Ross,

I'm glad you asked the question, because I had the same reaction as you.
I'm a 20 year employee of Chevron, the 2nd largest U.S. based oil company,
and I'm very familiar with how Chevron spends its money.  It would surprise
me greatly if someone could show me that Chevron made large contributions
that "fund to a large extent the top ten environmental organizations in the
U.S.".  A lot of good points were made in the original posting, but throwing
in this type of statement reduces the effectiveness of the overall message.

Don Lycette
Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ross Mayhew [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2000 3:56 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Not to seem naive, but.....
>
> The  statement ".....the fact >that almost all of the top ten
> environmental organizations in the US are >funded to a large extent by
> Big Oil money (Pew Charitable Trust, for >example). But there are
> certainly some serious environmentalists who are >knowledgeable and
> working very hard to combat the true sources of threat to >our natural
> world." has been casually thrown out, as if it were a matter that all
> "well informed" folks know about: Common Knowlege, as it were.  While
> the message that contained it contained an UNcommon amount of good
> old-fashioned Horse-Sense, this little "fact" i think would come as news
> to many.  Would someone be so kind as to point the list towards some
> documentation or substantial evidence which supports this interesting
> "fact" - not meaning to seem beligerant, but this is not the sort of
> accusation which should be thrown into an otherwise sensible
> communication (and Real Rants go on far longer - trust me on this one
> ;-} ), without at least a small morsel of corroborating evidence.  So,
> let's hear it.
>
> Curmudgeon in Canada,
> Ross.