One of former President Obama’s most reliable allies on the “climate change” issue has been the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), whose description of its mission includes influencing “decisions made by individuals, communities, governments, and businesses.” Their message is clear and simple – “Climate change poses a fundamental threat to everything we love” and extreme reductions in the use of fossil fuels must be made. WWF boast of being able to “mobilize hundreds of millions of people” on behalf of its causes.
With assets of more than $471 million and donations in fiscal year 2015 of almost $156 million dollars, it appears that WWF could carry out its liberal propaganda without help from the taxpayers. However, WWF received a taxpayer subsidy of more than $48 million in fiscal year 2015 and more than $191 million Federal tax dollars during the Obama administration.
They certainly earned that financial backing. Obama’s anti-energy “Clean Power Plan” was praised as a “game changer”, even while warning that it was actually inadequate and that stronger actions against energy would be “needed to avoid runaway climate change.” After the House of Representatives voted to block implementation of the plan, WWF stated its certainty that “Americans of all stripes [are] demanding climate action.”
WWF correctly recognized the fundamental radicalism of Obama’s Paris Agreement, noting that it was not a finished work but just the first of many steps in the war against energy. As WWF Vice President Lou Leonard put it, “Stronger commitments in the near term will be necessary. . . . The agreement hammered out over the last weeks in Paris creates a blueprint for progressively bolder action with regular moments when nations come back to the table to do more. The first of these moments is in 2018 when the national targets offered by countries this year will be strengthened.”
Within hours after Hillary Clinton’s defeat by Donald Trump became undeniable, WWF put out a statement insisting that “ambitious climate action is necessary” and calling on Trump to adopt Obama’s policies. One former WWF executive was quoted as predicting Trump would bring “the most important and, from an environmental point of view, disastrous impacts in the last 40 years.” When President Trump took office, WWF quickly made the transition to opposition leader. Its supporters were asked to contact their Senators, demanding the Trump appointees to key cabinet level posts be required to “support and enforce laws and regulations put in place” by the Obama administration. In other words the election results would be nullified and Obama’s policies would continue despite the decision of the voters.
There is no reason to expect WWF’s leaders to have a change of heart. President and CEO Carter Roberts held an advisory position in the Obama administration. Vice President Brad Ack worked for two Democratic governors. Former Democratic Senator Chris Dodd is on the Board and Democratic Governor of Arizona Bruce Babbitt is a Director Emeritus.
No wonder that when Barack Obama was looking for post-presidential office space, he chose to rent rooms from the World Wildlife Fund. He will be right at home.
But is the World Wildlife Fund a proper home for our tax dollars?