Given the news we see, hear, and read every day covering floods, droughts, historically high temperatures, and dying ecosystems, rationally it is hard to see why anyone would oppose good environmental governance and protect those who are damaging the earth’s ecology. And yet that is exactly what Republicans are doing. The Republican Party in the face of all the evidence telling them they are harming the world, continues to do so. Why? Because the party is owned by oligarchs and corporations who are involved with those climate damaging technologies and they don’t want to see their profits diminished. It is morally evil, but there you are.
The sun sets at a wind farm in McCook, Texas, during a heat wave on July 20, 2022. Credit: Delcia Lopez / The Monitor / AP
The House of Representatives released the first report from its Environmental Social and Governance Steering Committee Working Group in late June, highlighting priorities for the rest of the 118th Congress and making clear that Republicans won’t stop “investigating” environmental, social, and governance investing while there’s still a chance to save polluting companies from having to report their actual emissions.
At its core, ESG is about information: When companies report on their environmental, social, and governance risks, which can range from high greenhouse gas emissions to particular hiring practices, investors use that information to determine whether they think a company is a good investment.
The Republican-led House isn’t the only entity that’s become obsessed with ESG investing over the past two years. From political advocacy organizations like the Texas Public Policy Foundation to state treasurers, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the Republican Attorneys General Association, the right wing has been on fire about this […]
This is what is wrong with American governance. Because of Citizens United it is perfectly legal to bribe a politician — of course that isn’t what it is called, but that is what it is. And here is a classic example of how it works in action. Screw planetary wellbeing, we want to keep making profit, and we will pay a lot of money to get you to vote the way we want.
CalFire firefighters monitor a backfire during the Mosquito fire in Foresthill in September 2022. Credit: Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty
Two transparency bills in the California legislature would require corporations to disclose more information about their emissions and their efforts to fight the climate crisis. The oil and gas industry is spending millions to kill them.
The bills would force large companies that do business in California to report all of their emissions and also require firms that buy or sell carbon offsets– which represent a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions – to disclose more information in an effort to crack down on bogus climate claims. Both measures have momentum but could be blocked by moderate Democrats historically aligned with corporate interests.
Since the legislation would make new information available beyond California, the two bills could represent a watershed moment for holding big polluters accountable when they claim climate bonafides, supporters say.
Reporting requirements for corporate emissions are currently fragmented and the climate disclosures bill would be a landmark law pinning down the impacts of some of the world’s largest companies. And […]
This is a follow up on the emerging reports showing how the United States is viewed and appraised by the rest of the world. All of them are humiliating and embarrassing. As a country, based on social outcome data not political partisanship, we have a really dreadful reputation.
A new index ranking nations by peacefulness puts the United States at number 131 — deeming it less safe than places like Haiti and South Africa.
The Global Peace Index was released on June 28 by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a think tank based in Australia.
The US was ranked as the 131st most peaceful country out of 163 nations analyzed for the report, falling behind numerous nations like Kuwait, Botswana, and the Sierra Leone.
The U.S. placed far behind Canada, which came in 11th place. The states were also ranked as less peaceful than every country in western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China, India and much of Africa. The next five countries after the U.S. in the rankings were Brazil, Eritrea, Palestine, Lebanon and Mexico.
The rankings are determined based on 23 metrics, including external conflicts, political stability and incarceration rate. This is the 17th time that the Global Peace Index conducted the assessment and the 15th time that there was an overall global increase in violence.
There was a slight decline in the U.S.’s score, […]
You have undoubtedly seen the new evidence concerning Associate Justice Clarence Thomas’ corruption, there is now so much it is hard to keep it all straight. And then there is all the rest of the corruption amongst the other members of the Supreme Courts christofascist cabal. I think it very notable that all of this centers on the 6 christofascists, not the other three justices. And yet, nothing has been done to hold any of these corrupt justices to account. Is it any wonder how low the respect for the court has fallen?
To conduct its review, the AP surveyed local news stories and social media and obtained data from ScotusTracker, a website that logged justices’ activities, to develop a list of appearances over the past 10 years.
In late 2022 and early this year, the AP submitted records requests to the public institutions on that list, citing individual state statutes that require the disclosure of certain documents to the public.
The requests sought a broad range of information, including details about any contracts or riders for the appearances; transportation to and from events as well as food and lodging; the recording policy for the event; and any gifts or honorarium discussed or offered, including books.
The AP separately queried more than 100 private colleges, universities and charities that have also hosted justices or organized events for them, requesting that they provide the same information that was asked of public institutions. Some […]
For some weeks now as I have done SR each day I have become ever more concerned about the future of earth and its matrix of life, of which humans are just one part. I began to meditate on what else I could do to foster wellbeing. While this was going on serendipitously synchronistically, several people wrote to both ask and suggest that I do a podcast. In focusing on that I thought once a week probably on Friday. I would take the previous week’s 28 stories and select some subset and talk about them and the trends they represent, and how to foster wellbeing. It would be an extemporaneous 30 minute podcast. You read SR, many of you for years. Do you think I should do this, and does this sound like an interesting format? Drop me a note with a comment, or just yes, or no.
