Climate campaigners and Indigenous peoples across Canada have spent the past several years protesting the Trans Mountain pipeline. Mark Klotz / Flickr / cc
By Elana Sulakshana
Rainforest Action Network recently uncovered a document that lists the 11 companies that are currently insuring the controversial Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline in Canada. These global insurance giants are providing more than USD$500 million in coverage for the massive risks of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, and they're also lined up to cover the expansion project.
<p>The existing Trans Mountain pipeline is a major environmental and public health hazard with a <a href="https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/frequently_asked_questions_regarding_the_kinder_morgan_pipeline_proposal" target="_blank">long history of disastrous spills</a>. Earlier this month, 50,000 gallons of crude oil <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trans-mountain-pipeline-oil-spill-british-columbia-2646173087.html" target="_self">spilled</a> from a pump station located above an aquifer that supplies the Sumas First Nation with drinking water.</p>
<p>The Trans Mountain Expansion Project would multiply these risks tremendously. Though it is officially called an "expansion," this is no minor renovation. The Canadian government, which owns Trans Mountain, is attempting to build a parallel pipeline that would ship more than 890,000 barrels per year of highly-polluting tar sands crude oil to the coast of British Columbia.</p><p>For more than a decade, the expansion of Trans Mountain has been delayed in the face of powerful, Indigenous-led resistance on the ground and in the courts. It has not secured the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of Indigenous communities that are directly in the pipeline's route. Right now, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, Squamish Nation, and Coldwater Indian Band are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/trans-mountain-tmx-first-nations-supreme-court-1.5525266" target="_blank">actively engaged in legal challenges</a> on the project, and <a href="http://tinyhousewarriors.com/" target="_blank">land defenders</a> are asserting their rights and title along the route. </p><p>Furthermore, pushing forward this project flies in the face of Canada's commitment to cut emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. To keep global warming under 1.5ºC, we must stop expanding tar sands — and all fossil fuels — and instead invest in a just transition to phase out existing operations. </p>
<p>In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the government and corporations are doubling down on their destructive plans to build new fossil fuel projects. Bulldozers that are laying the initial pipe on Trans Mountain have not quieted, even though this construction poses <a href="http://www.tinyhousewarriors.com/2020/04/shut-down-the-man-camps/" target="_blank">major risks</a> to Indigenous and rural communities in its path, as well as workers that are housed together in close quarters. In Alberta, <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/05/13/news/alberta-didnt-contain-it-covid-19-outbreak-oilsands-camp-has-spread-across-country" target="_blank">viral outbreaks</a> have been linked to<a href="http://nativenewsonline.net/currents/un-special-rapporteur-oil-gas-mining-operations-brings-increased-sexual-violence/" target="_blank"> man camps </a>at tar sands extraction sites, and yet the province's energy minister <a href="https://www.coastmountainnews.com/news/gathering-limits-make-it-a-great-time-to-be-building-a-pipeline-alberta-minister/" target="_blank">proclaimed</a> that now is a great time to construct a pipeline, due to social distancing protocols that limit public protest. </p><p>The risks of these pipelines are so great that under federal law, the current pipeline and its expansion are not able to transport any oil without insurance. So if we can stop the flow of insurance money, we can stop the flow of oil.</p><p>We're ramping up the pressure on the insurance companies that are providing critical financial support.</p>
Who’s insuring the pipeline? (2019-2020)
