CORE and ExxonMobil - May
13, 4:04-
There has already been a ton of coverage on McCain's global warming
plan, so I'll just trust that you're reading the Grist coverage of it.
I'd like to chat about something completely different. Or maybe not so much. The Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE), founded in the 40's to combat racial injustice, was long considered a leader in the grassroots movement. Whether it's lunch counter sit-ins or the Freedom Rides, CORE was there.
But, this week, CORE chair Roy Innis said that if the polar bear is listed under the Endangered Species Act, CORE will sue the Bush Administration because, "such a listing will drive up energy prices and hurt America's working poor more than any other element of society."
I'll set aside the mounds of research that shows how terribly the working poor will be impacted by the effects of global warming - the food shortages, the increase in communicable disease, and the literally millions of global warming refugees we'll see - all of which will more negatively impact the poor than anyone else.
Let's for a second ask why CORE is making such a big deal out of the polar bear. Could it be the hundred of thousands of dollars ExxonMobil has contributed to CORE's work (and in particular their global warming work) over the years?
In fact, between 2003 and 2005, ExxonMobil donated $250,000 to CORE. Since CORE's operating budget is $2 million a year, this represents over 4% of their total operating costs - a pretty significant amount.
Americans Are Confusing - May
12, 10:45 -
The Pew Research Center just released results of a new poll about global
warming, and I have to confess, I'm thoroughly confused.
The chief finding is that, sadly, beliefs about and concern over global warming is becoming a deeply partisan issue. For instance, 27% of the Republicans polled believe GW is caused by human activity, as opposed to 58% of Democrats. Similarly, 22% of Republicans view GW as a 'serious problem' as opposed to 57% of Democrats.
I could understand the partisan divide, given that it's a presidential election year, and the chief spokesperson of the global warming issue is former Democratic candidate Al Gore - except that Mr. Gore has been doing no campaigning for either Democratic contender, and has largely opted to stay out of the race so as to focus on the issue at hand - namely, global warming, and has consistently spoken of global warming as a cross-party problem that we need to solve.
That being said, one of the truly shocking parts of the research comes at the end when you view where people rank global warming in terms of policy priorities.
For Democrats, it ranks 15th, for independents 18th, and for Republicans 21st. This despite that fact that of all people polled, 71% believe global warming exists, and 49% believe it is human-made.
The problem, of course, is that global warming is going to have negative impacts on the economy, energy policies, the environment, health care costs, and the problems of the poor, all issues people are even more concerned about.
It would appear that we really need to do a better job of explaining the problem, and it's many long term ramifications, to other people - including the media.
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