Environmental concerns are crucial at IU, but it appears some people’s efforts are rewarded far more than others.
Off of the heels of a story in USA Today, Tom Steyer, founder of Farallon Capital Management, has done a remarkable about-face since his days as a hedge fund manager apostate.
Now he seeks to make his mark on history through exercising his constitutional right to free speech, investing portions of his roughly $1.5 billion net worth, according to Forbes, in a campaign to build a Super PAC called NextGen Climate Action.
In the aftermath of 2010’s Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision, an absolute torrent of money came flooding into elections.
Most of the criticism of the decision came from the political left, with liberals screaming that the decision benefited the Koch brothers and the Koch brothers alone.
It did, but it also empowered many others, such as fellow hedge fund activist George Soros, to pour even more of their money into the political space.
Enter Steyer, who has taken pages from the Koch brothers in unleashing massive ad buys to smear opponents.
The New York Times details the millions of dollars that NextGen Climate Action is pouring into the Florida gubernatorial race in opposition of incumbent Gov. Rick Scott on the grounds that the state will be the hardest hit by rising oceans.
Therefore it is most deserving of NextGen’s money.
This is a necessary donation, and it will hopefully resolve a great many problems.
But whatever the reasons for his Road to Damascus experience, it is very striking to me that liberals will disparage their own prime methods for victory in elections, considering that labor unions, the other prime donors of the Democratic Party, also benefited quite generously from these new rules.
It’s not beneficial to a cause you believe in to deny its furthering because the money comes from a man who’s politics don’t reflect your own.
And when it comes to the environment, we all need to be working ?together.
The next generation of climate crusaders is being increasingly bankrolled by big money figures — far from the grassroots movements that activists would like to portray.
So now partisans of both sides can have parity when claiming one side’s volunteers are being ?AstroTurfed or not.
So while it is definitely good to work on reasonable and sustainable conservation measures to reduce environmental changes, as we are starting to do at IU, the best lesson we can learn from examples such as Steyer is to make as much money as fiendishly possible and hope that our fortunes will be enough to buy our absolution from the carbon-producing days of old.
mjsu@indiana.edu
