This Changes Everything

by Naomi Klein

  46. Personal interview with Alexis Tsipras, May 23, 2013.

  47. Patricia Molina, “The ‘Amazon Without Oil’ Campaign: Oil Activity in Mosetén Territory,” in Temper et al., “Towards a Post-Oil Civilization,” p. 75.

  48. William T. Hornaday, Wild Life Conservation in Theory and Practice (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1914), v–vi.

  49. “Who Was John Muir?” Sierra Club, http://www.sierraclub.org; John Muir, The Yosemite (New York: Century, 1912), 261–62.

  50. Bradford Torrey, ed., The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Journal, September 16, 1851–April 30, 1852 (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1906), 165; Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1949), 171; FOOTNOTE: Henry David Thoreau, Walden (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1910), 393–94.

  51. Leopold, A Sand Counrty Almanac, 171; Jay N. Darling to Aldo Leopold, November 20, 1935, Aldo Leopold Archives, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.

  52. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), 57, 68, 297.

  53. Ibid., 297.

  54. Christian Parenti, “ ‘The Limits to Growth’: A Book That Launched a Movement,” The Nation, December 5, 2012.

  PART II: MAGICAL THINKING

  1. William Barnes and Nils Gilman, “Green Social Democracy or Barbarism: Climate Change and the End of High Modernism,” in The Deepening Crisis: Governance Challenges After Neoliberalism, ed. Craig Calhoun and Georgi Derluguian (New York: New York University Press, 2011), 50.

  2. Christine MacDonald, Green, Inc.: An Environmental Insider Reveals How a Good Cause Has Gone Bad (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2008), 236.

  CHAPTER 6: FRUITS, NOT ROOTS

  1. Barry Commoner, “A Reporter at Large: The Environment,” New Yorker, June 15, 1987.

  2. Eric Pooley, The Climate War (New York: Hyperion, 2010), 351–52.

  3. Valgene W. Lehmann, “Attwater’s Prairie Chicken—Its Life History and Management,” North American Fauna 57, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, 1941, pp. 6–7; “Attwater’s Prairie-Chicken Recovery Plan,” Second Revision, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2010, p. 5.

  4. “Texas Milestones,” The Nature Conservancy, http://www.nature.org.

  5. Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway, “How a Bid to Save a Species Came to Grief,” Washington Post, May 5, 2003; “Texas City Prairie Preserve,” Nature Conservancy, http://www.nature.org, version saved by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine on February 8, 2013, http://web.archive.org.

  6. Richard C. Haut et al., “Living in Harmony—Gas Production and the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken,” prepared for presentation at the Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Florence, Italy, September 19–22, 2010, pp. 5, 10; Oil and Gas Lease, Nature Conservancy of Texas, Inc. to Galveston Bay Resources, Inc., March 11, 1999, South 1,057 Acres; Stephens and Ottaway, “How a Bid to Save a Species Came to Grief”; personal interview with Aaron Tjelmeland, April 15, 2013.

  7. Janet Wilson, “Wildlife Shares Nest with Profit,” Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2002; Stephens and Ottaway, “How a Bid to Save a Species Came to Grief.”

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid.

  11. “Nature Conservancy Changes,” Living on Earth, Public Radio International, June 20, 2003.

  12. Personal email communications with Vanessa Martin, associate director of marketing and communications, Texas chapter, The Nature Conservancy, May 16 and 21 and June 24, 2013.

  13. Outside of the original 1999 well and its replacement well drilled on the same pad in 2007, an additional two wells were drilled under Nature Conservancy leases, both in 2001: a gas well that was plugged and abandoned in 2004, and another well that turned out to be a dry hole. Haut et al., “Living in Harmony,” p. 5; personal email communications with Vanessa Martin, April 24 and May 16, 2013.

  14. Oil and Gas Lease, Nature Conservancy of Texas, Inc. to Galveston Bay Resources, Inc., pp. 3–5; Martin email communications, May 21 and June 24, 2013; “Attwater’s Prairie Chicken Background,” The Nature Conservancy, provided on April 24, 2013, p. 3; personal interview with James Petterson, July 31, 2014.

  15. NOVEMBER 2012: Personal email communication with Mike Morrow, wildlife biologist, Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, April 17, 2013; “NONE THAT WE KNOW ABOUT”: Tjelmeland interview, April 15, 2013; “BIGGEST” AND THIRTY-FIVE COUNTRIES: D.T. Max, “Green is Good,” The New Yorker, May 12, 2014; MEMBERS: “About Us: Learn More About the Nature Conservancy,” Nature Conservancy, http://www.nature.org; ASSETS: “Consolidated Financial Statements,” Nature Conservancy, June 30, 2013, p. 3; MILLIONS: Stephens and Ottaway, “How a Bid to Save a Species Came to Grief”; WEBSITE: “Texas City Prairie Preserve,” Nature Conservancy, http://www.nature.org.

