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Koch Industries funds climate change deniers: Greenpeace

(AFP) – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON — Koch Industries, a huge privately-owned US company dominated by oil and chemical interests, is plowing millions of dollars into campaigns to discredit climate science and clean energy policies, a report alleged Tuesday.

Between 2005 and 2008, the Kansas-based conglomerate that "most Americans have never heard of" spent nearly 25 million dollars to fund "organizations of the 'climate denial machine,'" environmental protection group Greenpeace said in the report.

Between 2006 and 2009, Koch Industries and the family that founded and still controls the conglomerate spent 37.9 million dollars on direct lobbying on oil and energy issues -- eclipsed only by oil majors Exxon and Chevron, who spent 87.8 million dollars and 50 million dollars, the report said.

"Although Koch intentionally stays out of the public eye, it is now playing a quiet but dominant role in a high-profile national policy debate on global warming," the report says.

Greenpeace published a list of 35 organizations and 21 lawmakers who have directly or indirectly received funds from Koch Industries, the company's affiliates, or foundations set up by the Koch family...

They include conservative think-tank the Cato Institute, which got more than one million dollars in grant money from Koch; and grassroots group Americans for Prosperity, which is campaigning to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases.

That group got over five million dollars.

Koch has also contributed to politicians, the report said, listing 17 Republicans and four Democrats...

A foundation set up by Charles Koch, who with his brother controls the US conglomerate, partly funded a report published in 2007 that said polar bears were not endangered by climate change, the report said...

Larry Kramer wrote:In 1971, Lewis Powell, a Richmond lawyer who called himself a centrist, was secretly commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Congress ((ON EDIT: Obviously that should read, "Commerce" -JR)) to write a confidential plan on how to take back America for the survival of the free enterprise system. Not democracy. Free enterprise. Barry Goldwater had lost, Nixon was about to implode, Vietnam had sucked the nation’s soul dry, the cabal saw their world unraveling. They saw the women’s movement, black civil rights. student war protests, the cold war. They saw the world as they knew it coming to an end. (We are not the first to feel our world crumbling and becoming powerless.)

This is what Lewis Powell wrote:
“Survival lies in organization, in careful long range planning, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing only available through joint effort and in the political power available only through united action.”

This was the birth of what is now called the vast right wing conspiracy. It is known as the Powell Manifesto. You can google Lewis Powell (not the one who helped to assassinate Lincoln) and read it in its entirety.

Under the supervision of some of the richest families in America, that plan has been followed faithfully since 1971 and it has resulted in these past years of horror and the reelection of George Bush. Nine families and their foundations, all under the insistent goading of Joseph Coors, have financed much of this. The Bradley Foundation. The Smith Richardson Foundation. Four Scaife Family Foundations, The John M. Olin Foundation. The Castle Rock (or Coors) Foundation. Three Koch Family Foundations. The Earhart Foundation. The JM Foundation. The McKenna Foundation. From 1985 to 2001 alone they contributed $650 million to this conservative message campaign. They have helped to launch and gain financing for networks of newspapers and magazines. They have seen to it that hundreds of the most powerful think tanks have appeared, including the Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institute, the American Enterprise, Cato, Manhattan, Hudson Institutes, and many more. There are now in place an ever growing number of well-funded student organizations at many colleges. There are legal advocacy foundations, such as the Center For Individual Rights and Judicial Watch. There are Leadership Institutes and Action Institutes and Institutes on Religion and Public Policy and Religion and Democracy. There is a heavily visible media participation: Fox Television and Pat Robertson and Oliver North and Radio America and the Washington Times and Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, to name but a very few, including the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal.

For the preparation of this manifesto, Lewis Powell was rewarded by Richard Nixon with a seat on the Supreme Court, where among other things he voted against gays in Bowers v. Hardwick, and against Black people in Bakke v. University of California.

It is vital for us to realize that this plan was written in 1971. The people it was written for did not go off then to a disco, or to the Pines or into therapy, or into drugs. They took this plan and they have executed it religiously every day and night for the next thirty-five years initially with some 400 million dollars and always from then until now with unending hours of backbreaking, grinding, unglamorous work, of civic engagements county by county across the entire expanse of America. They took the richest and most liberal nation in the history of civilization and turned it hard right into a classist, racist, homophobic imperial army of pirates. 30% of America now self-identify as conservative or extremely conservative. When Lewis Powell wrote his Manifesto that figure was less than 10%.

