Ted Turner, who owns the Atlanta Braves major league baseball team and created the CNN television network, established the Foundation bearing his name in 1990. He currently serves as its Chairman, while he his five children constitute its Board of Trustees. The Foundation’s President is Michael Finley, the former superintendent of Yellowstone National Park. The former Vice President of the Foundation was Turner's ex-wife, Jane Fonda.
Committed to “preventing damage to the natural systems -- water, air, and land -- on which all life depends,” the Turner Foundation is a major supporter of radical environmentalist organizations whose goal, as writer Michael Berliner explains, is “not clean air and clean water; rather, it is the demolition of technological/industrial civilization.” In Turner’s view, measures to curb environmental degradation are desperately needed in order “to ensure the survival of the human species.” He believes that the human race and most other forms of life will become extinct within fifty years unless dramatic measures are taken to forestall and reverse the environmental damage allegedly done by industrial pursuits and their related pollutants. Virtually no major logging, mining, road building, or development venture can proceed without first facing a court challenge from one of the myriad environmentalist groups that the Turner Foundation supports.
The Turner Foundation’s philanthropy is divided into four main program areas: Safeguarding Habitat: “The goal of this program is to protect terrestrial and marine habitats and wildlife critical for the preservation of biodiversity. Focus is placed on protecting functioning ecosystems, including core, intact habitats, buffer zones and wildlife corridors.”Growing the Movement: Designed to develop activist leaders and organizations, this program aims “to engage, organize and empower new constituencies in order to ensure the future protection of our environment.”
Creating Solutions for Sustainable Living: “The goal of this program is to modify patterns of consumption and to halt further degradation of our natural resources by addressing the environmental impacts of our personal, institutional and community choices. … Issues may include clean energy, transportation and fuel alternatives, recycling, forest certification efforts, water consumption and conservation, groundwater depletion and human population.” (The “human population” issue refers to the Foundation’s support for universal access to taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand as a means of population control.)
Healthy Planet, Healthy Communities: “The goal of this program is to restore or mitigate the effects of non-sustainable practices in order to enrich our quality of life and the health of our future communities and planet. Issues may include clean air; clean water; green space for community benefit; and environmental health and justice.” (The latter issue is based on the Foundation’s belief that pollution and environmental hazards disproportionately affect minorities and the poor.)
The Turner Foundation is a member organization of the Peace and Security Funders Group and the International Human Rights Funders Group. The latter is a network of more than six-dozen grantmakers dedicated to funding leftist groups and causes.
The Turner Foundation identifies the following as its “Affiliated Organizations”:
(a) Captain Planet Foundation: “Started in 1991, the mission of Captain Planet Foundation … is to fund and support hands-on environmental projects … that empower children and youth around the world to work individually and collectively to solve environmental problems in their neighborhoods and communities.”
(b)United Nations Foundation: This Foundation defines itself as one that "builds and implements public-private partnerships to address the world's most pressing problems, and also works to broaden support for the UN through advocacy and public outreach." The Foundation was funded entirely by Ted Turner's historic $1 billion gift in 1997, earmarked for the support of UN causes and activities.
(c) Better World Fund: This campaign “is a bi-partisan, non-profit national education and outreach effort dedicated to enhancing the awareness of and appreciation for the vital role the United Nations plays around the world. In particular, [it] works to highlight the UN's work to strengthen international security through multilateral cooperation.”
(d) Nuclear Threat Initiative: This “is an organization working to reduce the global threat from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.”
Among the many recent recipients of Turner Foundation grants are: the Tides Foundation; the Tides Center; the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund; the National Wildlife Federation; Defenders of Wildlife; the Trust for Public Land; Greenpeace; the Sierra Club; the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment; Alliance for Justice; the Ruckus Society; the Natural Resources Defense Council; the Southern Environmental Law Center; the Worldwatch Institute; the U.S. Public Interest Research Group; Physicians for Social Responsibility; the Union of Concerned Scientists; Global Green USA; the National Religious Partnership for the Environment; the Earth Island Institute; the Environmental Defense Fund; the Center for Health, Environment and Justice; the Wilderness Society; Rainforest Alliance; Friends of the Earth; Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health and Rights; the Dogwood Alliance; the Earth Policy Institute; Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund; Catholics for a Free Choice; the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation; the Arms Control Association; the Society of Environmental Journalists; the Alan Guttmacher Institute; the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability; Animal Health Trust; Rainforest Action Network; the Feminist Majority Foundation; the Carter Center; the Izaak Walton League of America; the Nature Conservancy; the National Environmental Trust; the World Resources Institute; the Brookings Institution; the Environmental Law Institute; the David Suzuki Foundation; the Ecology Center; the America Farmland Trust; the Center for a Sustainable Economy; the Waterkeeper Alliance; the Environmental Working Group; the World Wildlife Fund; the Public Media Center; the Earth Day Network; the Center for Biological Diversity; the Center for Policy Alternatives; Common Cause Education Fund; the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) Pro-Choice America Foundation; the Center for Reproductive Rights; Co-op America; Dia del la Mujer Latina; Environmental-Aboriginal Guardianship Through Law and Education; the Peace Lutheran Church; the Feminist Women's Health Center; the Florence Fund; the Endangered Species Coalition; the Population Services International; the Georgia Center for Law in the Public Interest; the Global Fund for Women; the Institute for Policy Studies; the International Center for Research on Women; the International Women's Health Coalition; the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; the Captain Planet Foundation; Environmental Media Services; the Environmental Media Association; the Pesticide Action Network; Ocean Conservancy; V-Day New York; the Green Guide Institute; the Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads; Green Seal; the Environmental Grantmakers Association; Global Exchange; Earth Action Network; the Consumers Union; the National Campaign for a Sustainable Agriculture; the Organic Consumer's Association; Zero Population Growth (now called Population Connection); the Center for Media and Democracy; the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy; Forest Guardians; Advocates for Youth; the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics; the Ms. Foundation for Women; MADRE; LightHawk; Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation; the National Network of Abortion Funds; National Public Radio; Urban Youth Impact; Native Action; the Partnership Project; Network for Family Life Education; the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; the Foundation for Global Sustainability; the Nuclear Control Institute; the Nuclear Information and Resource Service; Public Broadcasting System; the Reproductive Health Technologies Project; the Rockefeller Family Fund; the American Land Institute; the Center for Biological Diversity; the Centre for Development and Population Activities; Planned Parenthood; Pedestrians Educating Drivers on Safety; People for the American Way; the Philanthropic Collaborative; Save the Bay; Save Our Wild Salmon; Save the Children Federation; Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S.; the Rails to Trails Conservancy; the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice; the United Nations Foundation; the Turner Endangered Species Fund; United for a Fair Economy; the Bluewater Network; Wilderness Watch; the Community Rights Council; Biodiversity Legal Foundation; Ecotrust; Wild Earth Society; Wild Things Unlimited; the International Women's Health Coalition; the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association; Women's Voices for the Earth; Women's Action for New Directions; and Earth Share.
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