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March 28, 2024

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Most of the public believe that climate activist groups are the Davids in a battle with the Goliath industrial complex across the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. In Cracking Big Green: To Save the World from the Save-The-Earth Money Machine (2018), authors Ron Arnold and Paul Driessen use information derived from the annual reports of non-profit organizations, as revealed in the Internal Revenue Service IRS form 990s, to show the true wealth of ‘Big Green.’ Focusing on the year 2012, which was readily available, they discovered the staggering annual incomes of various environmental groups, some of which are listed as follows:

The Sierra Club: took in $97,757,678
The Sierra Club Foundation: $47,163,599
The Environmental Defense Fund: $111,915,138
Natural Resources Defense Council: $98,701,707
National Audubon Society: $96,206,883
National Wildlife Federation: $84,726,518
Greenpeace USA: $32,791,149
National Parks Conservation Association: $25,782,975
The Wilderness Society: $24,862,909
Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection: $19,150,215
But those are just the medium sized incomes. Here are some large ones:
The Nature Conservancy: $949,132,306 (yes, nearly $1 billion)
Greenpeace International: $406,000,000
Wildlife Conservation Society: $230,042,654
World Wildlife Fund: $208,495,555

Yet green groups portray energy companies like Exxon-Mobile and BP as spending gigantic sums of money lobbying to keep the government on its side. That too is false. They do not spend more than a tiny fraction of the sums listed above in an effort not to be driven out of business. In fact, these companies and their competitors, rather than battling the Green Ideology, often spend money in support of the climate scare by embracing wind and solar energy, energy from bacteria and wholly nonsensical efforts to pump carbon dioxide emissions underground.
But the extraordinary wealth of environmental groups is only part of the reason they have such influence on public policy. They work their magic through a program of law suits against the government which the government settles rather than going to court, thereby giving the groups success in their goals without reducing the funds in their coffers.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s report Sue and Settle: Regulating Behind Closed Doors, shines a long overdue light on the back-room manipulations that are now common between Big Green and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This has become a significant part of their legal strategy. It works like this: 
A private environmental group sues the EPA to issue new regulations by a certain date. The agency and group meet behind closed doors. The government then usually agrees to do whatever the activist group wants. This is because, for decades, the EPA has been staffed by people who support extremist green ideology. There are no messy congressional hearings, no public comment period, no opportunity for parties that will be adversely affected by the deal to have their day in court. Making the situation even more egregious, in most cases the taxpayer foots the bill for the suing groups’ legal fees.
Dozens of philanthropic funds set up by conservative industrialists of yesteryear have been hijacked by radical liberals who now battle the industries that initially spawned them. Their founders would turn over in their graves if they knew how their money is being spent. Not one of these staggeringly wealthy groups objects to the climate change delusion that has gripped our nation.
But there is much more supporting Big Green. The international banking community is turning over gigantic sums of money to finance the world’s rush to solar and wind projects. The San Francisco-based Climate Policy Initiative showed that, of the more than $1 billion USD spent every day around the world on climate finance, the largest single part of it goes to ‘renewable energy’ schemes. This despite the fact that they have no chance of providing the abundant, plentiful energy the world needs. Germany’s Deutsche Bank, Switzerland’s Credit Suisse, America’s Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs and nearly all its competitors are knee deep in the billions of dollars of the global warming industry with apparently no concern about where and when the fraud finally comes to roost with an economy smashing to the ground. And we must not forget the $76 billion that the U.S. government has invested in the delusion over the past 20 years.

Big Green holds public policy captive to a scientific-technological elite of climate mongers, ecology gurus, land grabbers, vicious lawyers and computer fortune tellers.
And, in so doing, the fanatical supporters of the ‘Save The Earth Money Machine’ have now strangled our freedoms as well as our economic well-being. Our fear is that many of their ideas will become law, further eroding our freedom.

