Bishop Hill Fighting funding
Mar 12, 2012 Greens Over the weekend, the Express reported that the wind industry is hiring eco-activists to help them in their efforts to destroy the British countryside.
While thousands of residents in Mid Wales have vowed to fight plans that would see up to 600 turbines carpeting the countryside, Action for Renewables, lobby arm of trade association Renewables UK, is seeking campaigners to champion its wind farms. The job description includes building a “network of local campaigning groups across the region” and identifying “campaign leaders in local areas close to existing and proposed renewables sites”.
The group, which was unavailable for comment yesterday, is part-funded by Centrica, parent group of British Gas.
Green activism is, of course, awash with corporate and government money - a brief look at the accounts of most green "charities" will demonstrate this point. It's a remarkable thing to see large corporate entities in essence spending big bucks on groups that campaign to put other people out of work. In the current economic climate, this kind of behaviour is distasteful, to say the least.
The other day, I was reading about a campaign a few years ago, in which green activists started gluing the doors of Sainsbury's branches shut in an attempt to force them to toe the green line du jour. Given the amount of money that Sainsbury's and its associated charitable trusts now put into environmental causes, one assumes that this campaign was a success.
Perhaps, then, it is time for the rest of society to take note of the industrialists who are funding the desecration of the economy and the countryside, and to ensure that when they measure their profits they realise that there are costs, as well as benefits, associated with their behaviour.
Boycott of Sainsbury's anyone?
Reader Comments (49)
'Green hedging' by the corporates isn't to please the proles [who couldn't careless] it is to please the green state fanatics in local, central and national government. Marks'n'Sparks, Sain's, Tesco all play the game. British Gas joining the fray of eco-activism is so out of order.
But we live in an age, where a bonkers political culture, in which black is white and everybody in the political sphere is onboard - and the everything theme is coloured green, irrespective of the truth, regardless of the social costs, all done and aided by the total indifference, or ignorance of the British public.
Also remember that, British taxpayers gelt, is funnelled thru' the EU into the pockets of WWF and Greenpeace et al, in order for the green useful eejits, to agitate for more green madness renewable boondoggles etc, travel to world IPCC junkets - the public doesn't get a look in.
Until the muckspreader is cut off at source - it thus will continue on its self fufilling cycle of 'green logic' - only the electorate can halt this green gravy train.
Something similar happened here.
A company called Yes2Wind was employed to put out pro-wind spin and help people write supporting letters to the council.
See also this Telegraph article.
probably using public subsidy money to hire the activists,ironic if thats the case!!
Back in 2001 I was interested in developing a business in the "growing" renewable sector, so started attending the Scottish Parliamentary Renewable Energy Group (a cross part group of the parliament) with a view to finding all those potential customers who were going to be making windmills in Scotland.
Like all these things, at first you just go along with it. It did strike me as surprising to be in a room full of people trying to make money out of this thing, to find a civil servant asking us to vote on the level of subsidy. I seem to remember the question was "how much".
Then I began to realise that the parliamentary committee was actually run by the renewable lobby in Scotland. Then I realised that the renewable lobby was run by one individual, then I began to hear rumours that this one individual had bought up most of the potential wind sites in Scotland.
I did eventually raise a complaint, but ... it was rejected ... they couldn't see any problem having a lobbyist running part of the Scottish Parliament.
But, I've never been able to understand how the Scottish Parliament could allow any part of its workings to be controlled by a lobby group, particularly one where one individual stood to gain so much.
And, the truth is that it was an open secret, that the big oil companies were heavily promoting wind. It was also known right from the beginning that there would be very few jobs in wind in Scotland. I know, because I sat in a meeting where they were talking about promoting wind energy and someone couldn't understand why they didn't talk more about all the jobs that were going to be created. And finally, the chair almost as much as said: "because jobs are not a selling point for wind energy".
And like the ice-berg, it is probably true that what you can see is only a fraction of the corruption. Let me put it this way. What backhanders have politicians, journalists, civil servants and parties received? We all know that local communities are bribed to take windfarms. If wind developers are happy to bribe in public, how much more happy will they be to make bribes in private?
We can see how green groups have been bribed by wind developers. Wind developers who stand to make huge profits in the 100s of millions who can afford to "ease" the wheels.
Given that most Sainsburies stores have at least one broken entrance door (making getting in and out a duffer pushing trolley dodging minefield) I would say that door glueing campaign is still going on...
"What backhanders have politicians, journalists, civil servants and parties received? "
A very good question Mike, I'm afraid we shall never know but my guess is - lots of hols, golf trips, prezzies and corporate hospitality at the very least. The Chinese call it, 'fragrant grease'.
