A Left-Wing Critique of the Corporate Green Lobby
A Left-Wing Critique of the Corporate Green Lobby
by William Norman Grigg
November 12, 2005
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In his October 31 column for The Nation, iconoclastic left-wing writer Alexander Cockburn let slip some revealing comments about the foundation-funded green lobby and its ties to elements of the oil industry. He also took a provocative stab at the "peak oil" theory and several other current varieties of alarmism.
?Since I don?t believe in ?peak oil? ? and regard oil ?shortages? as contrivances by the oil companies and allied brokers and middlemen to run up the price ? I fill my aging fleet of 1950s- and ?60s-era Chryslers with a light heart,? wrote Cockburn. ?Part of my lightheartedness comes from the fact that gas guzzling can be a revolutionary duty.... Not long ago Citgo [gas] stations were owned by City Services, which was controlled by the W. Alton Jones family, which through the family foundation exercised ? via strategic disbursement ? control over much of the environmental movement, such as World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation and Worldwatch. As with the other big donors like Pew Charitable Trusts, the Alton Jones foundation cut loose any green group showing signs of disruptive militancy.?
Cockburn is a leftist, which means he gets some crucial details wrong, and his enthusiasm for environmental ?militancy? is at best misplaced. But his account of the entente between some elements of Big Oil and Big Green is sound. The same can be said of his treatment of ?peak oil,? ?global warming,? and the latest environment-related phobia, avian flu.
?I don?t believe in any effective role of man-made CO2 in global warming, a natural cyclical trend,? states Cockburn. ?I think the mad rush to throw money at the pharmaceutical companies for an avian flu vaccine is ridiculous. And increasingly, I don?t believe we?re about to run out of oil.? On the last point Cockburn cites the controversial views of Dr. Thomas Gold, founding director of the Cornell University Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, that ?oil doesn?t come from dead dinosaurs and kindred organic matter.? In his 1999 book The Deep Hot Biosphere, Dr. Gold contended that oil ?is a ?renewable, primordial soup continually manufactured by the Earth under ultrahot conditions and tremendous pressures. As this substance migrates toward the surface, it is attacked by bacteria, making it appear to have an organic origin dating back to the dinosaurs.??
Dr. Gold may be wrong, of course, but the foundation-funded eco-dogmatists assailed by Cockburn are determined to prevent our society from finding energy solutions that reject the false economics of scarcity and the supposed need for government regimentation.
by William Norman Grigg
November 12, 2005
Email this article
Printer friendly page
In his October 31 column for The Nation, iconoclastic left-wing writer Alexander Cockburn let slip some revealing comments about the foundation-funded green lobby and its ties to elements of the oil industry. He also took a provocative stab at the "peak oil" theory and several other current varieties of alarmism.
?Since I don?t believe in ?peak oil? ? and regard oil ?shortages? as contrivances by the oil companies and allied brokers and middlemen to run up the price ? I fill my aging fleet of 1950s- and ?60s-era Chryslers with a light heart,? wrote Cockburn. ?Part of my lightheartedness comes from the fact that gas guzzling can be a revolutionary duty.... Not long ago Citgo [gas] stations were owned by City Services, which was controlled by the W. Alton Jones family, which through the family foundation exercised ? via strategic disbursement ? control over much of the environmental movement, such as World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation and Worldwatch. As with the other big donors like Pew Charitable Trusts, the Alton Jones foundation cut loose any green group showing signs of disruptive militancy.?
Cockburn is a leftist, which means he gets some crucial details wrong, and his enthusiasm for environmental ?militancy? is at best misplaced. But his account of the entente between some elements of Big Oil and Big Green is sound. The same can be said of his treatment of ?peak oil,? ?global warming,? and the latest environment-related phobia, avian flu.
?I don?t believe in any effective role of man-made CO2 in global warming, a natural cyclical trend,? states Cockburn. ?I think the mad rush to throw money at the pharmaceutical companies for an avian flu vaccine is ridiculous. And increasingly, I don?t believe we?re about to run out of oil.? On the last point Cockburn cites the controversial views of Dr. Thomas Gold, founding director of the Cornell University Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, that ?oil doesn?t come from dead dinosaurs and kindred organic matter.? In his 1999 book The Deep Hot Biosphere, Dr. Gold contended that oil ?is a ?renewable, primordial soup continually manufactured by the Earth under ultrahot conditions and tremendous pressures. As this substance migrates toward the surface, it is attacked by bacteria, making it appear to have an organic origin dating back to the dinosaurs.??
Dr. Gold may be wrong, of course, but the foundation-funded eco-dogmatists assailed by Cockburn are determined to prevent our society from finding energy solutions that reject the false economics of scarcity and the supposed need for government regimentation.
posted by Marcel at 12:37 PM
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