An Interview With the Sierra Club's Michael Brune
Michael Brune, a 39-year-old former Greenpeace campaigner, became executive director of the Sierra Club earlier this year — a platform he intends to use to promote clean energy, bash coal and push the government to act on climate change. Brune got drawn to environmental work after growing up in New Jersey, where he got rashes from swimming in chemical-tainted waters but saw local groups rally to fight the pollution. Before joining the Sierra Club, he served as executive director of the Rainforest Action Network, where one of his campaigns involved infiltrating Home Depot's intercom system to warn shoppers not to ...
Comments (3)
Jonathan Gal via Texas Tribune on Facebook
What really gets me is that Rick Perry is spending so much money litigating against the federal government, when the budget is so tight. It appears to me that State funds are being used for corporate purposes, like fighting the EPA, rather than for creating a balanced State budget.
Raymond Crawford
So where's the follow up question about natural gas drilling in the Barnett Shale?
And what is his answer? Should we take for granted that he supports reinstating tougher rules for the gas industry?
j gil
This comment comes from Ontario, Canada. Where turbines are being put up everywhere and anywhere. Sierra Club Canada has not done it's homework on each and every project in Ontario. The organization is not looking at the serious impact Canadians are questioning about like blasting escarpments that can cause fissures to drain lakes, blasting countryside geology and making an environmental mess, putting turbines in or near drinking water the list goes on.
I once believed in the Sierra Club, until the club ( bunch of Sierra Club like activists who aren't looking at the entire picture but only at their own agendas) started fully supporting the Green Energy Act. The Green Energy Act and the PM government is placing turbines everywhere and anywhere.
This includes placing turbines in pristine areas, in and around fresh lakes, on mountains, on ridges, on the Niagara Escarpment, near communities, blasting, drilling, destroying the environment, and it has stripped away the rights of municipalities and the proper consultation of the public.
Everything the environmentalists (including myself for 20 years) have worked so hard to protect, is now being destroyed or in jeopardy. Wind factories are industrial projects. Every industrial project has had strict laws put in place to protect the environment. The Green Energy Act no longer protects those laws. Wind turbine factories are no different and should get no special treatment. Especially, when big greedy companies or individuals are the only people benefiting.
Mr. Bennett of Ontario, Canada Sierra Club, has accused Wind Concerns Ontario as being supported by the PC’s. I’m a liberal and I support and would volunteer for Wind Concerns Ontario, after my town was ruined by wind turbines, the Sierra Club’s and the PM’s agenda and enforcements. Mr. Bennett is a hypocrite in my opinion. He fought against industrial industries for imposing onto citizens and the land. However, the turbines projects are the worst projects that are having the most enforcements in Canada’s history. It wasn’t okay for other industries to do what the wind turbine industry is doing in Ontario. But it’s okay for the wind turbine industry to do what it’s doing because Mr. Bennett believes in the industry. What a shame the Sierra Club and Mr. Bennett have become.
I would like to invite the Sierra Club to visit every single city and town in Ontario facing environmental, human and economic impacts from wind turbines. Then conclude factual information based on real Ontario people’s stories and evidence about wind turbine horror stories.
Wind Turbine Abilities under the Green Energy Act Recklessness:
Being able to call real Canadians, with a real voice, with constitutional rights, who have built this country, paid for this country, and pay for the governments wages, and the right to speak their mind, and the right to a proper consultation; a NIMBY by the PM government and the Sierra Club is racist and it is disgusting, deeming, is selfish, it is unacceptable and reckless.
Being able to take out a section 17a permit from the Ministry of Environment to Kill, Harm and Harass wildlife under the endangered species act is unacceptable and reckless. Why did Canadians and the Sierra Club fight so hard for the endangered species acts, for it to be overruled by foreign, and oil and gas wind companies, who own turbines etc?
Being able to clear cut trees and remove carbon dioxide is unacceptable and reckless. What was the point in all the Sierra Club's fights to save trees?
Being able to kill, harm and destroy endangered species is unacceptable and reckless. What was the point of the Sierra Club fighting hard to save all living creatures?
Being able to potentially harm water sources is unacceptable and reckless. What was the point of the Sierra Club and Canadians, to fight hard for water protection?
Being able to blast fields and mountains for turbines is unacceptable and reckless. Why isn't it okay for mine's to blast mountains but it's okay for turbine companies to blast everything and anything according to the Sierra Club and their support for turbines and the Green Energy Act?
Being able to place industrial industries in once protected areas is unacceptable and reckless. What was the point of all the man hours, money and laws put into parks and wild spaces to protect it?
Being able to build any type of industrial industry without proper and full environmental and human impact assessments is unacceptable and reckless. Why should the wind industry be any different?
Being able to say there are no health risks is unacceptable and reckless. Since when did the Sierra Club believe in mainstream propaganda? How come there is hundreds of creditable doctors being ignored, who are saying the turbines do cause health effects to humans, nature, and wildlife? How come the Sierra Club didn’t believe Health Canada when they said many things were healthy but now those things aren’t considered healthy? Are wind turbines any different? Ex. It was once okay to drink and smoke when a woman was pregnant.
Being able to strip away the people's voice and their right to a full consultation is tyranny, unacceptable and reckless. What's is the point of the constitution act? Why did the Sierra Club fight hard for people’s rights but now their helping to strip away people’s rights?
