efforts to make these drugs more affordable, refusing to grant generic licenses for HIV/AIDS drugs to Brazil, South Africa and other countries in need of them.

In June 2008, Pfizer was forced to pay a $975,000 fine for violating the Clean Air Act at one of its manufacturing plants in Groton, Connecticut – a drop in the bucket for a company that makes upwards of $50 billion in profits every year. The Pfizer plant was emitting methanol, hydrogen chloride, methylene chloride, MTBE, hexane, toluene and other chemicals classified by the EPA as hazardous air pollutants. Pfizer had previously paid $430 million in 2004 to settle a large number of outstanding asbestos lawsuits from its acquisition of Quigley Company in 1968, which had sold contaminated insulation.

Worst of all, the company that has little regard for safety standards – having released a number of drugs that ended up being pulled off the market for unforeseen complications – decided to test one of its drugs on poor, critically ill Nigerian children. Masking the trial as a “humanitarian mission”, Pfizer tested an experimental antibiotic called Trovan on meningitis-infected Nigerian children without their knowledge or the knowledge of their families. 11 children died, and others developed brain damage and crippling arthritis.

Wal-Mart

Image via Brave New Films

“Save Money, Live Better”. That’s Wal-Mart’s slogan, but Wal-Mart workers themselves certainly wouldn’t say that they live better after beginning employment with the retail giant. A 2005 study found that Wal-Mart reduced the take-home pay of workers by an astounding $4.7 billion dollars annually, adding insult to injury considering that workers are often forced to work overtime for zero pay. Wal-Mart does everything it can to deny its workers basic rights, spending an enormous amount of time and money keeping unions out including $7,000 anti-union camera packages, $30,000 undercover spy vans, $100,000 24-hour anti-union hotlines and a $7,000,000 rapid response team with a corporate jet.

Furthermore, Wal-Mart pushes its suppliers to go lower and lower on their wholesale prices, until they’re so squeezed that they barely have two pennies to rub together at the end of the day. Thanks to its focus on low, low prices, the retailer has repeatedly turned a blind eye to child slave labor in its manufacturing facilities abroad, particularly in China and Bangladesh.

And, despite all of their claims about ‘going green’, Wal-Mart has broken one environmental law after the other. Wal-Mart became the first company to be fined for violating new standards for stormwater runoff in 2001, and had to pay $5.5 million. In 2004, the company faced fines for violations in 9 states. That same year, it agreed to pay $400,000 to the government to settle claims that Sam’s Club had violated air pollution regulations in 11 states.

Last year, the company admitted as much – but that hasn’t stopped them from continuing the PR effort. Former CEO Lee Scott admitted of the company’s greenwashing efforts, “It has been positive from a PR standpoint, but one of the things we learned is that we are not sophisticated enough to spin a story — ultimately, we’d get hammered. We are not out saying we’re a green company. We are not green. We have an extraordinary distance to go.”

ExxonMobil

Image via Greenpeace

The Exxon-Valdez oil spill is by far ExxonMobil’s most well-known environmental offense, but it’s certainly not the only one. The oil giant was ranked sixth on the Toxic 100 list of US corporate air polluters, and has been accused by Greenpeace of sabotaging efforts to deal with climate change, manipulating peer-reviewed studies and misleading the public with junk science. Indeed, though they have since cut off funding, ExxonMobil once financially supported a number of global warming denial organizations.

Though ExxonMobil trumpeted its investment in renewable energy sources in a series of advertisements over the past few years, the fact is that the company has invested just $300 million in renewable energy sources over the next 10 years compared to the $47 billion they spent between 2003 and 2006 alone on dirty energy sources like oil and gas.

In 2001, ExxonMobil was the target of a lawsuit by a human rights group that accused the company of actively abetting human rights abuses including torture, rape and killings in Indonesia. The suit alleged that ExxonMobil had hired a local army to protect its natural gas fields in the Aceh province, providing them with equipment to dig mass graves as well as building interrogation and torture centers. The company denied all of the charges, but a motion it filed to have the case dismissed was denied in 2006. The case is still pending.

Chevron

Image via Treehugger

Chevron has launched a huge multimedia advertising blitz about its supposed commitment to smart energy use and renewable energy sources – all while destroying pristine forests in places like Ecuador and Bangladesh, and causing myriad health problems right here in the U.S. thanks to the toxic waste at its refineries.

Texaco (which has since been taken over by Chevron) caused a toxic “Rainforest Chernobyl” in Ecuador from 1964 to 1992, cutting through the Amazon in search of oil and leaving behind dead rivers, polluted air, scarred forests and over 600 unlined oil pits. They also dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic production water into the rivers where locals bathe. Living in close proximity to the oil fields has resulted in health effects ranging from high miscarriage rates to cancer.

In Richmond, California, toxic pollutants from Chevron’s refinery in the city have infiltrated people’s homes. Air samples from inside and outside Richmond homes in 2006 were found to contain particulate matter known to come from oil refining that exceeded California’s air quality standards. Unsurprisingly, local residents are feeling the effects in the form of lupus, cancer, athsma and a number of other health problems.

Dow Chemical

Image via Greenpeace

Dow Chemical (along with Monsanto) will never escape the shadow of Agent Orange, the chemical used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War during the ‘Herbicidal Warfare’ program, which lead to 400,000 deaths and disabilities and 500,000 children born with birth defects. But even with this evil legacy – and that of Napalm, which it also produced – Dow is not contrite. This corporation continues to pollute the earth without apology.

