Category: News

Greens at Woodford came together yesterday in a climax of hilarity at the Great Green Debate. Proceedings commenced with the prolific, clever and hilarious Ben Law listing the horrors of Abbot’s first 100 days In government. In a wry aside, “you have to admire their efficiency”. Professor Ian Lowe followed with a rousing douse of realism culminating in a passionate song about climate change (to the tune of Waltzing Matilda). The surprises continued. Comedian Rod Quantock broke every rule in the debating rule book by changing sides mid-debate, pregnant ex-politician, Kate Jones, settled for breaking one of the fundamental rules by turning really personal and nasty, all to the full throated laughter of around 1200 patrons.

Given that the topic of the debate was that every cloud has a silver lining, there was plenty of material  in the  current political environments to draw on. West End identity and the longest serving environmental lawyer in the EDO, Jo Bragg valiantly attempted to find the silver lining in the defunding of the organisation in which she has spent most of her professional life.

The debate followed neatly from a stirring bout of activism at the Blue King Brown concert where fists were raised in unison over the plight of the West Papua subjects of a murderous Indonesia Sian regime. Other patrons had prepared themselves a the more theoretical Green Tent where Get Up guru, Simon Sheik, reflected on activism vs politics.
The confluence of entertainment and politics left everyone in no doubt that Woodford itself is the inspiring proof that a better life is possible. The opportunity for the Tribe to gather well out of the influence of the Murdoch Press and everything it represents and have a good belly laugh at our own expense is invaluable.
The natural crossover between West End and Woodford is evident in the number of locals on the ground. Expect further postings.

This page has been posted here because the original has been hacked – http://phys.org/news/2013-12-koch-brothers-reveals-funders-climate.html

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Dr. Robert J. Brulle is a professor of sociology and environmental science at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Credit: CASBS

A new study conducted by Drexel University’s environmental sociologist Robert J. Brulle, PhD, exposes the organizational underpinnings and funding behind the powerful climate change countermovement. This study marks the first peer-reviewed, comprehensive analysis ever conducted of the sources of funding that maintain the denial effort.

Through an analysis of the financial structure of the organizations that constitute the core of the countermovement and their sources of monetary support, Brulle found that, while the largest and most consistent funders behind the countermovement are a number of well-known conservative foundations, the majority of donations are “dark money,” or concealed funding.

The data also indicates that Koch Industries and ExxonMobil, two of the largest supporters of climate science denial, have recently pulled back from publicly funding countermovement organizations. Coinciding with the decline in traceable funding, the amount of funding given to countermovement organizations through third party pass-through foundations like Donors Trust and Donors Capital, whose funders cannot be traced, has risen dramatically.

Brulle, a professor of sociology and environmental science in Drexel’s College of Arts and Sciences, conducted the study during a year-long fellowship at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. The study was published today in Climatic Change, one of the top 10 climate science journals in the world.

The climate change countermovement is a well-funded and organized effort to undermine public faith in climate science and block action by the U.S. government to regulate emissions. This countermovement involves a large number of organizations, including conservative think tanks, advocacy groups, trade associations and conservative foundations, with strong links to sympathetic media outlets and conservative politicians.

“The climate change countermovement has had a real political and ecological impact on the failure of the world to act on the issue of global warming,” said Brulle. “Like a play on Broadway, the countermovement has stars in the spotlight – often prominent contrarian scientists or conservative politicians – but behind the stars is an organizational structure of directors, script writers and producers, in the form of conservative foundations. If you want to understand what’s driving this movement, you have to look at what’s going on behind the scenes.”

To uncover how the countermovement was built and maintained, Brulle developed a listing of 118 important climate denial organizations in the U.S. He then coded data on philanthropic funding for each organization, combining information from the Foundation Center with financial data submitted by organizations to the Internal Revenue Service. The final sample for analysis consisted of 140 foundations making 5,299 grants totaling $558 million to 91 organizations from 2003 to 2010.

