Los hermanos Koch estarían detrás de la inacción de EE.UU.
0 (0 Likes / 0 Dislikes)
This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. We're broadcasting
from the 18th U.N. climate change summit. I'm Amy Goodman.
The billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch are known for funneling vast donations
into Republican campaigns in the United States. But what impact are the Koch brothers having
on global warming? As the U.S. is accused of blocking progress here at COP18 talks in
Doha, a new report says the Koch brothers may be the biggest force behind the climate
stalemate. The Koch brothers run oil refineries and control thousands of miles of pipeline,
giving them a massive personal stake in the fossil fuel industry. But researchers say
they've also funneled tens of millions of dollars into climate denial science, lobbying
and other efforts to derail policy that could lessen the impact of global warming. The report
is called "Faces Behind a Global Crisis: US Carbon Billionaires and the UN Climate Deadlock."
To talk more about this, we're joined by one of its authors, Victor Menotti, executive
director of the International Forum on Globalization. Victor, we welcome you to Democracy Now! And
I just want to point out, for people who are watching on television, you may have noticed
a spider over my left shoulder. And that is a piece of art here at the convention center.
It's a massive nine-meter-high sculpture by the sculptor Louise Bourgeois. It's called
Maman, and it's got marble eggs inside the spider's sac. And it was - she
thought of it fondly, actually, for her mother, who was a weaver in France. You have an image of the—what
you call the "Kochtopus," Victor Menotti, not exactly what you consider a positive image,
but not looking so different from this work of public art behind us.
It is it’s the perfect backdrop to explain what’s going on here in Doha. It’s a follow-the-money story.
And it goes from Doha to Washington, to Wichita, which is where the Kochs are based.
A lot of people may think this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but
if you look very soberly at what the—who’s moving the money and where it’s coming from, these two brothers,
Charles and David, are now the world's wealthiest individuals. Their combined net worth now
exceeds that of the world's wealthiest man, Carlos Slim. And they have spent more than
anybody, more than any gas and oil company, more than even Exxon, in campaign contributions.
The richest men are—number one? Carlos Slim.
Number two? It's Bill Gates. Number three is Warren—Amancio Ortega
from Spain, of Zara, the clothing company. Then Warren Buffett.
But if you took the Koch brothers together and combine them,
we consider them a single financial, political entity, the...
So they’re number one.
They’re at $80.2 billion, and Carlos Slim at $71.8 billion.
So, they wield their wealth to really stop the process in the U.S. for phasing out fossil fuels.
They’ve spent more than anybody on campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures, climate denial science.
And they’re—we’re not saying they’re the only force. They are part of the
fuels complex. But they are the financial force and the ideological leaders of the countermovement.
I wanted to ask you about an action that took place this week.
I wanted to play a comment
of one of the people who were arrested this week protesting in
in Texas, as delegates and
activists gather here in Doha at the U.N. climate conference. On Monday, two activists
in Texas locked themselves inside of a section of pipe that's part of the Keystone XL pipeline
that's now under construction by the company TransCanada. The pipeline would carry crude
oil from Canada's tar sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast, a project opponents say would
produce lethal levels of carbon emissions while endangering communities along its path.
President Obama now faces a decision about the pipeline's approval, after delaying
it until after the 2012 election. The section of the pipe where activists locked themselves
would run less than a hundred feet from homes near Winona, Texas. This is Matt Almonte,
speaking in the dark from 25 feet inside the section of pipe, after he locked himself between
two barrels of concrete weighing over 600 pounds each.
So, this is the first night being here in this pipe.
And basically, we’ve set up shop here.
I feel it's very important for people to feel empowered to take action against resource
extraction. The Keystone XL pipeline is
it doesn’t really serve to benefit anybody but the corporations
who will reap all of the profit at the expense of the communities that will be poisoned, through their water, through their air.
And it’s just not right, and I wanted to plant myself in the middle of that fight.
That was activist Matt Almonte speaking 25 feet inside a section of the Keystone XL pipeline.
He and two others were later removed from the pipe by police and charged with resisting arrest,
criminal trespassing and illegal dumping.
Victor Menotti, what does the Keystone XL pipeline, which thousands have protested and many have been arrested for
in front of the White House in the last year
what does it have to do with the Koch brothers?
The 25 percent of the current tar sands imports, they process already. The Kochs have vast
holdings in Canada in tar sands territory. They already have some of the networks of
the pipelines. The refinery is existing in Corpus Christi.
We call it the Koch Keystone pipeline.
Your final conclusions as you finish this
"US Carbon Billionaires and the UN Climate Deadlock"?
That the world needs the United States to mobilize around the force of these Koch brothers
to get private money out of politics and to isolate their extreme elements in the Republican
Party. These aren't all conservatives thinking this way. These are extremists, and they need
to be isolated. Victor Menotti, with the International Forum
on Globalization. "Faces Behind a Global Crisis: US Carbon Billionaires and the UN Climate
Deadlock" is his report. And we'll link to it at democracynow.org.
Thank you so much for watching this report from Democracy Now! your daily independent global news hour.
We don't accept advertising or corporate funding
but rather rely on donations from viewers like you.
Please make your contribution by visiting democracynow.org.
We need your support today to keep bringing you
this hard hitting in-depth reporting.
Subtitulado por Democracy Now! en Español www.democracynow.org/es Síguenos en @DemocracyNowEs