Being able to put any industrial industry, (I don't care what industry it is) near people where they live, work, sleep, play, and go to school is unacceptable and reckless. What was the point in making laws for every other industry but the wind industry?
Being able to build an industry for the profiteering of greedy human consumption when Ontario has the best green energy, it's water and not wind turbines is unacceptable and reckless. Since when did the Sierra Club start saying the profiteering of human consumption out weighs the rights of the environments. I thought the whole point of being a steward of the land was to protect the biodiversity and wildlife that can't speak for itself!
Being able to make billions in carbon credits is unacceptable and reckless. Why doesn’t the Sierra Club print that in the SC website and the truth about Al Gore and the billions he stands to make? Print how big companies stand to make millions a year at the expense of the environment, Canadians in Ontario and the economics of this country. If a home of $300,000.00 takes a property value loss of 30%; who is going to pay for that loss of $30, 000.00? Will it be the wind turbine company who will make 10 million dollars a month from wind turbines, or the municipality who will make $200,000.00 a year? Will it be the hard working Canadians who are broke from the recession and all these increases like hydro because of wind turbines who can't afford to put food on their tables?
Being able to reference other peoples work like the Sierra Club has, about the benefits of turbine report and without writing the true impacts is biased, unacceptable and reckless.
Being able to clear cut, blast, and ruin pristine areas does not equal clean, green and sustainable it is unacceptable and reckless and = an unplanned mess for the future.
Being able to bypass environmental laws is unacceptable and reckless.
Being able to economically impact locals, municipalities and Ontarian's economically without consultation is unacceptable and reckless. Many cities are having backroom deals done with respect to turbines. What is the point of having laws to protect citizens from backdoor deals?
Being able to override other renewable energy sources all ready in place is a waste, unacceptable and reckless.
Being able to loose geology, fields, soils, water, wetlands, forests, wildlife, marshes to turbine factories = a negative impact on climate change, it is unacceptable and reckless.
The Sierra Club recently released a wind turbine report “Get the truth about Wind Turbines“:
How come SC didn't print the information about all the oil and gas companies who own the wind factories?
How come SC didn't print all the information about the carbon footprint of the turbine industry?
How come the SC reports looked like a high school student wrote it?
How come SC didn't print how many turbines it takes to replace coal plants?
How come the reports don't show any of the negatives about the wind turbines? This is very biased and one sided.
How come SC didn’t print about the hydro cost increases, the people who are sick from turbines, the people who have lost their homes because of turbines, the destruction to the environment, all the companies (anyone and everyone) who is jumping on the wind turbine money train, who don’t care about the environment and who are snakes going into every city and town destroying them and getting away with it because of the Green Energy Act?
SC's information about bird mortality by wind turbines is wrong. Just ask the American bird association. SC's information about health risks are one sided. Why didn't SC write about any of the information from doctors who oppose turbines and have medical evidence about Wind Turbine Syndrome? Why not tell the truth about decommissioning as per the governments information, SC's reports don't match it.
What right does SC have to support the environmental and human impacting Green Energy Act? I no longer believe in the Sierra Club and I will no longer support it.
Wind Turbines are for the profiteering of human consumption, big corporations and jobs. It does have huge impacts and a carbon footprint. So, why should this industry be treated any different then any other industry? Why should all the laws we put in place get thrown out the window overnight, by wind enthusiasts (who don't have all their facts)?
Why isn't Mr. Bennet or the Sierra Club traveling across Ontario, to get documentation from real Ontario people, to find out for themselves, the horror stories people are encountering with turbines from a human, economical, and environmental impact? Put your money where your mouth is Sierra Club and come talk to the people of Ontario from the Manitoba border to Southern Ontario.
Is the Sierra Club and Mr. Bennet members all to busy sitting in their little offices in Ottawa, while the citizens of Ontario are suffering? Are they too busy to get out of their office in Ottawa to go to Bruce County, Wolf Island, Sault Saint Marie, or Dorian Township in Northern Ontario? Where is the Sierra Club hiding? Is the Sierra Club getting it’s information from the wind turbine industries who stand to make millions, one sided professionals, the internet and books? Is the Sierra Club going door to door in every city getting the information first hand about wind turbine factories in place or going to be in place about wind factories? How creditable is the SC's sources and information?
How come the Sierra Club is using biased information about wind turbine information from foreign countries that do not have the same geography, climate, and terrain? Why is SC supporting foreign companies like Germany who have stated that turbines have not made a difference in carbon emissions? How come the SC is supporting German companies like Enridge to come into Canada, who stand to make billions while they steal our land and money? Why is the Sierra Club believing Enridge an industrial company is good for Canada but no other industry or company is believed by Sierra Club when they try to sell their industrial propaganda and how good it is for us? Just ask the First Nations and Canadians when they were told whisky, beaver hunting, reserves, the trains, mining, asbestos, vaccines, cow’s milk, etc. would all be good for them. The information Sierra Club prints about wind turbines is for fields but it does not apply to wind turbines on places like the Niagara escarpment. Therefore, the Sierra Club is incorrect because it does not apply to every geographic area because Sierra Club does not have the research and assessments. Remember when all the sports industries were supported by the cigarette industry?
I'm embarrassed to say I was once a member of the Sierra Club. Sierra Club you have lost myself and my environmental friends as a member forever!