As I was doing some research in some non-profit’s literature, appeared before me was a 2006 picture of John Holdren, Bill Clinton, and this other guy (name not mentioned).  So what, you say.  Well the caption indicates, John Holdren’s Woods Hole Research Center Director accepts $1mil check from Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets (CEM).  

Woods Hole Research Center describes themselves:

The Woods Hole Research Center is an independent, non-profit  institute  engaged in fundamental environmental science, applied policy analysis, local and regional capacity building, and public and policy-maker education aimed at clarifying the interacting functions of the Earth’s vegetation, soils, water, and climate in support of human well-being and promoting practical approaches to their sustainable management in the human interest.

In other words, they’re another rich environmental think tank 501(c) non-profit with rich members, well connected to the corporate world, who use their income to influence public policy to further increase their wealth.

The Woods Hole Research describes this venture with Goldman Sachs and Bill Clinton:

A new partnership between the Woods Hole Research Center and The Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets (CEM) announced yesterday at the Clinton Global Initiative will develop new market-based approaches to value the sustainable uses of forests for marketable products and ecosystem services.

John Holdren is obviously excited as stated:

It’s particularly gratifying that we developed this project with Goldman Sachs as part of the Clinton Global Initiative – a farsighted effort of the former President to stimulate new partnerships among businesses, researchers, and public-interest organizations to address the great challenges in global health, environment, and economic development…This is not only a grant but also a partnership, in which insights from the Woods Hole Research Center about how forests work and what is needed to keep them working will be linked with expertise at Goldman Sachs about the economic forces and incentives that affect how forests are used and managed.

Maybe Holdren and Goldman Sachs share ideas while they are at the Council on Foreign Relations meeting.  Maybe it’s that John Holdren speaks at Goldman Sach’s conferences, like the “Energy, Environment and the Financial Markets: The Global Opportunity” in London.

Well, they want to make sure they know the value of every last tree and forestland on the earth.  Ok, Goldman Sachs is your company if you want to figure how to equate everything with some monetary value as to create an investment from it.

Now to enforce that idea.  From their website, here is how Goldman Sachs describes the CEM:

The Environmental Markets Group manages the Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets. The Center works with independent partners in the academic and non-government organization communities to examine market-based solutions to environmental challenges. Two of their primary goals are :

• Market-making in carbon emissions and other climate related commodity markets
• Launching GS SUSTAIN, a global equity strategy that incorporates environmental, social and governance issues into fundamental analysis of companies

Well, it’s merely the rich using tax free big bucks through non-profits to grease palms and divvy up the spoils of their pillaging of tax-payer coffers.  Only in American politics.