January, 07 2021, 11:00pm EDT
Patriotic Millionaires Statement on Biden Nomination of Gina Raimondo and Marty Walsh
"Bold, decisive action to reorient our economy around the needs of working Americans and support their rights to organize is the only way to save this country."
WASHINGTON
In response to the Biden administration's announcement of Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo as Commerce Secretary and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as Labor Secretary, Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director of BlackRock, Inc., issued the following statement:
"The violence at the Capitol on Wednesday is a direct result of a Trump presidency that is itself the direct result of a decades-long effort by amoral fascist plutocrats and cynical politicians to rig the economy in favor of the rich, destroy the middle class, and exploit human vulnerabilities for political gain.
The areas of the country with the highest levels of despair - suicide, opioid addiction, and death - are the areas of the country that demonstrate the most ardent support for Trump. If we are to have any chance to begin healing our nation, our government must do everything possible to meet the urgent needs of our people.
A tremendous amount of the relief and support that the American people need is going to have to flow through the Departments of Commerce and Labor. The Patriotic Millionaires congratulate Governor Gina Raimondo and Mayor Marty Walsh on their nomination to important positions in President-elect Joe Biden's cabinet, and we hope that they recognize the responsibility they now have. Bold, decisive action to reorient our economy around the needs of working Americans and support their rights to organize is the only way to save this country."
The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country's political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three "first" principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.
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Six Out of Nine Planetary Boundaries Already Crossed, Study Warns
"This update on planetary boundaries clearly depicts a patient that is unwell," said one scientist.
Sep 14, 2023
Scientists behind a new study on the crossing of the Earth's "planetary boundaries" on Wednesday likened the planet to a sick patient, warning that six out of nine barriers that ensure the Earth is a "safe operating space for humanity" have now been breached.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), and other international institutions analyzed 2,000 studies to update a planetary boundary framework developed in 2009 by the Stockholm Resilience Center, completing the first "complete check-up of all nine processes and systems that determine the stability and resilience of the planet."
The boundaries for climate change and land use have been broken for decades as extractive industries have razed forests and planet-heating fossil fuel emissions have significantly increased since preindustrial times.
The "novel entities" boundary—pertaining to the accumulation of synthetic pollution from substances such as microplastics, pesticides, and nuclear waste—was quantified for the first time in the study, which was published in Science Advances.
Freshwater change—both "green" freshwater in soil and vegetation and "blue" freshwater in bodies of water—has also been breached, along with biogeochemical flows, or the flow of nitrogen and phosphorus into the environment, which can create ocean dead zones and algal blooms.
"We don't know how long we can keep breaching these key boundaries before combined pressures lead to irreversible change and harm."
The study marked the first time researchers quantified a control variable for the "biosphere integrity" boundary, which they found was breached long before the framework was introduced—in the late 19th century as the Industrial Revolution and other factors accelerated the destruction of the natural world.
Co-author Wolfgang Lucht called biosphere integrity "the second pillar of stability for our planet" next to climate change, and warned the pillar is being destabilized by humans "taking out too much biomass, destroying too much habitat, deforesting too much land. Our research shows that mitigating global warming and saving a functional biosphere for the future should go hand in hand."
"This update on planetary boundaries clearly depicts a patient that is unwell, as pressure on the planet increases and vital boundaries are being transgressed," said Johan Rockström, director of PIK. "We don't know how long we can keep breaching these key boundaries before combined pressures lead to irreversible change and harm."
The boundaries for atmospheric aerosol loading, or air pollution, and ocean acidification, are both close to being crossed, while the atmospheric ozone boundary is currently well below the "zone of increasing risk," due to global initiatives within the Montreal Protocol, adopted in 1987.
The fact that the boundary for ozone depletion was once "headed for increasing regional transgressions" and slowly recovered, said co-author Katherine Richardson of the University of Copenhagen, shows that it is possible to bring the planet back from the boundaries that it's close to crossing or that have been breached to a lesser degree, such as freshwater change.
"We can think of Earth as a human body, and the planetary boundaries as blood pressure," said Richardson. "Over 120/80 does not indicate a certain heart attack but it does raise the risk and, therefore, we work to reduce blood pressure."
The boundaries that have reached the highest risk level are biosphere integrity, climate change, novel entities, and biogeochemical flows.
The update to the framework "may serve as a renewed wake-up call to humankind that Earth is in danger of leaving its Holocene-like state," reads the study, referring to relatively stable state the planet was in between the end of the last ice age—10,000 years ago—until the start of the Industrial Revolution.
The study, said global grassroots climate action campaign Extinction Rebellion, offered the latest evidence that policymakers must do everything in their power to "just stop oil"—ending approval for fossil fuel projects, subsidies for oil and gas companies, and policies that slow down a transition to renewable energy.
"We are not separate from the Earth," said the group. "We ignore these warnings at our peril."
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'Time to Make Them Pay': Internal Docs Further Expose Exxon Efforts to Spread Climate Lies
"Climate change isn't just a tragedy, it's a crime," said one climate campaigner in response to documents reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Sep 14, 2023
Previously unreported documents published on the front page of The Wall Street Journal Thursday show that ExxonMobil continued to work behind closed doors to cast doubt on climate science, even after the company publicly acknowledged the link between fossil fuel-driven greenhouse gas emissions and climate change in 2006.
