Ugandan climate justice activist Vanessa Nakate denounced world leaders for continuing to support new coal, oil, and gas projects despite overwhelming evidence that extracting and burning more fossil fuels will exacerbate deadly climate chaos.

“The focus for many leaders is about making deals for fossil fuel lobbyists, surviving the next election cycle, and grabbing as much short-term profit as possible,” Nakate said in Sharm El-Sheikh. “You are sowing the wind and frontline communities are reaping the whirlwind,” said Nakate. “You are sowing seeds of coal, oil, and gas while frontline communities are reaping havoc, devastation, and destruction.”

 Nakate said that oil and gas representatives are turning COP27 into “a sales and marketing conference for more pollution and more destruction and more devastation.” 

She was alluding to the presence of more than 630 fossil fuel lobbyists at the meeting, which is being held in a heavily policed and expensive resort city.

Nakate told Democracy Now, “My worry is that the environment and biodiversity is going to be destroyed. We are going to find ourselves in an accelerated climate crisis, and profits are going to end up in pockets of already-rich people.”

Nakate detailed how the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency is intensifying suffering in the Global South, including by reducing access to clean water and food and increasing disease transmission and displacement.

Vanessa Nakate Slams World Leaders for Perpetuating Deadly Fossil Fuels (commondreams.org)

 The health of millions of citizens is being threatened by the homes they live in. For decades experts have been complaining that millions of people are living in sub-standard or dangerous accommodation.

What does Awaab Ishak’s death tell us about England’s housing? – BBC News

 The company behind Moët and Dom Pérignon has said it is “running out of stock on our best champagnes” as the wealthy spend big on luxury goods in a new “roaring 20s” age of decadence. 

While working people suffer a big slump in living standards The chief executive of Moët Hennessy, Philippe Schaus, said 2022 would be “a fabulous year” for its champagne – which starts at about £40 a bottle and can cost thousands – as evidenced by stocks running low in the company’s network of cellars that stretch for 17 miles.

“We are running out of stock on our best champagnes. As people are coming out of Covid there’s been pent up demand for luxury, enjoyment and travelling,” Schaus said in an interview.

Overall, champagne and wine sales were up 32% in the first nine months of 2022 compared with 2021.

Earlier this year the Guardian reported soaring sales of champagne in City of London wine bars as bankers celebrated the biggest bonus season since before the 2008 global financial crisis. 

It’s not just champagne that’s flying off shelves. Luxury goods companies across the world have recently reported booming sales in everything from designer-label clothing and handbags to expensive watches and supercars as the ranks of the ultra-wealthy hit record highs. The global luxury goods industry is expected to achieve total sales of £1.22tn this year, an increase of 21% on 2021. The report, published on Tuesday, said the sector “remains poised to see further expansion next year, and for the rest of the decade to 2030, even in the face of present economic turbulence”.

LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company, which also owns brands including Christian Dior, Stella McCartney, TAG Heuer watches and Bulgari and Tiffany jewellery, last month reported a 19% jump in third-quarter sales.

Jean-Jacques Guiony, LVMH’s chief financial officer, said that among his customers the economic downturn “has not materialised into full swing yet … if ever it does”.

 Kering, which owns Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta, reported a 14% increase in its third quarter sales.

Hermès, whose Birkin handbags can costs tens of thousands of pounds, reported a 24% jump in sales.

The company’s finance director, Eric du Halgouet, said: “For the moment, we don’t see any sign of slowdown in any of our markets.”

There are now record 218,200 people classed as ultra-high net worth (UHNW), with assets of more than $50m (£43.7m), according to research by the investment bank Credit Suisse. It said there had been “almost an explosion of wealth” during the recovery from the pandemic. Analysts predict that the boom in luxury goods is likely to continue as rich people spend the £2.52tn saved up during the pandemic.

