An award worth winning

Independent on Sunday:

A new environmental award will be launched tomorrow with some of the biggest corporations and lobbying outfits in the world in contention for the top prize. But the winner will have nothing to celebrate.

The inaugural Angry Mermaid award, inspired by Denmark's famous Little Mermaid statue, will go to the organisation "doing the most to sabotage effective action on climate change" in the run-up to climate change talks in Copenhagen next month.

Contenders include the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity for promoting "clean coal" and funding a letter-writing campaign in an attempt to weaken the US climate bill; the American petroleum industry for spending millions lobbying against climate legislation; and the European chemical lobby for attempting to undermine EU attempts to cut carbon emissions. The International Air Transport Association (Iata) is cited for promoting weak voluntary efforts to cut emissions, while the International Emissions Trading Association (Ieta) is listed because it promotes emissions trading and carbon offsetting as the solution to climate change. The biotech giant Monsanto is included for presenting GM crops as another climate-change solution, while the South African company Sasol is shortlisted due to its lobbying for carbon capture and storage to compensate for the conversion of coal into petrol. Shell is also in the running over its promotion of carbon capture while investing in environmentally destructive oil extraction from the Canadian tar sands.

Campaigners accuse big businesses of trying to limit any restrictions that could interfere with their pursuit of the bottom line. Paul de Clerk from Friends of the Earth International, one of the organisers of the award, said: "All the candidates have lobbied to protect their own profits and prevent effective action to tackle climate change. The influence of major polluters and lobbyists needs to be exposed. We cannot tackle climate change and continue with business as usual – and that is what these companies and lobby groups want to do.

...

This sounds like an award for heroic freedom fighters against the control freak anti energy left who are using "climate change" as an excuse to trasfer wealth to the undeserving and undercut commercen in general. They are the watermelon alliance of communist ideologues using a veneer of greem to accomplish their objectives. Where can I apply for this award.