‘Wanted’ campaign targets Climate Criminals at Paris summit
Avaaz publishes dossier on dirty energy lobbyists at Paris talks, calls for ministers to boycott lobbyists
The seven most insidious fossil fuel lobbyists in Paris to weaken attempts to agree a global climate deal have been named and shamed as ‘climate criminals’ in a dossier published by the global citizens movement Avaaz.
The group, which spearheaded last weekend’s climate marches which saw 785,000 people take to the streets globally, posted over a thousand ‘Wanted’ posters outside 5-star hotels in the French capital on Monday morning. The poster highlighting the seven most notorious dirty energy lobbyists unearthed from the list of more than 50,000 delegates at summit.
On Monday morning, Avaaz ‘Climate Cops’ will hand out flyers outside key Metro stations leading to the Le Bourget with photos of the lobbyists, who are expected to ramp up their efforts to derail a deal when ministers arrive this week to negotiate the deal.
Emma Ruby-Sachs, Acting Executive-Director of Avaaz says: “These lobbyists have come to Paris to sabotage a global deal for ambitious climate action, despite over 3.6 million citizens around the world calling for 100% clean energy. Ministers must listen to their people, not polluters, and refuse meetings with climate criminals who want to derail a deal the whole world wants.”
Each of the seven named lobbyists is renowned for their backroom dealings to to stop the transition to clean energy and push the interests of dirty fossil fuels. Some have resorted to harassing climate scientists and even calling for them to be ‘publicly flogged’.
The lobbyists include:
- Benjamin Sporton, head of the World Coal Association
- Fiona Wild, representative of mining-giant BHP Billiton
- Marc Morano, whose trademark activity is to publish the email addresses of climate scientists to expose them to hate mail.
- Myron Ebell, director of US think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute known for receiving money from ExxonMobil
- Chris Horner, funded by the coal industry and known for “harassing” climate scientists in order to access to their email
- Bjorn Lomborg, previously backed by funders with links to the Koch brothers, he’s most known as the ‘delayer in chief’ when it comes to climate
- James Taylor, senior fellow at climate denial lobby group Heartland Institute
Examples of lobbyists’ far-reaching influence within climate meetings include The World Coal Association setting up shop next to the COP19 summit in Warsaw in 2013 to convince negotiators to embrace coal as a solution to climate change.
This resulted in the Warsaw Communiqué promoting clean coal, which has been deemed as “a myth” by National Geographic. At the COP17 in Durban in 2011, the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (comprised of major fossil fuel and power companies) successfully lobbied for carbon credits for new coal plants.
With global warming a clear scientific reality, the world has become increasingly intolerant of the fossil fuel industry’s attempts to undermine climate science and climate legislation. The campaign comes off the back of recent cases cracking down on “climate criminals,” including the investigation into Exxon for allegedly lying to the public about the risk of climate change.
The dossier is published as part of Avaaz’s 100% Clean campaign, which has been backed by more than 3.6 million people.
Source: https://secure.avaaz.org/act/media.php?press_id=684
Posters: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/climate_criminals/
Marc Morano made a statement by email:
Marc Morano, publisher of Climate Depot and producer of new ‘Climate Hustle’ film having its red carpet debut tonight in Paris: Climate Hustle tonight at the Cinéma du Panthéon at 7:30 PM.Morano statement: “Since the ‘wanted’ posters for me are all over Paris, I have relocated to a secure undisclosed location. I hope my trip to Paris for ‘Climate Hustle’ red carpet premiere will go better than JFKs trip to Dallas.”
UPDATE: Another photo showing the wanted posters:
From the New York Times:
Environmental activists pasted more than 1,000 “Wanted” posters outside luxury hotels here overnight, calling seven people who have ties to the fossil fuel industry or are skeptics of climate change “criminals.” The activists also distributed flyers with photographs of the seven.
“These lobbyists have come to Paris to sabotage a global deal for ambitious climate action,” said Emma Ruby-Sachs, acting executive director of Avaaz, the activist group that organized the stunt. “Ministers must listen to their people, not polluters, and refuse meetings with climate criminals who want to derail a deal the whole world wants,” she added.
