“The path we are on will lead to the extinction of almost half the species on earth. We may be one of them.” claimed David Fenton, CEO of a top left-wing public relations firm.
Fenton made his hyperbolic claim in an open letter to Exxon/Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson that ran on the Huffington Post titled “Exxon's CEO and Me.” Fenton runs Fenton, Inc., the self-proclaimed “nation’s leading communications firm on the environment.” The firm’s clients include some of the most extreme environmentalist groups such as Greenpeace, Earth Justice, Global Green USA, Environmental Defense Fund, Rainforest Action Network, and the supposedly neutral Pew Charitable Trusts. David Fenton has been named one of 100 most influential PR people of the 20th Century by PR Week.
Following a public confrontation with Tillerson, Fenton went to the web to make his outrageous claims including: “the Midwest is likely to become a dust bowl in our lifetime…” He didn’t stop there, adding that the belief that humans can adapt to a changing climate “threatens us all and is a giant business mistake, probably the worst in history.”
Naturally, such grandiose claims led to familiar territory – taxes. Fenton went on to encourage Exxon/Mobil to “lead the way” in regards to a carbon tax – though he preferred to call it a “fee.” “Join with businesses and environmentalists in a campaign to put a fee on carbon. But not a tax. It should be a slowly rising fee that is 100% rebatable to the public per capita.” To do anything except this is “where you risk our economy and our kids…”
Fenton ended his letter with more talk of an eco-apocalypse. “And you need to act soon before you go down in history – and to your grandchildren – as the man who destroyed the future for enormous profits now.”
It’s important to remember when the many environmental groups talk about climate, the man behind them pulling the strings is Fenton and this is the lunacy he promotes.