Firm behind Moët hails new ‘roaring 20s’ as wealthy drain stocks of champagne | Food & drink industry | The Guardian

 A new peer-reviewed study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine determined that increased consumption of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) was associated with more than 10% of all-cause premature, preventable deaths in Brazil in 2019. The study found that approximately 57,000 deaths in one year could be attributed to the consumption of UPFs – 10.5% of all premature deaths and 21.8% of all deaths from preventable noncommunicable diseases in adults aged 30 to 69. Across all age groups and sex strata, consumption of UPFs ranged from 13% to 21% of total food intake in Brazil during the period studied

Brazilians consume far less of these products than countries with high incomes such as U S, Canada, the UK, and Australia. This means the estimated impact would be even higher in richer nations.

UPFs are ready-to-eat-or-heat industrial formulations made with ingredients extracted from foods or synthesised in laboratories. Examples of UPFs are prepackaged soups, sauces, frozen pizza, ready-to-eat meals, hot dogs, sausages, sodas, ice cream, and store-bought cookies, cakes, candies and doughnuts. These have gradually been replacing traditional foods and meals made from fresh and minimally processed ingredients in many countries.

The study’s lead investigator Eduardo AF Nilson states, “Consumption of UPFs is associated with many disease outcomes, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancers and other diseases…”

In Mexico, companies have taken over food distribution channels, replacing local foods with cheap processed items, often with the direct support of the government and the consequences for public health have been catastrophic.

Mexico’s National Institute for Public Health released the results of a national survey of food security and nutrition in 2012. Between 1988 and 2012, the proportion of overweight women between the ages of 20 and 49 increased from 25 to 35% and the number of obese women in this age group increased from 9 to 37%. Some 29% of Mexican children between the ages of 5 and 11 were found to be overweight, as were 35% of the youngsters between 11 and 19, while one in ten school age children experienced anaemia.

More than half the population of the European Union (EU) is overweight or obese. Without effective action, this number will grow substantially by 2026.

 A report A Spoonful of Sugar: How the Food Lobby Fights Sugar Regulation in the EU by the research and campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) noted that obesity rates were rising fastest among lowest socio-economic groups. That is because energy-dense foods of poor nutritional value are cheaper than more nutritious foods, such as vegetables and fruit, and relatively poor families with children purchase food primarily to satisfy their hunger. The report argued that more people than ever before are eating processed foods as a large part of their diet. And the easiest way to make industrial, processed food cheap, long-lasting and enhance the taste is to add extra sugar as well as salt and fat to products.

The food industry has vigorously mobilised to stop vital public health legislation. The leverage which food industry giants have over decision-making has helped the sugar lobby to see off many of the threats to its profit margins. 

Katharine Ainger, co-author of CEO’s report, said: “Sound scientific advice is being sidelined by the billions of euros backing the sugar lobby. In its dishonesty and its disregard for people’s health, the food and drink industry rivals the tactics we’ve seen from the tobacco lobby for decades.”

While industry-funded studies influence European Food Standards Authority decisions, Coca Cola, Nestlé and other food giants engage in corporate propaganda by sponsoring sporting events and major exercise programmes to divert attention from the impacts of their products and give the false impression that exercise and lifestyle choices are the major factors in preventing poor health.  prominent figures with close ties to the corridors of power have been co-opted to influence policy in order to boost the interests of agri-food corporations.

The International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) was founded in 1978 by Alex Malaspina, a Coca-Cola scientific and regulatory affairs leader. It started with an endowment of $22 million with the support of Coca Cola. Since then, ILSI has been quietly infiltrating government health and nutrition bodies around the globe and has more than 17 branches that influence food safety and nutrition science in various regions. Little more than a front group for its 400 corporate members that provide its $17 million budget, ILSI’s members include Coca-Cola, DuPont, PepsiCo, General Mills and Danone.

 ILSI has received more than $2 million from chemical companies, among them Monsanto. In 2016, a UN committee issued a ruling that glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s weedkiller Roundup, was “probably not carcinogenic”. The committee was led by two ILSI officials.

As far back as 2003, it was reported that ILSI had spread its influence across the national and global food policy arena. The report talked about undue influence exerted on specific WHO/FAO food policies dealing with dietary guidelines, pesticide use, additives, trans-fatty acids and sugar.

