[Karyn Strickler, Journalist] How is 350.org funded?
[Bill McKibben] Well, not very well.
[Karyn Strickler, Journalist] [Laughing] Who are your funders?
The Sustainable Markets Foundation is an environmentalist organization...[that] serves as a fiscal sponsor, providing grants as well as administrative support to other nonprofits like 350.org or Frack Action....
SMF is funded by major environmentalist groups and center-left foundations such as the Rockefeller Family Fund, Tides Foundation, and TomKat Charitable Trust...
Elizabeth Hitchcock serves as President of the Sustainable Markets Foundation board. Hitchcock also serves as a Public Health Advocate for U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the U.S. PIRG Education Fund.
Jay Halfon is the Director and General Counsel for the organization. Prior to his appointment, Halfron was the executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group. In addition to his role with the Sustainable Markets Foundation, Halfron serves on the board of 350.org, Earthworks, and the Park Foundation....
In a 2014 report by the Republican staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Sustainable Markets Foundation was connected with the “Billionaires Club” -– an elite group of donors, foundations, and organizations that control the center-left environmental movement and have influenced policies of the EPA under President Obama.
Particularly scrutinized in the report was the Sustainable Markets Foundation’s sponsorship of the organization 350.org. The report states that between 2011 and 2014, 350.org received funding from the Park Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Tides Foundation, Marisla Foundation, ClimateWorks Foundation, and Rockefeller Family Fund routed through Sustainable Markets Foundation.
-- Sustainable Markets Foundation, by Influencewatch.org
[Bill McKibben] To the degree that we have any money at all,
it’s come from a few foundations in Europe and U.S.
[Karyn Strickler, Journalist] Which ones?
[Bill McKibben] Ah, let’s see.
The, uh, I’m trying to think who the biggest funders are.
Uh, uh, uh, there’s a foundation based in Sweden called,
I think it’s called the Rasmuson Foundation,
that I think has been the biggest funder.Elmer Edwin Rasmuson (February 15, 1909 – December 1, 2000) was an American banker, philanthropist and politician in the territory and state of Alaska. He led the family business, National Bank of Alaska, for many decades as president and later chairman. He also served as Mayor of Anchorage from 1964 to 1967 and was the Republican nominee for United States Senator from Alaska in the 1968 election, losing the general election to Mike Gravel....
In 1954, together with brother-in-law Robert Atwood (who had married Evangeline in 1932), Elmer invested in Richfield Oil's exploration of the Kenai Peninsula. The investment yielded great profits after oil was discovered in 1957 near the Swanson River.
In 1955, Elmer created, with his mother [Jenny Olson Rasmuson], the charitable Rasmuson Foundation. It was to become "the most generous private donor in Alaska history." ...
In 1961, Elmer married Mary Louise Rasmuson, national director of the Women's Army Corps.
-- Elmer E. Rasmuson, by Wikipedia
[Karyn Strickler, Journalist] So you don’t get money from Pew or Rockefeller, or any of those big foundations?
[Bill McKibben] No, we did.
Rockefeller Brothers Fund gave us some money right
when we were starting out.
That’s been useful, too.
[Karyn Strickler, Journalist] But they no longer fund you?
[Bill McKibben] Uh, uh, I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t have this sort of –-
[Karyn Strickler, Journalist] [Laughing] Really?
[Bill McKibben] -- Funders sitting in front of me.
[Karyn Strickler, Journalist] That’s usually something that people know.
[Bill McKibben] Rockefeller’s been one of our, is one of our,
is a great ally in this fight.The Rockefeller Foundation is a private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. It was established by the six-generation Rockefeller family.
The Foundation was started by Standard Oil owner John D. Rockefeller ("Senior"), along with his son John D. Rockefeller Jr. ("Junior"), and Senior's principal oil and gas business and philanthropic advisor, Frederick Taylor Gates, in New York State on May 14, 1913, when its charter was formally accepted by the New York State Legislature.
-- Rockefeller Foundation, by Wikipedia
***
[NOW THIS NEWS Newsman] You just sold your TV network to Al Jazeera.
[Al Gore] Right.
[NOW THIS NEWS Newsman] And that government is basically nothing
but an oil producer.
[Al Gore] Gas, mainly, and oil.
[NOW THIS NEWS Newsman] Your take on that was about a hundred million dollars pre-tax,
from a country that bases it’s wealth on fossil fuels?
***
[Interviewer from Today.com] Isn’t there a bit of hypocrisy in that?