Paul Matthews: "A company called Yes2Wind was employed to put out pro-wind spin and help people write supporting letters to the council."
I vaguely remember the name Yes2Wind and if I had been asked, I would have said they were created by the wind lobbyists around 2002 in response to anti-wind groups.
Just to be be clear .... there used to be a sainsbury with an awful lot of money who had a wind developer company almost as his "toy".
I thought he was one of the nicer people - a bit of a toff - but he genuinely seemed to believe in what he was doing ... kind of like Prince Charles.
We mustn't forget that there is also a huge groundswell of opinion in the countryside against wind developments. That groundswell is made up of amateurs (ie they exist on zero funding) who are well-informed, unlike the green eejits. The resistance is growing daily and, due to networking, the spread of information and cooperation is enormous. Politicians in rural parts of the country had better beware if they want re-electing.
"Green activism is, of course, awash with corporate and government money - a brief look at the accounts of most green "charities" will demonstrate this point."
Is there a site that documents a comprehensive account of this?
One wonders if those employed in this rent-a-mob drive will be included in official figures for green jobs.
More on Yes2Wind here:
http://www.windbyte.co.uk/tricks.html
Could have been lifted straight from the original script, couldn't it? "And now your journey to the Dark (Green) side will be complete, young Skywalker!" The stench of corruption is only too obvious, but as it is done in clear view of everyone, it goes unnoticed! The EU pays Redwar/WWF/FoE et al to manufacture evidence against human activities, who then lobby said EU to pass ever more regulations to restrcit or tax sadi activities, based on the evidence manufactured by their advocates & claim their hands are tied. It won't be long before they won't even bother with the pretence any more, they'll just do it anyway because no one can stop them, democracy is a thing of the past these days!
Frosty: I am don't know where the UK records, are, but this site has the US data on many "green" organizations. Note that like the UK, many donors wish to be anonymous. You can see the accounts by clicking on the organization, then when it appears, to the right is "overview". Under that is Financials.
http://activistcash.com/index_organizations.cfm
This site documents some of the places the Canadian greens get their money from.
http://fairquestions.typepad.com/rethink_campaigns/36-organizations-paid-by-tides-excerpts-of-usa-tax-returns.html
In the Mexican state of Oaxaca a wind farm has been built at La Mata La Ventosa and is owned by EDF. However the electricity produced by the turbines does not go to local homes, some 7% of which have no electricity at all; it is sold at a discount to Walmart.
The wind farm was partly funded by the Clean Technology Fund of the World Bank, which received
£385 million or 14% from the UK's overseas aid budget.
So Walmart, which owns Asda, is effectively being subsidised by the UK's overseas aid budget. The fact that Asda donate to both Labour and the Conservatives couldn't possibly have anything to do with it, could it?
http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=9214
http://www.wdm.org.uk/climate-justice/power-people-how-world-bank-financed-wind-farms-fail-communities-mexico
What I can't get my head around is the constant 'Deniers Funded by big oil' shrill by Gleick Mann etc but the reality is the exact opposite. So why does Big Oil never say about ths obvious lie, is it a Faustian pact that the truth is untold until the end when like an undercover french resistance fighter the Big Oil will be awarded a Nobel piece prize to pay for the pain of the lie.
That's nothing.
The Australian Government's Climate Change Commission has, since the end of 2011, funded green groups to the extent of $750,000 in support of their campaign to kill the coal mining industry which (from Jo Nova - www.joannenova.com.au):
"employs 40,000 people directly, provides the fuel for more than half our electricity and generates about $13b in tax dollars for the Australian government."
Up here on the island of Anglesey we have a great little spat on going with this nice free thinking group [lol]
http://www.se-alliance.org.uk/news-1
Their fav tactic is to get their opponents literature withdrawn by complaining to the utterly useless A.S.A given that the target is the majority of the locals who have no money to mount any kind of challenge the windies win again !
Mind love the
'Judgements on wind energy should be based on sound evidence'
I take this to mean in their censorial way 'our evidence'!
We should take a leaf or two out of their book.
Perhaps an enterprising but underemployed BH reader might get some durable bumper/window stickers and posters made from Josh's cartoons, then set up a PayPal button to get them out at a modest cost to as many of us as possible.
If enough of Josh's "Zero Gain" posters were stuck up car and other windows eventually people would read them and know it was not just them that thought the world had gone mad. I would give a quid or two for a pack and make sure my village knows how I feel.
This is just more evidence of how delusional the Greens are - but it has been quite successful as you say your Grace. The Sainsbury's incident is just a protection racket. The thing is the more delusional and wild they get the more likely the scam gets spotted by the populace for what it is.
