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.

In his release, Innis states, ""Onshore and offshore public lands could hold enough oil to produce gasoline for 60 million cars and fuel oil for 25 million homes for 60 years, and enough natural gas to heat 60 million homes for 160 years."

And I'll accept those numbers as true, but I'd like to point out that there are currently 113,146,000 homes in the United States, and we have 247,421,120 cars on the road. This means Innis is suggesting we heat 22% of the homes for 60 years and let the rest lie cold - and oh yeah, any new homes built for 60 years also get no heat.

Similarly, his estimate means that we'll put gas in the tanks of 24% of our cars for six decades, and let the rest rust - and again, no new cars.

So really, what he's saying is we can power our cars and heat our homes for fifteen years using domestic fuel sources. My question is, what do we do in 2023 when we've tapped every last drop of fuel?

Also, he's not really offering any actual solutions to the spectre of global warming. So, yet again, we see ExxonMobil pushing money to an organization to act as their mouthpiece, who then acts as if nothing is wrong, and somehow a solution will magically appear in a decade in a half.

It saddens me that a group known for standing up for the rights of the poor and the downtrodden is so easily co opted by those who seek to benefit financially from trashing those they work to protect.