[Al Gore] Well, I get the criticism, I just disagree with it.
***
[Al Gore] I’m proud of the transactions.
[Jon Stewart] You couldn’t find, for your business,
a more sustainable choice?
[Al Gore] What is not sustainable about it?
On January 2, 2013, Al Jazeera Media Network announced that it had purchased Current Media, LLC and would be closing down the Current TV channel while launching and integrating the remains of Current into a new American news channel titled Al Jazeera America using its distribution network. Prior to the sale, it was believed that Al Gore and Joel Hyatt each owned approximately twenty percent of Current Media, business magnate Ronald Burkle owned about twenty-five percent, and Comcast and DirecTV each owned more than five percent. The terms of the deal were undisclosed. According to Forbes and The New York Times, the purchase was about $500 million USD. The purchase by Al Jazeera occurred after an attempt by TheBlaze to purchase the media company was rejected in 2012.
Immediately after the announcement, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, which both broadcast Current TV to nine million American homes, announced that they would be dropping the channel, but stated that they would consider airing Al Jazeera America. It was previously reported in April 2012 that Time Warner and Bright House were considering to drop the channel due to low ratings. Al Jazeera America still replaced Current TV on Comcast, Dish Network, Verizon and DirecTV. AT&T dropped Current TV the morning before it changed to Al Jazeera America prompting a lawsuit for breach of contract from Al Jazeera Media Network. Time Warner and Bright House later added Al Jazeera America on December 6, 2013 after a new deal was signed 2 months earlier. AT&T would add the channel on June 27, 2014.
Defending his decision, Current TV chairman Al Gore wrote: "I am incredibly proud of what Current has been able to accomplish. But broadcast media is a business, and being an independent content producer in a time of increasing consolidation is a challenge." In a news release, Al Jazeera Director General Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani said,
"By acquiring Current TV, Al Jazeera will significantly expand our existing distribution footprint in the U.S., as well as increase our newsgathering and reporting efforts in America [...] We look forward to working together with our new cable and satellite partners to serve our new audiences across the U.S."
The Al Jazeera network also expected to increase its U.S.-based staff to a total of more than 300 employees and retain most of Current's staff.
In addition to ending the Current TV channel, Al Jazeera announced it was scrapping the channel's programming lineup, as well as its brand. On January 2, Cenk Uygur, host of the weekday Young Turks with Cenk Uygur, stated at the time that the Current TV show would continue for at least three months and that he was open to staying with the new network. Later, after the end of Current, in a Los Angeles Times interview, Uygur remarked about the loss of the television show that he felt "relieved" that he could move on and focus on his web show and site and that he "was exhausted from doing the two shows at once;" also that "The future is overwhelmingly online" and he was excited to turn his energies there. It was also mentioned that after the acquisition of Current, he had brief talks with Al Jazeera America about whether there would be a place for him and the show, but both sides agreed that Uygur, known for political rants, would not fit well with the company’s plans to build a news source with a more neutral tone.
That same day, Jennifer Granholm, host of The War Room with Jennifer Granholm, announced that she would leave the channel as a result of the acquisition, as did Gavin Newsom, host of The Gavin Newsom Show, who was reported to have planned on leaving the network earlier. On Sunday, January 6, Eliot Spitzer announced that he had left the network and his weekday show Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer.
It was announced in an article in Politico at the time of the purchase that Bill Press didn't expect to continue his show with Al Jazeera once the change officially took place. Press also didn't expect Stephanie Miller to continue her show on Al Jazeera. Press said he would look for TV coverage to replace Current but expected having trouble finding a replacement. On August 1, 2013, Press announced that his show's simulcast would move to Free Speech TV on September 3, 2013. Stephanie Miller announced later after a hiatus from television syndaication that her show would also move to Free Speech TV in January 2014.
In a January 22, 2014 article in Politico Al Jazeera spokesman Stan Collender said the network's launch would be pushed back to within six months, and would create "multiple hundreds of new jobs" and new bureaus around the country. They announced the hiring of 105 total jobs for the new network, with 98 in New York and seven in Washington D.C. On July 3, 2013 Ali Velshi announced on his Twitter account that the network would replace Current on August 20, 2013.
The last live show on Current was Viewpoint with John Fugelsang, ending on August 15, 2013. The final item to air on Current TV was a short VC2 documentary titled "Jumper". "Jumper" was also the first program to air upon Current's launch on August 1, 2005, thus "bookending" the network. Al Jazeera America launched and replaced Current on August 20, 2013 at 3:00pm EDT.
