Barry Brill: For Billionaires, Climate Lobbying Is Hot

Repost from Blog Breaking Views

Barry Brill

There was a time when climate change was about science. No more.

Now it’s about money and politics. Not just some of it. All.

The culmination of the political-monetary intersection around the world was the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. The 2023 “Global Risks” meeting will be held this week – with the main theme (again) the campaign to phase out fossil fuels.

Like the COP meetings, the Davos meeting epitomizes hypocrisy.

More a thousand private jets served last year’s meeting. As Greenpeace says: “The rich and powerful flock to Davos on extremely polluted, socially unequal private jets to discuss climate and inequality behind the doors. close”.

53% of these private flights are for short trips under 466 miles, while 38% are under 311 miles, according to the report. The French government has forbidden short-haul commercial flights available “green alternatives” and New Zealand maybe soon follow.

It’s going to be a week of fine dining: filet mignon, french cutlets, truffle cream, the finest cheeses. Even so, Davos Man will continue to staunchly support veganism – and eating protein from insects – to “save the planet”.

Oxfam has tracked the investments of 125 Billionaires found that they emit an average of 393 Mt CO2 per year, equivalent to the whole of France and “makes the average annual emissions of a billionaire a million times higher than that of someone in the poorest 90% of the world’s population”.

The only logical conclusion to be drawn from all this cognitive dissonance is that these wealthy people don’t really believe a word of what they continually preach about climate change.

They demand painful rules and sacrifices “for you, not for me”. They say one thing and do another. As the old saying goes: their actions speak louder than words.

So they must have some other basic goal. But what is it?

Money, money, money, money….

On Tuesday, US climate magnate John Kerry told the Davos meeting that the WEF’s Climate Strategy was modeled on the global rollout of a Covid vaccine and needed more money:

“So how do we get there? Well, that’s a lesson I’ve learned over the years and I’ve learned it while working as a secretary. [of State] and I’ve learned that since then, consolidated into pieces, is: money, money, money, money, money, money, money. And I’m sorry to say that.”

Kerry does not tout ‘green’ investments. He’s talking to philanthropists about philanthropy:

“We have to do it on a mass basis and the key to that is charity activities…. I mean yes, technology, yes, exciting new initiatives, yes, politically winning races… but we have to go further.”

Going further than organizing politically won races? What the hell could the WEF think?

An urge to become a superhero?

in this week weekly news“Climate activism is not about the planet,” says an Austrian economics professor. It’s about bourgeois boredom.” The opening paragraph reads:

“The fall of capitalism will not come from the rise of the working poor, but from the destruction of the bored elite. This was the view of the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1942. Schumpeter believed that at some point in the future, the educated elite would have nothing left to fight for and would instead begin fighting against the very system in which they themselves live.”

The Op-ed argues that the green movement is not a reflection of a planetary crisis but rather a crisis of meaning for the wealthy.

The Western elite’s favorite fantasy is that the apocalypse is imminent and can only be prevented if we fundamentally change the way we live. But “we” does not include the extremely wealthy. No. Their heroic role is to create all this change. To become leaders. History will record that it was their vision and courage that secured the future of mankind.

Professor Schoellhammer says it doesn’t matter to them that every alarmist’s predictions have been proven wrong – because the truth can be overridden by “morality”. Extreme projections point to an alternative religion that allows the super-rich to simultaneously enjoy their wealth and convince the rest of the world from a position of moral preeminence.

Intergenerational guilt also plays a role. The Newsweek article reveals that the unspeakable group of “Just Stop Oil,” who throw ketchup over priceless paintings, are on the payroll of Aileen Getty, granddaughter of legendary oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty . Who knows?

The Rockefeller Foundation, created from legendary oil wealth[1]committed to the fight against climate change the center of all its workcovers all its many activities and investments.

Is this article convincing? Are the “top 1%” groups really too selfish or guilty? Are they signaling or promoting/protecting their investments?

Buy alarms and panic

John Kerry is fairly open about funding political campaigns by candidates who support repressive climate policies. No left-wing candidate anywhere in the developed world can get elected in 2023 without bowing before the pantheon of climate change alarms.

But buying politicians is not enough unless they can be re-elected.

Public opinion must also be bribed, and it is a long-term hard work: the press, the electronic media, government officials, celebrities, pollsters, academics, unions, bloggers, social media gatekeepers, teachers, influencers, entertainment industry, etc – in every region and district in the English-speaking world. It all adds up to serious money.

In the past five years, only three US billionaires (Soros, Bloomberg, Bezos) have funded NGOs to recruit at least 30,000 full-time climate campaigners. The number of NGO employees funded by wealthy individuals and charities worldwide runs into the millions.[2]. @SDGaction, an NGO, boasts that its members have amassed 100 million ‘transformative actions’ and stunts in 2021 alone, and thus changed the world.

These activists work all day, every day, lobbying everyone, everywhere, to demand more extreme and far-reaching climate policies. The planned outcome is to overwhelm and control public debate – or to ensure that there is no public debate – and to spread the culture and politics of chronic self-deception to all. issues related to climate change. They have been remarkably successful.

The Newsweek article has this terrifying revelation:

“At the 2018 Climate Action Summit, two dozen billionaire-backed foundations pledged $4 billion in climate change lobbying.

Some of them, such as the Hewlett Foundation, are directly funding journalists at the Associated Press for “climate reporting,” while foundations affiliated with the Packard and Rockefeller families have supported the reporting effort. solstice”Climate insurance now,” which “collaborates with journalists and newsrooms to create more urgent and informed climate stories” and are sponsoring hundreds of the media.”

Two years after that Summit, Jeff Bezos alone committed 10 billion USD to fund activists, NGOs, and scientists, because he believes (wrongly) that “Earth’s climate is changing faster than the scientific community predicts five years prior to”.

Just imagine how much propaganda would be bought with that ten thousand million dollars!

For many years, billionaire Michael Bloomberg has been quietly sponsor private attorney to work in public attorneys’ offices in Democratic states. Those privately funded lawyers take climate lawsuits against oil companies and the like – on behalf of the State.

Forbes report How billionaires Tom Steyer, Hank Paulson and Bloomberg successfully bribed US climate scientists to reposition IPCC’s most extreme scenario (RCP8.5) into “business as usual often”.

Billionaire Larry Fink has turned trillions of dollars in BlackRock, customers withdraw from companies that have not yet promised to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

big question

Although some of these anecdotes have made it to the press, much of the lobbying is inherently secret – sunlight is too effective as a disinfectant. So I’m sure the above examples are just the tip of the iceberg. They are well-publicized acts of white American men who are household names (cue billionaire, Mark Benioff,) and excluding another 2,667 billionaires (cue laureen job) as reported by Forbes magazine.

You might think that this unimaginable amount of cash could buy almost anything in this money-conscious world. Can it buy scientific research funding? Access to scientific journals? Resolution at the conference of public sector scientists? Sympathetic ears of UN officials? Consensus at Davos?

What if all of this billionaire’s philanthropy was withdrawn from politicians, officials, environmental organizations, newspapers, television stations, etc.?

Will there be anything left of the climate change emergency? Or will it quietly disappear?

Presenter:

[1] John D Rockefeller, the richest man in the world a century ago, founded Standard Oil (the predecessor to both Exxon-Mobil and Caltex) and is considered the father of the global oil industry.
[2] “Charities” are currently the third largest employment sector in the UK.

Barry Brill OBE JP LL.M(Hons) M.ComLaw is a former MP and Minister of Energy, director of Petrocorp and chairman of the Gas Council, Power NZ, ESANZ and EMCO. He is currently the President of the New Zealand Climate Science Alliance.