The IMF on Climate Change

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Equity markets have generally ignored the increasing number of natural disasters over the past 50 years and tougher rules are needed to make investors aware of the dangers posed by the climate crisis, the International Monetary Fund has said.



Companies should be forced to disclose their exposure to climate risk because a voluntary approach does not go far enough, the IMF said.
The IMF said global temperatures were currently 1.1C above their pre-industrial level and were on course to rise by a total of 3C unless stronger action was taken.
“Climate change induced by this level of warming is, in turn, expected to adversely impact the world’s stock of natural assets, lead to a significant rise in sea level, and increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather event,” the IMF said. “As the frequency and severity of climatic hazards rise, the resultant socioeconomic losses could be significantly higher than in recent history.”

Last year was also marked by a series of severe weather-related events, including flooding in the US and bushfires in Australia, but the IMF said this was part of a trend for the number of disasters to increase “considerably” in the past few decades, from slightly more than 50 in the early 1980s to about 200 since 2000. It noted that Hurricane Kartrin devastated New Orleans in 2005, and Dominica suffered damage amounting to more than twice its GDP when Hurricane Maria struck in 2017.



Even so there had been little indication that investors had become more aware of the potential losses they could face if global temperatures continued to rise, with only a modest impact on stock markets, shares in banks and insurance companies from large disasters. The IMF said. “This suggests that equity investors may not be paying sufficient attention to climate change risks.”



“Of course, strong policy actions to mitigate climate change would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and future physical risk in the first place, conferring benefits to mankind that extend well beyond the realm of financial stability. Yet, from a financial stability perspective, this transition to a lower-carbon economy needs to be carefully managed to avoid abrupt and unanticipated repricing of portfolios and economic dislocation.”



https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/29/markets-not-paying-attention-to-climate-crisis-imf-warns

The ‘Bolsonarization’ of Bolivia

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Last November’s coup removed Bolivian President Evo Morales from power. Since then the world’s media has fallen silent. 



 Morales and the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party governed the country for 14 years. Certain negative actions and policies of the MAS government over these years in power contributed to its own crisis of legitimacy in the lead up to the October 2019 elections.  In the lead up to the October 20, 2019 election, the MAS and Morales were already mired in a crisis of legitimacy, making them an easier target for the right, which had been consolidating forces and capitalizing off of the errors of the MAS. The issue of fraud during the October 20th elections, which indicated Morales won another term, has been widely debated and investigated. Following the election, protesters against Morales allied with right-wing leader Fernando Camacho and other racist figures, fomenting destabilization and violence in the country in an effort to force Morales out of office. These efforts ultimately created the pretext for a police and military intervention   Regardless of the extent or existence of fraud, the Organization of American States strategically threw gasoline on the fire during a critical moment of the October crisis with their early claims of fraud, pushing the country into violence. On November 8, police across the country mutinied against the government, and the military “suggested” Morales step down on November 10. Morales and other MAS leaders were forced to flee or go into hiding. Morales left the country for Mexico.



 The Right, having planned for a seizure of the government, took advantage of the power vacuum and entered office with the crucial blessing of the Bolivian armed forces and the US embassy. 



 Senator Jeanine Áñez declared herself president in front of an empty Congress on November 12.  State repression immediately following the coup left dozens dead of unarmed protesters and bystanders dead in Senkata and Sacaba, key areas of resistance to the coup regime. and the government has been throwing political enemies behind bars. 

Following Áñez’s seizure of power, Bolivia has endured the worst state violence and political persecution it has seen in decades.





“They’re criminalizing social protest…” Bolivian journalist Fernando Molina explained. “There’s a ‘Bolsonarization’ of Bolivia.”


The Áñez government threatens to roll back major progressive policies of the MAS, as well as victories won in the streets by Bolivia’s broad social, labor, and indigenous movements.


