There appears to be a very close and cosy relationship between Brisbanes Only Daily Newspaper The Courier Mail and radiacl Green group WWF.
In todays issue alone they have run a disgraceful article with WWF using 2-3 year old figures and gross unfounded accusations putting pressure on Natural Resources Minister to ban QLD farmers from clearing woody weed regrowth.
Then online on they team up again to run this disgraceful story labeling 11 energy companies including Alcoa & Rio Tinto as ‘economic Dinosaurs’.
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ONE of Australia’s biggest miners is amongst a group of 11 power generators labelled carbon emissions “dinosaurs” by an environmental group… Rio Tinto and and aluminium giant Alcoa, are among the group that failed a WWF scorecard on carbon reduction performance.
WWF had sent a survey to each mining company asking them to declare how much they’d spent on low carbon technology and then rated them accordingly.
The organisation found about half the 19 generators performed very badly, scoring less than two out of five stars. Alcoa, Intergen and Rio Tinto were the worst performers.
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The Courier Mail then goes on to extensively quote WWF spokesperson Paul Tony, but curiously it does not mention anybody from the energy companies labeled as ‘economic dinosaur’.
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“WWF spokesman Paul Toni says the companies know they should be doing more to cut emissions.
For two decades there has been no wringing of hands, no worrying about the future or the impact on our environment, just business as usual, without a second thought for anything but short-term profits,” he said in a statement.
It’s remarkable how these dinosaur companies can complain about their future and ask for handouts but do zero to reduce their emissions.
Some companies had been making an effort to reduce carbon emissions, Mr Toni said.
The appalling results of companies such as Rio Tinto and Intergen are in stark contrast to industry leaders like Origin Energy, TRUenergy, Babcock and Brown, Transfield Infrastructure Services and Verve.
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Well the same story as it happens was reported on ABC’s Lateline Business the night before and Lateline reporter Jayne Margets did talk to some of the ‘economic dinosaurs’ mentioned.
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JAYNE MARGETTS: Both Rio Tinto and Alcoa say the findings are inaccurate, because they didn’t provide any information to the WWF.
In a statement Alcoa said:
‘It’s absurd to suggest that Alcoa is unprepared for a low-carbon future. Alcoa’s operations in Australia are among the most greenhouse and energy efficient in the world’.
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And when Jayne Margets put this to WWF’s Paul Toni - he shifts from foot to foot and stammers:
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PAUL TONI: Well, all I can say is that they were given the opportunity to respond.
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OK So Rio, Alcoa and a host of other Energy companies told WWF to ‘bugger off’ with their survey and so WWF rank them as ‘No Stars’ out of Five, label them ‘economic dinosaurs’ and run to the the Courier Mail with their ‘credible survey’.
One can only assume that the Courier Mail did not bother to either ask Paul Toni for the actual survey data or contact Rio or Alcoa for comment on the article.
If they had spoken to Rio or Alcoa or any of the others companies that were ranked so lowly by WWF simply because they’d refused to give them any information the Courier surely would have not run the story, realizing the survey was worthless.
Its either lazy journalism or a grubby conspiracy between WWF and The Courier Mail. The article only appeared online without a bye line. However it was on Environment writer Graham Readfearn’s page who we have had issues with before.
What do you think?
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Have Your say.
I haven’t bought the Courier-Mail for many years.
I got a shock years ago when it suddenly turned into a very trashy tabloid full of sensationalist dumbing down shallow words. Murdoch killed it.
Zionist pro-US pro-Israel controlled mainstream print ,radio and TV is all we have. We thought we have freedom and democracy but we haven’t .
BUT people are waking up and we look forward to big changes ahead for the better and the way it is raining regularly things look great for the bush - be strong , be resilient because the collapse of the US empire might be a bit bumpy.