  16. DONATIONS FROM SHELL AND BP TO CF, CI, AND TNC, AND FROM AEP TO CF: Christine MacDonald, Green, Inc.: An Environmental Insider Reveals How a Good Cause Has Gone Bad (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2008), 25; SUPPORT FROM AEP TO TNC: Ibid., 139; WWF AND SHELL: Alexis Schwarzenbach, Saving the World’s Wildlife: WWF—The First 50 Years (London: Profile, 2011), 145–48, 271; “The Gamba Complex—Our Solutions,” World Wildlife Fund Global, http://wwf.panda.org; WRI AND SHELL FOUNDATION: “WRI’s Strategic Relationships,” World Resources Institute, http://www.wri.org; CI PARTNERHSIPS: “Corporate Partners,” Conservation International, http://www.conservation.org; $2 MILLION: Joe Stephens, “Nature Conservancy Faces Potential Backlash from Ties with BP,” Washington Post, May 24, 2010; FOOTNOTE: “Undercover with Conservation International” (video), Don’t Panic, May 8, 2011; Tom Zeller Jr., “Conservation International Duped by Militant Greenwash Pitch,” Huffington Post, May 17, 2011; Peter Seligmann, “Partnerships for the Planet: Why We Must Engage Corporations,” Huffington Post, May 19, 2011.

  17. John F. Smith Jr., a former CEO and later chairman of General Motors, and E. Linn Draper Jr., formerly the CEO and chairman of American Electric Power, both served on The Nature Conservancy’s board of directors: “Past Directors of The Nature Conservancy,” Nature Conservancy, http://www.nature.org; David B. Ottaway and Joe Stephens, “Nonprofit Land Bank Amasses Billions,” Washington Post, May 4, 2003. BUSINESS COUNCIL: “Working with Companies: Business Council,” Nature Conservancy, http://www.nature.org; BOARD OF DIRECTORS: “About Us: Board of Directors,” Nature Conservancy, http://www.nature.org.

  18. “Consolidated Financial Statements,” Nature Conservancy, June 30, 2012, pp. 20-21; “Consolidated Financial Statements,” Nature Conservancy, June 30, 2013, p. 21; Naomi Klein, “Time for Big Green to Go Fossil Free,” The Nation, May 1, 2013; FOOTNOTE: Mark Tercek email communication to senior managers, August 19, 2013.

  19. Shell has agreed to pay out $15.5 million to settle a case involving such human rights abuse claims, although it continues to deny wrongdoing, as does Chevron: Jad Mouawad, “Shell to Pay $15.5 Million to Settle Nigerian Case,” New York Times, June 8, 2009; Michelle Kinman and Antonia Juhasz, ed., “The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report,” True Cost of Chevron network, May 2011, p. 46; “Bowoto v. Chevron,” EarthRights International, http://www.earthrights.org. SIERRA CLUB: Bryan Walsh, “How the Sierra Club Took Millions from the Natural Gas Industry—and Why They Stopped,” Time, February 2, 2012; Michael Brune, “The Sierra Club and Natural Gas,” Sierra Club, February 2, 2012; personal email communication with Bob Sipchen, communications director, Sierra Club, April 21, 2014.

  20. 2012 Form 990, Attachment 8, Ford Foundation, pp. 44, 48, 53.

  21. In the lead-up to congressional battles over carbon trading in the U.S., philanthropists including the ClimateWorks Foundation distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to a number of environmental groups after raising money from sources such as the Hewlett Foundation and the Packard Foundation. Reportedly, this helped to create an atmosphere of pressure to focus on or to avoid distracting from the cap-and-trade fight: Petra Bartosiewicz and Marissa Miley, “The Too Polite
Revolution: Why the Recent Campaign to Pass Comprehensive Climate Legislation in the United States Failed,” paper presented at symposium on the Politics of America’s Fight Against Global Warming, Harvard University, February 2013, p. 30; personal interview with Jigar Shah, September 9, 2013. DESIGN TO WIN: “Design to Win: Philanthropy’s Role in the Fight Against Global Warming,” California Environmental Associates, August 2007, pp. 14–18, 24, 42.

  22. Robert Brulle, “Environmentalisms in the United States,” in Environmental Movements Around the World, Vol. 1, ed. Timothy Doyle and Sherilyn MacGregor (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2013), 174.

  23. Global Carbon Project emissions data, 2013 Budget v2.4 (July 2014), available at http://cdiac.ornl.gov; “Caring for Climate Hosts Inaugural Business Forum to Co-Create Climate Change Solutions,” United Nations Global Compact, press release, November 19, 2013; Rachel Tansey, “The COP19 Guide to Corporate Lobbying: Climate Crooks and the Polish Government’s Partners in Crime,” Corporate Europe Observatory and Transnational Institute, October 2013.

