“…We see business leaders and investors flying into Cop on private jets. We see them making fancy speeches. We hear about new pledges and promises. We are drowning in promises. Promises will not stop the suffering of people. Only immediate and drastic action will pull us back from the abyss. It’s hard to believe business and finance leaders when they haven’t delivered before. We simply don’t believe it…” – Vanessa Nakate

“Despite the ever-increasing numbers of vaccines produced, both states and pharmaceutical companies are continuing to fail to guarantee fair access to lifesaving medicines for all,” Amnesty’s briefing explains. “Pfizer, one the largest and most profitable vaccine developers… has delivered in excess of 1.8 billion doses to date,” the publication continues. “Despite its many pledges—some misleadingly phrased—Pfizer… continues to reserve the bulk of its vaccines for higher-income countries.”

96% of people in low-income countries remain unvaccinated.

Pfizer expects to earn 36 billion dollars in vaccine sales this year alone, has distorted reality to benefit its corporate image. Pfizer claimed it is “committed to sharing our scientific tools and insights, development expertise, and manufacturing capacity,” yet the company has opposed sharing of intellectual property through the WHO’s Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP). The company is still refusing to participate in technology sharing initiatives, such as the South African-based [World Health Organization] mRNA technology hub, and has lobbied vigorously against efforts to lift intellectual property restrictions, proposals put forward by India and South Africa to the World Trade Organization Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to suspend critical intellectual property provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, 

“Pfizer is still putting profits before people,” Amnesty charges.

Pfizer vaccines language is misleading.” The briefing asserts “Pfizer has amalgamated low, lower-middle, and upper-middle countries—over 84% of the global population—into one group and referred to them as ‘low and middle-income.’ Within this very broad category, the bulk of Pfizer’s doses have in fact been going to ‘upper-middle’ income countries such as Malaysia, Mexico, and Thailand.”

Pfizer said it had shipped two billion vaccine doses by the end of September, but only 154 million doses, or less than 8% of its total—had been sent to 42 low and lower-middle-income countries, and that less than 10% of those shots had gone to low-income countries.

Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty’s head of business and human rights, said in a statement Thursday that “Pfizer says it is committed to supplying doses to low- and middle-income countries, but the numbers just don’t bear this out. The fact is that this company is still putting profits first. As much as these companies might want to massage the facts, the numbers are crystal clear..”

Shame on those countries hoarding vaccines, shame on Big Pharma prioritizing profits over people. Shame on both for blocking attempts to increase vaccine production.

Pfizer Misleading World With False Claims of Equitable Vaccine Distribution: Amnesty (commondreams.org)

The new U.N. Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, report revealed that a rising number of people worldwide are fleeing violence, insecurity, and the effects of the climate emergency, with over 84 million relocating within and beyond their home countries during the first half of this year.

Internally displaced people (IDP) make up more than half of the agency’s total tally at 48 million. According to UNHCR, from January to June, there were also 26.6 million refugees as well as 4.4 million asylum-seekers and 3.9 million Venezuelans displaced abroad, which is its own category.

The actual number of stateless people in the world remains unknown due to a lack of accurate data. 

“The international community is failing to prevent violence, persecution, and human rights violations, which continue to drive people from their homes,” said Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees. “In addition, the effects of climate change are exacerbating existing vulnerabilities in many areas hosting the forcibly displaced.” He pointed out that “It is the communities and countries with the fewest resources that continue to shoulder the greatest burden in protecting and caring for the forcibly displaced.” 

Developing countries hosted 85% of refugees and Venezuelans displaced abroad;73% of refugees and displaced Venezuelans lived in neighboring countries;Asylum-seekers submitted 555,400 new claims, with the United States receiving the most applications—72,900;Turkey hosted the world’s largest refugee population at 3.7 million people;16,300 refugees were resettled during the first half of this year;1.1 million people returned to their areas or nations of origin; and68% of all refugees—including those from Venezuela—came from just five countries.

The countries from which the most people fled were Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar. Some of those nations also have large amounts of internal displacement.

More than a million people were newly displaced within both Congo and Ethiopia. 

Globally, the nations with the next highest new internal displacements were Afghanistan, Myanmar, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Nigeria, Syria, Mozambique, and Burkina Faso.

