Skip to content

Archive

Tag: Mother Jones
Suzanne Goldenberg the British environment correspondent based in Washington DC, award winning writer and author of Madam President, about Hillary Clinton's historic run for White House, has published an article on Mother Jones titled ‘Billionaires Secretly Funded Vast Climate Denial Network’ referring to how  the conservative dark-money group ‘Donors Trust’ contributed huge sums to battle against climate-change science. Goldenberg states “Conservative billionaires used a secretive funding route to channel nearly $120 million to more than 100 groups casting doubt about the science behind climate change … helped build a vast network of think tanks and activist groups working to a single purpose: to redefine climate change from neutral scientific fact to a highly polarizing "wedge issue" for hardcore conservatives. The millions were routed through two trusts, Donors Trust and the Donors Capital Fund, operating out of a generic town house in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. Donors Capital caters to those making donations of $1 million or more. …By 2010, the dark money amounted to $118 million distributed to 102 think tanks or action groups which have a record of denying the existence of a human factor in climate change, or opposing environmental regulations. The money flowed to Washington think tanks embedded in Republican party politics, obscure policy forums in Alaska and Tennessee, contrarian scientists at Harvard and lesser institutions, even to buy up DVDs of a film attacking Al Gore. The ready stream of cash set off a conservative backlash against Barack Obama's environmental agenda that wrecked any chance of Congress taking action on climate change. Those same groups are now mobilizing against Obama's efforts to act on climate change in his second term. A top recipient of the secret funds … put out a point-by-point critique of the climate content in the president's State of the Union address.”  Inspired by Suzanne Goldenberg, Mother Jones ow.ly/i0XBB Image source YouTube ow.ly/i0ZjU Wedge issue for hardcore conservatives (March 13 2013)

 

Suzanne Goldenberg the British environment correspondent based in Washington DC, award winning writer and author of Madam President, about Hillary Clinton’s historic run for White House, has published an article on Mother Jones titled ‘Billionaires Secretly Funded Vast Climate Denial Network’ referring to how  the conservative dark-money group ‘Donors Trust’ contributed huge sums to battle against climate-change science. Goldenberg states “Conservative billionaires used a secretive funding route to channel nearly $120 million to more than 100 groups casting doubt about the science behind climate change … helped build a vast network of think tanks and activist groups working to a single purpose: to redefine climate change from neutral scientific fact to a highly polarizing “wedge issue” for hardcore conservatives. The millions were routed through two trusts, Donors Trust and the Donors Capital Fund, operating out of a generic town house in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. Donors Capital caters to those making donations of $1 million or more. …By 2010, the dark money amounted to $118 million distributed to 102 think tanks or action groups which have a record of denying the existence of a human factor in climate change, or opposing environmental regulations. The money flowed to Washington think tanks embedded in Republican party politics, obscure policy forums in Alaska and Tennessee, contrarian scientists at Harvard and lesser institutions, even to buy up DVDs of a film attacking Al Gore. The ready stream of cash set off a conservative backlash against Barack Obama’s environmental agenda that wrecked any chance of Congress taking action on climate change. Those same groups are now mobilizing against Obama’s efforts to act on climate change in his second term. A top recipient of the secret funds … put out a point-by-point critique of the climate content in the president’s State of the Union address.”

 

Inspired by Suzanne Goldenberg, Mother Jones ow.ly/i0XBB Image source YouTube ow.ly/i0ZjU

Tim McDonnell the American senior fellow on the Mother Jones Climate Desk has published an article titled ‘As Austerity Falters, European Economists Say “Price Carbon!”’ In the article McDonnell states “Turmoil over budget cuts roils Greek streets. France elects an anti-austerity president. Even Germany’s Austerity Queen Angela Merkel faces electoral backlash. It appears Europeans are getting sick of tightening their belts. But when you can’t cut any more, there’s little else to do but hustle up more cash. For governments allergic to raising income taxes, a European Climate Foundation analysis shows there’s a less painful way to slash deficits—one that could save the planet as it saves the economy: a carbon tax. The report argues that reforming how Europe taxes energy could, by 2020, cut some countries’ 2011 deficits in half. … As a bonus, the report found that carbon taxes improve energy security and can reduce climate-changing emissions by up to 2.5 percent. …But the tradeoff is that revenue could be looped back to Granny in the form of increased social services; under a similar scheme about to commence in Australia, over half the money raised from taxing carbon will be sent back to households via tax cuts and other assistance.”

 

Inspired by Mother Jones ow.ly/b9w1r image source Twitter http://ow.ly/b9vUm

Rss Feed Tweeter button Facebook button Technorati button Reddit button Myspace button Linkedin button Delicious button Digg button Flickr button Stumbleupon button Newsvine button Youtube button