While corporate lobbies attack environmental NGO's the same corporations also fund these Green NGO's in order to; a) appear as good corporate citizens b) buy their silence c) limit their lobbying efforts on behalf of the environment.
I have made this point before in relation to the Green NGO's that use the Seal Hunt as their favorite form of fund raising.
Now lets look at the Green NGO Lobby and their relationship with Big Oil.
Saving the bathwater while throwing out the baby: the unacceptable warp of WoofIsn't it high time that mining critics spoke out about the consequences of massive tar sands exploitation in Canada and Venezuela? After all, much of it is mining under another name, requiring the extraction of huge chunks of land by shovel-and-truck.
And when will we finally declare WWF (colloquially known as "Woof" ), or at least WWF-Canada, to be an Enemy of the People?
This week's announcement that WWF has accepted a million dollars (Canadian) over five years from Inco to "advance a number of conservation initiatives" is just the latest in a wave of corporate bribes taken by the world's largest subscription "conservation" NGO over the past twenty years, in several countries including Australia and Indonesia . Take it from the horse's mouth: "“We have a track record of engaging with companies to reduce their ecological footprint. WWF works with big industry, like mining and forestry, because it is vital to achieve our conservation goals.” That's according to Arlin Hackman, Chief Conservation Officer for WWF-Canada. “Expanding our relationship with Inco is a logical and welcome next step for us both. We are excited about what we can accomplish together.”
What they can be pretty sure to accomplish is a another fraudulent "green card" awarded to Canada's most disreputable big mining company, more sinecures for WWF staff, and further sleepless nights for peoples at the sharp and bitter end of Inco's (and some of WWF's) operations on their doorstep.
Let's return for a moment to the murky world of tar sands - because the Inco deal is only half the story behind WWF-Canada's complicity in destruction. According to researcher, Peter Cizek (writing in the July/August issue of "Canadian Dimension" magazine) ten years ago WWF and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) got a grant from the Pew Family Trusts based in Philadelphia. The scion of the family had originally set up Suncor, a prime exploiter of tar sands, when he was backing the neo-Nazi John Birch Society and declaring war on "godless communists". Though the original business fell on the rocks, Pew still owns Sunoco, a refiner of "syncrude".
A 1999 grant of $1.8 million over two years from Pew to the WWF aand CPAWS was designed to“protect at least 20 million acres of boreal forest wilderness in the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada.” Declares Peter Cizek: "Even though they never came even close to this lofty objective, the Pew kept cranking the dose of crackerjack cash higher and higher, from $2.1 million per year in 2000 to $4.5 million per year in 2002-03, topping out with a mind-blowing speedball injection of $12 million — the Pew’s single biggest grant in 2004."
We all know that (to paraphase Lord Action) "money corrupts and absolute money corrupts absolutely" - and this came pretty close to absolute money, even for an already well-heeled group like WWF-Canada. Says Cizek: " Just like they do not oppose the tar sands in Alberta, WWF and CPAWS also do not oppose the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline in the Northwest Territories. After all, the new president and CEO of WWF, Mike Russill, is a former senior executive of Suncor."
So, no surprise there. And no surprise that WWF and CPAWS are only lobbying to establish a network of protected areas before the start of construction, while ignoring the impacts of tar sands extraction itself. Last year, WWF, CPAWS and another outfit, called Ducks Unlimited, squeezed an additional $9 million to conduct more studies to identify such a network under the government-approved Northwest Territories Protected Areas Strategy. This time it came from the Canadian federal goverment
According to Cizek, in 1996 WWF had threatened to sue that same federal government for approving Canada’s first diamond mine, without designating protected areas for the central arctic region. "WWF then withdrew its lawsuit in exchange for the government’s commitment to develop a Northwest Territories Protected Areas Strategy. Since this strategy was approved in 1999, WWF has not formally identified, much less established, any protected areas in the central arctic, while only two areas have received temporary protection elsewhere in the Northwest Territories under this strategy."
Buying silence
As pointed out in many postings on this site, WWF is not unique among environmental (and development) NGOs in its readiness to "sup with the devil." But it does use a shorter spoon than most. The trade-offs it makes with mining companies have potentially more serious consequences than those done by smaller organisations within other industrial, or consumer, sectors. This is not just because it's universally known and active, but because it claim to employ the best science in defending global habitats.
When an NGO ignores the impacts of a company's core operations ( mine and infrastructure), in return for a bag of corporate money to go and do its own thing elsewhere, what else can can we call it but "buying silence"? True, not all national WWF branches operate in the same way, or sing to the same songsheet. WWF-UK's work on tightening mining standards in Europe is, no doubt, commendable. WWF-India took strong issue with its parent body in Geneva after it signed up to a quasi-certification scheme for the world's largest cement manufacturer, Lafarge, in 2001.
Also See:
Peak Oil
Tar Sands
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