We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, June 19, 2016

The World Agreed To Not Burn Most Fossil Fuels. Why Aren’t These Banks Listening?

Click here to access article by Ryan Koronowski from Climate Progress.
Last December, the world agreed in the historic Paris climate accord not to burn most fossil fuels. To do that, some of the lowest-hanging fruit is halting the investment of hundreds of billions of dollars into the most expensive and extreme fossil fuels: coal, Arctic oil drilling, tar sands, deep offshore drilling, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export.

So how is the world doing?

“Needs improvement” would be putting it charitably, according to a new report looking at the world’s biggest private-sector banks, which are still funding the industries that drive climate change to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Of course, banksters are among the top capitalists who really govern our nation and much of the world through their Empire. And people who own and control banks (including the Federal Reserve, Bank of England, etc) and create money know that their support of profit-making enterprises requires energy, and the the cheapest energy are fossil fuels. Banksters, or their agents, like to go to climate conferences such as the one held last December in Paris because it is good public relations. At the latter meeting they came up with all kinds of nice sounding unenforceable promises that they have no intention of fulfilling.

When a few attorney generals in various jurisdictions try to go after major fossil fuel corporations, they find themselves victims of legal suits filed by these corporations. Read "Exxon Sues Second Attorney General In Response To Fraud Investigation". This major international corporation is using constitutional rights that were designed for people (see Citizen's United, 2010) as the basis for their suit.