“The coup d’état is not just against the state, the government, but also the social movement organizations,” Aymara feminist activist Adriana Guzmán explained.


https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/05/28/bibles-barricades-how-right-seized-power-bolivia

Mutual Aid is there for the Asking

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Many still cling to the hope that the COVID-19 crisis will transform the use of state power into an altruistic tool acting on behalf of the vulnerable and powerless, rather than view it as an opportunity for governments to harness the state’s intervention to advance the oligarchy’s interests and increase its privileges. Nationalist and populist political leaders are stoking prejudice and  xenophobia accusing cunning foreigners of nefarious scheming. Aspiring strongmen politicians are reinforcing divisions while at the same time rewarding their corporate sponsors and donors.

Our message to our fellow-workers is that those who do not own the means of production are nothing but the slaves of those who do. The forces of production long ago reached the point where they could produce the abundance necessary for the change from private ownership into social ownership. The interdependence of society has outgrown local and national bounds and is world wide. The workers of the world must organise politically to dispossess the capitalist class of the means of production and distribution and establish common ownership. The Socialist Party urges our fellow working men and women of all nations and races to join with the World Socialist Movement in order to free society from the tyranny of class rule. Socialism requires an economy developed to the point where production for need supersedes production for profit. Humanity will no longer produce goods to be exchanged for money on the market. It will produce use values distributed to all members of society in order to satisfy their needs


The only real way forward, in the end, is the world socialist cooperative commonwealth.



Making sure CEOs are looked after

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Sonic Automotive which operates 95 U.S. car dealerships, started laying off and furloughing about a third of its workforce as the coronavirus pandemic crushed its sales. Then it changed its executives’ pay packages – handing them a multimillion-dollar windfall. On April 10, Sonic’s board gave its top executives stock options to replace performance-based share awards. The options it gave Chief Executive David Smith, whose family controls the company, are now worth about $5.16 million – more than four times the value of the performance-based stock awards he got last year. Sonic’s terminated employees, meanwhile, face hard times. 



Sonic is one of six U.S. companies identified in a Reuters review of regulatory filings that have moved to shield their executives’ compensation from the pandemic’s economic fallout as they laid off or furloughed workers. The others include plush toy seller Build-A-Bear Workshop, restaurant operator Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, retailer Signet Jewelers, fashion brand DKNY owner G-III Apparel Group and fracking sand producer Covia Holdings. Reuters found 75 other companies that disclosed they are considering changes to executive pay plans in light of the pandemic’s impact on their businesses. Among them are ridesharing giant Uber Technologies, hotel operator Hilton Worldwide Holdings, carrier Delta Air Lines, satellite radio company Sirius XM Holdings and Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters News. 



Sirius XM said it “may be prudent” to change executive pay terms to ensure it can attract and retain “senior management talent.” Delta said in a filing that its performance measures no longer suited the “current reality” and that the value of executives’ incentive pay had declined by more than half in the pandemic. G-III and Signet said the changes were needed to retain management talent, while Build-A-Bear said the moves aligned the interests of executives with shareholders. Build-A-Bear, which sells customized stuffed animals, announced a 20% executive salary reduction in March as it furloughed more than 90% of its 4,300 workers. That translated to a cut of $142,800 from the $714,000 salary of CEO Sharon John. Two weeks later, however, the company granted its top management stock grants of roughly equivalent value to the salary cuts.  



 Covia, Red Robin, Uber and Hilton said in filings that uncertainty arising from the pandemic caused them to revisit performance pay. Thomson Reuters said in a filing that it had approved executive performance targets in February and early March without the benefit of being able to consider the pandemic’s impact on its business.



More than 500 companies in the Russell 3000 index have announced cuts to the base salaries of their chief executives, to save money or show they are sharing workers’ pain, according to compensation consultant Semler Brossy. Base salaries, however, account for only a tenth of the median pay of chief executives at the largest 500 U.S. companies, according to research firm Equilar. They earn the bulk of their compensation through stock awards.



