A new low in environmental fund-raising
I've never been a big fan - or even a little fan - of David Suzuki, even though many consider him an icon of the Canadian environmental movement. Like many others in my generation, I watched the Nature of Things on CBC growing up, but mostly because it always had really neat animals in their natural habitat. I stopped watching it quite a while ago, when Suzuki started slagging the oil and gas industry using stale or, even worse, inaccurate "scientific" data. In recent years, The Nature of Things has become little more than a vehicle for Suzuki to raise funds for his foundation - it's no longer about science, or the environment, it's about money.
Suzuki's fund-raising activities have always been a little suspicious to me. Over the years, he's attracted around $10 million from various special interest groups south of the border - some of them legitimate environmental organizations anxious to use Suzuki's cachet here to target the oilsands, others are commercial entities with a vested interest in having a legitimate "front man" attack their competitors over perceived environmental wrongdoing.
But this Christmas season, Suzuki has reached a new low - even for him. His latest "Where Will Santa Live" campaign - you can check it out here http://bit.ly/uOmV4M - wraps the warrm fuzziness of the Christmas season in the cold scarf of climate change and insinuates that, without help, Santa's workshop will melt away, presumably coming to rest on the Lamonsonov Ridge, 1,000 metres deep in the Arctic Ocean. For donations ranging from about 20 bucks to 50 bucks, supporters can get one (1) e-card to send to their friend or a family member. Given that many of us send out upwards of 100 Christmas cards each year, this can get pretty expensive - even with a 100% tax receipt - but also very very lucrative for Mr. Suzuki and his band of enviro-elves.
This whole campaign smacks of opportunism at its worst - co-opting our warm feelings of Christmas and our kids' desire to ensure the preservation of Santa and his workshop and using them instead in shameless hucksterism, the proceeds of which will do virtually nothing to save Santa's workshop but will most certainly help Suzuki's enviro-elves spread even more of their environmental effluent, most of it based on half truths and, in some instances, outright lies.
In Oilweek's inaugural Green Grinch issue last March, Suzuki caught from me a Grinch rating of 4 out of 5. I held back a little mostly because of his iconic status in Canada. The second Green Grinch edition is in preparation now, and I can tell you this much: Suzuki's rating will rise to the 5-Grinch maximum, and we'll be taking a closer look at exactly where his foundation's funding comes from - and how it's spent.
-- Dale Lunan, Editor