Educating true believers is a hopeless task. So, one of our major objectives now should be to limit their power. We must also battle their wrong ideas by loudly publicizing better ideas so that the public can come to understand the degree to which they have been misled. We have to help the public realize that environmental extremists are not attempting to solve problems. They are primarily promoting a political doctrine, an ideology, a mix of myth, philosophy and science that goads supporters to action as representatives of the ideology’s attitudes and beliefs. This endows its adherents with a sense of respectability and self-righteousness.
Today’s environmental activists call for changes in present political systems, in the reach of the law, in the methods of agriculture and industry, in the structure of capitalism, the profit system, international dealings and, of course, in education.
Global warming and climate change just turned out to be the very best mechanism to achieve these goals.
They must be stopped!


Portions of this article were excerpted with permission of the authors and publisher of Cracking Big Green by Ron Arnold and Paul Driessen. It is a stunning expose of the modern environmental movement and its hidden financial masters. It tracks the dark money machine of wealthy foundations and individuals that even give instructions along with their cash. It explores how donors manipulate eco-ideology, sponsor attacks on selected industries and influences regulations by promoting agreeable experts as advisors to powerful government agencies. We cannot recommend Arnold and Driessen’s book too strongly.

MANY VOICES, ONE FREEDOM: UNITED IN THE 1ST AMENDMENT

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Dave James
Dave James
4 years ago

This opinion piece seems to have been written years ago. The financial data is from 2012. It claims EPA and environmental groups, “…meet behind closed doors. The government then usually agrees to do whatever the activist group wants.” Donald Trump’s EPA has not been accused of being chummy with environmentalist. In fact, the EPA has been accused doing the exact opposite. (“Trump rolls back EPA oversight in Midwest, favoring polluters” by Brett Chase, Nov 20, 2019, Star Courier)
Dr. Jay Lehr’s and Mr. Tom Harris’ claim energy companies like Exxon-Mobile “…do not spend more than a tiny fraction of the sums that environment and conservation organization have…” is not supported by the evidence. The total annual revenue of the 14 environmental groups listed by Dr. Jay Lehr and Mr. Tom Harris is $2.4 billion in 2012. Exxon’s annual revenue in 2012 was more than 200 times larger: $480.5 billion. (Exxon is only one fossil fuel company.) Given this massive disparately in revenue it is entirely appropriate to compare environmental and conservation organizations as “Davids” compared to the “Goliath” of the fossil fuel industry.
Mr. Harris and Dr. Lehr promote a vague and unsupported political conspiracy theory that “Big Green holds public policy captive to a scientific-technological elite of climate mongers, ecology gurus, land grabbers, vicious lawyers and computer fortune tellers. And, in so doing, the fanatical supporters of the ‘Save The Earth Money Machine’ have now strangled our freedoms as well as our economic well-being.”
The evidence of human-cause climate change is clear and convincing. (Source Canada Changing Climate Report, 2019) Accepting the scientific evidence is not “…a political doctrine, an ideology, a mix of myth, philosophy and science that goads supporters to action as representatives of the ideology’s attitudes and beliefs.”

Rich Kozlovich
Reply to  Dave James
4 years ago

Whether the financial date was from 2012 or from 2019 is immaterial to the core subject, and nothing more than an attempt to distract from the fact Green is big business. Your comment about the amount spent by the energy industry and the green movement is a logical fallacy. By comparison it may be large in number but small per ratio compared to the green movement.
Most importantly, and something that wouldn’t appear on their books, is the amount they managed to get governments and industry to spend on their schemes, and that number is massive. The biggest and toughest gang in the world is the United States bureaucracy, and they’ve spent and wasted obscene amounts on the fraud of global warming. The green movement worldwide takes in more than 60 of the world’s nations and no trade association can stand against them financially. But most importantly, none of that can account for the irrational support they receive from the media. That number is incalculable, and they get it for free. Free doesn’t appear on their books either.
The green movement has held the world captive to its schemes an lies since the irrational, unscientific and misanthropic ban on DDT. What is clear is that history demonstrates to be green is to be irrational, misanthropic and morally defective. Everything else is a logical fallacy.