This looks like it provides a compehensive overview of the crucial manipulation and public opinion management behind the defacto complete subversion take-over of US government by the klepto-corporatocracy by way of rightwing institutions and leading the flag-waving neoconservative movement; Probably behind the demonization of 'liberal' as essential to the identity politics of 'divide and rule', and revamping 'communism' as a major cause-celebre to justify the military and neoliberal campaigns against the 3rd world c/o Reagan and Bush I, esp. Latin American Death Squads, Iran-Contra, IMF/World Bank debt-indenture scams.

AFP wrote:Between 2006 and 2009, Koch Industries and the family that founded and still controls the conglomerate spent 37.9 million dollars on direct lobbying on oil and energy issues -- eclipsed only by oil majors Exxon and Chevron, who spent 87.8 million dollars and 50 million dollars, the report said.

JackRiddler wrote:None of this radical. Or even that hard. It's merely unthinkable.

wintler2 wrote:

AFP wrote:Between 2006 and 2009, Koch Industries and the family that founded and still controls the conglomerate spent 37.9 million dollars on direct lobbying on oil and energy issues -- eclipsed only by oil majors Exxon and Chevron, who spent 87.8 million dollars and 50 million dollars, the report said.

How often have you heard RightThink loons gabble about scientists profiteering from the 'climate change industry'? And all the time its their own fatuous talking heads with their snouts in the trough.


Thanks too JR, i knew some of the names who birthed what i know as neoliberalism, but not the outlay - $650million!! Makes AGW denial look cheap, which it is of course if compare to multibillion dollar annual profits of ExxonMobil etc.

The Guardian wrote:Beijing to sweeten stench of rubbish crisis with giant deodorant guns

High-pressure fragrance sprays will be installed at Asuwei dump, one of several hundred overflowing landfill sites that are the focus of growing public concern
In pictures: zooming in on Beijing's rubbish


(247)
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Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Friday 26 March 2010 12.55 GMT
Article history

Link to this video

Beijing is to install 100 deodorant guns at a stinking landfill site on the edge of the city in a bid to dampen complaints about the capital's rubbish crisis.

The giant fragrance sprays will be put in place by May at the Asuwei dump site, one of several hundred tips that are the focus of growing public concerns about sanitation, environmental health and a runaway consumer culture.

Municipal authorities say they will also apply more plastic layers to cover the site in response to furious protests by local residents who have to put up with the stench when the wind blows in their direction.

The high-pressure guns, which can spray dozens of litres of fragrance per minute over a distance of up to 50m, are produced by several Chinese firms and based on German and Italian technology. They are already in use at several landfill sites, but they are merely a temporary fix.

Beijing's waste problem - and China's - is expanding as fast as its economy, at about 8% each year. With millions more people now able to afford Starbucks, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and other elements of a western, throwaway lifestyle, the landfill sites and illegal tips that ring the capital are close to overflowing.

According to the local government, the city of 17m people generates 18,000 tonnes of waste every day - 7,000 tonnes more than the capacity of municipal disposal plants.

"All landfill and treatment sites in Beijing will be full in four years. That's how long it takes to build a treatment plant. So we need to act right now to resolve the issue," said Wang Weiping, a waste expert in the city government. "It's necessary to restructure the current disposal system. We cannot rely on landfill anymore. It's a waste of space."

Less than 4% of Beijing's rubbish is recycled – the UK recycles 35% – but is still near the bottom of the EU recycling league. Two per cent of Beijing's rubbish is burned but the rest is dumped in landfill sites, which cover an area of 333,000 sq m. Cities throughout the country face a similar problem.

There are more than 200 legal and illegal sites around Beijing, according to Wang Jiuliang, a photographer who has spent the past year recording and plotting the wastelands using GPS systems and Google Earth.

Together, they form what he calls "Beijing's seventh ring", where the city meets the countryside with smart new ring roads, expensive housing complexes and the detritus of consumer culture.

"People are forced to use these places for dumps and landfills. There is no better place," he says. "China has become a consumer society over the past 10 or 20 years. The authorities are working hard to solve the garbage problem, but it has emerged too quickly."

