Gore takes cash for water campaign from chemical firmWhy do stories like this have to come from overseas media -- where are these being reported in our own mainstream media? . . . crickets Al Gore will accept money from anyone with two provisions: #1) - it will not tarnish the image of Al Gore and #2) - it will help promote Al Gore as a wise and caring person Fscking hypocrite... Posted by DaveH at April 18, 2010 10:32 AM
Al Gore, the self-styled squeakiest-clean and deepest-green politician in American history, has some explaining to do this weekend. His environmental organisation has taken money to raise awareness about the need for clean water from a controversial chemicals company involved in the aftermath of one of the world's worst pollution disasters.
Dow Chemical, the US firm which now owns the leaking pesticides factory responsible for thousands of deaths in Bhopal, India, is sponsoring Life Earth events in 150 cities today. The event aims to raise money for clean water programmes. Research by environmental organisations has found dangerous levels of highly toxic chemicals in rivers, lakes and other water supplies close to several other factories owned by Dow and its subsidiaries in countries including the United States, Brazil and South Africa.
Dow's factories at its global headquarters in Midland, Michigan, have been accused of contaminating the region, including the Tittabawassee River floodplains, with high levels of dioxin � one of the "dirty dozen" most dangerous chemicals. In 2007, the highest level of dioxin contamination ever measured by the US Environmental Protection Agency was found in the Michigan Saginaw River. Residents are advised to avoid contact with river sediments and not to eat locally caught fish.
Campaigners are outraged by what they call Dow's "blatant attempt" to paint itself as a green company and divert attention from the Bhopal scandal, where 25 years after the 1984 disaster at the plant (then owned by Union Carbide) thousands of villagers are still forced to use contaminated water which causes birth defects, cancer and skin disorders.
Live Earth, which has accumulated celebrity supporters and thousands of activists worldwide since its climate change concert in 2007, has been criticised by campaigners for joining forces with a company which has a track record of, at best, being slow to clean up toxic spills that pollute water, damage ecosystems and endanger lives.
Three weeks ago, Amnesty International asked Live Earth to reconsider the sponsorship unless Dow publicly agreed to clean up Bhopal. Live Earth did not respond.
Well, he did divest himself from his family's oil stocks six years ago but his family made their fortune on oil and politics. Still, he is from big oil. There were questions of his involvement with cap-and-trade with the big NYC brokerage houses. Cap-and-trade IS NOT about saving the planet. It is about profits and it is a kind of corporate taxation. Think about it, if US government put taxes on carbon production, the conservatives would be having a cow. If corporation tax through cap-and-trade it is okay in their book and both side are non-the-wiser. Whahoo!
Posted by: Eric Otto at April 25, 2010 12:26 PM