Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 1.3: Indigenous Peoples, Mining and Climate Change
79
bodies, including the former Working Group on Indigenous
Populations, have clearly acknowledged and supported the
arguments of island states. In practice, however, major industrial
states continue with policies and practice that may see
some of those island states inundated and their indigenous
populations become permanent refugees.
Clean Coal or Dirty Politics?
Some pro-coal bodies, particularly in the USA, have sought
to inhibit the imposition of measures to slow global warming. 38
While major companies may pay lip service to the aspirations
to prevent global warming and reduce carbon dioxide emissions,
practice reveals a different reality. In 2009 for example a
lobby group in the USA, Bonner and Associates, was found to
have forged a series of letters to representatives in Congress,
which claimed to be from different people and some well
known NGOs. They even claimed to represent the National
Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, which
is “the nation’s oldest, largest and most widely-recognized
grassroots-based civil rights organization,” 39 as well as other
well-known civil rights organizations.
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE)
is a public relations juggernaut funded by electric utilities,
mining corporations, and other coal interests to derail mandatory
limits on global warming pollution. 40 It subsequently
“acknowledged” paying for Bonner’s “outreach.” ACCCE was
the top lobbyist on climate change and clean energy in 2008,
spending $10.5 million on influential lobbyists such as the
Podesta Group and Guinn Gillespie. ACCCE has been praised
for the “sophistication” of its public message of supporting
mandatory emissions limits in theory, while virulently opposing
the passage of any actual legislation.
ACCCE has a $20 million budget for online campaigns for
“shaping public attitudes” in favor of coal alone. It has run
tens of millions of dollars of television and radio adverts, has
handed out “clean coal” T-shirts and baseball caps, and even
promoted “Frosty the Coalman” carols!