It seems the same sort of daft circular stupidity affects Australia as well as Jo Nova's latest posting confirms -
http://joannenova.com.au/2012/03/a-gongo-idea-a-government-funded-job-destruction-program/
Oz has been doing well in recent years and good luck to them, but I advised an Australian friend a year ago to beware of an attack on the coal exports. Much of Oz's economic well-being is built on exports of coal (and other minerals) to China. When I was there a couple of years ago I landed at Cairns and every Taxi was a Toyota Pious (misspell intended) because "we are watching our carbon footprint mate!" but hundreds of thousands of tons of coal were being shipped to China as well as burnt in Oz's power-stations. my friend thought nothing would disturb the duplicity of it - I hope he is right.
I'd suggest gluing them onto sainsburys' doors, but that wouldn't be legal.
first Monbiot, now Pearce, turn out to be loves of nuclear. don't think their fans knew that:
11 March: Daily Mail: Fred Pearce: The most toxic pond in Europe: Sellafield will cost £10bn to make safe... but at least Harold Wilson won't have to pay for it
All are still packed with concrete and steel that will stay radioactive for hundreds of years. They will soon be followed by the next generation of advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs), mostly built in the Seventies and scheduled to close in the next decade or so.
Most will remain locked up under what the industry calls ‘care and maintenance’ until the 22nd Century. Why do we allow this? That’s not giving the task to our children, but to our great-great-grandchildren.
I am not anti-nuclear. I am a convert to nuclear power. That may be an odd thing to say on the first anniversary of the Fukushima meltdown, but the way I look at it, the Japanese nuclear power plant was one of the few places hit by the tsunami where nobody died.
And since I believe we need lots of low-carbon energy to prevent climate change, nuclear looks like the best option. It is much more likely to deliver than wind turbines or solar panels.
So I want more nuclear power in Britain. But we have to do it right. And the reluctance of our nuclear masters to clean up the billion-pound messes around Britain’s coasts is shameful...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113327/The-toxic-pond-Europe-Sellafield-cost-10bn-make-safe--Harold-Wilson-wont-pay-it.html
btw i declare i am no fan of Pearce's or nuclear.
nice hypocritical CAGW moment at the end of the excerpts:
11 March: UK Telegraph: Robert Mendick: Tony Blair expands his African empire into mineral-rich Guinea
The agreement coincides with a deal to explore new mining opportunities signed by the government of Guinea and a Middle East investment fund, which also employs Mr Blair as an adviser on business matters.
That contract potentially opens Mr Blair up to accusations of a conflict of interest — as an adviser to both parties.
Guinea is the fourth state in Africa — after Rwanda, Liberia and Sierra Leone — to invite Mr Blair and his entourage into government. The formal partnership between Guinea and Mr Blair’s charity, the African Governance Initiative (AGI), was sealed at the end of last year after six months of negotiation...
Mubadala Development Company, a £20 billion sovereign wealth fund set up by the Abu Dhabi government, signed the “collaboration agreement” with Guinea in November. It includes investing in new bauxite and iron ore mines. Mubadala is well known to Mr Blair. His private consultancy Tony Blair Associates has been a paid adviser to the company since 2009.
It has been speculated that Mr Blair, who has seven properties to run including a town house in London and a country estate in Buckinghamshire, earns around £1 million a year from Mubadala, although a source at the company suggested that sum was too high...
It is not known if Mr Blair was involved in Mubadala’s decision to move into Guinea. Another acquaintance of Mr Blair also has an interest in the country. Oleg Deripaska, oligarch and friend of Lord Mandelson, owns a bauxite mine and a smelting plant in Guinea through his company Rusal, the world’s largest producer of aluminium.
Rusal also held talks in November with Sierra Leone’s president, Ernest Bai Koroma, over a new bauxite mining project. Separately Mr Blair is an adviser to Mr Koroma.
***Mr Blair has previously benefited from Mr Deripaska’s largesse. Another of Mr Blair’s charities — an environmental campaign group called Breaking the Climate Deadlock — was given £300,000 by Mr Deripaska in 2009.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/9136126/Tony-Blair-expands-his-African-empire-into-mineral-rich-Guinea.html
@mat
Mat above links to an organisation appearing to make vexasious complaints about literature in order to close down the debate on wind energy.
http://www.se-alliance.org.uk/news-1
By looking up the Domain name registry its possible to find links to other extremeist environmental groups. Note, all have the same postal address
Go to http://www.nic.uk/other/whois/
then type 'se-alliance.org.uk' (without the www. part) into the search box.
