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True Green Report

Destroying in style

by Heather Stockford

August 11, 2003

When it comes to getting people to dig into their pockets, lies and hype make for effective strategy.

From the makers of the Earth Liberation Front comes a new public relations group for environmental extremists, showing all the character and spunk of it’s parenting organization. Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is an underground coalition of cells (groups of anonymous people) who promote economic sabotage and property destruction by means of reaping revenge on those suspected of exploiting the natural environment.

The Web site warns that the members "could be anyone in your community," but it is known for sure that a Craig Rosebraugh is founder of the eco-terrorist group.

Rosebraugh is now taking a different stab at violent revolutionary action through his Arissa Media Group and invites the public to fight against "the worlds’ greatest terrorist, the U.S government." But before you grab the bombs, all you mysteriously anonymous supporters out there, make sure to pick up a cool new T-shirt from the group’s Web site. Yep, by slapping messages across your chest such as ‘Help Stop Terrorists, Join the Fight Against the U.S Government — Arissa’, and whipping on a hot pair of shades, you can finally get the recognition you deserve as an angry person destroying things with a cause.


NGO: What’s in a name

by Heather Stockford

It is suspected that many environmental NGO’s are just political groups sneaking around under the disguise of good ethics and earthly morals. Australia is currently looking at a proposed tax law that may tighten the chain on environmental groups designated as charities if they are too involved in advocating changes in government policies, Bob Burton, of the Inter Press Services, reports. The recently introduced Charities Bill contrasts to the current tax system by not allowing non profit environmental groups to receive income tax exemptions and tax deductions if they are towing the line of being ‘too involved’. This is only if the environmental group falls under the definition of a ‘charity’, and it wasn’t too long ago that the groups welcomed a proposal to broadening the definition ‘charity’ to include ‘the advancement of the natural environment’.

If the ‘charity’ definition is broadened, Jim Hoggett of the Institute of Public Affairs suggests that charities have to let the government in on what they spent their funds on which, "would exclude a number of what are…political action groups falling under environmental and ethical and other headings."

Now many groups, such as Greenpeace Australia and the Australian Conservation Foundation, may have to "continually look over their shoulder to see whether or not they breach the magic threshold of going too far in terms of trying to deal with the legislation policy" as told by Robert Fizgerald, a member of a charity inquiring committee, to ABC TV.

If this legislation catches on, environmental groups may soon see an end to their days of running free with our tax subsidies in hand and may have to pay for their own actions.


Learn a lesson, Washington!

by Heather Stockford

Jared Blumenfeld, director of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment, reports that San Francisco’s bold Environmental Code has been made a law, and the rest of North America can learn from this lead. San Francisco has acknowledged the past mistakes of industries and governments in their processes of environmental decision-making, and has embraced the lessons learned in their new law entitled the Precautionary Principle.

The Principle keeps the city on a healthy diet by ensuring elected officials balance rigorous scientific data with judgments of what is necessary, useful and fair before making impacting environmental decisions. The policy puts a new spin on risk management by vigorously analyzing and searching for the healthiest alternatives. Blumenfeld observes this is a contrast to the Bush administration’s anti-environmental policies, which historically have based environmental actions on "how much environmental harm will be allowed?"

San Francisco has observed that this kind of risk management leads to the loss of billions of dollars spent on dealing with the consequences of not taking precautionary action when it comes to the environment. Money spent on health care and health insurance, lost economic productivity, absenteeism, lost wages and cleanup could have been avoided.

‘Environmental democracy’ is the term embedded in the Precautionary Principle, embracing public participation in government actions and wisely acknowledging that the public is in direct line of fire of any consequences of environmental decisions.

In response to Bush’s fight against the right of Europe’s Unions to restrict imports of genetically modified food, Blumenfeld states the "the failure of the United States to adopt the Precautionary Principle is yet another way in which we are ostracizing ourselves from the rest of the planet."


EPA caught destroying files

by Heather Stockford

At the end of the Clinton administration it seems the Environmental Protection Agency decided to clean house and are now being held in contempt for destroying computer files that were sought after by Landmark Legal Foundation.

John Heilprin of The Associated Press reported that U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered "the EPA to preserve all documents that might be relevent to a Freedom of Information Act requested by Landmark for documents about the agency’s contact with outside groups" on Jan. 19, 2001. Apparently former EPA Chief Carol Browner claimed she didn’t get the memo and asked a technician to delete her files the day the order was issued. Heilprin reports that she only wanted to remove her son’s computer games so her computer was properly formatted for her successor in the Bush administration.

The EPA acknowledged its wrongdoings and disclosed that several EPA officials’ hard drives had been reformatted between February and March 2001, and the e-mail backup tapes for their work computers had been erased and reused between Jan. 19 and late April.

Lamberth was unimpressed with EPA’s "too-little-too-late" efforts to obey his order and also ordered the EPA to pay for Landmark Legal Foundation’s legal fees and costs. Landmark’s President Mark Levin stated, "This is a major victory for those who believe the EPA has an obligation to comply with the law".


NASCAR leaves Jesse Jackson in the dust

by Heather Stockford

Jesse Jackson no longer has NASCAR’s support as a sugar daddy for his non-profit Rainbow/PUSH Coalition since the racing organization cut off funding for the group this year. USA Today reported that NASCAR has revved up a total of $250 000 for the Rainbow/Push sports division since its involvement with the group in 2001. Many fans see the money as appeasement, a way to keep Jackson’s notorious discrimination attacks off NASCAR’s back for its lack of black racers. And it worked. Just last year at an annual conference hosted by Rainbow/PUSH, the racing organization was praised as one of 13 "platinum" sponsors for the group. Nowadays, as CNSNews reports, you can hear comments flying from Coalition members such as Bill Shack who believes that auto-racing organizations like NASCAR are "the last bastion of white supremacy." Shack goes on to conclude that racing organizations don’t reach out to minorities because they "don’t particularly…want you out there, no more than they want Tiger (golfer Tiger Woods) out there." Quite a bold statement to say about an organization that supports the Urban Youth Racing School, has a Diversity Summer Internship Program and provides scholarships to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions.