Sorry John, I've never heard of Vivian Krause.
Let me remind you of the assertion I was responding to.
[T]he Rockefeller family (through Standard Oil...err, Chevron) own most of those oil tankers and they call the shots. Where do you think all the money for these anti-pipeline environmental and political lobby groups comes from?
Salt'n'Peppa is saying that the Rockefellers directly created the anti-pipeline sentiment, and that the environmental and political lobby groups got no money from anywhere else.
Those moneys in the links you kindly provided are not under the control of the rich people who endowed the foundations; in fact it is rather common for those who endow foundations to get very pissed off when the board of directors follow the rules under which they were set up rather than just doing what the rich folks want. So you can't draw a line from the Rockefellers to the Canadian environmentalists.
I couldn't find anything in those links you provided to tell me what proportion of the funding for the anti-pipeline groups came directly from the Rockefellers, which was the original assertion for which I requested supporting materials. He implied the Rockefellers actually created the anti-pipeline sentiment. Do you agree with that? I give Canadians and environmentalists not to mention Canadian environmentalists, more credit for thinking for themselves.
I would also be interested in how much money comes from foundations to the anti-environmental groups like the Fraser Institute who support the pipelines. I don't have time to research it, but I bet the environmental groups in general are much much more grassroots in fund raising than the right wing think tanks who oppose them.
Arguing from motive is always problematic, because you can never verify another's motives; in fact most people have a shaky grasp of their own motivations. Even if there was a straight line from the Rockefellers to the anti-pipeline groups, I could make a good case, equally unverifiable, that they just might be doing it to assuage their guilt at all the environmental destruction for which they have been responsible. It's a standard ploy for rich folks who 'get religion', so to speak, once they start to reflect on their lives; Andrew Carnegie remains the exemplar.
Yes, some American foundations contributed some money under their control to some anti-pipeline groups, for reasons we cannot know. I will go along with that, but any stronger assertion remains fanciful.
LC |