Then go google the address of the domain name holder. This will provide you with links to more envirmental extremist websites. All registred to the same house in Anglesey (google street view is your friend). You can then look up those domains on whois. It leads a fascinating trail....
Know your enemy.
As I was a bit bored I thought I'd do a bit of digging for mat, above. First, why? Well I abhor wind turbines and I love the countryside of North Wales, whcih I visit often (I live close to the border). I detest seeing these wind follies destroying the countryside (and not just in Wales!).
This relates to the 'Sustainable Energy Alliance' pressure group which is apparently seeking to close down debate in favour of wind turbines. However they dont actually explain who they are..
The SE alliance is registered to an address in Angelsey, though no name is given. The SE alliance website itself gives no real clues as to who the owner is. However.... by googling the address of the website registrant you find that address is linked to several other websites, all with an environmental lunacy bent.
www.mng.org.uk
http://www.energyfair.org.uk
http://www.trec-uk.org.uk
http://www.cognitionresearch.org
Do some more digging if you as bored as I am! Some suggestions: google addresses and phone numbers and personal names. You never know what you might find. Use whois for domain name searches
http://www.nic.uk/other/whois/ for the uk
http://www.whois.net/ rest of the world.
If you want to see who has owned the particular property (in other words to see if the owner has been the same during the initial registrations of the websites above) you can use the Land Registry website and download a 'Title register' from the following site. It costs £4
http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/www/wps/portal/!ut/p/b1/04_Sj9CPykssy0xPLMnMz0vMAfGjzOKNjSxMDA1NjDwsjM3MDTxN3dyNDUNMjQ1MjPWDU_P0C7IdFQG9k5Tz/
This can help you link together the various websites etc. You can see if the SE alliance has any vested interests etc or links to other groups (i.e. are any of these other groups speaking in support, in other words is one person/group purporting to be many with no obvious link)
All of this is absolutely legal by the way.... you can look up any address in the UK this way.
I also used these methods to find links between an apparently neutral blog and several solar panel fitting companies that it apparently gave 'independant' reveiews of. SOme people dont realise just how good the internet is......
David Holland
Excellent idea. All we need is the organization to do it. That's our weakness. We are just a bunch of concerned individuals.
Maybe we should ask the Chinese for some funding. They know how do get organized.
NO to ETS
"Excellent idea. All we need is the organization to do it. That's our weakness. We are just a bunch of concerned individuals."
Takes us back to Pointman's "It becomes asymmetric warfare"[...]
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/the-climate-wars/
I've oft' thought, that, the only way to fight this mass green hysteria; is via humour and appeals to logic [wasted] and morality [fat chance]. Which leaves humour.
You can print out Josh's cartoon on your laser printer and pin it up at the pub, office, library, Sainsbury's message board, etc.
(Possibly pausing to check with the artist to confirm that this is an allowable action...).
@Henry B
Good work - I wonder what he did to upset his former employer? They can't afford to be *that* selective...
I have come across quite a few web sites aimed at children about climate and funded wholly or in part by providers of 'alternative' energy supplies (http://climatelessons.blogspot.com/p/climate-sites-aimed-at.html). I guess this taking the long view plus pester-power approach has just not been sufficient, and now a more direct route is to be pursued. Astro-turfing, as they say in the US, is a polite name for it. A lot of easy money at stake, so I daresay these folks are exploring every opportunity they can find.
I had to read this twice. I know it is true...I work part of the year in Germany and this has been news for months since the Green Panic post- Fukushima.
I wonder if it has passed over Richard Black's desk?
PS. The same goes for Wind as for Solar. The bubble is now apparent with the realisation of the enormous costs in resetting the grid to transfer the variable current loads from the vast off-shore arrays in the North Sea and Baltic to the industrial users of Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg...the real workshop of Germany today.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17344074
Jo Nova talks of GONGOs here: http://joannenova.com.au/2012/03/a-gongo-idea-a-government-funded-job-destruction-program/.
Maybe DRONGOs has a place too: Desperate Renewables Organised NGOs?
Les J and others, great links, I've had to start a fresh bookmarks folder "climate cash"
Following the green NGO funding hydra is like herding cats.
There could be a crowd-sourced project on WUWT or something to start a "funding the greens" site where it can all be put in one place documenting it all. GWPF or another funded org should start a compendium of research in this area.
If there was a one stop shop the public could see the amount of wasted money, especially during dire financial times, this lunacy would soon end IMO.
Can anybody put Josh,s windpower cartoon on a facebook page
Good to see a story in The Daily Express which isnt about Princess Diana and Dodie being killed by MI6
The idea of "guerrilla bumper stickers" was done by SUV tagging (I'm changing the climate, ask me how)
I guess you could do something with wind if you had the inclination.
