The Carbon Club/Book: 'You bastards sacked me.' (excerpt): SMH

The Carbon Club

How did environmental issues become so politicised? The people purge early in the Abbott government – beginning in 2013 with the "night of the short knives" – gives some clues.

By Marian Wilkinson
August 29, 2020

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"What surprised the scientists most was not their hasty sacking but how quickly the government obliterated their work. “The website that we’d spent a lot of time building was taken down with absolutely no justification as far as I could see,” says Flannery, the one-time principal research scientist at the Australian Museum and internationally renowned scientific author. “It was giving basic information that was being used by many, many people – teachers and others – just to gain a better understanding of what climate science was actually about.”

Corruption

The Climate Commission had been set up in 2011 by Julia Gillard’s Labor government as an independent source of information for the public to understand climate change and its impacts on Australia. But the commission and its members had been pilloried as “alarmist” by sceptical columnists in the Murdoch media and by radio shock jocks from the beginning. Flannery was expecting the commission to be disbanded, but the decision to kill its website hurt."

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We Want Climate Action Now

"Not long before this, the Liberal Party’s donor cash cow, the Cormack Foundation, which Morgan chaired, had stumped up another $300,000 for the Institute of Public Affairs. The conservative think tank’s latest publication, Climate Change: The Facts 2014, was soon in the works with essays from Australia’s best known climate sceptics, News Corp’s Andrew Bolt and former James Cook University professor Bob Carter, along with their international cohorts by now so familiar here: MIT’s Professor Richard Lindzen, Dr Pat Michaels from the US Cato Institute – a think tank co-founded by American billionaire Charles Koch – and the former UK chancellor Nigel Lawson.

Climate Justice

At the same time as Morgan’s attack, Lawson’s UK think tank, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, welcomed Abbott’s old mentor, John Howard, to deliver its annual lecture in London. The former Liberal prime minister used the opportunity to enthusiastically back Abbott’s plan to dismantle Labor’s climate policies in a speech he called “One Religion is Enough”."

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"By the end of Abbott’s first year in office, the PM had made it clear he didn’t believe most climate scientists, even those who worked for his government. But while his climate scepticism could shape policy in Canberra, it would soon put him in conflict with the most powerful leader in the world, US president Barack Obama.

This is an edited extract from Marian Wilkinson’s The Carbon Club (Allen & Unwin, $33), out Monday."


Related:   MAJOR PARTIES LEAVE BACKDOOR OPEN FOR DIRTY DONATIONS

Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government, carbon emissions, corrupting donations, Institute of Public Affairs IPA, Koch brothers, Murdoch media, political party donations from corporations, Professor Flannery

MAJOR PARTIES LEAVE BACKDOOR OPEN FOR DIRTY DONATIONS

The Greens condemn the major parties for voting to create a backdoor for dirty donors to bypass state donations laws.

Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson for Democracy, Senator Larissa Waters, said:

“Once again, we see the major parties going to every length to keep the dirty donations flowing to their coffers.

“These new laws allow donors to bypass state donations laws. If we leave this backdoor wide open, we will see big money flowing to state parties under the guise of ‘federal purposes’.

“Thanks to pressure from the Greens, Queensland Labor has banned the corrupting influence of donations from property developers. Yet both Labor and the Libs just voted for laws that will undermine those protections."

Labor sided with the government to oppose Greens amendments that would have lowered the disclosure threshold, capped donations at $1,000 each year, and stopped all donations from industries - such as mining, banking, and gambling - with a track record of trying to buy political outcomes.

“We had a chance today to stop corporations from buying their seats at the table; but the big parties remain all too willing to sell democracy to the highest bidder,” Senator Waters said.

“Corporate money should have no place in parliament. It’s time the government cleaned up legalised corruption and put public need ahead of party greed.”

 

03.09.2020

FirstEnergy Scandal is Latest Example of Utility Corruption, Deceit / DeSmog

By Matt Kasper, originally published at Energy and Policy Institute

 Federal agents arrested Ohio Speaker of the House Larry Householder, along with several lobbyists, on July 21 on charges that the group used $60 million of funds provided by the monopoly utility FirstEnergy Corp. in exchange for passing a law that bailed out that company’s nuclear and coal plants. 

The scandal is the latest example of monopoly utility companies deceiving lawmakers, regulators, and the public to enrich executives and shareholders, and occasionally being criminally investigated or prosecuted for their actions. Many instances of utility corruption center around attempts to change policies or regulations in ways that would increase electric bills – often to cover costs at expensive power plants, win approval to construct controversial power plants, or restrict the growth of rooftop solar power.

Read the full DeSmog article listing various allegations involving various lawmakers and energy companies. 

Related: Prepare for Economic Chaos

#jailclimatecriminals, #USA, #fossilfuelcompanies, #lawmakers, #climateaction, #economy, #renewables, 

Charmian Gooch: Meet global corruption's hidden players: Youtube

The web of global corruption supports the climate criminals raping the Earth and your children's future.



"When the son of the president of a desperately poor country starts buying mansions and sportscars on an official monthly salary of $7,000, Charmian Gooch suggests, corruption is probably somewhere in the picture. In a blistering, eye-opening talk (and through several specific examples), she details how global corruption trackers follow the money -- to some surprisingly familiar faces."


#jail-climate-criminals   #criminales-climáticos-de-la-cárcel    #cambio-climatico  #repercusiones-climatico

Election 2019: Boris Johnson Top Beneficiary of Donations from Supporters of Climate Science Denial: DESMOG

"This election cycle has seen an unprecedented number of announcements from all parties on renewable energy, reforestation, and other items generally reserved for only the greenest on the political spectrum. So much so that some are calling this the ‘climate election’.

But elections are expensive things, and politicians rarely turn down a cheque. So if climate change really is going to be a vote decider, it makes sense to take a look at who is funding our politicians. In particular, where have those known to support climate science denial campaigns in the UK put their cash?

DeSmog has analysed donations registered on The Electoral Commission database and found that — by a very long distance — supporters of climate science denial have donated predominantly to the Conservative Party and Tory politicians. "

Read  the article

Who is Preventing Kids from Learning about Climate Change? :Green Market Oracle

"The reason that climate change is not de rigueur in American schools is largely due to powerful economic interests.  Specifically the fossil fuel industry and Republican legislators whom they help elect.

The fossil fuel industry is at the core of the climate crisis and they have known that they are a leading cause of climate change for decades. In a bid to retain their economic power they have declared war on science and sought to subvert the truth through a diverse array of sophisticated campaigns.

The oil and gas industry uses their tremendous wealth to buy politicians and political outcomes. Their immense financial clout is also used to buy scientists and control academia.

Campaign finance is one of the most powerful weapons they have deployed in their war against the facts. The GOP has been working for the fossil fuel industry for years, and in the age of Trump they have consolidated their control over Republicans.

Disinformation is disseminated through lobbyists, think-tanks and front groups. One of the most pernicious purveyors of climate denial is the fossil fuel funded Heartland Group. They promote policy that supports industry and their disinformation campaigns target kids in public schools. They provide "educational" materials (textbooks and lesson plans) that try to circumvent the facts about anthropogenic climate change.

Their lies have been deeply ingrained in the nation's political discourse on education. Such disinformation has prompted a number of state legislators to question whether kids should be given access to the facts about climate change. In Idaho legislators said kids should not be taught that climate change is caused by human activity."

Read the article

Related:

Climate change: Big lifestyle changes 'needed to cut emissions': BBC