Environment authorities in cities throughout the country are struggling to keep pace with this burgeoning problem. According to the government, about 20m tonnes of urban garbage went unhandled in 2008.

They want to deal with the waste by burning it. But government plans to build 82 incinerators between 2006 and 2010 have encountered an increasingly hostile "not-in-my-backyard" movement.

According to Chinese media reports, at least six incinerator projects have been put on hold due to public opposition, including Panyu in Guangdong province, Jiangqiao in Shanghai, and Liulitun and Asuwei in Beijing.

The number of rubbish-related public complaints in Beijing increased by 57% last year, according to the Municipal Petition Office. Many residents have safety fears about incineration facilities despite reassurances by the government.

In an attempt to win public confidence, the managers of a new 800m yuan incinerator in Gao'antun set up a giant display screen earlier this month that contains real-time data on emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

But it continues to raise concerns because there are no figures for dioxins - the toxins released during the burning of plastic and other synthetic materials. The plant has had to scale back operations in the face of public opposition.

In the longer term, the government plans massive investment and new legislation to double the capacity of waste disposal facilities, increase the incineration rate to 40% and to cut the growth in the volume of rubbish to zero by 2015 through recycling.

There is a long way to go. Currently, even when waste is separated by schools and companies, it is often just crammed back together by refuse collectors. A Beijing News report last month noted that distribution and disposal plants are not designed to deal with separated waste.

"We just compress, pack and then bury everything directly," said staff from Mentougou district waste transfer station.

Efforts to promote recycling have a long way to go. Public litter bins offer two options - marked recyclable and non-recyclable - but few people are aware of the distinction because there has not been an adequate public education campaign.

"I am willing to take time and money to separate and recycle my rubbish, but there's just no such system here," said Beijing resident Cui Zheng.




Incinerator projects that have been held up by public protests

June 2007 - Liulitun, Beijing


June 2007 - Liulitun, Beijing


Early 2009 - Jiangqiao, Shanghai


September 2009 - Asuwei, Beijing


October 2009 - Wujiang, Jiangsu


November 2009 - Panyu, Guangzhou


December 2009 - Tianjingwa, Nanjing


• Additional reporting by Han Ying

Victronix on truthmove.org forum wrote:

as if the vast majority of the scientific community is working in collusion to create a worldwide hoax - including Russia and China and the entire industrialized world - that a worldwide environmental crisis is unfolding.

This is the key difference here between the facts of climate change and other issues questioned by most who tend to question the man-made aspect of climate change:

1) none of the other issues like 9/11, JFK, FL 800, HAARP, etc are worldwide events that require the involvement of the world scientific community -- thousands of scientists -- but rather, typically involve a single national government (and collusion by other intelligence and government leaders who also benefit) with highly limited and controlled science whose evidence is completely controlled, destroyed or hidden.

2) none of the other issues like 9/11, JFK, FL 800, HAARP, etc are ongoing events whose evidence is available to everyone all over the world to examine simultaneously using the scientific method and simple tools to measure and analyze. Scientists all over the world can and are investigating and confirming the same findings over the over and over.

What's sad is that people who have no understanding of science are spreading a broad brush of "it's all a lie" onto everything. Evolution is not a lie. Climate change is not a lie. Many things are not lies for profit, but almost everything is manipulated for profit. Even just the remote potential for human involvement in climate change is a devastating consequence that needs to be addressed, not ignored.

Unfortunately things like the banker bailout have only contributed to the sense that everything is just cooked up to rob us blind, so it's not surprising that this skepticism exists.

OTOH, who benefits from the claims that human involvement is a hoax?

Somehow, the explosion of "Ghost" propaganda (even Edmunds Scientific is selling crap to detect paranormal activity) and such suggests to me that keeping the public awash in hoaxes, or the belief that half of everything is a lie, is benefiting those who need to quickly and easily muddy the waters when it best suits them.