Dave James
Dave James
Reply to  Rich Kozlovich
4 years ago

Your assertion that, “…no trade association can stand against (the green movement) financially’ is not supported by the facts. Exxon’s just one fossil fuel company revenues in 2012 were 200 times the total of all the environment and conservation groups listed by Dr. Jay Lehr and Mr. Tom Harris. The revenues of both environmental and conservation organizations and fossil fuel industry are not “a logical fallacy” but a matter of record.
As noted above, your assertion that global warming is a fraud is not supported by the scientific evidence. Accepting the robust and compelling evidence is entirely rational. Promoting vague and unsupported political conspiracy theory is not.
Pointing out Mr. Harris’ and Dr. Lehr’s opinion piece seems to be dated is not “immaterial to the core subject.” It is a direct criticism of the content of Dr. Lehr’s and Mr. Harris’ opinion piece.
Rather that attacking the arguments of The Sierra Club, The Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, etc…, you call them “…irrational, misanthropic and morally defective.” Name-calling is not the sign of a well-reasoned post.

Rich Kozlovich
Reply to  Dave James
4 years ago

First off, your criticism of the dating of their data really is immaterial. That material is accurate, and you’ve not shown there’s any reason to believe otherwise. The fact it’s from 2012 versus 2019 is meaningless unless you can show it’s inaccurate, and you can’t, or you would have.
I assert no trade association can stand against the green movement because it’s a fact, and if you bothered to do the research instead of mouthing the narrative, you would have known that. Ignoring my observations of how much has been spent by the green movement, government entities and the free advertising they get from the media is nothing more than an attempt to obfuscate the facts.
Global warming is absolutely the greatest scientific fraud perpetrated on humanity. The Hockey Stick has been shown to be horsepucky, the corruption inside those promoting has been exposed, and furthermore, there’s absolutely no evidence any warming that has occurred has come near the temperatures the world experienced during the Medieval and Roman Warming periods. Both of those periods were substantially warmer than today, or even future predicted temperatures. There is absolutely not one bit of historical evidence any of the terrible things they’re predicting for our time ever occurred during those substantially warmer periods. So why should we believe these predictions will come true now? We shouldn’t!
According to the The Black Book of Communism the leftist monster of the 20th century murdered over 100 million people. In less than 40 years there may have been that many who died unnecessarily from the ban on DDT. And that was for malaria alone.
The amount of suffering, misery, disease and early death the green movement has inflicted on humanity with their schemes since the ban on DDT has been well documented.
Saying the green movement is irrational, misanthropic and morally defective isn’t name calling. It’s a definitive description of who and what they are, and is a clear depiction of their history. And that history is incontestable.

Dave James
Dave James
Reply to  Rich Kozlovich
4 years ago

Rich Kozlovich calling the people you disagree with “…irrational, misanthropic and morally defective” is not a strong argument.
Your petty insults mirrors the personal attacks made by Mr. Tom Harris in his opinion pieces. For example: Mr. Harris asserts Greenpeace, the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta, Canada (APEGA), American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), Geological Society of America (GSA), The Royal Society, and “other science bodies” have been “hijacked by extremists.”
Mr. Harris claims these organization a part of a cult with a “anti-human, anti-environment agenda” who “appear to suffer emotional and psychological problems which they seem to deal with by attempting to make others miserable.” (Source “Science’s Untold Scandal: The Lockstep March of Professional Societies to Promote the Climate Change Scare”
By Tom Harris and Jay Lehr, May 24, 2019, PJ Media)
Insulting the people you disagree with rather than addressing their actual arguments is fallacious.

