While Bill McKibben tries to portray himself as just a concerned citizen out to change the world due to his fears of global warming, by running a “grassroots organization”, the reality is he’s quite well funded by the rich, as this investigation reveals.
From the Financial Post:
Nothing influences President Barack Obama’s decision on the Keystone XL pipeline quite like the protests against it, led by Bill McKibben, an American environmentalist, and his organization, called 350.org. On Wednesday, 350.org and the Sierra Club participated in an anti-Keystone protest at the White House and this Sunday they are holding another one on Capital Hill. They expect 20,000 people from across the United States.
350.org has the look and feel of an amateur, grassroots operation, but in reality, it is a multi-million dollar campaign run by staff earning six-digit salaries.
…
More than half of the US$10-million came from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), the Rockefeller Family Fund and the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, where McKibben, a trustee, was paid US$25,000 per year (2001-09). Since 2007, the Rockefellers have paid US$4-million towards 1Sky and 350.org, tax returns say. The Schumann Center provided US$1.5-million to McKibben’s three campaigns as well as US$2.7-million to fund the Environmental Journalism Program at Middlebury College, in Vermont, where McKibben is on staff.
Full story here: http://opinion.financialpost.com/2013/02/14/rockefellers-behind-scruffy-little-outfit/
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From above:
…the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, where McKibben, a trustee, was paid US$25,000 per year (2001-09).
Wikipedia’s surprisingly light entry describes it as:
The Schumann Center for Media and Democracy (formerly The Florence and John J. Schumann Jr. Foundation) was established in 1961, by Florence Ford and John J.Schumann Jr. The foundation states that its purpose is to renew the democratic process through cooperative acts of citizenship, especially as they apply to governance and the environment.
That last sentence is all over the web as being in their mission statement.
Doing my own checking to see if they funded 350.org, I see they did.:
Source: https://bulk.resource.org/irs.gov/eo/2012_09_PF/22-6044214_990PF_201112.pdf
Checking other IRS documents I note the one for 2008:
Click to access 22-6044214_990PF_200812.pdf
They state quite a bit of money for Environmental causes:
It seems clear to me by their mission statement and IRS filing that they are an “environmental” organization.
And doing further checking to see if in fact this funder of environmental causes paid McKibben, I find that to be true:
The amount of money he was paid isn’t much, and certainly nothing to get too worked up about, I wouldn’t have given it much thought by itself. Note also Bill Moyers of PBS, no wonder he is so biased, he’s a paid to represent and direct an environmental organization. Surely, this must be a conflict of interest? Or maybe it is just business as usual with PBS? The amount of screaming about my appearance on PBS last year makes more sense now.
But, even though the amount of compensation McKibben received is small. I have to wonder why Bill took exception to being called a “paid political activist” in this WUWT post and went to the trouble to email me a statement that he’s an “unpaid political activist” and never took any money from “any other environmental group”?
Here is his email to me the same day as the WUWT post about him:
I took him at his word then, and made a change to the post, but now, clearly, he has told me a lie.
I’m sure from his interpretation of facts, he doesn’t think so, but that’s an ongoing problem with Bill, as his interpretation of facts about global warming are a self distortion to suit his purposes. It’s a typical case of noble cause corruption that blinds him to his own lies.
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The Rockefellers, eh?
Bill McKibben/350.org, paid by “BIG OIL” to spread their lies to the public… sound familiar to anyone else?
His statement may have been statistically correct. A penny, or 2,500,000 pennies — who cares? It is below noise level for anybody as important. The truth is probably bigger than this little lie by an order of magnitude.
When I saw the nasme Bill Moyers on the above documents I thought it was a coincidental name. Yikes. Surely he states his bias on any of the work he does? If not this would be a huge scandal were there not so many like-minded believers.
It is amusing to learn that those who scream that skeptics are all funded by “Big Oil” are guilty of that which they accuse there perceived adversaries. The current generation of Rockefellers are themselves the recipients of the largess created by their ancestor John D. Rockefeller, who was the founder CEO, Chairman of the Board and majority shareholder of Standard Oil. Sure sounds like Big Oil money to me.
How many little, $25,000 dollar envelopes does it take to buy the right “facts”?
Also note the two donations to “media” of $1.5 and $3.4 million dollars.
While listening to PBS, how many times have you heard “Made possible by a grant from the Florence and John J. Schumann Jr. Foundation”?
Both Moyers and PBS are clearly tainted.
$635 for expenses seems suspiciously low. If 350 dot org is paying for his travel and accommodations it isn’t being reported correctly.
I suppose when you are engaged on a *noble cause* the end always justifies the means. Certainly within their world that seems to be the norm just ask Peter .
Doesn’t mean we should trust them though.
Can we conclude then that the Rockefellers have no financial interest in the Keystone project but indeed have all the incentive to see it halted?
The pot calling the kettle McKibben.
The left are adept liars. One of the financial contributors listed is Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Self reliance is certainly not something the left promulgates; they want the populace beholden to and reliant upon government.
Betcha the title of that organisation is as truthful as Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. Feh!
Now the Ministry of Silly Walks – I could get in step with that!
Bill McKibben may not be what he says he is, but I’d say he is EXACTLY what he seems to be…
Can’t wait to see Mr. McKibben try to dig his way out of the hole he’s dug.
Kurt in Switzerland
[snip. We don’t use the d-word here. — mod.]
$25k for 10 hrs/week? Being paid the equivalency of $100k for a full-time work is “never taken a penny?”
So, then what IS his source of income?
Is he independently wealthy?
Just curious.
He is making a fine distinction between being paid by an environmental group and being paid by a billionaire’s family trust that in turn funds environmental groups. Strictly speaking, that is not a lie, it is just intentionally misleading.
This is all normal for the enviro industry.
If you don’t know Vivian Krause . . .
http://fairquestions.typepad.com/rethink_campaigns/
She has bee exposing the financing of the scam up here in Canuckistan.
Always wondered how “grassroots” protests could afford the elaborate displays that are used to vilify those things that they disagree with. When they were marching around carrying the faux pipeline, my first thought was “that doesn’t look cheap”. I wondered if Daryl Hannah paid for it herself. But then – the “dedicated” environmentalists probably held bake sales and garage sales to scrape up the pennies. There appear to be no limits to the streatching of the truth.
Keep digging … look for paid tavel, paid conventions, paid speaking engagements, paid phone bills, paid laptops & smart phones, a company car, office space provided etc etc
$25,000 for a job that averages ten hours per week? Assuming two weeks of uncompensated vacation, that would translate to $500 per hour. Where do I sign up for that sort of compensation?
The Rockefeller’s funneled money to the Bolsheviks during the revolution. They have a history of funding radical Statists and control freaks.
Seems that Keystone XL is causing the president some heartache, though.
A late friend of mine, in order to ensure he heard only unbiased voices, viewed and listened to only “non-commercial” sources, such as the CBC here in Canada, and the BBC, PBS and, yes, even al-Jazeera. He literally had his TV programmed to receive only these channels. Unfortunately, even this revelation would not make him turn over in his grave, unburdened as he was by “bias”…
Keith you have the zero in the wrong place. It is $50 per hour, and they are getting good value as he is a very effective publicist with few scruples.
It’s like the famous bank robber Willie Sutton said, when asked why he robbed banks; “because that’s where the money is”.
Global warming alarmism is a multi-$billion industry with multiple ways people can get in on the action, as long as they don’t mind setting aside ethics and moral scruples.