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

Monday, October 3, 2016

The 101 on how global trade treaties came to threaten the environment

Click here to access article by Jennifer Huizen from Mongabay.  (Note: I am very impressed with the people involved with this website. I will only be posting this first part of the series, so if you want to read the rest, you should continue to follow the website.)

It looks like this 4-part series offers everything you wanted to know about the neoliberal trade treaties and especially the subversive Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism which provides an end-run around national governments who attempt to protect their habitats.
A host of trade treaties are in negotiation around the globe, many of which, say critics, stand to enrich investors at the expense of the environment and ultimately, democracy, threatening the right of individual nations to pass and impose laws meant to protect their citizens and nature. In this four part series, Mongabay dives deep into the history of global trade to explain how we got to where we are today and what may lay ahead.

Part One is an origins story, beginning in a period of economic recovery and great hope after two World Wars and the Great Depression.
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