Africa witnessed the most new internal displacements as conflict and violence flared in several countries across the continent,” says the report, specifically noting the impact of Civil War on Ethiopia’s Tigray region, problems in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado, and “a crisis of governance and instability in rural areas of Burkina Faso linked to the presence of armed insurgents.”

According to the report:

“At the end of June 2021, the number of pending individual asylum applications of all types stood at 4.4 million, nearly 7% more than the 4.1 million ending at the end of 2020. This trend is concerning, as lengthy backlogs heighten the risk that individuals with international protection needs will not be able to access protection and solutions in a timely and effective manner. If backlogs become protracted and asylum-seekers wait multiple years for a final determination of their claims without meaningful access to rights or certainty about their future, there will be negative consequences for everyone, including erosion of public confidence in the system, increased costs, and difficulties in returning rejected applicants.”

Over 84 Million People Forcibly Displaced by Climate Emergency, Insecurity, and Violence (commondreams.org)

To ensure a harmonious relationship with our environment only a coherent policy can abolish the gloom and uncertainty which has been made possible by insane and irrational policies which result from an unplanned and blind economic and social system, which is what capitalism is. Capitalism is different from all preceding class societies in that its driving force is accumulation for the sake of accumulation. Commodity production has become an end in itself under capitalism. Goods are produced for their exchange value, not their use-value.

Under capitalism, there are no limits to exploitation as each unit of capital has to compete with all the others. Surplus value in the form of profits is reinvested in the production process by each capitalist rather than consumed. The logic of capitalist competition forces each capitalist to obtain the maximum profit possible; otherwise, they will fall behind their competitors and go out of business. Production is therefore organised around the short term and the effect on nature, negative or otherwise is not a concern for the capitalist. Air pollution caused by a factory is not treated as a cost of production internal to that factory, rather it is viewed as an external cost to be borne by nature and society.

The fight against climate change and transition to renewable energy sources mean breaking with a capitalist economy based on the endless expansion of production no matter the cost. It’s time we made conscious and collective decisions. 

The World Socialist Movement clearly identifies the culprit: the capitalist system with its insatiable greed and irrepressible need for growth. If we want to save the world, we must dismantle capitalism itself. instead of manufacturing products for profit, we will produce to satisfy human needs with useful, durable, repairable, adaptable products, not throwaway consumer goods. A radical break with the capitalist system is required.

Socialism is all about planning at the local, regional, continental, and world levels with major decisions that could be made by the population or by committees composed of elected delegates. We replace the so-called “invisible hand” of the market with the very visible decision-making of the collective will of working people. Rather than argue against the usual environmentalist approach that focuses on individual choice and lifestyle consumption, the WSM suggests questioning the logic of capitalist production itself.

Businesses are compelled to produce more in order to sell more to maximise profits and it employs a vast elaborate advertising industry to ensure customers buy more and with built-in obsolescence, those customers are obliged to constantly re-purchase replacements. Capitalism is a hugely wasteful economy that would not be necessary with rationally organised production.

Given the urgency of the climate emergency, there couldn’t be an any better argument than a mass social revolution that changes the priorities of the system. A reformist approach that advocates piecemeal gradual change can not even begin to seriously solve the scale of the problem. The WSM envisages a future socialist society that would prioritise human needs instead of profit and restructure the economy and energy and transport usage in such a way that is sustainable and beneficial to both humanity and our surroundings. Frequently, the objection to all the practical measures to reduce global warming by mainstream economists is based on cost.

Such financial reasons will not apply inside socialism. Nor will population numbers which are often mistakenly viewed as a problem prove to be an obstacle. Each new life will not be treated as an extra mouth to feed but as an additional brain and pair of helping hands for the betterment of humanity and nature.

 AstraZeneca has started to move away from providing its Covid-19 vaccine to countries on a not-for-profit basis. The drugs giant has signed a series of for-profit agreements for next year. 

 2021 marks 100 years since the discovery of insulin. Before 1921 the diagnosis of diabetes was a death sentence, with an average life expectancy of fewer than 2 years in young people, who were only kept alive by a starvation regimen that reduced them to walking skeletons.  The discovery of insulin in 1921 was transformative and many patients with diabetes went on to live full and productive lives. Insulin treatment was a ground-breaking scientific and clinical achievement that transformed diabetes care. 