On August 16, 2014, Al Gore launched a lawsuit against Al Jazeera Media Network claiming a residual payment of $65 million of the sale proceeds held in an escrow account, due in 2014, remained unpaid. In September Al Jazeera Media Network launched a lawsuit against Al Gore.
Al Jazeera America shut down on April 12, 2016, citing the "economic landscape and the highly competitive nature of the American media market, as reasons to shut down the channel. After use by three networks since 1994, the channel space folded after Al Jazeera failed to sell it to another network.
-- Current TV, by Wikipedia
[Jon Stewart] Because it is backed by fossil fuel money.
[Al Gore] I get it, I get it, I get it.***
[Jeff] And so, if you got yourself,
an environmental movement, and environmental leaders,
why not buy the holy day itself?[Crowd Screaming]
[Man] Happy Earth Day!
[Singing] Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
You make me want to say
Ah, you make me want to say.
[Denis Hayes, Founder, Earth Day] Now we are facing the greatest sets of issues
that we’ve seen in my lifetime.
It’s time now for a new generation to jump up
on the stage, and create a habitable country,
a habitable planet, that we can all enjoy.
Are you that generation?
[Crowd screaming and cheering]
[Denis Hayes, Founder, Earth Day] I need to thank Building Energy,
which provided so much solar power to this,
that we powered the entire event with solar energy.
[Crowd cheering and screaming][Jeff] But when I went backstage to see
what was really going on –-
[Man] It ain’t running this whole thing on that, Jack [points to the arrays].
I can tell you that.
For a toaster, it takes 1200 watts.
So that run right there could run a toaster.
[Jeff] I found the installer.
[Man] Hi.
[Jeff] Are they running the festival
on these solar panels?
[Man] The concert is run by diesel generation system.
They didn’t ask us to energize the concert.
[Jeff] Oh, okay.[Hugh Evans, CEO, the Global Poverty Project] And we’d also like
to thank our incredible corporate sponsors,
who have been behind the movement to end extreme poverty,
and tackle climate change, since the very beginning.
I want to thank Toyota...[Loud roaring engine]
[Hugh Evans, CEO, the Global Poverty Project] Citibank.[NYSE: rings The Closing Bell]
[Clanging bell and cheering]
[Hugh Evans, CEO, the Global Poverty Project] We want to thank Caterpillar.[Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!] We’re standing at the destruction site
of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
It looks like there are
at least three bulldozers actually bulldozing the land.
[Group yelling and cheering]
People have gotten through the fence;
the bulldozers are still going,
[People screaming]
and they’re marching over the dirt mounds.
[Loud angry screaming]
[Man in Orange Shirt] Get the fuck off!
Get the fuck out of here!
[Hugh Evans, CEO, the Global Poverty Project] Without these partners, it wouldn’t be possible.
Let’s give them a round of applause, everyone.
[Crowd cheering and clapping]***
[Slow solemn music]
[Jeff] Now I know this all might seem overwhelming.
It’s a kind of thing
that we normally don’t try and think about.
[Slow solemn music]
[Jeff] But by not thinking about it,
it stands a good chance of doing us in.
[Slow solemn music]
[Jeff] I truly believe that the path to change
comes from awareness,
[Slow solemn music]
[Jeff] that awareness alone can begin to create the transformation.
There is a way out of this.
We humans must accept that infinite growth,
on a finite planet, is suicide.
We must accept, that our human presence,
is already far beyond sustainability,
and all that that implies.
We must take control of OUR environmental movement,
and OUR future, from billionaires,
and their permanent war on Planet Earth.
THEY ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS.
Less must be the new more.
And instead of climate change,
we must at long last accept
that it’s not the carbon dioxide molecule
destroying the planet,
it’s us.It’s not one thing, but everything we humans are doing:
a human-caused apocalypse.
If we get ourselves under control, all things are possible.
And if we don’t --
***
[Ominous music]
[Chainsaw buzzing]
[Crashing trees]
[Sad mournful music]
[Trees crashing]
[Trees scrapping]
[Orangutan chirping]
Ah-ooh
[Mournful orchestral music]
[Music fading]
[Snapping tree branch]
[Slow solemn music]
[Roaring crackling fire]
Ah-Ah-Ooh [Increasing in intensity]
[Orangutan chirping]
[Female singing mournfully]
[Orangutan squealing]
[Man] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ah-Ah-Ah
Oh-Oh-Ah
Oh-Oh-Oh
Ooh
PLANET OF THE HUMANS
written, produced, and directed by JEFF GIBBS
produced by OZZIE ZEHNER
executive producer MICHAEL MOORE
A week after this film premiered, Sierra Club came out against biomass burning.