In January 2019, two papers by Harvard Professor Susan Greenhalgh, in the BMJ and the Journal of Public Health Policy, revealed ILSI’s influence on the Chinese government regarding issues related to obesity. And in April 2019,  Corporate Accountability released a report on ILSI titled Partnership for an Unhealthy Planet.

A 2017 report in the Times of India noted that ILSI-India was being actively consulted by India’s apex policy-formulating body – Niti Aayog. ILSI-India’s board of trustees was dominated by food and beverage companies – seven of 13 members were from the industry or linked to it (Mondelez, Mars, Abbott, Ajinomoto, Hindustan Unilever and Nestle) and the treasurer was Sunil Adsule of Coca-Cola India.

In India, ILSI’s expanding influence coincides with mounting rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

In 2020, US Right to Know (USRTK) referred to a study published in Public Health Nutrition that helped to further confirm ILSI as little more than an industry propaganda arm. The study uncovered “a pattern of activity in which ILSI sought to exploit the credibility of scientists and academics to bolster industry positions and promote industry-devised content in its meetings, journal, and other activities.”

Gary Ruskin, executive director of USRTK, a consumer and public health group, said: “ILSI is insidious… Across the world, ILSI is central to the food industry’s product defence, to keep consumers buying the ultra-processed food, sugary beverages and other junk food that promotes obesity, type 2 diabetes and other ills.”

Millions Suffer as Junk Food Industry Rakes in Profit | Dissident Voice

Meating Need

Don’t set an Amazonian ranch hand

To cut or burn the rain forest for beef,

As animal husbandry is the thief

Of earth. Pork and mutton degrade the land

No matter how organically they’re farmed.

Then, however well-tended, there must be

The trauma of the slaughterhouse, To see

A grassy grazing meadow is to be charmed

By an idyll, concealing the bolt gun

And letting blade. Also, there’s the methane.

Yet the world can be fed all its protein

Once precision fermentation’s begun,

And three quarters of farmland reconciled

To a natural carbon reserving wild.

D. A.

 November 15, 2022, is predicted to be the day that the global population reaches eight billion. 

UN projections suggest that the world’s population could grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050, before reaching a peak of around 10.4 billion people during the 2080s. The population is expected to remain at that level until 2100.

 UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said,  “Let us protect human rights and the ability of all individuals to make informed choices about whether and when to have children.” Guterres added that “eight billion people means eight billion opportunities to live dignified and fulfilled lives”. He urged everyone to contribute to a common future with greater equality and solidarity for the planet and future generations.

The annual 2022 World Population Prospect report notes that the global population is growing at its slowest rate since 1950, having fallen to less than one per cent in 2020.

Fertility rates has fallen markedly in recent decades for many countries: today, two-thirds of the global population lives in a country or area where lifetime fertility is below 2.1 births per woman, roughly the level required for zero growth in the long run, for a population with low mortality.

61 countries or regions, the population is expected to decrease by at least one per cent over the next three decades, as a result of sustained low levels of fertility and, in some cases, elevated rates of emigration.

More than half of the projected increase in the global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania. Countries of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to contribute more than half of the increase anticipated through 2050.

“Further actions by Governments aimed at reducing fertility would have little impact on the pace of population growth between now and mid-century, because of the youthful age structure of today’s global population,” said John Wilmoth, Director of the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). “Nevertheless, the cumulative effect of lower fertility, if maintained over several decades, could be a more substantial deceleration of global population growth in the second half of the century”.

The report said in most countries of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in parts of Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, recent reductions in fertility have led to a “demographic dividend”, with a rise in the share of the working-age population (25 to 64 years), providing an opportunity for accelerated economic growth per capita. The report argues that to make the most of this opportunity, countries should invest in the further development of their human capital, by ensuring access to health care and quality education at all ages, and by promoting opportunities for productive employment and decent work.