Banting, Best, and Collip sold their patent rights to insulin for the sum of one dollar to guarantee access for anyone who needed insulin. But despite the altruistic sentiments of the discoverers—Banting, Best, Collip, and Macleod—that “insulin belongs to the world”, the lack of access to insulin over the past 100 years reflects an appalling policy and implementation failure when it comes to insulin provision in low-income and middle-income countries.

 537 million adults now live with type 1 or type 2 diabetes worldwide, an increase of 16% or 74 million people. Globally, an estimated 76% of children with type 1 diabetes are unable to stay within the recommended glycaemic ranges, putting them at risk of life-threatening short-term and long-term complications. More than 50% of patients with type 2 diabetes are unable to receive the insulin they need.  Early deaths from type 1 and type 2 diabetes globally have increased by 5% since 2000, in stark contrast to premature deaths from other non-communicable diseases, which have been decreasing. In one 20-year study from Soweto, South Africa, the mortality rate for people with type 1 diabetes was 43%. Globally, around 80% of patients living with diabetes live in low-income and middle-income countries, yet most interested parties continue to pursue a research agenda driven by high-income needs. 

Global production and supply of insulin are dominated by three companies—Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, and Sanofi.  Insulin remains unaffordable for many people. In the USA, a quarter of the 7 million patients taking insulin have reported difficulties in affordability. Documents show a century of controversial pricing practices, including price-fixing, that has led to repeated market failures and continued unnecessary deaths in the USA.  Policy and regulatory processes work to the benefit of a few greedy drug companies rather than serving the needs of people who require insulin. 

Structural racism complicates insulin access pricing for racially marginalised Americans, who are both more likely to be prescribed insulin and more likely to be from low-income, uninsured, or underinsured populations that are unable to pay for it. Racial and ethnic minorities have a higher burden of disease from diabetes, in terms of prevalence, poor glycaemic control, comorbid conditions, diabetes-related complications, and diabetes-related mortality. 

Along with difficulty in getting insulin, many patients do not have access to basic blood glucose monitoring, diagnosis continues to be a problem. In high-income countries advanced technologies, such as insulin analogues, insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitoring, and hybrid closed-loop devices, have become firmly established for diabetes management and treatment. Many believe that closed-loop devices, which adjust insulin infusion largely automatically according to changing glucose values, will soon enable people with type 1 diabetes to lead lives without the continual demands of self-management. 

 In many low-income and middle-income countries, few patients can afford modern insulin analogues let alone devices to record glucose continuously or adjust insulin automatically. The provision of free medicines and glucose monitoring would make a major difference. 

100 years of insulin: a technical success but an access failure – The Lancet

“We by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like something standing outside nature … we, with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst … ” Engels

What threatens society is a lethal and unpredictable mixture of global warming with associated extreme weather events. The planet only supports life because of its delicate relationships with nature’s ecosystems. The anarchic development of capitalism and the rapacious greed of today’s multinational corporations now threaten this fine balance, which is being disturbed on a massive scale. The ‘Greenhouse Effect’ will make the climate hotter and will have a disastrous effect on agriculture. 

Under capitalism, the tremendous achievements that science has contributed to society have been used and developed in an irrational and unplanned manner which has resulted in many catastrophes. capitalism has proved incapable of using the capacity of modern science and technology to ease the nightmare conditions of the people. Conditions of life so characterised by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality and low life expectancy still prevail in my countries. Science and technology have made possible the development of computers and robots, the real ‘energy crisis’ for over many people is to obtain the firewood or charcoal as fuel for cooking and little access to electricity. A searing indictment of  big business has been the devastation of the mighty Amazon rainforest with the blessing of the present Brazilian government 

The destruction of the environment is inevitable in a society dominated by blind market forces and has now reached calamitous proportions. The inherent contradictions, antagonisms and the competition of interests make capitalism absolutely incapable of introducing adequate safeguards against excessive carbon emission pollution. Our survival necessitates the elimination of the blind consumerism that causes us to squander so many of the world’s resources needlessly. We believe in socialism where fulfilment will be found in the relationships among people and not in the consumption of things.

