Monday, February 05, 2007

A New "War" on Climate Change

As if the "war on drugs" the "war on terror " is not enough, we are soon to be treated to a new "world wide war on climate change" if the Intergovernmental panel on climate change IPCC gets its way. The former "wars" have been so successful in increasing the power of politicians and lining the pockets of special interest groups that the newest strategy is sure to please a whole new gaggle of parasites. One of the major players who plans on benefiting from the latest outrage is the San Francisco (where else?) based eco nazi organization by the name of AS You Sow.
When it comes to health and environmental issues, As You Sow – whose slogan is “Planting Seeds for Social Change” –­ is clever. It doesn’t mire itself in time-consuming debate about whether scientific data indicate that particular consumer products may be harmful to health or the environment, or whether product benefits are outweighed by whatever risks they may entail.

Bypassing scientific controversy, As You Sow pretends as if no debate exists in targeting business prey that would rather quietly – and, ultimately, futilely – appease the group than risk attack. In 2005, As You Sow filed a shareholder resolution on global warming with the financial services giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. In return for withdrawal of the resolution, the bank announced that it would lobby for global warming regulations. Though the CEO apparently thought that settling with As You Sow would make the controversy vanish, a shareholder group that I am affiliated with spotlighted the embarrassing capitulation at the bank’s annual meeting and forced the bank to reverse its position on global warming lobbying.

3 comments:

Rose said...
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Rose said...

To learn a little more about "As You Sow", check out activistcash.com These guys have used IRS documents to track the funding and interelated parentage of the activist groups, as well as exposing some of their hidden agenda(s) and tactics.

"Suing for Profit

The Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology notes that one of Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope's "major accomplishments" is his co-authorship of California's infamous Proposition 65. "Prop 65" requires any product containing one of several hundred "known carcinogens" to bear a warning label -- even if the chemical appears in concentrations so low that adverse health effects are essentially impossible.

Prop 65 has a "bounty hunter" provision to encourage frivolous lawsuits by trial lawyers looking to cash in on any product containing a listed "carcinogen" and lacking a warning label. Prop 65 "violators" can be fined up to $2,500 per day, per violation, and plaintiffs can collect up to 25 percent of the total take. Between 2000 and 2002, one California group called As You Sow (AYS) reaped more than $1.5 million playing the Prop 65 lawsuit game.

Sierra Club president Larry Fahn is also AYS's executive director. A self-described "leading enforcer of Proposition 65," As You Sow functions as a litigation machine, conjuring up lawsuit after lawsuit. The group has sued everyone from scuba gear manufacturers and retailers to the makers of nail care products.

Under Fahn's leadership, AYS routes its Prop 65 money to some of the most radical groups around, including the Rainforest Action Network and the Ruckus Society (both co-founded by Earth First! godfather Mike Roselle), as well as California affiliates of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Waterkeeper Alliance and David Brower's Earth Island Institute.

Another group funded by AYS is called Environmentally Sound Promotions -- it's run by Earth First! organizer Darryl Cherney. On a 1990 CBS broadcast of "60 Minutes," Cherney made it clear where his Earth First! sympathies lead him. "If I knew I had a fatal disease," Cherney said, "I would definitely do something like strap dynamite to myself and take out Grand Canyon Dam, or maybe the Maxxam Building in Los Angeles after it's closed up for the night."

Despite this web of extremist connections, few seem aware that the Sierra Club has institutionally embraced the most radical side of the green movement..."

Rose said...

As You Sow gave $20,000.00 to Waterkeeper Alliance in 2000 – 2001