From Mr. Lee’s website:
Foundation for Environmental Stewardship (FES) is a youth-led, youth-serving sustainable development organization. FES is a not-for-profit corporation whose registered charity number is 801430307 RR0001. FES is an accredited organization by the United Nations and has a special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.
‘Intimidating:’ Alberta’s energy war room singles out climate campaigner, ‘When a government agency formally and officially approaches you and your work, that is intimidating’ by The Canadian Press, Dec 21, 2019, Calgary Herald
Steven Lee has spoken in hundreds of classrooms around the country about challenges for today’s young people posed by everything from genetic engineering to artificial intelligence to climate change.
But it wasn’t until he gave a talk in Airdrie, Alta., just north of Calgary, that his message drew the attention of a government agency — Alberta’s so-called “war room.”
“I’m a reporter with the Canadian Energy Centre,” the phone message said. [HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT A BUNCH OF CLOWNS IN THE WAR ROOM. MR. LEE, MY APOLOGIES FOR THIS HARASSMENT BY ALBERTA’S “INFORMATION” CENTRE, AKA ABUSE COURAGEOUS CITIZENS COPY MCCARTHY WAR ROOM.]
“Our website is launching next week and we will be writing a story about the 3% Project, which has raised concerns among some parents who reached out to us following presentations at their children’s schools.”
Lee had just become perhaps the first person scrutinized by the centre, a $30-million government-funded operation intended to correct what it sees as misinformation about the province’s energy industry. It recently opened its office in downtown Calgary.
“Government cracking down on you — I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that,” Lee said.
“A few individual parents angry with what I’m saying is understandable. But when a government agency formally and officially approaches you and your work, that is intimidating.” [THAT’S THE INTENT BEHIND KOPYKATKENNEY AND HIS NASTY BULLIES]
Lee, 25, is a longtime activist who began the Foundation for Environmental Stewardship in 2012. The 3% Project is the group’s main effort.
It seeks to build consensus for climate change action by speaking to a million students, about three per cent of Canada’s population. Although climate is a major focus of Lee’s talks, his goal is to get students thinking broadly about the world they will graduate into, he said. [Oh dear, critical thinking is frowned upon in Alberta, especially in schools! It’s taught and welcomed in Quebec, but not here. Big polluting oil does not allow it.]
“It’s not just climate change. We’re looking at artificial intelligence, automation, cybersecurity, genetic engineering. These are all global and systemic problems and this is something my generation will need to grapple with.”
In an hour-long video of a presentation to a Calgary high school, Alberta’s oilsands are not mentioned.
Although Lee took out $60,000 in personal debt and lived in his car for two months before he got backers for the project, it is now funded by several private Canadian foundations and corporations with support from the federal and New Brunswick governments.
He has spoken to more than 400 high schools and 83 universities and colleges. [Fantastic work Mr. Lee! Don’t let the mafia room scare you off your impressive and vital project! Keep going, no matter what the war room goofs say or do.]
On Dec. 10, an article appeared on the energy centre’s website titled: “Alberta father irked by charity group that targets fossil fuel industry.” It quoted a father concerned that Lee’s presentation was one-sided. It also claimed inaccuracies in the group’s materials, available on its website.
Those materials quote an International Monetary Fund working paper that found Canada subsidizes its fossil fuel industry by about $46 billion a year.
The centre pointed out that a working paper does not represent an official IMF position. It also questioned the credibility of the figure, quoting other studies that set the subsidy level closer to $3 billion. [Ha, if any of them are by the Fraser Institute, or Calgary School of Public Policy, SAIT or NAIT, or other similarily oil industry controlled entities, don’t believe them!]
In an email to The Canadian Press, a co-author of the paper said his work had been fully peer reviewed within the IMF. Ian Parry also explained his subsidy figure was high because it included environmental and social costs as well as direct subsidies — a completely different measure than that used by the centre for comparison.
“Broadly speaking, our estimates of environmental costs are in line with those of other studies,” Parry wrote.
The centre also questioned a quote from a 2013 study in Lee’s material that concluded the fossil fuel industry spent $558 million between 2003 and 2010 on climate change denial. Its story said the study really showed most of that funding came from conservative foundations, not industry. [SAME THING! THOSE CON FOUNDATIONS ARE WINDOW DRESSING TO HIDE THE OIL PATCH CONTROL]
The centre didn’t mention that the study found funding for those foundations — which is untraceable — increased at the same time industry stopped directly funding climate change denial.
“The correspondence is suggestive of an effort to conceal funding of (denial),” the paper states.
Centre spokesman Grady Semmens, who said staff are not advised to call themselves reporters, defended the article.
“The information addressed in our story is based on our review of the group’s publicly available handbook, information on their website and the concerns highlighted by the parents we spoke to,” he said.
Lee said his plans won’t change as a result of the war room’s attention, or dozens of hate messages and death threats he has received — most of them from Alberta. He is scheduled to speak again in the province in January.
He notes that most of the points raised in the centre’s article are familiar — that Canada’s percentage of global emissions is small and that Canadian companies are world leaders in clean energy.
[Take it from many of us in oil & gas sacrifice zones in Alberta, breathing the poisonous fumes, bathing in and living with toxic water, helplessly trying to get companies to clean up after they rape the land, companies here are leaders in law violations, lies, abuses, pollution, frac’d aquifers, frac’d cap rock, and dividing and conquering communities so that companies can destroy to their profit & pleasure without interference, enabled by self-serving politicians like Jason Kenney, war room fools like Tom Olsen, and the evil AER.]
“Most of them were very common tactics that people use against climate change messaging. I found it slightly surprising and disappointing that a $30-million war room, all they could pull off was the normal messaging everyone else already does.”
Refer also to:
Hey KopyKatKenney War Room! Make the logo round — like a pipe you dummies! Logo Next up – Nike’s.