Key findings include:

• Conservative foundations have bank-rolled denial. The largest and most consistent funders of organizations orchestrating climate change denial are a number of well-known conservative foundations, such as the Searle Freedom Trust, the John William Pope Foundation, the Howard Charitable Foundation and the Sarah Scaife Foundation. These foundations promote ultra-free-market ideas in many realms.
• Koch and ExxonMobil have recently pulled back from publicly visible funding. From 2003 to 2007, the Koch Affiliated Foundations and the ExxonMobil Foundation were heavily involved in funding climate-change denial organizations. But since 2008, they are no longer making publicly traceable contributions.
• Funding has shifted to pass through untraceable sources. Coinciding with the decline in traceable funding, the amount of funding given to denial organizations by the Donors Trust has risen dramatically. Donors Trust is a donor-directed foundation whose funders cannot be traced. This one foundation now provides about 25% of all traceable foundation funding used by organizations engaged in promoting systematic denial of climate change.
• Most funding for denial efforts is untraceable. Despite extensive data compilation and analyses, only a fraction of the hundreds of millions in contributions to climate change denying organizations can be specifically accounted for from public records. Approximately 75% of the income of these organizations comes from unidentifiable sources.

“The real issue here is one of democracy. Without a free flow of accurate information, democratic politics and government accountability become impossible,” said Brulle. “Money amplifies certain voices above others and, in effect, gives them a megaphone in the public square. Powerful funders are supporting the campaign to deny scientific findings about global warming and raise public doubts about the roots and remedies of this massive global threat. At the very least, American voters deserve to know who is behind these efforts.”

This study is part one of a three-part project by Brulle to examine the climate movement in the U.S. at the national level. The next step in the project is to examine the environmental movement or the climate change movement. Brulle will then compare the whole funding flow to the entire range of organizations on both sides of the debate.

Following candidates around my electorate has proven a hit and miss affair at the same time as everyone’s getting ready for Christmas.

Aware that she would be rallying the troops last weekend, I kept missing Terri Butler, but it was not hard to spot her supporters in their red t-shirts, emblazoned with ‘Labor and Local’.

The slogan might be an indicator of how Butler is pitching her campaign, although I suspect it was more an opportunity to familiarise the electorate with her image rather than with her policy positions.

Some supporters were happy to pose, others were not so keen, but, as you would expect, all were optimistic about their new candidate and her chances of winning.

Bill Glasson and his LNP supporters, who have been very active over the past couple of weekends, must have decided to take a break so close to Christmas, since there was no sign of them on the streets at all.

Geoff Ebbs put out a late call to his Greens supporters to join him on Sunday morning at the Boggo Road Ecosciences Centre in Dutton Park. Ebbs had chosen the Ecosciences Centre, he said, to protest the Abbott Government’s cuts to science and education funding.

Being an eager citizen journalist, I turned up early, but there was not a Green t-shirt to be seen!

He was planning similar stops later on the day at Griffith University and the ABC, both based in the electorate on Brisbane’s South Bank, so hopefully he got a better turnout for those events.

Engagement with the electorate via social media can be fraught with danger for candidates, as I think Glasson may have learned recently.

Glasson is not a user of Twitter, but he does have a very active Facebook page. In a curious move last week, he invited his Facebook followers to comment on Treasurer Hockey’s controversial and polarising Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook statement, and was later compelled to post: “Good to see some hearty debate – please remember to always be respectful and never resort to personal attacks. Offending users will be banned.”

It’s hard to know whether the comments still listed on his site are a mere selection of what had been provided. While freedom of speech is championed by the Coalition, apparently there is a need to impose limits, even for them.

It seems that Butler, Ebbs and Glasson are still in the process of working out how they will tackle this campaign.

Labor and the Greens are already focussing on what many consider has been a poor start for Tony Abbott and his new government. They are taking aim at the impacts of the Government’s funding decisions on education and other services.