Bishop dont want to tread on your toes
Ever thought about putting a page with a link to this site on Facebook
Can reach more people that way
Hysterical young greeny schoolgirls do this here too with "Unsuitable Vehicle Choice" stickers.
I had one stuck on my RX400H recently.
Couldn't be bothered to chase them and explain that "H" stands for hybrid.
"Unsuitable choice of vehicle defacing activists" ?
According to today's Daily Telegraph the Energy Minister, Ed Davey, claimed that living next to a wind farm is a good thing.
Living next to a wind farm is good for you, says minister Ed Davey
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/9137224/Living-next-to-a-wind-farm-is-good-for-you-says-minister-Ed-Davey.html
Does anyone know how far it is from Ed Davey's house to the nearest wind farm? How many wind farms are there in the Brighton constituency of Britain's first Green MP Caroline Lucas? Can't we ensure that every British MP has a wind farm close enough to his/her house for the noise of the turbines to be audible?
All those MPs who voted for the Climate Change Act will obviously agree with these suggestions because they are far too upright to take the attitude that there is one rule for the plebs and another for themselves.
Foxgoose
How could you -- such a monster vehicle. You should be driving a Segway -- :)
u have to laugh, even if The Atlantic doesn't!
12 March: The Atlantic: Ross Anderson: How Engineering the Human Body Could Combat Climate Change
A new paper to be published in Ethics, Policy & Environment proposes a series of biomedical modifications that could help humans, themselves, consume less.
Some of the proposed modifications are simple and noninvasive. For instance, many people wish to give up meat for ecological reasons, but lack the willpower to do so on their own. The paper suggests that such individuals could take a pill that would trigger mild nausea upon the ingestion of meat, which would then lead to a lasting aversion to meat-eating. Other techniques are bound to be more controversial. For instance, the paper suggests that parents could make use of genetic engineering or hormone therapy in order to birth smaller, less resource-intensive children.
The lead author of the paper, S. Matthew Liao, is a professor of philosophy and bioethics at New York University. Liao is keen to point out that the paper is not meant to advocate for any particular human modifications, or even human engineering generally; rather, it is only meant to introduce human engineering as one possible, partial solution to climate change. He also emphasized the voluntary nature of the proposed modifications. Neither Liao or his co-authors, Anders Sandberg and Rebecca Roache of Oxford, approve of any coercive human engineering; they favor modifications borne of individual choices, not technocratic mandates. What follows is my conversation with Liao about why he thinks human engineering could be the most ethical and effective solution to global climate change…
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/how-engineering-the-human-body-could-combat-climate-change/253981/
On the subject of eco-activists - I see that the Economist is happily claiming that nuclear power is 'the dream that failed'
The Economist have been happy to publish Gleick puff pieces in the past: http://www.economist.com/node/12326872 (so for all I know much of the Economist is simply the product of criminal activity and/or fraud).
John Shade at 4:08 PM |
The Scottish "First Minister" is doing exactly the same thing in the independance debate - getting schoolchildren brainwashed to be pro-Independance, then wanting the voting age lowered for the referendum - in 2014.
@Mar 12, 2012 at 9:35 PM | Roy
You might not want to use plebs as this also implys your a pleb as well as me, I would use the word Sheeple, much more general.
1) One who's inferior intelligence results in them making a complete titface out of
themselves in public
www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pleb
How to stop the landscape leviathan? Money! Dry up their gravy train by employing information. Once voters realise just how much of their personal family budget is wasted it will not be long before candidates campaign to dismantle windfarms.
Mar 12, 2012 at 12:22 PM | David Holland
/////////////////////////////////////
It's catchy.
It would make a great poster.
A picture can convey a thousand words and I consider that it would usefully enhance any local campaign being run against the siting of a windfarm.
As I write, wind is providing 0.4% of electricity demand - or 4.5% of installed capacity. Someone please work that out in £billions per kilowatt, or whatever...
I don't give a stuff how many 'eco-activists' the developers employ to support windfarms - THEY DON'T WORK...!
Looking forward to any of them turning up at our farm and trying to convert me to the wind turbine religion. I will introduce them to the bull, he loves a good argument with strangers.
“I've never been able to understand how the Scottish Parliament could allow any part of its workings to be controlled by a lobby group”
Because that's what it's for. The Scottish political class carving up the country among themselves. Big fish in a wee pond. “More money, Frazer? Why, thank-you, Morag. Don't mind if I do. Have a directorship.”
And now they want even more power.