Greenwash Political Action Party and Urban Grassroots Movement for the Green Party

Thursday, May 04, 2006

WWF and the Rio Tinto connection

It is clearly absurd for WWF - a supposedly world leading environment group – to think that it can get away with the half pregnant position that opposes nuclear power but supports uranium mining.

But the pro-uranium mine posturing from WWF (formerly World Wildlife Fund for Nature) on the front page of The Australian today was no surprise to many in the environment movement.
WWF are well known for their pro-Howard government manoeuvring.

This was most infamously demonstrated by their support for the notorious Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) legislation which was passed with a deal with the Democrats (brokered by WWF), in the wake of the GST legislation.

The EPBC legislation scrapped Commonwealth environmental powers (essentially ceding them back to the states); exempted logging from the provisions of the Act and included no capacity to control greenhouse gases.

Half a decade later, not much has changed and WWF continues to do the Government’s bidding.
The Australian Institute released a report in 2004 showing how much funding WWF has received from the Howard Government over time and how it had influenced the WWF pro-Howard positions.

But what hasn’t been well understood, is that it is not just Government money that might be influencing WWF positions.

Big business mining dollars have also been flowing in and some WWF activities are actually being funded by uranium miners.

One particular 5 year deal - Frogs! A conservation partnership with Rio Tinto – was worth at least $1.2 million (according to Bob Burton writing in Mining Monitor – page 9).

So WWF has also got into bed with Australia’s big uranium exporter Rio Tinto. And, surprise, now it is softening its stance on uranium.

Also galling today were the comments from Paul Gilding who described the uranium/nuclear discussion as “highly ideological, almost religious, debate”. While The Australian described Gilding as an environmental consultant, the kind of language he used is just the same as proffered by Andrew Bolt to deride conservationists.

No matter that wanting to save the planet – our home – is a matter of manifest rationality, not religion.

posted by Ben Oquist # 12:17 PM 4 comments