UPDATE: It appears ANZ is not feeling apologetic or likely to cave in to green threats. ANZ chief executive Mike Smith, has delivered a savage attack on Julia Gillard, declaring her party was part of the “weak government club” of the world.
Greenpeace have produced a hit job on the ANZ Bank: a (fairly) slick production designed to seriously hurt the bank’s brand name, and to make it harder for coal miners to raise funds (which ultimately makes it harder for the poorest in society to pay their electricity bills).
This is why I insist: Yes, this IS about the science. Even if we defeat the tax and trading scheme, as long as the public think “carbon is pollution” any honest business or business working with them will be subject to this bullying. Coal provides about three quarters of all Australian electricity. Yes, we need to get rid of the pollutants in coal production, but carbon dioxide is not one of them.
We are carbon life forms. There is no evidence that the climate models are right, and that CO2 emissions hurt the planet. Greenpeace could attack the coal industry because of poor safety standards, or because of other pollutants released, but instead they pursue their religious convictions. That’s why this is a witchhunt.
Greenpeace took in €200 million in 2009 (page 31 of their annual report) which is $280m USD. They have become the big corporation they so despised. (And so much for transparency, there did not appear to be a list of contributors in the annual report).
In the end this kind of knifing could turn out to help us. After an attack like this, ANZ will be more open to hearing the other side of the science. Sooner or later the green elements will have made so many enemies that businesses and people everywhere will rise up to put an end to the intimidation based on assumptions, guesses, and predetermined conclusions.
h/t Gregory R
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