Rich Kozlovich
Reply to  Dave James
4 years ago

Again, you fail in clarity because you fail in definition and logic. I don’t call everyone I disagree will irrational, misanthropic and morally defective. I call those who’ve pushed policies that bring dystopia to humanity irrational, misanthropic and morally defective. That’s not a personal attack, it’s a definition of who and what they are according to their practices, policies and the outcome of those practices and policies.
If someone rapes a woman it’s not a personal attack to call them a rapist, it’s a fact. If someone kills unborn babies for a living it’s not a personal attack to call them an abortionist, it’s a fact. If someone robs and murders someone it’s not a personal attack to call them thieves and murders, it’s a fact. If a philosophy promotes dystopic policies while claiming it’s for the children, it’s not a personal attack to call them irrational, misanthropic and morally defective, it’s a fact.
Truth is the sublime convergence of history and reality, and truth it’s a personal attack. It’s just the truth.

Rich Kozlovich
Reply to  Rich Kozlovich
4 years ago

Correction. Truth is the sublime convergence of history and reality, and truth ISN’T a personal attack, it’s just the truth. RK

Rich Kozlovich
Reply to  Rich Kozlovich
4 years ago

Correction. Truth is the sublime convergence of history and reality, and truth ISN’T a personal attack, it’s jus tthe truth. RK

Dave James
Dave James
Reply to  Rich Kozlovich
4 years ago

You confuse insults with the truth. You one-up Mr. Tom Harris’ personal attacks on professional and scientific organizations by comparing The Sierra Club, The Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, etc… to a rapists and “abortionists” based your unsupported assertion that they promote “…dystopic policies while claiming it’s for the children…”
Accepting the clear and convincing evidence of human-caused climate change is a sound policy for conservation and environmental organization to support. The risks and impacts of human-caused climate change to America are documented in the 4th National Climate Assessment, Volume II including links to the supporting evidence in papers published in respected scientific journals.
Hyperbolic statements and insults are not sign of a strong or well-considered post.

Tom Harris
Reply to  Dave James
4 years ago

This Disqus profile – https://disqus.com/by/disqus_JzQ88MTX2I/following/ – shows that since March 31, 2016, Mr. James has made 3,949 comments. Here is a sample of some of his many, many posts apparently trying to discredit my writings in online article comment sections: https://www.google.ca/search?site=&source=hp&q=%22Tom+Harris%22+%22Dave+James%22&gws_rd=cr&ei=nyGDWefuDavcjwSb-oK4DA . I already explained to Mr. James that many of his points are either wrong or misleading . I will not waste any more time explaining this to him, unless other people bring up the same or similar questions.

Dave James
Dave James
Reply to  Tom Harris
4 years ago

Mr. Tom Harris is mistaken. It’s not my words which impact his and Dr. Jay Lehr’s credibility. It’s their words that matter. Mr. Harris vaguely asserts he has answered my criticisms of the content of his opinion piece somewhere else at some other time. He hasn’t.
Dr. Lehr and Mr. Harris are not fans of open and honest debate. Mr. Harris and Dr. Lehr praised Agriculture Secretary, Sonny Perdue for the government refusing publicize dozens of government-funded studies that carry warnings about the effects of climate change (Source “Agriculture Secretary Perdue Right to Put the Lid on Alarmist Announcements” By Dr. Jay Lehr & Tom Harris, July 30th, 2019, America Out Loud)
Mr. Harris refused to discuss his opinion piece because he knows a polite and respectful debate cannot help his agenda.

Dave James
Dave James
4 years ago

In an subsequent version of this letter, Dr. Lehr asserts that “the international banking community is a major part of the green money machine.” (Source “The Climate change money machine” by Dr. Jay Lehr, Nov 22nd, 2019, CFACT) Promoting conspiracy theories about international bankers has a long, dark and disturbing history.
Dr. Lehr’s source is a F. William Engdahl. Mr. Engdahl is a contributor to the conspiracy website Centre for Research on Globalization, the Russian website New Eastern Outlook, and virulently anti-Semitic website Veterans Today. He has been described by James Kirchick in Time magazine as being a “crank ‘historian’.”
(In that version of the letter, Mr. Harris is not a co-author.)

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