Conscious efforts to subvert or otherwise corrupt organizations and individuals who are concerned about social issues is a sadly long tradition. The environmental movement is no exception. Through many front groups, financial wranglings through contributions and outright blackmail, industries have tamed or corrupted many of the organizations who were once among their greatest critics and opponents. The corrupting influence on the politics of the environment has left us with, at times, a movement that has yet to address the needs of fighting climate change immediately-- instead, calling for the slow changing of emissions from various parts of industrial life-- and protecting the biggest contributions to their myriad organizations. When budgets and mainstream appearances with politicians become the order of the day, effective protest is muted and rendered toothless.
South Africa: Enter the Four Degrees Celsius World - the Failings of Climate Negotiations
By Saliem Fakir
12 December 2011
All Africa
Fourteen days of climate change negotiations started off with much scepticism and ended with a sense of despair despite the COP 17 outcome being declared "landmark" and "historic". COP 17 was painted, at once, as a victory for the world -- but such statements belie the real truth.
Andrew Frank's whistle-blowing letter about Tides Canada reveals need for charities commission
By Charlie Smith, January 25, 2012
Environmental whistle blower Andrew Frank's allegations about threats by the Conservative government warrant more than a one-day story in the news.
In an open letter issued this week, the former ForestEthics communications staffer alleged that the Prime Minister's Office tried to silence critics of the proposed Enbridge pipeline by crushing Tides Canada Foundation's ability to fund environmental groups.
January 19, 2012
When Will Environmentalists Ever Wake Up?
The Great Pipeline Scam
by MICHAEL LEONARDI
Counterpunch
Showdown at the Durban Disaster: Challenging the ‘Big Green’ Patriarchy
By Anne Petermann, Executive Director, Global Justice Ecology Project
Dedicated to Judi Bari, Emma Goldman, my mother and all of the other strong women who inspire me
An action loses all of its teeth when it is orchestrated with the approval of the authorities. It becomes strictly theater for the benefit of the media. With no intent or ability to truly challenge power.
I hate actions like that.
Apartheid Oil
Crude trapped in shale could transform Israel into energy powerhouse
November 10, 2011
by Macdonald Stainsby
JERUSALEM-- Major offshore gas strikes in 2009 and 2010 may soon convert converted Israel into a gas exporting country with self-sufficient energy. But perhaps more important than the gas under the sea is the mock crude trapped in husk dry sands and rock hard shale, reserves which could push Israel into the upper echelons of recoverable oil on the planet. Israel has long had a weakness economically and militarily because of their reliance on others for energy supplies.
A Tar Sands Partnership Agreement in the Making?
Macdonald Stainsby | August 1st 2011
Campaigns against tar sands production have grown rapidly over the last four years. From the relative obscurity in Alberta to an international lightning rod for people trying to address all manner of concerns from indigenous and community self-determination to peak oil and climate change – criticisms of the largest industrial project in human history have gained a major voice. The voices are certainly not homogenous, but a large contingent of these voices call for a shut down of tar sands production and a move away from fossil fuels – if not an outright move away from market-led growth of any sort. But, in the language of the environmental elite, what are the “decision makers” preparing to do with all this anti-tar sands resistance?
Let's expose the structure of violence that keeps the world economy running.
With an entire planet being slaughtered before our eyes, it's
terrifying to watch the very culture responsible for this - the culture
of industrial civilization, fueled by a finite source of fossil fuels,
primarily a dwindling supply of oil - thrust forward wantonly to fuel
its insatiable appetite for "growth."
Deluded by myths of progress and suffering from the psychosis of
technomania complicated by addiction to depleting oil reserves,
Fracturing solidarity: The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement in context
February 22, 2011
By Dawn Paley
Briarpatch Magazine
Here is a prediction that I hope is wrong. This 'coalition' of tar sands producers will finish their sharing of dry tailings technology, which is already being advertised by Suncor on the side bar of google.
Dirty Oil, Dirty Money: Who is Funding the Tar Sands Resistance?
by Sandra Cuffe
November 26, 2010
Vancouver Media Co-op
After years of online discussion and personal debates, anti-tar sands activists and Indigenous community members are taking the controversy around the role of Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) in resistance movements to a public forum.