More Older People, Living Longer

By 2050 it is expected that the number of persons aged 65 years or over worldwide will be more than twice the number of children under the age of five,  and about the same as the number under age 12.

Further reductions in mortality are projected to result in an average global longevity of around 77.2 years in 2050. Yet in 2021, life expectancy for the least developed countries lagged seven years behind the global average.

The report recommends public programs for the growing numbers of older persons, establishing universal health care and long-term care systems, and by improving the sustainability of social security and pension systems.

The World Population Fund (UNFPA) upheld that we live in a world in which “higher shares of people are educated and live healthier lives than at any previous point in history”. It said,  “Societies that invest in their people, in their rights and choices, have proven time and again that this is the road to the prosperity and peace that everyone wants — and deserves.”

World Population To Reach 8 Billion Tomorrow, Growth Rate Slows| Countercurrents

Senate Armed Services Committee, Senators Jack Reed (D) and Jim Inhofe (R), have their way, Congress will soon invoke wartime emergency powers to build up even greater stockpiles of Pentagon weapons. The amendment is supposedly designed to facilitate replenishing the weapons the United States has sent to Ukraine, but a look at the wish list contemplated in this amendment reveals a different story.

Reed and Inhofe’s idea is to tuck their wartime amendment into the FY2023 National Defense Appropriation Act (NDAA) that will be passed during the lameduck session before the end of the year. The amendment sailed through the Armed Services Committee in mid-October and, if it becomes law, the Department of Defense will be allowed to lock in multi-year contracts and award non-competitive contracts to arms manufacturers for Ukraine-related weapons. 

If the Reed/Inhofe amendment is really aimed at replenishing the Pentagon’s supplies, then why do the quantities in its wish list vastly surpass those sent to Ukraine?

The current star of U.S. military aid to Ukraine is Lockheed Martin’s HIMARS rocket system, the same weapon U.S. Marines used to help reduce much of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, to rubble in 2017. The U.S. has only sent 38 HIMARS systems to Ukraine, but Senators Reed and Inhofe plan to “reorder” 700 of them, with 100,000 rockets, which could cost up to $4 billion.Another artillery weapon provided to Ukraine is the M777 155 mm howitzer. To “replace” the 142 M777s sent to Ukraine, the senators plan to order 1,000 of them, at an estimated cost of  $3.7 billion, from BAE Systems.HIMARS launchers can also fire Lockheed Martin’s long-range (up to 190 miles) MGM-140 ATACMS missiles, which the U.S. has not sent to Ukraine. In fact the U.S. has only ever fired 560 of them, mostly at Iraq in 2003. The even longer-range “Precision Strike Missile,” formerly prohibited under the INF Treaty renounced by Trump, will start replacing the ATACMS in 2023, yet the Reed-Inhofe Amendment would buy 6,000 ATACMS, 10 times more than the U.S. has ever used, at an estimated cost of $600 million.Reed and Inhofe plan to buy 20,000 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles from Raytheon. But Congress already spent $340 million for 2,800 Stingers to replace the 1,400 sent to Ukraine. Reed and Inhofe’s amendment will “re-replenish” the Pentagon’s stocks 14 times over, which could cost $2.4 billion.The United States has supplied Ukraine with only two Harpoon anti-ship missile systems—already a provocative escalation—but the amendment includes 1,000 Boeing Harpoon missiles (at about $1.4 billion) and 800 newer Kongsberg Naval Strike Missiles (about $1.8 billion), the Pentagon’s replacement for the Harpoon.The Patriot air defense system is another weapon the U.S. has not sent to Ukraine, because each system can cost a billion dollars and the basic training course for technicians to maintain and repair it takes more than a year to complete. And yet the Inhofe-Reed wish list includes 10,000 Patriot missiles, plus launchers, which could add up to $30 billion.

Opinion | Reed/Inhofe Amendment Would Open Floodgates for War Profiteers | Medea Benjamin (commondreams.org)

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) issued a new Living Amazon Report, 2022 at COP27 . According to the report, 35% of the Amazon rainforest is either totally lost or highly degraded. 