<p>Here's the list of insurance companies that are providing coverage from August 2019 through August 2020:</p><ol><li>Zurich (Switzerland)</li><li>Lloyd's (UK) </li><li>Liberty Mutual (US)</li><li>Chubb (US)</li><li>AIG (US)</li><li>WR Berkley (US)</li><li>Starr (US)</li><li>Stewart Specialty Risk Underwriting (Canada)</li><li>Energy Insurance Mutual (US) </li><li>Temple Insurance (Germany), a Canadian member of the Munich Re group</li><li>HDI (Germany), which is owned by Talanx / Hannover Re</li></ol><p>These insurance policies are being arranged by the biggest insurance broker in the world: Marsh. Fun fact: Marsh is also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/04/worlds-largest-insurance-broker-under-pressure-over-support-for-adani-and-other-coal-projects" target="_blank">currently under fire</a> for facilitating insurance for the Adani Carmicheal coal mine in Australia.</p><p>Trans Mountain's insurance policy is up at the end of August, so we are urgently calling on these companies to:</p><ul><li>Publicly commit to not renew their insurance policy for Trans Mountain for 2020-21;<br></li><li>Moving forward, rule out insurance for all tar sands extraction and transport projects and companies;<br></li><li>Adopt a policy to ensure that projects and companies they insure have obtained the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of impacted communities.</li></ul><p>We've made some progress. In late June, <a href="https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/ca/news/environmental/talanx-group-dropping-support-for-trans-mountain-pipeline-226532.aspx" target="_blank">Talanx indicated</a> that it already dropped the pipeline, and Munich Re signaled that it will not renew its policy. These two German insurers recently adopted policies restricting tar sands business. </p><p>A global coalition of environmental NGOs, First Nations, and insurance campaigners is demanding that the rest of Trans Mountain's insurers follow suit and stop being complicit in the violation of Indigenous rights, spread of COVID-19, and the desecration of sacred waterways and the global climate.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/author/elana-sulakshana" target="_blank">Elana Sulakshana</a> leads <a href="https://www.ran.org/" target="_blank">Rainforest Action Network</a>'s campaign pressuring the U.S. insurance industry to stop making the climate crisis worse. She has been active in the climate justice movement for the last eight years, most recently organizing for just and equitable climate policy in Washington State, fighting fracking in the U.K., and campaigning for universities to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in communities.</em></p><p><em></em><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/07/04/whos-insuring-trans-mountain-pipeline" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A Chesapeake Energy drilling rig is located on farmland near Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, on March 20, 2012. Melanie Stetson Freeman / The Christian Science Monitor / Getty Images
By Eoin Higgins
Climate advocates pointed to news Sunday that fracking giant Chesapeake Energy was filing for bankruptcy as further evidence that the fossil fuel industry's collapse is being hastened by the coronavirus pandemic and called for the government to stop propping up businesses in the field.
<p>"Fracking giant Chesapeake Energy just declared bankruptcy thanks to its massive $9 billion debt," <a href="https://twitter.com/foe_us/status/1277644540866965505" target="_blank">tweeted</a> Friends of the Earth. "Meanwhile the Trump administration continues to try and bail out this garbage fire industry with our tax dollars—despite clear risks."</p>
<div id="e5f24" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6e7171f8e2904f47ed8066a7a21bd48a"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1277573943340171264" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The poster company for US fracking has fallen. https://t.co/n1MWs3sszT</div> — Andrew Thaler (@Andrew Thaler)<a href="https://twitter.com/DrAndrewThaler/statuses/1277573943340171264">1593432338.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The company, which at its peak in 2008 was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/28/chesapeake-energy-once-power-gas-business-files-bankruptcy" target="_blank">valued</a> at $37 billion, had a market capitalization of just $115 million on Friday.</p><p>"The debt bubble made it unable for Chesapeake to maneuver when the pandemic ruined demand for energy," David Dayen <a href="https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-medicare-for-coronavirus/" target="_blank">wrote</a> of the bankruptcy for <em>The American Prospect</em>.</p><p>News reports put most of the blame for the bankruptcy on former CEO Aubrey McClendon, who bought up leases and rights around the country as the fracking industry boomed. </p><p>As <em>Forbes</em> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2020/06/29/chesapeake-energy-finally-succumbs-with-chapter-11-filing/#52549bb56b58" target="_blank">reported</a>, a number of bad business decisions and moves left Chesapeake in bad condition even before gas prices collapsed due to the slowed demand from the pandemic.</p>
