Watch The Story of Broke and take action to end polluter subsidies

Friends of the Earth is proud to team up with Annie Leonard, creator of the hit video The Story of Stuff, on her latest project — The Story of Broke. This new video describes the myriad ways in which our government subsidizes big polluters and other destructive industries and then tells us that we’re broke.

As Annie illustrates, the truth is we’re not broke. If we shift government spending away from the “dinosaur economy” and toward protecting our environment, safeguarding public health and educating our kids we can create jobs and build a better future.

Watch The Story of Broke

Take action

Tell Congress to end subsidies to Big Oil.

Tell your members of Congress to co-sponsor legislation that would tax Wall Street.

Learn more

Read The Story of Broke blog post on prioritizing people, not polluters by Friends of the Earth’s Michelle Chan.

Friends of the Earth’s Green Scissors 2011 report identifies $380 billion in spending and subsidies that could be redirected to transform our economy or pay down our national debt. The Story of Broke mentions many of them, including:

• Spending subsidies, such as the EQIP program, which subsidizes dirty manure lagoons caused by factory farming.
• Tax subsidies, such as the billions in tax write-offs that the oil and gas industry get every year.
• Risk transfer subsidies, such as massive giveaways that allow the nuclear industry and its bankers to shift their losses to the U.S. taxpayer.

Learn more about our Earth Budget campaign, Friends of the Earth’s effort to achieve federal budget and tax policies that make polluters pay, while generating funds to protect the environment and public health.