I have been pushing The Corporate Climate Coup article by David F Noble to explain the co-option of the environmental movement and climate change through the issue of global warming/climate change/abrupt change for a while…
just sent this to the lbo-talk email list - the moderated discussion list hosted by Doug Henwood who writes the newsletter The Left Business Observer and also hosts the radio show Behind the News at WBAI (community radio from Wall St) also forwarded the email to other journalists, academics and radicals.
I cant recommend Doug Henwood highly enough, his shows MP3’s are downloadable and are an education.
hi Doug Would be great if you could cover the Carbon Finance America 2009 industry event in New York June 10-12. The for-profit Carbon Finance lobby is there in force and its the same Wall St big money people. As background you might be interested in The Corporate Climate Coup, May 29, 2007 For the record, I believe in Climate Change, or should I write ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGE, but I am extremely critical of the Carbon Finance community. Its basically the privatization of the atmosphere. The Corporate Climate Coup - backgrounder David Noble says that corporations are feeding the hysteria about global warming to undermine the global justice movement and to create a need for market-based solutions. http://www.rabble.ca/audio/download/16435/rey-2007-05-29.mp3 http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/15472 If the corporate climate change campaign has fuelled a fevered popular preoccupation with global warming, it has also accomplished much more. Having arisen in the midst of the world-wide global justice movement, it has restored confidence In those very faiths and forces which that movement had worked so hard to expose and challenge: globe-straddling profit-maximizing corporations and their myriad agencies and agendas; the unquestioned authority of science and the corollary belief in deliverance through technology, and the beneficence of the self-regulating market with its panacea of prosperity through free trade, and its magical powers which transforms into commodities all that it touches, even life. All the glaring truths revealed by that movement about the injustices, injuries, and inequalities sowed and sustained by these powers and beliefs have now been buried, brushed aside in the apocalyptic rush to fight global warming. Explicitly likened to a war, this epic challenge requires single-minded attention and total commitment, without any such distractions. Now is not the time, nor is there any need, to question a deformed society or re-examine its underlying myths. The blame and the burden has been shifted back again to the individual, awash in primordial guilt, the familiar sinner facing punishment for his sins, his excesses, predisposed by his pious culture and primed now for discipline and sacrifice. subject for story Carbon Finance America 2009 http://www.environmental-finance.com/conferences/2009/CFNA09/intro.htm • Topical content – understand the implications of a new federal cap-and-trade system and learn, from your peers, the opportunities and challenges of trading in a recession • Packed agenda – US and global climate policy, impact of the economic crisis, pricing trends, CDM, regional and voluntary markets, forestry and agriculture, project finance +++ • Superb networking opportunities – meet and do business with the key players and decision makers in the US carbon markets This is a must-attend conference for: • Utilities & energy companies • Manufacturers and other corporations seeking to reduce their emissions • Federal and regional regulatory bodies • Political think tanks, trade groups and investor coalitions • Emissions traders & fund managers • Investment banks & brokers • Developers & financiers of GHG emission reduction projects • Insurance companies • Law firms • Carbon finance consulting & advisory firms • Exchanges & registries • Verification and certification companies • Technology providers – Nicholas Roberts http://gaiapermaculture.com