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/
===============================================================
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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Uhhh, he gets lots of money every year from his position at Middlebury College, one suspects, even though he is not a scholar/scientist with a PhD (normal requirement to be a Professor of Environmental Science, one would think).
http://www.middlebury.edu/newsroom/archive/2010/node/269059
In every revolution there are profiteers, con men, and serial criminals on the loose and using the cause to get ahead within the organization or on the fringes. See the Ira Einhorn story for comparison.
Att. Bill McKibben
Psychological projection was first conceptualized by Sigmund Freud as a defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own negative attributes by ascribing them to the outside world instead. Thus, projection involves imagining or projecting faults onto others.[1] The original idea was that projection would allow for reduced anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted unconscious impulses or desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them.
Please Bill, keep that in mind…
Point is it seems to be the same activist Schumann Center for Media and Democracy which funded his current position at Middlebury. Nice to go from “Trustee” of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy to their “Schumann Distinguished Scholar….”
Oh, and watch out, Australia, you’re next: http://www.fenton.com.au/
And here is the list of 2010 grantees for Tides. I can’t seem to find a more recent list:
http://www.tides.org/fileadmin/user/pdf/Tides-Foundation-List-of-Grantees-2010.pdf
It is a who’s who of the political left.
P.s. The $100,000 prize from The Nation Institute is cold hard cash from one of the avowed socialist/activist entities of the far left.
[Snip. — mod.]
Notice on the 2010 “grantees” list from Tides, there is a $40,000 grant to stopdirtyenergyprop.com which does not exist currently but according to the wayback machine:
“Paid for by No on 23 – Californians to Stop the Dirty Energy Proposition. Sponsored by environmental organizations and business for clean energy and jobs.
Major funding by Thomas Steyer and No on 23 Committee of the NRDC Action Fund to Stop the Dirty Energy Proposition. FPPC ID # 1324059.
1100 11th Street, Ste. 200, Sacramento, CA 95814 info@stopdirtyenergyprop.com phone/fax number 888.445.7880″
http://web.archive.org/web/20100728191309/http://www.stopdirtyenergyprop.com/
Interesting considering the stink currently being raised in California for out of state funds used for an anti-tax proposition in the most recent election. It seems like the entire operation was run from out of state.
Also in that list from Tides is $153,000 that went to “No Organization”. That’s interesting. I wonder in whose pocket that money landed. By the way, “stopdirtyenergyprop.com” seems to have been created by PROOF Interactive in Las Vegas, NV and a brief stop at their website shows they bragging about a personal visit by Barack Obama.
http://proofinteractive.com/
The whole thing is so incestuous andn hypocritical that if it wasn’t so wrong, it would be funny.
Wow, let’s get the full take-away from Skiphil’s comment: “… Bill McKibben has been appointed to the position of Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College. …. a grant from the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy enabled the college to establish the position.”
Why, this is just money-laundering, elitist style. The Schumann Center grants money to Middlebury College which then turns around and awards that money to Schumann’s own trustee! All very proper and high-brow and, undoubtedly, tax-minimizing.
This says that the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy donated $2.7 million to Middlebury College to endow the program in “Environmental Journalism” where McKibben is employed as “Distinguished Scholar.”
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2013/02/14/rockefellers-behind-scruffy-little-outfit/
The way such endowments typically work in universities and colleges, there would be an annual budget for salary and expenses from the income derived from the capital. Thus, McKibben could easily be in a six-figure income at Middlebury College for the purpose of training his activist students/acolytes to spread out into activities for 350.org and related activist groups. This is one way that activist dollars are laundered through colleges and universities, to run programs, fund salaries etc. which are not solely or even predominantly scholarly!!
OK, OK, I looked. I cannot find the psychology of sending Emails with the “I” not capitalized.
The best I can find is that T.S. Elliot wrote that way for some reason.
“Mr. McKibben” – to make a bad allusion to put downs past: “I knew T.S. Elliot (in my liberal arts college, a true one, Latin, Greek, Classics, etc.), and you Sir are NO T.S. Elliot!”
You will also note many of the energy groups that get funding from Tides but if you look very closely you will notice a direct economic conflict of interest. They are actually USING Tides and the various environmental organizations in order to further their own business goals and put cash money into their own pockets. For example:
Center for Energy Matters 25,000.00 U.S.A. http://www.centerforenergymatters.org
Now if we look at that site we see that they are “fighting” for a “cleaner” energy future and they even lead with the lie that fossil energy in the US is getting “scarcer” with every passing day, which is not true. But in any case, lets look at who they are:
Board of Directors:
Michael Bergey – President, Bergey Wind Power Co.
