Fracking for the Cure

Well it seems the "pink ribbon woman is now "fracking" for the cure.

"In an outrageous move, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the largest breast cancer foundation in the United States, has partnered with a fracking company to promote pink drill bits "for the cure." The page looks like a parody, but it's completely serious. Baker Hughes, one of the dirtiest fracking companies in the world, in an industry that injects carcinogenic chemicals into our groundwater, is literally painting itself pink as a champion of women's health. And Komen is helping the company do it.

When pressed about this issue, Komen issued this tepid response: "the evidence to this point does not establish a connection between fracking and breast cancer." We cannot allow such absurd pinkwashing to stand. Baker Hughes isn't fighting breast cancer -- it's contributing to it. Join in telling Susan G. Komen for the Cure to drop Baker Hughes and stop giving dirty companies a cover.

Komen has a long history of controversy. In 2012 the foundation set off a firestorm by dropping its funding for Planned Parenthood, leading to the resignation of its then-CEO. Komen has also been hit with heat for trademarking the running pink ribbon and the phrase "for the cure," then using its legal team to go after other charity organizations that use the color pink and the word "cure." Critics accuse it of using such tactics in an attempt to monopolize the breast cancer market -- and this is what it's doing with its trademark.

Breast Cancer Awareness has turned into a multi-million dollar business -- Komen rakes in $400 million annually, in part through partnerships with dirty corporations that threaten the health of women -- and all of us. Komen partners with these groups because the money in the short term seems worth it, and the foundation thinks it can keep this story under wraps. But once knowledge of this gets out into the public space, Komen and Baker Hughes lose control of their stories, and we get to tell the world about their dirty partnership. Please join in today in calling out Komen and getting it to drop Baker Hughes as a partner."

It's all about the money, not the cure. If there were a cure, there would be no money.