Friday, April 30, 2004

The Lost Sierra Club

By Josh Frank

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Posted 04/30 | Add a Comment

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  1. I hope that readers of Josh’s fine effort here will take the initiative to review work by Derrick Jensen...so as to have a shot at adopting a plan for change vis-a-vis the environment...without feeling that they have to rely on the likes of the Sierra Club...or any authority figure who might be elected.  Loving regards, Richard P.S. We all must move expeditiously on this count...or all is lost. Merci to Josh.

    Posted by Richard Oxman from  on  05/01  at  12:34 AM

  2. Thanks to Josh whose articles I have been following for some time at CounterPunch and here, he is a consistent and rational voice for sane policy. Excellent critique here, thanks for pointing out what a bunch of frauds the Sierra Club are, I had no idea! 

    I am interested in the coopting of the green movement topic. Others interested may visit my friend Simon Counsell’s excellent website and organization, the Rainforest Foundation, which is in the UK. Simon has documented how “certified logging” of old growth forests is a certified scam (as promoted by those other frauds, WWF: World Wildlife Frauds).

    See also my other cyber buddy Glen Barry who is an ecologist and runs a terrific website at http://forests.org. Glen is also sussed on the compromised-enviros and has written eloquent commentaries (please join up to receive their action alerts, always useful).

    Another friend who I had the pleasure to finally meet recently is Karl Ammann, a photographer in Africa who has documented the bushmeat trade, esp. in great apes. He co-authored a book with Dale Peterson called Eating Apes and it goes into details about how WWF, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and others have brokered deals with logging companies to help them keep up their pillage. Absolutely disgusting. According to Karl who has been on the ground and followed this issue for years there, the big enviro groups just dole out funds without every checking whether their projects are working or not. Why? Because they are too busy raising more funds! He told us in Tokyo recently that the majority of enviro NGO projects in Africa are failures (from the point of view of actually protecting the environment: Duh!).

    Finally, please see my wonderful friend Joan Roelof’s recent book: Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism (SUNY press, 2003). She goes into great detail about how Left funding de-radicalizes revolutionary change. (see also the interesting website: http://www.leftgatekeepers.com if you have been there yet. Bob Feldman never fails to amaze with his research skills). If one cares to dig even further into tails wagging dogs issues, contact Jeffrey Blankfort (see: “leftcurve” online magazine) to get on his mailing list.

    As for Kerry, the guy is clearly a liar and has more credibility than Bush, so may actually be more dangerous in some ways. Nader is not perfect, but he is infinitely preferable to the other two Zionist stooges, and he (or some other independent) will get my protest vote.

    Thank you.

    Posted by Rhino Rick from  on  05/01  at  02:25 AM

  3. I was wondering what kinds of “compromises” Democratic candidate John Kerry has made. For my honors english class, I am doing a current events paper on the environmental stances of Bush vs. Kerry. Within the paper, I am including background information on both men. I have plenty of negative environment info on Bush, but do not have any on Kerry. The only background info I have on Kerry is that he supported the Jeffords amendment, the Senate energy bill of 2002, the Climate Stewardship Act of 2003, and voted against bringing back Sen Roberti Byrd’s amendment that would bring back mountaintop coal mining in West Virginia.  Please email me if anyone has any more background information on Kerry; I would like to make my paper as true as possible.

    Also, just to add, I had done a speech earlier the year on John Muir (wow he’s my hero) and was very sad to read that the Sierra Club has “lost its way.” In addition, I live within walking distance to the Fox River, and was even more dissapointed to read about the Sierra Club’s ignorance toward the entire ordeal.
    Thanks for for opening my eyes,
    ~Sarah...remember to email me!! smile

    Posted by Sarah from  on  05/03  at  12:26 PM

  4. Sarah,
    Voting records are not always a great tool for looking at a politician’s stance on the environment, not is their rhetoric, and Kerry’s is posh.  It should be noted that Kerry supports chemical fumigation of Colombia, boming of Afghanistan/Iraq/Bosnia, and won’t sign Kyoto. Kerry also supported NAFTA and the WTO which blatantly undermine US environmental laws. 

    I list some of this in the following article. His missed votes can be found through Public Citizen’s website.
    http://www.pressaction.com/pablog/archives/001556.html

    On NAFTA
    http://www.ems.org/chapter11/chapter11_concerns.html
    http://www.panna.org/resources/gpc/gpc_200012.10.3.08.dv.html
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0107-01.htm

    On War in Iraq Number 1.. Kerry should have known such atrocities were likely to happen again
    http://www.gci.ch/GreenCrossPrograms/legacy/Kuwait/kuwait7years.html

    Chemical Fumigation in Colombia
    http://www.witnessforpeace.org/colombia/colombia_fumigationupdate.html
    http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair1224.html
    http://www.counterpunch.org/donahue01262004.html

    Grist Magazine has a good bit on Kerry and Kyoto and how he won’t sign it.
    http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/kerry092303.asp

    Hope this helps.

    Posted by Josh Frank from  on  05/03  at  01:05 PM

    5. Next entry: John Kerry, The Manchurian Candidate

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