This extract will be particulary interesting to all those who accuse sceptics of being funded by big business and oil companies:
'Estimates of the total amount given by America's wealthiest to the environmental movement vary from $1 billion to $4 billion per year.(All dollar amounts are in US currency.)'
'If the sums given to the population control movement are rightfully included, the overall private sector "neo-Malthusian budget" would clearly be nearer the latter figure. A decisive chunk of the money given by the rich to the green movement comes in the forms of disbursements from huge chartered institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, W. Alton Jones Foundation, Turner Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the Alfred W. Mellon Foundation and so on.
'The David and Lucille Packard Foundation was created in 1965 with a transfer of capital from the estate of manufacturing tycoon David Packard. Today, Susan Packard Orr is chairman of the foundation's board, with Nancy Packard Burnett and Julia E. Packard serving as co-vice-chairmen. As of December 31, 1999, the foundation owned $13 billion in revenue-generating investments. As with all American foundations, they are required by law to disburse an amount equal to 5% of total assets in grants to causes related to the foundation's charter. In 1999 the Packard Foundation handed out $411 million in grants, while the plan for 2000 is to go over $500 million.
There are several causes dear to the Packards but none so much as "population" and "environment." In 1999 they gave $87,495,556 to the environmental movement and another $79 million to the population control campaign. The environmental grants were distributed to over 180 non-profit societies in several countries. Curiously, they appear not to have ventured into BC's eco-battles save for a single $50,000 grant to the David Suzuki Foundation to stir up trouble between fishers and foresters.
'The Ford Foundation was founded in 1936 to carry on the legacy of Nazi-sympathizer and over-the-top anti-Semite Henry Ford. The Ford Motor Co. is 40% owned by the descendants of Henry, with a significant portion of the remaining stock being owned by the Ford Foundation. William Clay Ford is the Ford Motor Co.'s current board chairman. Both the Ford Motor Co. and the Ford Foundation are conducting major environmental campaigns. The Ford Foundation as of the end of 1999 had assets of $11.8 billion. Their total annual program expenditures were $578 million. These monies were spread out over the arts, medical research, education, social-justice activities, and, of course, environmentalism and population control. The Ford Foundation began cultivating what has come to be known as "environmentalism" in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They trained legions of environmental analysts.
The foundation played a decisive role in founding and/or sustaining the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense Fund, and the EarthJustice Defense Fund-all of which have grown into large outfits with multi-million-dollar budgets and scores of support staff. The Foundation also created and continues to heavily subsidize Island Press Inc.-a publisher of 30 to 35 eco-books per year. The Fords' grand enviro-pop strategy does not seem to recognize BC as especially interesting. There is little in their data banks about grants to BC enviro-groups except for a $200,000 grant in 1998 to the San Francisco based Tides Foundation to undertake anti-forestry work in BC.
'No discussion of US environmentalism would be complete if it did not mention the contribution of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and its now-departed longtime senior strategist, Paul Mellon. The Mellon Foundation was created in 1969 as a result of the merger of the Avalon and Old Dominion foundations. These two foundations were created in the early 1940's by banking magnate Andrew W. Mellon's two children, Paul and Aisla. Paul ran the amalgamated foundation until his death in 1999. Paul was also head of the National Gallery of Art for over 17 years and personally paid for massive additions to the building and its collection.
Over the years Paul Mellon gave enormous sums to Yale University, often for establishing professorships in Forestry, Divinity, and Environmental Studies. In 1998 the Mellon Foundation gave out $144,691,669 in grants. Of this, $14.8 million went to environmentalism and $11.04 million went to population control. What makes the Mellons' involvement in "environmentalism" most notable is that it started much earlier (1940s) than most foundations and hence can claim a seniority in, and sense of accomplishment about, this social movement which is now hundreds of times larger than when the Mellons first embraced it.
'Other institutions and individuals within America's super rich who are also avid patrons of environmentalism are: Bill and Melinda Gates, the Heinz family interests (over $10 million a year to the environmental movement), the Carnegie Corporation, Richard and Rhoda Haas Goldman (recent annual grants of $2.07 million to population control and $8.3 million to environmentalism, including annual awards of six prizes of $100,000 each for creative new environmentalist activity), Gordon E. Moore, and Edward P. Bass, to name but a prominent few. In all, several hundred businesses and foundations have institutionalized their bankrolling of the environmental movement.
'Although there is no institutionalized structure governing the environmental movement, there are several organizations whose chartered mission is to unite and coordinate the tens of thousands of NGOs, funding agencies, and government departments and sub-departments that make up the modern environmental movement. One centralizing institution, the Environmental Grantmakers Association, was founded in 1991 to unite the various enviro-donation fund managers of America around coordinated strategies of giving. The EGA tends to be secretive, with closed-door retreats and members-only websites. Somewhere between 128 and 200 major eco-funding agencies are members of the EGA and thus send representatives to EGA conventions etc. The collective contribution of EGA members alone to the great green crusade would exceed $1 billion per year.'
{ 0 komentar... Views All / Send Comment! }
Posting Komentar