Archive for Rolling Stone magazine
The Climate Killers Part Five – John McCain and the Koch Brothers
Posted by: | CommentsIn the fifth and final entry of an eco-friendly look into the controversial Rolling Stone story by their political columnist Tim Dickinson aptly titled “The Climate Killers: Meet the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming”. This is the final installment in a series of blogs we hoped would ask a few questions at would weigh public perception vs. the findings of the list.
First is an eco-friendly look at the flip-flopping of Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The one time Maverick of the Republican Party was all for climate change in 2003, but this does not seem to be the case anymore. According to Dickinson “McCain frames his newfound stance as opposition to what he portrays as a $630 billion tax on corporate America, the measure as revised by the House actually provides the energy industry with more than $690 billion in pollution subsidies. McCain’s about-face may have more to do with his precarious electoral future: The senator is currently locked in a dead heat with likely primary challenger J.D. Hayworth, a knuckle-dragging former congressman”. No matter the reason, it is sad to see an eco-friendly person change their stance.
Finally a joint entry, Charles and David Koch, these brothers are the CEO and Executive Vice President of Koch Industries. Dickinson’s negative portrait counts the brothers as two entries but technically they are only one. Dickinson says “the multibillionaire brothers not only run the nation’s largest private energy company, they rival Exxon in funding the front groups that spread disinformation about the dangers of climate change”.
Let’s recap the list of 17 from Dickinson starting with the Climate Killer nickname he assigned to each of them:
- The Profiteer – Warren Buffett – CEO, Berkshire Hathaway
- The Disinformer – Rupert Murdoch – CEO, News Corporation
- The Fake Protestor – Jack Gerard – President, American Petroleum
- Burning Man – Rex Tillerson – CEO, ExxonMobil
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The Climate Killers Part Four – The Powerful Unknowns
Posted by: | CommentsThis is part four of an eco-friendly look into the controversial Rolling Stone story by political columnist Tim Dickinson aptly titled “The Climate Killers: Meet the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming”. So far we have delved into 8 of the 17 “Climate Killers” in this series of blogs. We hoped to try and ask a few questions that weigh public perception vs. the findings of the list, however, as previously stated, in some cases the facts seem to speak for themselves. So for those of you who have missed out on the article, here is a recap that will hopefully continue to spark dialogue.
Number nine, Dick Gephardt CEO of Gephardt Group. Unfortunately it seems that the first line from Dickinson’s entry says it all “the former House majority leader now uses his considerable political clout as a lobbyist for Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private-sector coal company.”
ABC pundit and Climate Killer George Will
Tenth on the list is George Will, a commentator on ABC. Dickinson claims he is the most recognizable pundit and he is known now for giving disinformation on climate change. Though he may be able to sway public opinion and spread harmful misinformation, this is not the most aggressive of eco-friendly crimes.
Number 11 is Tom Donohue President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce an eco-friendly offender because he is “the biggest lobbying presence on Capital Hill” and is using that power to block the implementation of “ limits on carbon pollution”. The interesting aspect of this entry is that “The extreme anti-climate position staked out by Donohue runs counter to the position of his own members. Of the 23 companies on the Chamber’s board that made their position on climate legislation public, only four are against it — and three of those are coal companies.” As a result of his stance on the environment many companies have resigned from the board – one of them being Nike.
Next is Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy. This is one CEO who does not even pretend to have an eco-friendly conscience. One quote from his entry on the list should give a fairly apt portrayal of him “He enjoys inveighing against the “greeniacs” — including Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Al Gore — who are “taking over the world.” And he has even taken to tweeting about climate change: “We must demand that more coal be burned to save the Earth from global cooling.”
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The Climate Killers Part Three – Senator and CEO Villains
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Welcome back for part three of an eco-friendly look into the controversial Rolling Stone story by political columnist Tim Dickinson aptly titled “The Climate Killers: Meet the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming”. In this series we hoped to try and ask a few question and weigh public perception vs. the findings of the list, however in some cases the facts speak for themselves. Those named in this article are just as significant as any who were mentioned in my previous posts on the topic.
First up Jack Gerard, President of American Petroleum Institute (API). For this person a mere quote from Dickinson’s article says it all, “Gerard serves as the front man for the nation’s oil and gas industry, including energy giants like Exxon, Shell, BP and Halliburton. Although API now claims to back the move to a “carbon-constrained economy,” Gerard has been working behind the scenes to scuttle climate legislation. According to an internal memo leaked in August, Gerard directed API’s nearly 400 member companies to mobilize their employees to attend “Energy Citizen” rallies in 20 states to protest a cap on carbon pollution. To ensure the success of the fake grassroots protests, Gerard bragged that he had also enlisted a bevy of polluting allies — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. “Please treat this information as sensitive,” Gerard cautioned in the memo. “We don’t want critics to know our game plan.” It’s impossible to find an eco-friendly redeeming quality when you’re encouraging protests to prevent a cap on carbon pollution. Jack Gerard, grab a mirror and you’ll find shame looking back at you.
Moving on to Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, this is someone who you might think ‘well, sure they would make the list’. In fact he seems to be an eco-friendly saboteur. Though he has conceded that greenhouse gases affect climate change, something some may call a miracle coming from the CEO of a gas company. We’ll close this entry with a fact from the article “in 2007, spending $100 million on ads, Exxon boasted about its investments in renewable energy — even though such deals totaled only $10 million that year.”
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