If you are a creative or cultural sector worker currently paying money into the New Zealand Super Fund then it will interest you that the Government has around $43 million invested in its second largest equity holding in ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil is a company that the UK Royal Society describes as providing "misleading" information about the causes of climate change.

Image: Antarctica - melting at an alarming rate.If you are a creative or cultural sector worker currently paying money into the New Zealand Super Fund then it will interest you that the Government has around $43 million invested in its second largest equity holding in ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil is a company that the UK Royal Society describes as providing "misleading" information about the causes of climate change.

Image: Antarctica - melting at an alarming rate.ExxonMobil describe themselves as "the largest marketer and refiner of petroleum products and the leading manufacturer of lubricating oil base stocks. The chemical company ranks among the world's largest petrochemical enterprises."

The UK Royal Society recently wrote to ExxonMobil asking it to stop funding those organisations that are misleading the public as to the human causes of climate change. In the US alone the ExxonMobil funding to climate change deniers was US$2.9m in 2005.

ExxonMobil continues to argue that it is "very difficult to determine objectively the extent to which recent climate changes might be the result of human actions" - Exxon Mobil. The UK Royal Society called these statements "very misleading" and "not consistent with the scientific literature that has been published on this issue".

Russell Norman Green Party Co Leader says, "The Superannuation Fund is supposed to be about making sure we have a future, instead it is investing in companies that are undermining attempts to ensure that that future isn't out-of-control climate change and rising sea levels."

Michael Cullen is entitled to issue a ministerial direction under section 64 of the Superannuation Act to direct the Fund to withdraw its investment in ExxonMobil if he's serious about climate change.

Funding climate change denial will damage New Zealand's reputation as a responsible member of the world community.

The Labour-United-NZ First Government should stop the NZ Super Fund investing our taxes in ExxonMobil because of ExxonMobil's role in funding the climate change denial industry and in undermining attempts to get action to reduce greenhouse emissions, says the Green Party.

From Kim Merry of Nelson:

New Data from a deep ice core drilled out of the Antarctic permafrost reveal a shocking rate of change in carbon dioxide concentrations.
Eric Wolff, from the British Antarctic Survey,who presented the findings at the BA Festival of Science in Norwich,said "The rate of change is the most scary thing." "The threshold could now only be a decade away "

Question : What can I do ?

Answer : Shop for your future.

Ask every business you deal with large and small " Do you have an environment policy ? "

Do not buy or consume any services or products that are produced without regard for our collective environment.

BIG ASK ?....................... BIG TASK!!

Be the change you wish to see in the world