The 'environmental group' that's anti-environmental

George Orwell would have appreciated the Australian Environment Foundation.  That's because Orwell was a master of doublespeak--where words don't really mean what they say.

These guys make perfect sense to me...

The AEF is not pro-environment.  In fact, it's arguably anti-environment, at least by any recognizable definition of that term.

The AEF opposes lots of things--wind farms, many mainstream efforts to combat climate change, and what it labels "green thuggery".  And it likes the Tony Abbott government's efforts to carve out 74,000 hectares of Tasmania's World Heritage forests for industrial logging.

In fact, the AEF likes Abbott's anti-World Heritage efforts so much that it's written to all of the members of the 21-nation World Heritage Committee, stridently urging them to back it.

The AEF was established in 2005 by the libertarian Institute of Public Affairs, which has received funding from a number of major oil, mining, and industrial corporations and is closely affiliated with Australia's Liberal Party--"Liberal" in this case being another term that would make Orwell proud.

And one shouldn't be surprised to learn that Alan Oxley is closely associated with the AEF.  Oxley is the industrial lobbyist and former Australian trade ambassador who's become notorious for opposing a wide range of environmental initiatives both in Australia and internationally.

Three years ago, ALERT director Bill Laurance debated Oxley at Australian National University, and that day did not go well for Mr Oxley.  Laurance and others have tried repeatedly to have a video of the debate posted on Youtube, but Oxley evidently bullied ANU and so the university declined to release it.

However, Laurance did summarize his comments about Oxley in a talk at Stanford University--which you can see here.

As the debate about Tasmania's World Heritage forests heats up, the AEF is finding itself back in the headlines.  If George Orwell were still alive, he'd surely enjoy their pronouncements--for entertainment purposes only.