  24. “Partners for COP19,” United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP19/CMP9 Warsaw 2013, Media Centre, press release, September 17, 2013; “Who We Are,” PGE Group, Investor Relations, http://www.gkpge.pl/en; “International Coal & Climate Summit 2013,” World Coal Association, http://www.worldcoal.org; Adam Vaughan and John Vidal, “UN Climate Chief Says Coal Can Be Part of Global Warming Solution,” Guardian, November 18, 2013; David Jolly, “Top U.N. Official Warns of Coal Risks,” New York Times, November 18, 2013.

  25. Pooley, The Climate War, 59; “25 Years After DDT Ban, Bald Eagles, Osprey Numbers Soar,” Environmental Defense Fund, press release, June 13, 1997.

  26. Ramachandra Guha and Joan Martínez Alier, Varieties of Environmentalism (Abingdon, Oxon: Earthscan, 2006), 3–21; Joan Martínez Alier, The Environmentalism of the Poor: A Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2002).

  27. Mark Dowie, Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996), 33, 39.

  28. Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power (Cambridge, MA: PublicAffairs, 2003), 177–78; “Watt Says Foes Want Centralization of Power,” Associated Press, January 21, 1983.

  29. Riley E. Dunlap et al., “Politics and Environment in America: Partisan and Ideological Cleavages in Public Support for Environmentalism,” Environmental Politics 10 (2001): 31; “Endangered Earth, Planet of the Year,” Time, January 2, 1989; FOOTNOTE: Dunlap et al., “Politics and Environment in America,” 31.

  30. “Principles of Environmental Justice,” First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, October 1991, http://www.ejnet.org.

  31. Gus Speth, “American Environmentalism at the Crossroads,” speech, Climate Ethics and Climate Equity series, Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics, University of Oregon, April 5, 2011.

  32. “Corporations,” Conservation Fund, http://www.conservationfund.org; “History,” Conservation International, http://www.conservation.org, version saved by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine on December 3, 2013, http:// web.archive.org.

  33. Ottaway and Stephens, “Nonprofit Land Bank Amasses Billions”; Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway, “Nonprofit Sells Scenic Acreage to Allies at a Loss,” Washington Post, May 6, 2003; Monte Burke, “Eco-Pragmatists; The Nature Conservancy Gets in Bed with Developers, Loggers and Oil Drillers,” Forbes, September 3, 2001.

  34. “Environmentalists Disrupt Financial Districts in NYC, San Francisco,” Associated Press, April 23, 1990; Donatella Lorch, “Protesters on the Environment Tie Up Wall Street,” New York Times, April 24, 1990; Martin Mittelstaedt, “Protesters to Tackle Wall Street,” Globe and Mail, April 23, 1990.

  35. Elliot Diringer, “Environmental Demonstrations Take Violent Turn,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 24, 1990; “Environmentalists Disrupt Financial Districts in NYC, San Francisco.”

  36. Pooley, The Climate War, 69.

  37. Fred Krupp, “New Environmentalism Factors in Economic Needs,” Wall Street Journal, November 20, 1986; “Partnerships: The Key to Lasting Solutions,” How We Work, Environmental Defense Fund, http://www.edf.org.

  38. Michael Kranish, “The Politics of Pollution,” Boston Globe Magazine, February 8, 1998; Pooley, The Climate War, 74–81; personal interview with Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, lawyers, Environmental Protection Agency, interviewed in their personal capacity, April 4, 2014.

  39. “Fred Krupp,” Our People, Environmental Defense Fund, http://www.edf.org; “Our Finances,” About Us, Environmental Defense Fund, http://www.edf.org; Pooley, The Climate War, 98; FOOTNOTE: Ken Wells, “Tree-Hitter Tercek Channels Goldman at Nature Conservancy,” Bloomberg, May 31, 2012.

  40. $65 MILLION: “2011 Grant Report,” Walton Family Foundation, http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org; “2011 Annual Report”, Environmental Defense Fund, p. 31, http://www.edf.org. DONATION POLICY: “Corporate Donation Policy,” How We Work, Environmental Defense Fund, http://www.edf.org; “WOULD UNDERMINE”: Eric Pooley, “Viewpoint: Naomi Klein’s Criticism of Environmental Groups Missed the Mark,” Climate Progress, September 11, 2013; Michelle Harvey, “Working Toward Sustainability with Walmart,” Environmental Defense Fund, September 18, 2013; FAMILY-CONTROLLED: 2012 Form 990, Attachment 14, Walton Family Foundation, https://www.guidestar.org; NO DIRECT DONATIONS: Stephanie Clifford, “Unexpected Ally Helps Wal-Mart Cut Waste,” New York Times, April 13, 2012; SAM RAWLINGS WALTON: “Our Board of Trustees,” About Us, Environmental Defense Fund, http://www .edf.org.

