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The Global 17: Who can the next generation blame?
Posted by Kasch Wilder (@KaschWilder)
Monday, 1st February 2010
Whether you blame it on domestic political circumstances, apathetic constituencies or on a deficit of ambitious leadership, it's a foregone conclusion that our generation are going to be saddled with the consequences of not dealing with our carbon-intensive lifestyles early enough.
Tim Dickinson from Rolling Stone recently put together a seriously over-looked list of 'The 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming'. Now whoever is involved in combating global warming over the next few decades, I would hope that those individuals/governments/organizations wouldn't waste too much time looking back in anger, trying to blame those responsible for restricting efforts. However, we all love a good bitch! So, here's the list!
1. Warren 'The Oracle of Omaha' Buffett- Invested billions in carbon polluting industries and wagered billions on the failure of cap and trade legislation.
2. Rupert Murdoch- He might say one thing, but his business interests certainly say another. Murdoch's media operations have become the leading source of disinformation and smears in the US on climate change.
3.. Jack Gerard (President of American Petroleum)- Directed the 400 companies within the American Petroleum Institute to construct a fake grass-roots protest against a cap on carbon pollution.
4. Rex Tillerson (CEO ExxonMobil)- ExxonMobil spent $29 million on lobbying against climate legislation in 2008.
5. U.S Senator Mary Landrieu- Recieves financial rewards for voting in favor of tax breaks for Big Oil. Has promised oil firms she will be "putting the brakes" on current efforts to cap carbon pollution. Sounds like a Republican, right? She's not.
6. Marc Morano- A former producer for Rush Limbaugh, its hardly surprising he's a "central cell of the climate-denial mahcine".
7. U.S Senator James Inhofe- former chairman and ranking Republican of the Senate environment committee. Calls global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," insists that carbon dioxide is not "a real pollutant," and doesn't worry about rising sea levels, because, if all else fails, "God's still up there."................ lol *sigh*
8. David Radcliffe- head of America's second-dirtiest electric utility, has assembled an army of 63 lobbyists — almost twice as many as any other company — to defeat climate legislation.
9. Dick Gephardt- former House Dem majority leader, now uses his considerable political clout as a lobbyist for "clean coal" — an imaginary technology being touted by the industry as an alternative to limits on carbon pollution.
10. George Will- As an ABC Commentator and America's most recognizable pundit, Will has become a one-man front for corporate-funded "science" that denies the existence of global warming.
11. Tom Donohue- President of the U.S Chamber of Commerce. Donohue has turned the biggest lobbying presence on Capitol Hill into the biggest friend of climate polluters. In the first nine months of last year, the Chamber spent $65 million — three times more than ExxonMobil — mounting a campaign to block Congress from placing limits on carbon pollution.
12. Don Blankenship- Coal barron. "We must demand that more coal be burned to save the Earth from global cooling." ............. lol *sigh*
13. Fred Singer- "The granddaddy of fake "science" designed to debunk global warming."
14. U.S Senator John McCain- Former touter of cap and trade legislation, electoral circumstances have lead him to bash all efforts to cut carbon emissions. It's possible he won't survive a primary challenge.
15. U.S Rep Joe Barton- Republican. "For us to try to step in and say we have got to do all these global things to prevent the Earth from getting any warmer is absolute nonsense," he insists. "You can't regulate God." .............. lol *sigh*
16/17. Charles and David Koch- CEO and Executive Vice President, Koch Industries. 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.
Put together by Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone. Original article can be found here.