  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ceopay-insight/u-s-firms-shield-ceo-pay-as-pandemic-hits-workers-investors-idUSKBN2341N9

Climate change is a killer

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A new study has found “substantial underreporting” in the numbers of deaths caused by environmental crises.
Dr Arnagretta Hunter, of ANU Medical School who co-authored the study, said in a statement: “Climate change is a killer, but we don’t acknowledge it on death certificates. If you have an asthma attack and die during heavy smoke exposure from bushfires, the death certificate should include that information. We can make a diagnosis of disease like coronavirus, but we are less literate in environmental determinants like hot weather or bushfire smoke.”



The research, published in journal The Lancet Planetary Health this month, revealed that over the past 11 years, the number of deaths attributed to excessive natural heat is at least 50 times greater than is recorded on death certificates in Australia.





During that time some 340 deaths in Australia were recorded as excessive heat but experts from The Australian National University (ANU) found that 36,765 could be attributed to the environmental conditions, following statistical analysis. The study indicates that the heat-related mortality rate in Australia is actually around 2 per cent.

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-deaths-kill-records-wildfires-a9533536.html





Brazil’s Callous COVID-19 Attitude

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Julio Croda, an epidemiologist who used to head Brazil’s health ministry’s department of immunization and transmissible diseases, said he encountered a lack of urgency from the government when his department predicted that the elderly would bear the brunt of the coronavirus.

Croda reported that when informed that older people would be more likely to die from the disease, Solange Vieira, who leads the Superintendence of Private Insurance, linked to the country’s finance ministry and who helped reform the country’s pensions, said:
 “It’s good that deaths are concentrated among the old. That will improve our economic performance as it will reduce our pension deficit.” 



Blaming People for the Pandemic

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 Socialists even from environmentalists and progressives frequently get challenged with the concept of over-population, a view of the world that we always try to refute. Fortunately, there are some who share our ideas that population in itself is not the problem. It is worth while linking to and quoting from this article on the Dissident Voice website that contests the claims that the present pandemic can be blamed on over-population.



“…So, what is the connection between population and pandemic? Employing what he calls “root cause analysis,” Mr. Judge conflates “overpopulation” with “overcrowding.” The overcrowding he is concerned about is that found in “urban slums,” which he specifically cites in the article. That is, the overcrowding of poor people who cannot afford to live in what he calls the “sparsely populated areas.”…



…Let’s test Mr. Judge’s hypothesis regarding the relationship between density of population and response to the pandemic. Take Belgium, where Mr. Judge lives. After the mini-state of San Marino, Belgium has the unfortunate distinction of having the highest COVID-19 death rate in the world at 82 deaths per 1000 people. Its population density is 974 people per square mile. In comparison, Singapore and Hong Kong are the two most densely populated territories in the world with 20,455 and 17,565 people/mi2 respectively, after the mini-territories of Macau and Monaco. Their death rates are only 23 and 4 per 1000 population, respectively. That is, Belgium has over 20 times the death rate of Hong Kong, while Hong Kong’s population density is over 18 times that of Belgium…



…Consistent with those who espouse the overpopulation thesis, Mr. Judge yearns for an idyllic past when the planet was not as overrun by humans, say,- the Middle Ages. Since the 1300s, the world’s population has increased over 17-fold. But that much smaller population did not prevent the Black Death pandemic from taking an estimated 75-200 million lives back then…



