The Nature Conservancy
The titan of green groups, the Nature Conservancy sits on nearly a billion dollars in assets and is awash in cash, thanks to a tidal wave of corporate donations, much of it from notorious polluters such as Arco, Archer-Daniels-Midland, British Petroleum, DuPont, Shell and Freeport-McMoRan.[1]
If the thought of The Nature Conservancy drilling for natural gas on the last known breeding ground of the Attwater prairie chicken strikes you as incongruous then you are behind the times.[2]
Corporate Donors
The list of TNC's nearly 2,000 corporate sponsors reads like a "who's who" of the U.S.' biggest industrial polluters.
For example:
ARCO, BHP, British Petroleum, Chevron, Chrysler, Coca-Cola, DowDuPont, ExxonMobil, General Electric, General Mills, General Motors, Georgia-Pacific, McDonald's, NBC, Pepsi-Cola, Procter and Gamble, Toyota and Pfizer.
Some of these companies, like Bayer-Monsanto, have played a direct role in governing the TNC through membership in its International Leadership Council.[3]
According to former TNC President & CEO John Sawhill: "Some people at the Conservancy think our customers are the plants and animals we're trying to save, but our real customers are the donors"[4]
Corporate Leadership
Throughout the 1990s, the President and CEO of the Nature Conservancy with John Sawhill. After holding several high positions in the US Department of Energy under the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations, Sawhill went on to enjoy lucrative positions on the boards of major corporate polluters in fossil fuels & agriculture, including TNC donor Procter & Gamble[5], North American Coal Company, and Pacific Gas & Electric.[6]
In 2003, Anthony Cavalieri joined the Nature Conservancy as "Conservation Agriculture Advisor" following his departure from agrichemical munitions manufacturer and TNC donor DowDuPont.[7]
Fossil Gas Drilling
After receiving a large donation of land from ExxonMobil in 1995 for the purposes of "preserving" the habitat of the endangered Attwater prairie chicken, the Nature Conservancy began "acting like an oil company" and drilled for fossil gas on the birds' last known breeding ground. In the following eight years the grouse's population declined by an additional 50%.[8][9]
Endangered Species Act
In 1996, the Nature Conservancy "violated its apolitical policy to concoct the compromise rewrite of the Endangered Species Act" along with a secret coalition of corporations including the Koch Brother's deforestation giant (and TNC donor) Georgia-Pacific.[10]
World Bank
After working for the World Bank in 1999, Dr. M.A. Sanjayan became the Lead Scientist for The Nature Conservancy[11][12]. He was also involved in the Natural Capital Project - a joint-venture of TNC, the WWF and Stanford University - as the poverty & conservation co-lead.[13]
The Nature Conservancy pledged $5 million to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) when t hisWorld Bank scheme was launched in Bali in December 2007. In 2008, the Nature Conservancy was appointed to the governing board of the World Bank's FCPF.[14]
Investigative Reports
From 2001-2003, the Washington Post published a series of 13 articles investigating the Nature Conservancy under the heading "Big Green"[15]
- ↑ https://lightparty.com/Economic/EnvMovement.html
- ↑ http://www.herinst.org/sbeder/envpolitics/stain.html
- ↑ http://www.herinst.org/sbeder/envpolitics/stain.html
- ↑ http://www.herinst.org/sbeder/envpolitics/stain.html
- ↑ https://www.globalcosmeticsnews.com/procter-gamble-unilever-and-colgate-palmolive-top-chart-as-worlds-worst-offenders-for-plastic-pollution/
- ↑ https://lightparty.com/Economic/EnvMovement.html
- ↑ https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Anthony_Cavalieri
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062600944.html
- ↑ http://www.herinst.org/sbeder/envpolitics/stain.html
- ↑ https://lightparty.com/Economic/EnvMovement.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20101003225950/http://www.nature.org/tncscience/scientists/misc/sanjayan.html
- ↑ http://theaposition.com/chrissantella/books/953/rocky-mountain-front-montana-recommended-by-m-a-sanjayan
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090201115535/http://www.nature.org/tncscience/scientists/misc/sanjayan.html
- ↑ https://redd-monitor.org/2008/10/27/nature-conservancy-role-in-world-bank-redd-initiative-highlights-growing-us-ngo-isolation-on-forests-and-climate-policy/
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2007/11/16/LI2007111600631.html