Two rivers downstream of Dow’s plant in Midland, Michigan are polluted with chlorinated furans and dioxins from the company’s past operations. Despite the fact that these chemicals are linked to cancer and other health issues, Dow maintains that the contamination is not a public health threat and has been fighting with the EPA over cleanup for years. Many people in the area aren’t even aware of the extent of the dioxin contamination, and Dow has refused to put up warning signs. Just last weekend, Dow Chemical sponsored a fishing event in a waterway it polluted with dioxin, never even acknowledging the contamination and its possible effects.

Furthermore, following the purchase of Union Carbide – the company responsible for the Bhopal gas disaster which left nearly 20,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands disabled – Dow has refused to take responsibility for the health and environmental effects of the incident.

Monsanto

Image via Flickr user skasuga

Despite the inroads that Dow Chemical has been making lately on the evil corporation front, Monsanto still reigns supreme. It’s hard to overstate just how socially and environmentally irresponsible this company really is. Monsanto has manufactured herbicides (which, during manufacturing, create dioxin as a by-product), Agent Orange, plastics, fuel additives, saccharin, industrial fluids, fertilizers, pesticides and anti-freeze in the past. Some years ago they chose to focus on ‘life sciences’ and are now the world’s largest seed company. They’re also the creators of Recombitant Bovine Growth Hormone (rGBH) and the world’s largest producer of genetically modified food.

Monsanto is responsible for more than 50 Superfund sites including Anniston, Alabama, one of America’s worst man-made environmental disasters. For over 40 years, Monsanto routinely dumped toxic waste into West Anniston Creek while producing now-banned industrial coolants called PCBs. They also dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into open-pit landfills – and proceeded to spend decades covering it up even after confirming that fish submerged in the creek turned belly-up within seconds.

Monsanto knew exactly how dangerous the PCBs were, but chose to keep it secret, altering documents and forcing changes to study results to keep the secret. Though they were forced to pay $700 million in fines in 2003, they have not apologized or taken responsibility.

On top of that, after polluting waterways all over the world, Monsanto proceeded to buy up said waterways, filter the water and sell it back to the public, making a double profit.

Among Monsanto’s worst acts is its attempt to completely monopolize the world’s seed supply. The company has spent over $8 billion in recent years buying up seed companies – including organic seed companies – and making it illegal for farmers to retain the seeds from their crop for the following year’s planting. That means farmers are forced to pay Monsanto for new seeds, again and again. Many of Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds produce plants that are reportedly dependent upon Monsanto herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers.

The people paying the biggest price for Monsanto’s greed are Indian farmers. Every day, at least three of them commit suicide by hanging themselves, drowning themselves in rivers or drinking Monsanto pesticides because they’ve hit rock bottom in desperation, hopelessness and debt. The death toll stands at thousands, with some estimates at over 16,000. The farmers had been promised unprecedented harvests and income if they switched to genetically modified Monsanto seeds in what was basically one big experiment on unwitting subjects. When the crops failed, the farmers felt they had no way out, and they certainly didn’t have money to buy more seeds.

Now, it’s been reported that Monsanto has found a way to profit from its own misdeeds once again. In the Southeast, a “superweed” known as Palmer amaranth pigweed is taking over soybean and cotton fields, often leaving them totally unfit for future cultivation. This particular strain of weed was created thanks to overuse of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide and the attendant use of its patented Roundup-resistant GMOs. So, what will it take to wipe out this superweed? You guessed it – more Monsanto herbicides.

Fossil Fuels Industry Ignored its Own Scientists on Climate

So deep in denial is the fossil fuels industry, it ignored its own scientists when they offered advice on climate change that the industry did not want to accept. The Global Climate Coalition, a group representing industries with profits tied to fossil fuels, had spent a decade leading an aggressive lobbying and PR campaign against the notion that greenhouse gas emissions cause climate change, and they weren’t about to screw it up with a silly thing like actual facts.

From The New York Times:

A document filed in a federal lawsuit demonstrates that even as the coalition worked to sway opinion, its own scientific and technical experts were advising that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted.

“The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied,” the experts wrote in an internal report compiled for the coalition in 1995.

The coalition disbanded in 2002, but some members, including the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute, continue to lobby against any law or treaty that would sharply curb emissions. Others, like Exxon Mobil, now recognize a human contribution to global warming and have largely dropped financial support to groups challenging the science.

Basically, the fossil fuels industry knew about the harm that rampant greenhouse gas emissions would cause, and not only didn’t act – but sought to convince the public that there was no tie between these emissions and global warming, a tactic that was also employed by the tobacco industry. British environmental activist and writer George Monbiot points out that the fossil fuels industry didn’t have to convince people of their point of view, but simply create as much confusion as possible.

And, to some degree, it worked. Much of the ‘evidence’ and ‘scientific opinion’ that global warming deniers and skeptics still use to refute the reality of climate change to this day originates from the misinformation deliberately injected into the argument by the fossil fuels industry. Luckily, the noise from the ‘global warming is a myth’ side has largely died down in the face of actual facts.

So, where’s the public anger? Why aren’t people pushing back against an industry that would sacrifice millions of lives and the future of our planet for their own financial gain? It might have something to do with the fact that most people still don’t think global warming is going to affect them personally. I hope, for everyone’s sake, that they aren’t forced to learn otherwise in the near future.

Link [The New York Times]

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