…In short, blaming the condition of humanity for pandemics is not supported by the facts. Densely populated places have succeeded well in containing COVID-19, while there have been far more devastating pandemics than the one we are suffering now, when there were far fewer of us on the planet. Overpopulation ideology, as represented by Mr. Judge’s article, conflates overcrowding with overpopulation…
…. Mr. Judge’s sophistry and my critique are not new. Two hundred years ago, Karl Marx made a similar criticism of Thomas Malthus’ contention that the world was overpopulated. Malthus opposed the English Poor Laws because they relieved human suffering and thus encouraged poor people to reproduce. Malthus’ theory was a retrograde response to the French Revolution and the rise of the working class. Overpopulation ideology is misanthropic and reactionary in its origins and its modern expression. Mr. Judge’s article is silent about our political system or economic order; it’s simply that there are too many people. Aside from being wrong, it begs the question, which people?…
…The objection to overpopulation ideology is not just an intellectual one, but whether such an ideological framework promotes solutions. The ideology of overpopulation poses the wrong causes while obscuring the right solutions.
World population growth rates are precipitously declining and on a trajectory to stabilize this century, with the current rate at 1%. 
Meanwhile resource consumption continues to increase at a rate of 6 to 7%. Clearly, something beyond simple demographics are at play, and that is what overpopulation ideology obfuscates. The relations of power call to be addressed in our quest of a better world. And this is precisely what the ideology of overpopulation obscures to the benefit of the powerful few and to the detriment of the multitude of humanity.

Roger D. Harris is with the human rights organization Task Force on the Americas,

American Poverty

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A poll released by the U.S. Census Bureau this week revealed that at least nine million American households that include children are unsure whether they’ll be able to access enough food in the next four weeks and more than 18 million are only “somewhat confident” about their food security with millions more are experiencing housing insecurity during the coronavirus pandemic.



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/29/least-9-million-us-households-children-are-not-all-confident-theyll-be-able-afford

Will Things Change?

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40.7 million Americans have lost their jobs over just the past 10 weeks as mass layoffs induced by the coronavirus pandemic continue. More than 100,000 people have died of Covid-19 in the United States.



Currently, there are 16 more billionaires than there were in mid-March.



According to a new analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), the combined net worth of America’s billionaires soared by nearly half a trillion dollars, bringing their total wealth to $3.4 trillion. IPS, which has been publishing weekly updates on billionaire “pandemic profiteering,” found that the combined net worth of U.S. billionaires grew by $485 billion between March 18 and May 28, an increase of 16.5%.



 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw their combined wealth soar by $63 billion over the last 10 weeks.



It said, “This is a grotesque indicator of the deep inequalities in U.S. society,” adding,  “This isn’t just unsustainable, it’s unconscionable.”




Let off the hook

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Ten corporations that agreed to a total of $56m in civil penalties for allegedly breaking environmental laws are not being required to make payments under a pause granted by the US government during the Covid-19 pandemic. They signed settlements with the government agreeing to pay fines without admitting liability but the justice department last month advised most of the companies of extensions.

One company, Virginia power provider Dominion Energy, settled and agreed to pay $1.4m for allegedly releasing 27.5m gallons of water from a coal ash impoundment that seeped into groundwater along the shore of the James River. Coal ash contains dangerous pollutants, including mercury, cadmium and arsenic, which can cause widespread environmental damage. The company said it plans to pay the settlement penalty once it is finalized.

Dominion has a number of ties to high-ranking Trump officials, including EPA’s former top enforcement official, Patrick Traylor, who had Dominion has a client. Attorney general William Barr has served on the company’s board of directors and received more than $500,000 from Dominion.

Another  violator, one of the world’s largest steel companies, ArcelorMittal’schief executive was at a Trump roundtable of business leaders in India in February and also was one of about 20 executives to dine with Trump in Davos at the World Economic Forum in January. Trump’s commerce secretary Wilbur Ross was previously on the company’s board of directors.

Denver-based oil and gas company K P Kauffman allegedly violated air pollution laws, emitting volatile organic compounds that form smog in the Denver-Julesburg Basin. KP Kauffman spent $200,000 lobbying the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2019 and the beginning of 2020, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2016, the company hosted a meeting between oil industry executives and president Donald Trump. CEO Kevin P Kauffman is a major GOP donor.

Chris Saeger, director of strategic initiatives at Accountable.US, said:

“When we’re facing a public health crisis that causes respiratory problems, this is a time to be holding companies to a higher standard of air quality, not a lower one.”



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