“The situation has begun to show signs of nearing a point of no return: seasons are changing, surface water is being lost, rivers are becoming increasingly disconnected and polluted, and forests are under immense pressure from increasingly devastating waves of deforestation and fire. This could lead to irreversible change in the near future.”

According to the WWF report: There are (1) six-hundred (600) infrastructure projects in operation along Amazon rivers (2) twenty planned road projects, (3) four-hundred operating, or planned, dams; meanwhile, numerous mining operations continue to dump chemicals such as mercury into rivers. According to PRODES, a satellite monitoring system, the pace of commercialization of the Amazon trudges ahead as 4.2 million square miles of the rainforest was cleared for commercial development last year alone.

 In another recent report from Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG) claiming that 26% of the forests have already “irreversibly transformed.”

 “The savannization of the Amazon is already visible in Brazil and Bolivia while Ecuador, Columbia and Peru seem to be heading in the same direction.” (Mongabay)

Amazon Rainforest Crisis Report at COP27 | Dissident Voice

The combined methane emissions of 15 of the world’s largest meat and dairy companies are higher than those of several of the world’s largest countries, including Russia, Canada and Australia, according to an analysis from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and Changing Markets Foundation. 

Methane emissions by the companies – five meat and 10 dairy corporations – equate to more than 80% of the European Union’s entire methane footprint.

If the 15 companies were treated as a country, the report noted, it would be the 10th-largest greenhouse gas-emitting jurisdiction in the world. Their combined emissions outpace those of oil companies such as ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, researchers found.

Researchers singled out individual livestock companies such as JBS, the world’s largest meat company, and the French dairy giant Danone.

JBS’s methane emissions “far outpace all other companies”, according to the report, exceeding the combined livestock emissions of France, Germany, Canada and New Zealand.

The world’s second-largest meat company, Tyson, produces approximately as much livestock methane as Russia, researchers said, and Dairy Farmers of America produces as much as the United Kingdom.

Methane emissions from 15 meat and dairy companies rival those of the EU | Environment | The Guardian

 Humans could face a reproductive crisis if action is not taken to tackle a drop in sperm count, researchers have warned after finding the rate of decline is accelerating.

A study published in the journal Human Reproduction Update, based on 153 estimates from men who were probably unaware of their fertility, suggests that the average sperm concentration fell from an estimated 101.2m per ml to 49.0m per ml between 1973 and 2018 – a drop of 51.6%. Total sperm counts fell by 62.3% during the same period.

Research by the same team, reported in 2017, found that sperm concentration had more than halved in the last 40 years. However, at the time a lack of data for other parts of the world meant the findings were focused on a region encompassing Europe, North America and Australia. The latest study includes more recent data from 53 countries.

The rate of decline appears to be increasing: looking at data collected in all continents since 1972, the researchers found sperm concentrations declined by 1.16% per year. However, when they looked only at data collected since the year 2000, the decline was 2.64% per year.

Previous studies have suggested that fertility is compromised if sperm concentration falls below about 40m per ml. While the latest estimate is above this threshold. This is a mean figure, suggesting the percentage of men below this threshold will have increased.

“I think this is another signal that something is wrong with the globe and that we need to do something about it. So yes, I think it’s a crisis, that we had better tackle now, before it may reach a tipping point which may not be reversible,” said Prof Hagai Levine, first author of the research from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Such a decline clearly represents a decline in the capacity of the population to reproduce.” 

Tina Kold Jensen of the University of Southern Denmark said the new study recapitulated a concerning trend. “You keep on finding the same trend, no matter how many studies you include – that is a bit scary to me,” she said.

Prof Richard Sharpe, an expert in male reproductive health at the University of Edinburgh, said the new data showed that the trend appeared to be a worldwide phenomenon.  He explained, “These issues are not just a problem for couples trying to have kids. They are also a huge problem for society in the next 50-odd years as less and less young people will be around to work and support the increasing bulge of elderly folk.”

Humans could face reproductive crisis as sperm count declines, study finds | Fertility problems | The Guardian