In the coming weeks, Bill Glasson will have to assess how much traction these issues have gained with local voters, and decide whether to align himself with, or distance himself from, his Federal leader. It will be revealing to see whether Tony Abbott will be invited up north to support his candidate in the coming month.

At this stage there is no talk of a candidates’ forum, as occurred on a limited basis in September.

As for the other parties, the Katter Australia Party remains silent on whether it will field a candidate.

Stable Population, which has lodged an application with the Australian Electoral Commission to change its name to the “Sustainable Population Party”, put out a call to its Queensland supporters to suggest potential high profile candidates for the Griffith by-election. They admit, however, that time not on their side.

There’s not much use in shaking our pressies in Griffith – it’s too early to tell exactly what’s inside.

– See more at: http://nofibs.com.au/2013/12/23/shaking-pressies-griffith-election-christmas-wrap-griffithelects/#sthash.U96UPKLu.dpuf

Peter Nash of New Farm is sitting in a remand cell at the Brisbane Watchhouse, awaiting an extradition hearing which could see him being flown under police escort to the US where he’s facing some very serious charges, indeed.

Nash was arrested by the Australian Federal Police in his New Farm apartment on Friday. He appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court the same day and was remanded in custody. His next court hearing is set down for 19^th February.

Peter Nash, 40, has been indicted in the US for his alleged involvement with the Silk Road website, which claimed to offer a cloak of encrypted anonymity to buyers and sellers who did not wish to have their identities known, taking a commission for its services.

From reports on US news sites, the FBI now has access to some of the conversations on the site.

Peter Nash has been indicted “for conspiracy to traffic narcotics, conspiracy to commit computer hacking and conspiracy to commit money laundering.”

Nash is listed in the indictment as the website’s primary moderator and was allegedly paid between $US50,000 and $US75,000 a year.

If found guilty, he will face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Last weekend, prior to the preselection of the ALP and Greens candidates I wrote “Glasson’s gladiators already waving inanely from behind their bulging bags of helium across the electorate, the ALP is keen to get out there and be seen.”

At the time, the colour to be worn by the ALP was not clear. Rudd had favoured white with our RUDDY this and that in red ink, local member Jackie Trad favours Green in most of her materials.

Now that all parties are preselected and out and about, it is with some relief that I can report the ALP has selected red to represent its left wing, grass roots selection, providing the standard and meaningful choice of red, blue and green for voters who find team colours easier to deal with than policy positions.

With a left leaning Labor light a small l liberal and an environmental Green, we can expect the policy positions to be equally clear cut. Whether or not the mainstream media will see fit to report it that way is another matter.

Hopefully it gives the people of Griffith the opportunity to get out and exercise their democratic muscle in a meaningful manner.

We here at Westender certainly look forward to reporting on the shenanigans as they unfold.

A Xmas delivery scam is hurting many West End residents and business owners as well as transport companies who are not taking care with their delivery protocols.

At one of the spectrum, the scams involve a completely fake courier company pretending to have attempted to deliver non-existent items and then collecting fees via credit card over the phone to “complete” the non-delivery of the non-existent item.

At the other end, legitimate courier companies are simply dropping off cards instead of attempting to deliver items and then collecting fees to “complete” the delivery.

The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) has released a warning about the scams on its website The ABC has run with the story on National media.

Courier company Toll is being hurt by the scam because it uses notes (pictured) almost identical to the description of the scam notes. Customers are refusing to pay for delivery of items that Toll drivers say they are struggling to deliver at the busiest time of the year.

At least one Westender reader says the company has brought it on itself through sloppy attempts to deliver parcels. “I was at home all morning, and received a note in the mail box claiming they had been unable to deliver it,” he wrote.

The reader said that the waiting time on the customer care number was so long he could not afford to hold. “The note is unaddressed and so I am unaware if it is for me, my flatmate, possibly a neighbour or is, in fact, an example of the scam.”

Westender is keen to hear from other readers who have had a similar experience. Uae the comment feature below to tell us your story.