I’m starting a new series on ConservationBytes.com — one that exposes the worst environmental offenders on the planet.
I’ve taken the idea from an independent media organisation based in Australia — Crikey — who has been running the Golden Arsehat of the Year awards since 2008. It’s a hilarious, but simultaneously maddening, way of shaming the worst kinds of people.
So in the spirit of a little good fun and environmental naming-and-shaming, I’d like to put together a good list of candidates for the inaugural Environmental Arsehat of the Year awards.
So I’m keen to receive your nominations, either privately via e-mail, the ConservationBytes.com message service, or even in the comments stream of this post. Once I receive a good list of candidates, I’ll do separate posts on particularly deserving individuals, followed by an online poll where you can vote for your (least) favourite Arsehat.
There are a few nomination rules, however.
- Politicians are easy targets, so I prefer that you avoid automatically nominating your local parliamentary or senate representative. That said, there are some particularly deserving politicians out there who have gone above and beyond the call of normal environmental neglect and have instead actively promoted environmental destruction.
- People who just make stupid, anti-environment comments (e.g., like climate change denialists) are excluded, unless their comments are followed by some actual environmental damage.
- Real environmental criminals, like the ones Interpol is searching for, are excluded. If the person has been charged with a real crime, we’ll let the authorities deal with them. I’m looking instead for people who probably should be in gaol, but have so far managed to avoid actually breaking (our admittedly weak) environmental laws.
- Organisations and corporations per se are excluded, but you can certainly nominate those at their helm.
- While there is no environmental arsehattery too small to mention, I’d like you to focus on individuals whose decisions have wreaked the most environmental havoc.
- Please back up your nomination with credible evidence.
- Please keep the nominations relatively polite and free of foundations for libel proceedings.
I’m also very much in favour of people contributing their evidence for a nomination in the form of a guest post. I’ll help you edit your contribution and we’ll post them throughout the year.
Good luck and I look forward to selecting the most deserving Environmental Arsehat later this year!
ConservationBytes.com 
[…] you recall, I asked both for your nominations and your votes for the inaugural Environmental Arsehat of the Year. Nominees could be a person or […]
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[…] March 2016 I requested nominations for the Environmental Arsehat of the Year, and you happily complied by providing many excellent […]
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If the person doesn’t have to be from Australia, I nominate Gautam Adani, the founder of Adani Group. He is a close friend of the current Indian Prime Minister. The Group has repeatedly gotten away with environmental violations. Here is a report prepared by Environmental Justice Australia on Adani and his ventures in the context of Carmichael mine controversy.
Click to access envirojustice_adani_environmental_report.pdf
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Definitely doesn’t have to be from Australia. Thanks.
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100% it’s Helen Caldicott. You know it’s true and you know why.
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Sorry to pick on a politician, but I believe I’ve found one that has really gone beyond the arsehat call of duty. Hon. Dennis Lowe, Minister of Environment and Drainage for Barbados, for intentionally destroying the last mangrove on the island. Despite being privately protected and offered for donation to the national park system, the Minister would prefer to actively destroy the wetland by preventing inflow of saltwater and dumping raw sewage into it. For more details on this nomination, check out: http://graemehall.com/press/releases/mangrove-wetland-disappearing/index.htm
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Thanks, Kyle. This particular arsehat deserves mention, despite being a politician.
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I know you said don’t go for politicians, so I though I’d nominate the former LNP Queensland Government as a whole and Olive Vale Pastoral as joint nominees of enviro arsehat of the year. Admittedly, it was a little over a year ago, but just before last years January Queensland election, the LNP government approved an application by Olive Vale Pastoral to clear 32,000 hectares of tropical savanna on Olive Vale Station in Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula. Those LNP arsehats approved the clearing of native vegetation that is home to 17 listed threatened species, and includes important rivers flowing into the Great Barrier Reef. The land was approved for clearing because Olive Vale Pastoral wanted to start dry land farming, even though it was found the land is not suitable for such activity. Not only that, the decision was kept quiet and not publicly announced. Total arsehat behviour and a true flashback to the Joh Bjelke-Petersen era way of doing business in Queensland. Nice one arsehats.
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