The composers Gilbert and Sullivan wrote that "things are seldom what they seem / skim milk masquerades as cream.

And so it is with climate change.  It is interesting that recently, a new group has been launched to brainwash America's teenagers with a "youth-focused version" of Nobel Laureate Al Gore's hysteria-filled and factually inaccurate documentary: "An Inconvenient Truth."

Based in Menlo Park, California, Inconvenient Youth is a non-profit group looking to "mobilize young people to educate their communities about environmental science" in order to solve global warming.

Isn't that sweet? Now Gore's got kids brainwashing other kids to further climate hysteria in the hopes that Congress will eventually enact a carbon cap and trade program that will likely make him a billionaire.

Inconvenient Youth, the new non-profit, non-partisan network for and by teens has started recruiting and training young people to fight global warming. In August 2008, the group launched a three-day workshop on climate change at Stanford University attended by youth from around the world.

The inaugural training ran from August 15-17 and is based on the acclaimed "An Inconvenient Truth" presentation by former Vice President Al Gore. Eighty students from as far away as New York and Japan are learning how to educate others about global warming and what they can do to fight it. Sessions include environmental science backgrounders, breakout discussions, brainstorming and plenary meetings.

This non-profit network was founded and driven by a team of four teenagers based in Menlo Park, California. Their goal is to mobilize young people to educate their communities about environmental science and solutions using a youth-focused version of "An Inconvenient Truth." The network is working to build enough momentum to make a real impact in “solving global warming”. Among the actions recommended by the group are “grass-roots campaigns, forming campus climate clubs, and video recording sessions with city council and congressional members”.

What is interesting is that its founder is the daughter of a key partner at the venture capital firm Gore joined last November 2007!

So what else is new?  Environmentalism is a profitable business.  In and by of itself, this should not concern Deforestation Watch.
 
However, when the levers of environmentalism are used to insidiously and dishonestly to milk the public for funds, it becomes our business.

For that reason, the actions of FOE in issuing a “report” today called: “Malaysian Palm Oil: Green Gold or Green Wash” raises the specter of a massive environmental PONZI scheme.  In this 65-page long “report” FOE alleges that the Malaysian State of Sarawak is developing large-scale plantations at breath-taking speed having overexploited its timber resources and depleted its forests. The “report” contends that oil palm plantations are being expanded at the expense of tropical forests.  Ironically, on Page 30 of the said “report”, the FOE perhaps subconsciously, contradicted themselves by declaring that “it is unlikely that virgin forests are still cleared for oil palm expansion in Malaysia.”

Deforestation Watch has to ask just how much credence can we give to this “report” when the state of Sarawak is clearly a state with an agriculture to forest ratio of 8:76.  Put simply, this means that the smattering of agricultural land in Sarawak remains at 8% whilst forest cover for the state stands at an incredible 76%.  Juxtapose this against the 20% forest land found in the countries of the industrial west from which the FOE hails and the contrast cannot be more stark!

Finally, the fact that the “report” singles out the Malaysian state of Sarawak makes it suspect as the co-author, Ms Meenakshi Rahman of Sahabat Alam, the Malaysian chapter/representative for FOE was blacklisted and declared persona non grata by the state of Sarawak in April 1995?  Could this “report” be part of a personal vendetta against the state of Sarawak?  THE END.