Better World News: Climate Activists Invade D.C. Offices of Environmental Defense Fund

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Climate Activists Invade D.C. Offices of Environmental Defense Fund

From Rachel's Democracy & Health News #988  Thursday,  December  4,  2008 http://www.precaution.org/lib/08/prn_dhn081204.htm  Climate Activists Invade D.C. Offices of Environmental Defense Fund   Climate activists took over the Washington D.C. office of   Environmental Defense Fund earlier this week. The activists said they   had targeted EDF, one of the largest environmental organizations in   the world, because of its key role in promoting the discredited   approach of carbon trading as a solution to climate change.  Time To Shape Up or Step Aside, Environmental Defense Fund   The daughter of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) founder Robert   Smolker occupied the offices of EDF earlier this week and delivered a   speech saying, in part, "EDF has turned itself into a corporate   makeover facility. The most polluting companies on earth walk in here   seeking advice on how to better paint themselves green. EDF does the   paint job and then hands out free samples and an eternity's worth of   coupons for future cash-in."

===

Climate Activists Invade DC Offices of Environmental Defense, Daughter of ED Founder Accuses NGO of Pushing False Solutions to Climate Change

Dec 1st, 2008

Washington, DC - As the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change opened today in Poznan, Poland, grassroots climate activists took over the Washington DC office of Environmental Defense. The activists stated that they had targeted ED, one of the largest environmental organizations in the world, because of the organization’s key role in promoting the discredited approach of carbon trading as a solution to climate change.

Dr. Rachel Smolker of Global Justice Ecology Project and Global Forest Coalition read a statement, which said in part, “My father was one of the founders of this organization, which sadly I am now ashamed of. The Kyoto Protocol, the European Emissions Trading Scheme and virtually every other initiative for reducing emissions have adopted their market approaches. So far they have utterly failed, serving only to provide huge profits to the world’s most polluting industries. Instead of protecting the environment, ED now seems primarily concerned with protecting corporate bottom lines. I can hear my father rolling over in his grave.”

Note: The Washington, DC Environmental Defense (sic) should not be confused with Canada’s Environmental Defence.

The activists rearranged furniture in the office, illustrating how marketing carbon is “like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” Others held signs reading “Keep the cap, ditch the trade” and “Carbon trading is an environmental offense.”

Leo Cerda, an indigenous activist with Rising Tide Ecuador said, “ED wants to turn the atmosphere and forests into private property, and then give it away to the most polluting industries in the form of pollution allowances that can be bought and sold. Not only is this an ineffective way to control emissions, it is also a disaster for the poor and indigenous peoples who are not party to these markets and are most impacted by climate change.”

ED has been key in establishing the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a business consortium advocating for a cap and trade system with extremely weak emissions reductions. US CAP allows polluters like Duke Energy, Shell, BP, DuPont, and Dow Chemical to claim they are green while continuing with business as usual. In recognition, activists awarded ED the “Corporate Greenwash Award,” a three foot tall green paintbrush. “We think this award is appropriate since Environmental Defense spends more time painting polluters green than actually defending the environment,” said Matt Wallace of Rising Tide North America.

Opposition to carbon trading is growing as it becomes apparent that market based schemes do little to fight climate change while helping corporations rake in profits. Earlier this year, over 50 groups came together in the US to denounce carbon trading in a Declaration Against the Use of Carbon Trading Schemes to Address Climate Change. Globally, hundreds of environmental, social justice, and indigenous groups have come together to oppose such market based initiatives as inherently unsustainable and ineffective in creating a just transition away from fossil fuels.