News broke earlier this week that the privately owned, multi-billion dollar Koch Industries has outspent even ExxonMobil on climate and clean energy disinformation campaigns--over the last ten years or so, the company spent nearly $50 million. The recent revelation is far from an isolated incident, however. In fact, it gives us a good reason to highlight the billionaire David Koch's 20+ years of funding anti-science campaigns designed to confuse the public about such issues as acid rain and climate change. Here's a little timeline of the notorious man's adventures:

Taking a closer look at the chronicles of Koch, Wonk Room's Lee Fang has compiled a record of his activities over the last 25 years or so. Here are some highlights:

1984:
- David Koch, along with political operative Richard Fink, founds Citizens for a Sound Economy to create grassroots support to for deregulation, corporate tax cuts, and other right-wing, corporate causes. Fink, who also serves as an executive at Koch Industries, goes on to direct Koch charitable foundations and the Koch-funded academic center (known first as the Center for Market Processes, later renamed as the Mercatus Center) at George Mason University. Mercatus provides thousands of scholarships to students around the country to study Koch's free market beliefs, and trains hundreds of academics in those same ultralibertarian theories.

1990
- A market-based cap and trade program to regulate sulfur dioxide is proposed as an amendment to the Clean Air Act to eradicate acid rain.

- Koch's Citizens for a Sound Economy creates a spinoff front group called "Concerned Citizens for the Environment" to battle proposed regulations to deal with acid rain. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the group "has no citizen membership of its own," but produced studies arguing that acid rain was a myth and that deregulation would benefit the environment.

[Note: Calling acid rain, a myth? Sound like a familiar strategy? Hmmm. Also, the 'market-based cap and trade program' was one of the most successful environmental programs in history--it's all but been eradicated in the US]

1993:
- President Clinton calls for a BTU tax on fossil fuel-based energy.

- Koch's Citizens for a Sound Economy, along with another Koch-funded group, American Energy Alliance, works closely with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the oil lobby to coordinate a campaign to kill the BTU tax. Citizens for a Sound economy commissions polls, takes full page newspaper advertisements, television advertisements, and sends operatives into Oklahoma and Louisiana to organize rallies against the tax.

- After months of ads, Koch's Citizens for a Sound Economy organizes rowdy anti-tax protests to ensure the BTU tax is killed. NPR noted that one CSE-sponsored rally outside of the House of Representatives was "designed to strike fear into the hearts of wavering Democrats." Angry protesters surrounded a man on a hunger strike in favor of the energy tax and shouted him down. Among the gimmicks of rallies were timed releases of balloons to represent dollars families would supposedly pay under the tax. After Sen. David Boren (D-OK) and Sen. John Breaux (D-LA) collapsed to the pressure, the tax died.

1994
- A Koch pipeline spill at Corpus Christi, Texas, led to a $10.5 million class-action settlement for people in the fishing industry. Almost 100,000 gallons were spilled, causing a twelve-mile oil slick in Nueces Bay and Corpus Christi Bay.

- Court documents reveal that Phillip Morris and the tobacco industry rents Citizens for a Sound Economy for a campaign against proposed tobacco regulations. A memo outlines that the tobacco industry's $2 million in contributions to CSE paid for a campaign to "educate and mobilize consumers, through town hall meetings, radio and print ads, direct mail, patch-through calls to the Capitol switchboard, editorial board visits, polling data, meetings with Members and staff and the release of studies and other educational pieces."

[Okay, let's fast forward a bit . . .]

2001
- Koch pours $800,000 to Bush and Republicans for the 2000 election, funnels up to $20 million into various conservative think tanks and organizations.

- In the months preceding the presidential elections, the Koch faced a 97-count federal indictment charging it with concealing illegal releases of 91 metric tons of benzene, known to cause leukemia, from its refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas. After Bush took office in 2001, 88 counts were dropped. Two days before the trial, then-Attorney General Ashcroft agreed to a plea bargain. Koch pled guilty to falsifying documents, all major charges were dropped and the company settled the lawsuit for $20 million, a small part of the possible $350 million in fines. This was the fifth largest ever settlement for criminal environmental prosecutions.

2010
- A report finds that Koch is the largest funder of climate science denying organizations in the world, outpacing even ExxonMobil. Nearly $25 million in Koch money has flowed to various anti-climate science think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, the Pacific Research Institute, and the Tax Foundation, among others.


Whew. And that's just a small sampling--head over to Wonk Room for the full rundown of how large a role David Koch has played in shaping the resistance to clean energy and rallying support for fossil fuel industries.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04 ... groups.php

JackRiddler wrote:New Math: