GREENIES STIFLE INVESTMENT IN A POOR COUNTRY

Since the early 1990's Indonesia has been a major target of global anti-mining campaigns. While Indonesia is not a major mining nation, it is very prospective and in the early to mid 1990s experienced a large inflow of investment from global mining firms. With the global miners came their opponents in the NGO sector.

Newmont was an early entrant into the Indonesian mining industry, starting with the development of its PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) gold mine which began production at Buyat Bay in the province of North Sulawesi in 1996. Like virtually all the foreign owned mining ventures in Indonesia, NMR was from its inception subjected to a campaign by 'local' NGOs backed and funded by western activists. In the case of the campaign against NMR, this included: the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), the Indonesian Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsham), KELOLA and the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), aka Friends of the Earth Indonesia, just to name a few.

Like virtually all the foreign owned mining ventures in Indonesia, NMR was from its inception subjected to a campaign by teams of local NGOs, including the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), the Indonesian Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsham), KELOLA and the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), (which is also known as Friends of the Earth Indonesia.) The main line of attack against NMR was that it knowingly polluted Buyat Bay with mercury and arsenic. More recently, the NGOs claimed that pollution was so sever that 30 villagers had died from Minamata disease - a severe form of mercury poisoning which could only be acquired by direct ingestion of mercury. When the appropriate Indonesian government ministers dismissed, on expert advice, the claims of the NGOs, the NGOs filed lawsuits against them.

With the assistance of friendly 'experts', these claims were successfully promoted in the West, such as in a recent New York Times feature story. What the New York Times and its NGO sources ignored was the considerable body of evidence that directly contradicted the NGO line.

Shortly after the New York Times ran the story in September, the Indonesians National Police arrested six of NMR's most senior executives (one was released due to health risks) on charges based on the NGO claims that the NMR and its executives knowingly polluted the Bay and damaged the livelihood and health of the local community, but also because of their own tests; though the police were not forthcoming about discussing the methodology for their own tests. The fact that the action took place only as mining was coming to an end fed rumours that charges had been created to force a pay-out from Newmont before the mine closed.

The main English language newspaper in Indonesia, The Jakarta Post, in an editorial argued that the approach of the police bordered "on the bizarre" and that the speed and haste with which they acted against Newmont contrasted sharply with the their characteristic lack of energy in pursuing corruption and other crimes. The police case (and NGO case) received a setback when the World Health Organization and the Minimata Institute of Japan investigated the area and failed to find any signs of mercury poisoning or related symptoms. More significantly, the Indonesian Government released a report prepared by the Government Integrated Team, which was set up to examine the claims and found that "Buyat Bay was not polluted with mercury","or with arsenic". But also found that "fish from Buyat Bay are fit for human consumption."

Shortly after the inauguration of the new Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Newmont executives were released though the police investigation continues. The action against NMR diminished the already low level of investor confidence in Indonesia generally and specifically in its mining sector. The investment in the mining industry has declined over the last seven years from $2.6 billion to a paltry $177 million. The travails confronting Newmont will contribute to this decline.

More here.






The Florida Panther scam continues. As I pointed out on April 23, there is no such thing as a "Florida panther". All North American panthers are genetically the same and they are far too widespread to be remotely an endangered species. "It is the same cat as the ones shot as varmints in Texas." But the Greenies and animal lovers are still causing enormous disruption in order to "save" them from "extinction". What lying frauds!




Clinton and the Senate also opposed the Kyoto nonsense: "The 1997 Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Proponents hoped that it would help the world avoid catastrophe caused by human induced climate change. However, Kyoto faced long odds of ever coming into effect in the United States. Before it was finalized, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution that said we should not participate in any global warming agreement that would either (1) harm the U.S. economy or (2) fail to require meaningful participation by developing countries. Since the Kyoto Protocol met neither condition, President Clinton refused to submit it to the Senate for ratification. And, shortly after his 2000 election, President Bush announced Kyoto was 'fundamentally flawed' and therefore unacceptable."

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

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