Cody Graves – CEO, Automated Energy Inc
Michael Root – Executive Vice President and CFO, WeatherBank
Jay Yowell – Principal, JYarchitecture & Co-Founder, Oklahoma Sustainability Network
Think ANY of those people might have a direct financial interest in seeing impediments placed in the path of developing conventional sources of energy? It would be like having the President of Exxon/Mobil on the board of directors of an anti-wind energy site.
The reason these people accuse their opponents of having direct business interests or being funded by big oil, etc. is because THEY are doing that. They believe everyone else thinks like they do. They believe that if THEY have a direct corporate interest in their political activism, then everyone else must be doing the same thing. People like to think they are normal average folks. They look at a situation and ask themselves “what would I do in that situation” and in so doing project their own situation / behaviors onto that person or situation. So they might ask themselves “why is Heartland doing this” and then they look at their own situation. They know why they themselves are doing it … to further their own business interest … so they naturally assume the other side is as well. It never dawns on them that they are wrong, they are doing more harm than good, and the other side might just actually be in it for bigger reasons than just lining their own pockets with cash.
A.D. Everard says:
February 15, 2013 at 12:49 pm
I agree, this whole thing should be deeply, thoroughly investigated. This scam just get uglier and uglier – what’s it going to take to full exposure? I’m talking full MSM, everyone knowing about it, exposure.
Why would they expose themselves? You don’t expect the Biggest Enablers, the MSM, to do serious reporting on the game they’re in on, do you?
Speaking of Heartland, they are the good guys. Look at what they do on what is really a shoestring budget:
http://heartland.org
It is the mark of the narcissist who is aware that they are a narcissist but bending over backwards to say “I am not a narcissist” because they are touchy about it. It is trying so hard to mask what they are that they actually draw attention to the fact. Sort of like the person who has so much camouflage that they look like a big giant bright green bush in field of short dead grass.
What would be your internal reaction if you went to a used car dealer and the first person that walked up to you said “Hi, I’m Bob and I am very honest!”. Mine would be that he has to say that to me on first meeting because he is exactly the opposite. If he is really honest, he doesn’t need to say that, it will become evident in my dealings with him. He only needs to say that if it is counter to the reality.
It takes a lot of money to keep that big ole lie upfront in the press and media…the reassuring thing is that most of us in the ‘deniersphere’ do what we do because we care, not because we’re being paid. Ultimately we will win.
The business of climate alarmism is confusing:
Follow the money downstream, and you’ll arrive at A hole.
And, curiously, upstream you’ll find another one!
Why is it that many well known Warmists, having made a packet of money from oil, suddenly turn anti-oil / environmentalists? Rockefeller, Maurice Strong, Gore, Pachauri etc. The hypocrites follow the money, then once they’ve made it ask everyone else to turn down their consumption fro the sake of the environment.
Gore family – Occidental Petroleum, tobacco distributor and chopper
Pachauri – set up GloriOil to make sure no oil was left in US oil wells
Strong – worked in oil to get ahead
Rockefeller – Origins in oil and industrialist
I wonder what old John D Rockefeller would think about his heirs funding an organization that protests completion of the Keystone Pipeline….
I once listen to an interview with McKibben when he was asked of where 350.org got its money.
In reply he said after a peroid of silence that he didn’t remember. I found this to be funny given that I knew that Rockefeller Foundation is his biggest sponsor.
Yes, better to lie than admitting that 350.org is in the pay of big oil.
Follow the money.
H/T to Crosspatch, your posts have been excellent.
Slightly OT, but I think relevant to the big picture under discussion here.
Answered my own question about Gasland and the background organizations engaged in what Crosspatch has elucidated about Mr. McKibben, 350 org and friends.
Ellen Miller, currently PR/advertising for Fenton lists Gasland as a project she worked on prior to joining Fenton at the beginning of last year. Her linkedin profile lists it as her most recent accomplishment before joining Fenton. And look at the rest of the people, orgs and projects she is asscoiated with. More Sunshine please.
From Max Hugoson on February 15, 2013 at 1:42 pm:
No need to look too hard, it’s just sheer laziness.
The only capitalization in that email was auto-filled: addresses and email template footer already had the caps.
Thankfully the laziness limits his ability to shout in an email, even if he’s typing proper and using caps. Because with normal two-handed typing on a standard American keyboard, to do an exclamation point he’d have to Shift Right, which would take quite an extraordinary effort.
This is all completely unsurprising. Corporate board of directors’ positions are
typically funded at $20K-$25K/annum. Check out the number of directorships
Hillary Clinton had, or any random political figure. It’s completely reasonable
that a “foundation” wanting to attract someone who has an established media
presence would pay similar amounts.
Hey, remember that $240K “grant” from the Heinz foundation to James Hansen?
In addition to the government gravy train, there’s lots of private dollars
available…for those willing to prostitute their integrity, scientific or otherwise.
“Scarface says:
February 15, 2013 at 2:09 pm
Follow the money downstream, and you’ll arrive at an A hole.”
Fixed that for you.