Mr. Morano sent back a photograph of himself, looking mock-terrified, crouching next to one of the “Wanted” posters that had been posted in the Eighth Arrondissement.
“The posters are an exercise in silliness,” Mr. Morano said. “Climate skeptics are here promoting open debate and arguing to allow dissent. The idea that any alternative views amount to a ‘criminal’ perspective is obscene.”
…
Mr. Taylor, of the Heartland Institute, said in an email: “It is a shame that people must experience such vitriol and harassment when they make scientific arguments supported by scientific data. If such attacks must be made, however, I am glad it was my face that appeared on their posters. I will always be proud to stand up for free and open discourse and ultimate truth.”
The Heartland Institute is hosting a climate change conference of its own on Monday, at the Hotel California here. It posted on Twitter: “Eco-left activists put ‘Wanted’ posters outside our event space last night. We are not intimidated.”
Nazis claimed to be a socialist party; believed in state control of all major industry; and were militantly atheist and of course anti-semitic. Pretty sure they’d be a lot more comfortable on today’s left than on the right.
People. this is a debate about the future direction of our world economy not its past. Lets move on form Hitler, Stalin etc etc. The real point is that there is a well funded lobbying population out there funded by those who have billions to loose if we break the dependence on fossil fuels. As fossil fuels get harder to extract they will become uneconomic to use unless the world has no choice but to carry on using them. Thus far so reasonable if you believe in free speech and free trade competition. However, the question is how much of what they are saying is misinformation and deliberate deception? The lobbyists of course claim that the massive amount of published scientific literature represented by the IPCC reports are misinformation and that the world’s climate scientists have an interest in raising research funding so who is an observer to believe without waiting for years of hindsight to apply? Well we can look at the track record of some of these lobbyists, many of whom made their reputation by delaying the acceptance of the health risks of smoking whilst being funded by big tobacco firms. It is easy to see parallels between the two campaigns as amazingly the pro tobacco campaign by the likes of Heartland is still running despite the almost universal acceptance that SMOKING IS BAD FOR YOU. Arguably 100s of thousands of people have died horribly who might have had much longer better lives had they not clung onto the shreds of doubt about smoking and had instead given up. When one sees the same tactics being used by the same people over climate change I think it is fair to imagine that the climate change campaign is just as deceitful as the tobacco campaign.
erikblakely,
So you’ve bought into the CO2=tobacco nonsense. If that’s the best you can do, your argument fails.
You haven’t posted even one example of any empirical, testable evidence showing that CO2 is a problem of any kind. But skeptics of the ‘carbon’ scare have a mountain of real world evidence showing that the rise in CO2 has been entirely beneficial, and it is a completely harmless trace gas.
So enough with the ‘smoking is bad for you and that equals CO2’ canard. All you are doing is parroting alarmist talking points that have nothing to do with verifiable evidence. This is a science site. I suggest you go find a politics or religion blog to post your belief system. Here, we need verifiable evidence that what your uneducated side of the debate calls ‘climate change’. But so far, you have sero empirical evidence.
Skeptics know something you apparently don’t: the climate always changes — naturally. Human-emitted CO2 has nothing to do with it. So please, stop with the re-posting of the carbon hoax. Readers here know better.
erikblakeley
No. Your self-called “fight” against natural global warming IS KILLING millions of innocents worldwide, and causing billions to suffer specifically BECAUSE of YOUR deliberate energy restrictions, economic restrictions, and economic damage.
The choice of smoking or nor smoking is an INDIVIDUAL one, a choice I do NOT force on ANYONE, and a choice that apparently gives a LOT of pleasure to those who choose to undergo the real sacrifices (time, distractions, coughing, money, etc) to continue. YOU are the one killing people and harming people through YOUR fears and YOUR religious propaganda of exaggerated CAGW dangers.
So, what is the probability of ANY harm coming from continued warmth?
Because artificially forcing CO2 to lower (more harmful!) levels DOES cause physical, economic and environmental harm and lower plant growth, what does your precious “precautionary principle” tell us to do about YOUR irrational fears promulgated by your priests of despair?
THEY (YOU!) ARE causing immediate harm and future harm by their actions now. THEY (YOU!) are causing this “immediate harm” and are producing “no good” future results.