  41. Stacy Mitchell, “Walmart Heirs Quietly Fund Walmart’s Environmental Allies,” Grist, May 10, 2012; Stacy Mitchell, “Walmart’s Assault on the Climate,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance, November 2013.

  42. “2011 Grant Report,” Walton Family Foundation, http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org; “Walmart Announces Goal to Eliminate 20 Million Metric Tons of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Global Supply Chain,” Environmental Defense Fund, press release, February 25, 2010; Daniel Zwerdling and Margot Williams, “Is Sustainable-Labeled Seafood Really Sustainable?,” NPR, February 11, 2013; “Walmart Adds a New Facet to Its Fine Jewelry Lines: Traceability,” Walmart, July 15, 2008, http://news.walmart.com; Mitchell, “Walmart Heirs Quietly Fund Walmart’s Environmental Allies.”

  43. McIntosh, “Where Now ‘Hell and High Water’?”

  44. FOOTNOTE: “Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment and the Nature Conservancy Launch ‘The Lorax Speaks’ Environmental Action Campaign on Facebook,” Universal Pictures, press release, February 17, 2012; Raymund Flandez, “Nature Conservancy Faces Flap Over Fundraising Deal to Promote Swimsuit Issues,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, March 6, 2012; “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Inspired Swimwear, Surfboards and Prints on Gilt.com,” Inside Sports Illustrated, January 30, 2012.

  45. George Marshall, “Can This Really Save the Planet?” Guardian, September 12, 2007.

  46. Edward Roby, Untitled, UPI, June 11, 1981; Joseph Romm, “Why Natural Gas Is a Bridge to Nowhere,” Energy Collective, January 24, 2012; Martha M. Hamilton, “Natural Gas, Nuclear Backers See Opportunity in ‘Greenhouse’ Concern,” Washington Post, July 22, 1988.

  47. “Nation’s Environmental Community Offers ‘Sustainable Energy Blueprint’ to New Administration,” Blueprint Coalition, press release, November 18, 1992; statement of Patricio Silva, project attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council, Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, Committee on Energy and Commerce, United States House of Representatives, 107th Congress, February 28, 2001.

  48. “Golden Rules for a Golden Age of Gas,” World Energy Outlook Special Report, International Energy Agency, May 29, 2012, pp. 9, 15, http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org; Nidaa Bakhsh and Brian Swint, “Fracking Spreads Worldwide,” Bloomberg Businessweek, November 14, 2013.

  49. Anthony Ingraffea, “Gangplank to a Warm Future,” New York Times, July 28, 2013.

  50. “Climate Experts Call for Moratorium on UK
Shale Gas Extraction,” University of Manchester, press release, January 20, 2011; Sandra Steingraber, “A New Environmentalism for an Unfractured Future,” EcoWatch, June 6, 2014.

  51. Personal interview with Mark Z. Jacobson, April 7, 2014.

  52. “Companies We Work With: JPMorgan Chase & Co.,” Nature Conservancy, http://www.na ture.org; Marc Gunther, “Interview: Matthew Arnold on Steering Sustainability at JP Morgan,” Guardian, February 18, 2013; Ann Chambers Noble, “The Jonah Field and Pinedale Anticline: A Natural-Gas Success Story,” WyoHistory.org (Wyoming State Historical Society), http://www .wyohistory.org; Bryan Schutt, et al., “For Veteran Producing States, Hydraulic Fracturing Concerns Limited,” SNL Energy Gas Utility Week, July 11, 2011; “Working with Companies: BP and Development by Design,” Nature Conservancy, http://www.nature.org.

  53. “Strategic Partners,” Center for Sustainable Shale Development, www.sustainableshale.org; J. Mijin Cha, “Voluntary Standards Don’t Make Fracking Safe,” Huffington Post, March 22, 2013.

  54. “Big Green Fracking Machine,” Public Accountability Initiative, June 2013, p. 1; Joyce Gannon, “Heinz Endowments President’s Departure Leaves Leadership Void,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 14, 2014; Kevin Begos, “Heinz Endowments Shift on Environmental Grants,” Associated Press, August 4, 2013; personal email communication with Carmen Lee, communications officer, Heinz Endowments, June 25, 2014.

  55. “Environmental Defense Fund Announces Key Grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies,” Environmental Defense Fund, August 24, 2012; Peter Lattman, “What It Means to Manage the Mayor’s Money,” New York Times, October 15, 2010; “Company Overview of Willett Advisors LLC,” Capital Markets, Bloomberg Businessweek, http://investing.businessweek.com; personal email communication with Bloomberg Philanthropies representative, April 16, 2014.