Days later, they gave a green award to a college that burns biomass.co-producers:
VALORIE GIBBS
CHRISTOPHER HENZE
DAVID PAXSON
editing by
JEFF GIBBS
ANGELA VARGOS
cinematography:
JEFF GIBBS
OZZIE ZEHNER
CHRISTOPHER HENZE
After the first screening of this film, Bill McKibben said he was wrong about biomass.
The Middlebury plant, and thousands more, still burn trees today.orangutan footage courtesy of
PATRICK ROUXEL
additional cinematography:
CHARLES MILLER
JAMES SCHABERG
sound mixing
CHRISTOPHER HENZE
music consultant:
HEATHER KREAMER
Al Gore, and David Blood, opened a new billion-dollar sustainability fund ... in the Cayman Islands.associate producer:
TEDDY GROUYA
special thanks:
GAIL SEMER
AL JANKOWSKI
ROD BIRELSON
ANNE MOORE
JOHN HARDESTY
BASEL HAMDAN
CARL PALMER
BRUCE PILATO
JOE BETTS
STEWART YOUNG
DUFF PAULSEN
EMBER SWIFT
NIGEL STANFORD
ROBERT FRIPP
STEVE HACKETT
THOM YORKE
PATRICK O’HEARN
ZACK KELLY
VALENTINA LISITSA
THE PROKOFIEV ESTATE
FRANK FOLEY
NANCY PAXSON
DOMINIQUE DEBROUX
MELONIE STEFFES
VERONICA MOORE
PATTI AND TOM ZEHNER
AARON NORTON
NATE JOHANSING
FLO AND VALERA ZAKAROV
CHRIS HEDGES
CHARLES LITTLE
LIZ TODD
KURT ENGFEHR
MARILYN TRENT
TRENT CREATIVE
TIA LESSIN
CARL DEAL
ADAM J. SEGAL THE 2050 GROUP
RAY AND LEE SCHREURS
DAVE GARDNER
ED LEVERING
RICHARD GROSSMAN
BARBARA FRANKLIN
FLORDE WARD
DAVID TRAUGER
BOB SCHMITZ
CAROLYKN VANDENDOLDER
DEBBY AND DAN THROCKMORTON
ALAN WARE
MATT KERN
MICHAEL DONNELLY
TIM HERMACH
ANGELA BOARDMAN
MICHELLE AND MICAELA JANKOWSKI
DAN KELLY
PATRICIA HUDAK
AMELIA MARPMAN
JERRY HAASER
OLEG MAKARIEV
KYLE RICHARD HENRY
JOAN PHILIPS
SIOBHAN ANDERSON
LUKE DODDS
JACKSON JEWETT
JUSTIN RITCHIE
RODE MICS
DAVE SMITH INSTRUMENTS
APRIL MERLE
JAMIE KRAMER
MORGAN BURKE-BEYERS
JOHN MULROW
RACHEL SMOLKER
DIANE MILLER
MICHAEL SCOTT
MICHAEL LAUW
CASKET CINEMA
STATE THEATRE
BIJOU BY THE BAY
STRYMON PEDALS
LUKE KELLY
CHRIS CLARKE
NAZARETH PANTALONI
ANDRE SCHMIDT
MAXWELL GAIL
ADRIANA SHAW
STEVE QUICK
DC HAYDEN
SAM ROYER
CHRIS CLARKE
INNES SMOLANSKY
BERLIN ATMOSPHERES
SUSAN SUBAK
DOUGLAS GRANT
Shortly after the second showing of this film, Sierra Club’s “green” Aspiration fund abruptly shut down.archival footage courtesy of
ANTON PETRUS
BLACK BOX GUILD
BLVDONE
DUNCAN SINFIELD
JAMES CORWIN
MYSTOCKVIDEO
NASA
NICO MUNOZ
CRISTIANO NAVARRO
AN BACCAERT
SPOTMATIK AERIALS
THOMAS LUKASSEK
POND5
“Humankind is challenged, as it has never been challenged before, to prove its maturity and its mastery – not of nature, but of itself.”
-- Rachel Carson 1962
in loving memory of
AARON GIBBS-RIVETTE
JOHN AND SHIRLEY MARRA
planetofthehumans.com