The documents—which detail email exchanges between executives, board meeting conversations, and other company proceedings—reveal that during his tenure as CEO, Rex Tillerson joined other Exxon leaders in questioning "the severity of climate change's impacts," the Journalreported.
The company's scientists, meanwhile, "supported research that questioned the findings of mainstream climate science" despite Exxon's pledge to stop bankrolling think tanks and other groups peddling climate denial.
After scientists with the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sounded the alarm in 2011 about the potentially devastating global impacts of runaway warming, Tillerson told a leading Exxon researcher that the IPCC's warning was "not credible" and complained about the media's coverage of the potentially dire scenario, according to documents reviewed by the Journal.
"Tillerson wanted to engage with IPCC 'to influence [the group], in addition to gathering info,'" the newspaper reported.
Tillerson also dismissed the Paris Climate Agreement's 2°C warming target as "something magical" shortly before Exxon endorsed the accord.
"As communities pay an ever-greater price for our worsening climate crisis, it's more clear than ever that Exxon must be held accountable to pay for the harm it has caused."
Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement that "this damning new evidence of Exxon's climate lies shows that for decades it has been official company policy for executives to undermine climate science, minimize the dangers of their oil and gas business, and protect company profits at all costs—with no concern for the catastrophic impact their actions would have on humanity."
Wiles argued that the documents reported by the Journal provide more evidence for the dozens of states, cities, and counties that are currently suing Exxon and other fossil fuel giants over their decades-long effort to deceive the public about climate change.
"As communities pay an ever-greater price for our worsening climate crisis," said Wiles, "it's more clear than ever that Exxon must be held accountable to pay for the harm it has caused."
The new reporting could also heighten pressure on the Biden Justice Department to join the legal fight against Big Oil.
In late July, a group of progressive U.S. senators led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) urged the DOJ to sue fossil fuel giants for violating "federal racketeering laws, truth in advertising laws, consumer protection laws, and potentially other laws."
It has long been public knowledge that Exxon, the largest oil and gas company in the United States, was aware of the climate impacts of its business model well before it admitted the link between fossil fuels and climate change.
A peer-reviewed study published earlier this year in the journal Science shows that Exxon's own internal data between 1977 and 2003 contradicted the company's public statements downplaying and questioning the veracity of climate science.
The Journal's reporting confirms that Exxon did not stop working to sow doubt about climate change after it conceded for the first time in 2006 that "the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere poses risks that may prove significant for society and ecosystems."
"In 2008, Exxon announced it would stop funding think tanks and other groups that questioned climate science, saying their positions 'could divert attention from the important discussion on how the world will secure the energy required for economic growth in an environmentally responsible manner,'" the Journal noted.
But internal company documents show that "Exxon researchers continued to support scientific research that cast doubt on climate science and its impacts," the newspaper reported.
The same year the company vowed to stop funding climate-denial organizations, Exxon's manager of global regulatory affairs said that "Exxon should direct a scientist to help the American Petroleum Institute, the industry's influential lobbying group, write a paper about climate science uncertainty."
Jamie Henn, the director of Fossil Free Media, called the Journal's reporting "another massive exposé of Exxon's strategy to attack climate science and block action."
"Climate change isn't just a tragedy," Henn added, "it's a crime."
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'There's No Economy on a Dead Planet': Activists Blockade HQ of Oil Financier Citibank
"Citi is the world's second-largest financier of fossil fuels," noted one group taking part in the protest. "How do these people sleep at night? How?"
Sep 14, 2023
Declaring a #ClimateShutdown, hundreds of activists blockaded the entrances of Citibank's Lower Manhattan headquarters Thursday morning to demand that the financial giant end fossil fuel financing and stop greenwashing its record of planet-heating investments.
"We're shutting down Citibank, the world's second-largest funder of fossil fuels," the activist group Stop the Money Pipeline explained on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter. "Citi says it's a climate leader, but it's also the main financier of oil expansion in the Amazon."
Another group, Climate Defiance, said sources informed it that "every door in the Citibank HQ has been shuttered" and that "the bank just went into lockdown over the climate protest."
"Thousands of bankers are now getting turned away, angry and confused," the group added, posting photos supporting its claim.
According to a report published earlier this month by a coalition of green groups, JPMorgan Chase ($434.2 billion), Citibank ($332.9 billion), Wells Fargo ($318.2 billion), and Bank of America ($281.2 billion) have been the world's biggest fossil fuel financiers since the Paris climate agreement took effect in 2016. Those four banks alone accounted for 28% of all identified fossil fuel financing in 2022.
Groups participating in Thursday's direct action include Stop the Money Pipeline, Climate Defiance, Climate Defenders, and New York Communities for Change.
"Since the Paris agreement was adopted, Wall Street banks have provided $1.4 trillion to the fossil fuel industry," Stop the Money Pipeline's website explains. "Big asset managers are the world's largest investors in coal, oil, and gas. Insurance companies provide insurance for new fossil fuel projects without which they could not be built."
"The fossil fuel corporations driving the climate crisis depend on this support of the financial sector," the group added. "That's why we're pushing banks, insurance companies, and asset managers to end fossil financing. If we stop the flow of money, we stop the flow of oil."
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