Our enemy is capitalism. In order to fight the enemy and win, we have to understand the enemy. Capitalism dominates our economic system. Under capitalism, a handful who own the factories, the mines, corporate farms, and the banks control the wealth that the majority of the people produce. It is this system that we are fighting. The struggle for a liveable planet is a life-and-death issue. The greed of the corporations has polluted our air, poisoned our waters, and drenched our soil and food with dangerous chemicals. People will have to change how they live and how society is organised. The threat to the environment affects everyone. More and more seas of the world are being increasingly polluted because nations are pursuing policies of plunder, blindly seeking high profits in disregard of the safety of the people. The capitalists have polluted and destroyed the environment as they plundered the mineral wealth of all nations.

Capitalism can never be ‘green’ and ethical shopping in your local high street can never save the world. A business, well-intentioned or not, cannot escape market pressures. Competition squeezes profits and strangles ethics. While the market forces standards down it keep the consumer in the dark. Bogus claims about products go unchecked and unpunished. The capitalist market never creates stable, sustainable relationships. Because it is unplanned and because it is driven by the crude search for profits, the short term interests of particular capitalists will always prevail over the welfare of communities and the countryside. The last line of defence for ‘green capitalists’ is the desperate claim that ‘at least they are doing something’. Yet the kind of lifestyle solution promoted by ‘green capitalists’ betrays a deep pessimism about the environment. It suggests the problems are too big and complex for a real, organised solution. The only hope is that by buying eco-friendly products you are putting off an environmental Armageddon for a few years.

Capitalism is harming the environment. The damage to environmentally important areas of our planet is not caused by scarcity or overpopulation suggesting that people, particularly poor people, were a form of pollution. But there was already enough food in the world to sustain the population twice over. The problem in large areas of the globe is not over-exploitation but under-development. In Africa, only 10 percent of farmland is properly irrigated, and the amount of arable land there could be increased. 

Capitalism compromises our relation to nature. All production decisions are made by a tiny handful of capitalists, not in the interests of humanity, but purely for profit. Environmental concerns are ignored in the short term scramble for profit. The vast majority of the population who want to live in a safe, healthy world, and to enjoy nature, have no control over decisions that affect our lives. Some environmentalists claim that economic growth, or even human society itself, is innately hostile to nature. Modern technology is not in itself destructive.

The market can never be harnessed to develop a harmonious relationship with nature because it depends on its exploitation. Its priority is profit and it will inevitably result in the destruction of the environment.

Despite pledges made at the climate summit COP26, the world is still nowhere near its goals on limiting global temperature rise, according to the Climate Action Tracker (CAT).

A global water crisis is being ignored at Cop26 to the detriment of billions of people’s lives, according to the charity WaterAid.

A 2016 study found two-thirds of the global population, four billion people, faced water shortages, and many were at increased risk of floods and droughts brought on by the climate crisis.

“The climate crisis is a water crisis at its core,” he said. Rainfall patterns have changed in many parts of the world; “more intense and more frequent floods pollute water sources and destroy crops or homes, while longer and more frequent droughts dry up the springs many people need to survive.”

Water had not had “nearly enough” attention at the climate conference in Glasgow, with urgent action needed, said Tim Wainwright, chief executive of WaterAid.

“The way that climate change affects human beings is almost entirely through water, either too much or too little,” he said. “So why aren’t we talking about water all the time? We need the kind of action on water that we have already happening on the energy transition,” he said Wainwright said very little action was being taken to help affected communities. A WaterAid analysis in 2020 found that water received less than 3% of climate finance overall.

Rising sea levels were introducing salt into water sources in places, and drought was pushing water deep underground in others, he said, forcing people, mostly women, to spend longer and walk further in search of water.

“Water is fundamental to life,” said Wainwright. “It underlies your health, your ability to have an education…Unless action was taken, the future would not be “not worth thinking about”, Wainwright added. “It’s calamitous. A lack of access to water is already killing people … It’s unthinkable not to do something about this. The world has to rise to this challenge.”

“We need a revolution that takes us to zero carbon and we need a revolution that takes us to adapting the world to cope with the climate change that is irreversible,” he said.

There are two billion people, or 1 in 4, who lack access to safe drinking water.

Nearly half the world’s population (3.6 billion people) don’t have adequate sanitation.

6 billion cases of diarrhoea.

12 billion cases of parasitic worms.