This post is a partial reprint of an article by Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder, Executive Chairman, and Chief Inspired Protagonist of Burlington, VT-based Seventh Generation Inc.
America: All Koched Up
We all know that dollars buy influence and aren’t surprised when some millionaire we never heard of is found placing electoral bets or underwriting a political action committee. We have, quite sadly, become accustomed to the power of money and the dubious ends to which those who have it frequently put it. Even so, I found an article in last week’s New Yorker detailing the activities of billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch absolutely horrific. The Koch brothers run America’s second largest private company, Koch Industries, estimated to have revenues of $100 billion from brands that include Lycra, Stainmaster, Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, and Georgia-Pacific lumber.
It’s an excellent piece of reporting I strongly urge everyone to read, but for now here’s the gist: David and Charles Koch (pronounced “coke”), have for years been clandestinely founding and funding the organizations and efforts at the very epicenter of the right wing’s war on science, truth, progress, and political civility.

Photo courtesy of Greenpeace's 2010 report on Koch Industries anti-climate change spending
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Filed under: Wake-up Call | Tagged: activists, climate change, Congress, David and Charles Koch, environment, environmental, EPA, global warming, Greenpeace, Jeffrey Hollender, Koch Industries, New Yorker, pollution, Seventh Generation, Smithsonian, tea party | Leave a comment »