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Stopping Dirty Banks and Wars for Oil
no retirement without a planet
Brad Johnson
March 21, 2023
PRESENTED BY UNTRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
Twenty years ago, the United States of America invaded Iraq on the power of lies from the oil-soaked George W. Bush (born 1946) administration, bolstered by Democratic politicians and journalists and pundits who were rightly consigned to the dustbin of history, like Thomas Friedman (1953), Tucker Carlson (1969), Matthew Yglesias (1981), David Remnick (1958), Fareed Zakaria (1964), Jonathan Chait (1972), Sean Hannity (1961), Anne-Marie Slaughter (1958), David Brooks (1961)…
… hold on a minute: I’m informed by Parker Molloy (1986) these individuals are, if anything, even more influential today. And many of them opine about climate, often taking the position that climate activists are doing it wrong. Huh! The world is a funny place.
The IPCC would like to remind you the world’s fate today is being determined by people who grew up on a different planet.
Humans born in the mid-20th century or earlier control most of the world’s wealth, run most of the world’s corporations, and wield most of the world’s political power, built on the burning of most of the world’s fossil fuels.
Bill McKibben (b. 1960) appreciates this fact, and has spent the past several years building the climate group Third Act, explicitly for people who like him are over the age of sixty. Third Act’s first major collective action is today’s national Stop Dirty Banks protest:
The target across the country will be Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America—the four biggest American banks, and the planet’s four biggest lenders to the fossil fuel industry. And the message will be clear and simple: stop funding fossil fuel expansion.
There are about 100 actions across the nation planned against the bankers of climate chaos. Bill himself is in Washington D.C. to rally and protest with Sierra Club president Ben Jealous, Greenpeace executive director Ebony Twilley Martin, and climate scientist Rose Abramoff.
“Environmental justice activists are chastising the Biden administration’s recent decision to rescind federal guidance that urged states to consider climate change and equity when tapping the $110 billion in federal infrastructure money that’s coming their way for roads, bridges and major projects.”
It's great that Resources For the Future has launched the Carbon Scoring Project to advance the work of the Congressional Budget Office in incorporating climate costs and benefits into budgetary assessments of federal legislation. It would be much better, however, if RFF didn't accept funding from the fossil-fuel industry.1 RFF’s fossil-fuel donor list is a murderers’ row of carbon polluters: BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exelon, ExxonMobil, NRG, Pioneer Resources, Shell, Southern Company, and Tellurian.
The death toll in southeast Africa due to the exceptionally long-lasting Tropical Cyclone Freddy has risen to 522, according to authorities in Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar.
Crews in California brace for more flooding as another fossil-fueled atmospheric river approaches, bringing inches of heavy rain and fierce winds. The state’s death toll since January from the torrential rain and snow is in the dozens.
Stillwater, Minnesota is similarly expecting major spring flooding of the St. Croix River; the rest of the Mississippi River basin is on alert for a deadly season.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration has published its Annual Energy Outlook, incorporating their assessment of the effects of the Inflation Reduction Act on our energy mix. Summary: domestic carbon-dioxide pollution is expected to decline as the electricity grid becomes increasingly renewable, but oil and gas production will remain strong, meaning the U.S. will keep exporting climate pollution.
« retraites, climat: même combat » Letting people retire is part of climate justice.
no retirement without a planet
Anna Phillips reports from Baytown, Texas on a key fight against Exxon, and how conservative courts may be handing victory to the oil criminals:
For over a decade, Baytown residents and environmental groups have been trying to force Exxon to curb its air pollution and pay a fine for the thousands of days it reported violating its Clean Air Act permits. Exxon has fought them at every turn, dragging out a legal battle that began in 2010 and that shows no signs of ending. In late February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans agreed to reconsider the case before an en banc panel of all 17 full-time judges. The decision vacated the original panel’s 2-1 ruling upholding a $14 million penalty against the company for air pollution violations and granted Exxon a new hearing before one of the nation’s most conservative courts.
Finally: As Hot Take’s Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt explain, Crooked Media is aptly named.
Climate Action Today:
10 AM: Third Act
Stop Dirty Banks National Day of Action
Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. DMs are open—@[email protected]
1 Note: This particular initiative is funded by climate hawks John Mulliken and Ed Smith, both formerly of Wayfair and attached to the Boston Consulting Group.
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