[IPSM] Activists Protest Natural Resources Defense Council for Collaborating With Polluters

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Activists Protest Natural Resources Defense Council for Collaborating 
With Polluters

By Joseph Huff-Hannon , Huffington Post. Posted December 1, 2009.

The protestors say that the environmental advocacy group has aligned 
itself with corporate interests whose goals for reducing emissions are 
far too limited.

November 30, 2009 - A phalanx of NYPD officers on foot and aboard 
several police vans surrounded the marchers as they walked up Sixth 
Avenue in the cold rain on Monday, at times pushing people off of the 
street and back on to the sidewalk. A group of roughly 30 climate 
activists, joined by award-winning NASA scientist and outspoken climate 
change expert, James Hansen, chanted as they went: "The earth, the 
earth, the earth is on fire. We don't need no cap and trade, the market 
is a liar."

Was it a satellite Goldman Sachs trading office that brought the greens 
out to the barricades? The Manhattan offices of a large and influential 
oil or gas company? The downtown penthouse of a Big Coal mogul? Nope. 
The soggy climate activists were camped out in front of the headquarters 
of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the largest 
environmental advocacy groups in the country.

The activists accuse the NRDC of collaborating with polluters through 
its involvement with the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, or U.S. CAP, 
which is billed on its website as "an alliance of major businesses and 
leading climate and environmental groups that have come together to call 
on the federal government to enact legislation requiring significant 
reductions of greenhouse gas emissions." Members of the group include 
such corporate heavyweights as The Dow Chemical Company, Ford Motor 
Company, General Motors, General Electric, Shell, Alcoa, BP America and 
Caterpillar. Other environmental groups involved in the group include 
Environmental Defense, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and World 
Resources Institute.

U.S. CAP played a pivotal lobbying role in drafting the massive 
Waxman-Markey climate bill in the House which, while calling for modest 
emission reductions, will also create an exponentially lucrative carbon 
trading market. And many of the largest financial institutions that have 
been deemed "too big to fail" (Goldman Sachs, Bank of America) are 
expected to cash in on what some activists have begun to call a new 
system of "climate profiteering."

Outside of the nondescript office building on 20th Street where the 
crowd eventually assembled, the NYPD set up a row of metal barricades 
around the entrance in an effort to keep the protesters away from the 
front entrance. For every three members of the crowd, there was roughly 
one police officer, with a total of three police vans and three small 
interceptor vehicles parked in a line out front.

"You have to be a little flattered by that," said Monica Hunken, a 
protest organizer who spoke to the crowd on a soapbox on the sidewalk. 
"They even brought out their pen, it's pretty heavy-handed." That 
contrasted with the police activity at the launch point for the march -- 
the Bank of America branch on 17th St and 5th Avenue -- where the group 
spoke out about the bank's investments in mountaintop removal and oil 
and gas prospecting. No such safety precautions were in evidence at that 
site.

The demonstration in Manhattan was one of over a dozen organized by the 
Mobilization for Climate Justice and organizers of BeyondTalk.net, a 
website that rallies individuals to commit civil disobedience in the 
name of climate change action. At least one member of the New York 
contingent did just that, when he attempted to lock himself to the front 
doors of the building.

"Stopping coal starts with the NRDC," yelled out Robert Jereski, 
co-founder of New York Climate Action Group, as he was handcuffed and 
hustled in to a paddy wagon parked up the street. Jereski was eventually 
charged with "obstruction of governmental administration" and disorderly 
conduct.

"I stand here at the NRDC building with a heavy heart. I never thought 
that in 2009 I'd be standing here decrying their stance on climate," 
said Charles Komanoff, co-director of the Carbon Tax Center. "What NRDC 
is championing as a big step forward is actually a baby step forward. 
NRDC is on the wrong side, cutting deals with their pals in business and 
finance."

"Come back NRDC," yelled out a voice in the crowd. Overall the lament 
was in line with much of the sentiment of the demonstration, as many 
participants described their action as an expression of tough love 
rather than outright opposition. They say that the NRDC has aligned 
itself with a broader coalition of corporate interests whose goals and 
benchmarks for reducing carbon emissions are drastically below what is 
necessary according to prevailing climate science.

"We appreciate the work that the protesters are doing," said Jenny 
Powers, National Media Director for NRDC, in response. "Overall I think 
we're very supportive of any opportunity to bring more attention to this 
issue. We definitely view it as all of us as being united in the same 
goal. We're on the same track, we just deploy different strategies."

Although nobody from NRDC stepped outside to discuss the issues with 
those at the barricades, Powers did say that Dr. Hansen and Mr. Komanoff 
were invited via email to a meeting with NRDC Executive Director Peter 
Lehner.

After the demonstration petered out, I spoke with NASA climate scientist 
Dr. James Hansen about the meager turnout and the prospects for major 
policy change going forward.

Hansen, when not publishing and speaking at academic Fora, is no 
stranger to disobedient protests. This June he was arrested with 30 
others during a protest against mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia.

"It's an indication of where we are, it's a really screwy situation," 
said Hansen, wearing a white Gilligan-style hat to ward off the rain. 
"But despite the small numbers, it's becoming more widely recognized 
that cap and trade just won't work. Country by country doesn't work. The 
president should ask the national academy of Scientists to give him a 
report. Instead he's getting a 2000 page bill written largely by 
polluters. We have governments acknowledge that we have a planet in 
peril, but they're not doing anything."

As for the unusual tableau of a group of environmental activists 
demonstrating outside the offices of an organization peopled by 
environmental activists, Rocco Ferrer, had an interesting take on the 
dynamic. "It's like NRDC used to be Lou Reed," said Ferrer, a young 
environmental activist and fashion consultant who participated in the 
demonstration. "But now they're more like the Jonas Brothers."