<p>According to <em>Forbes</em>:</p><blockquote>As natural gas prices <a title="https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/rngwhhdm.htm" href="https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/rngwhhdm.htm" target="_blank">collapsed in the late 2000s</a>, McClendon next turned to sales of his own company's assets or portions of working interests in big play areas as a means of continuing to finance and pay down that debt. He sold shares of the company's working interests in the Barnett, the Eagle Ford, the Marcellus and the Haynesville to various other players, like <a title="https://bp.com" href="https://bp.com/" target="_blank">BP</a> and <a title="https://cnooc.com" href="https://cnooc.com/" target="_blank">CNOOC</a>, but every sale also meant less and less cash flow coming into the company itself. Many in the business during that time joked about it being a sort of a pyramid scheme in which the debts would ultimately end up outstripping the company's income and ability to pay.<br><br>McClendon also made the decision in 2010-11 to shift Chesapeake's gas-heavy asset mix to one more heavy in liquids. That strategic decision certainly helped during a time of $100 oil prices, but the bust of 2015-16 and the current COVID-19-related price collapse ultimately proved to heavy a burden for current CEO Doug Lawler—who was brought on board in 2013—and his management team to navigate. A company that once had a market cap of over $37 billion at one point in May saw its market cap drop as low as $200 million. A company that once employed over 8,000 individuals today employs around 2,300.</blockquote>
<p>John Thieroff, a senior analyst at Moody's Investors Service, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/31f35631-7b7d-4fa1-8eef-6255bf18cf88?segmentId=b0d7e653-3467-12ab-c0f0-77e4424cdb4c" target="_blank">told</a> the <em>Financial Times</em> Sunday he expected other companies to follow suit.</p><p>"There will no doubt be others to file for bankruptcy in the near term as the sector looks to get out from under the copious amount of debt it took on during the boom," said Thieroff.</p><p>President Donald Trump has weighed bailing out the fossil fuel industry as part of a coronavirus pandemic recovery plan. The plans have been met with stiff resistance from environmental groups like Western Values Project, which <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/05/19/trump-admin-punishes-renewables-while-bailing-out-oil-and-gas" target="_blank">said</a> in May that the move was an example of the White House "using a public health crisis as an excuse to bail out the president's corporate cronies while leaving everyone else to fend for themselves."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/29/poster-company-us-fracking-has-fallen-chesapeake-energy-files-bankruptcy" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Gilead Announces $3,120 Price Tag for COVID-19 Drug Developed With $70 Million in Taxpayer Money
30 June
Health + Wellness
A woman wearing a mask walks by Gilead Sciences headquarters in Foster City, California on April 30, 2020. Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
Consumer advocates reacted with disgust Monday to an announcement by Gilead Sciences that it will charge U.S. hospitals around $3,120 per privately insured patient for a treatment course of remdesivir, a drug which has proven modestly effective at speeding Covid-19 recovery times.
<p>Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen's Access to Medicines Program, called Gilead's pricing—which works out to around <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-drug-remdesivir-to-cost-3-120-for-typical-patient-on-private-insurance-11593428402?mod=hp_lead_pos4" target="_blank">$520 per dose</a> for non-government buyers like hospitals—"an offensive display of hubris and disregard for the public" and slammed the Trump administration for failing to ensure that the price of a drug developed with substantial taxpayer support is affordable for all.</p><p>Maybarduk pointed to Institute for Clinical and Economic Review <a href="https://icer-review.org/announcements/updated_icer-covid_models_june_24/" target="_blank">research</a> showing Gilead could still make a profit by pricing remdesivir at $310 per course.</p><p>"Gilead has priced at several thousand dollars a drug that should be in the public domain. For $1 per day, remdesivir can be manufactured at scale with a reasonable profit," Maybarduk said in a <a href="https://www.citizen.org/news/gileads-remdesivir-price-is-offensive/" target="_blank">statement</a>. "Gilead did not make remdesivir alone. Public funding was indispensable at each stage, and government scientists led the early drug discovery team. Allowing Gilead to set the terms during a pandemic represents a colossal failure of leadership by the Trump administration."</p><p>Public Citizen estimated in a May <a href="https://www.citizen.org/article/the-real-story-of-remdesivir/" target="_blank">report</a> that U.S. taxpayers contributed at least $70.5 million to the development of remdesivir.</p>
<div id="a49c9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5481973d37de3971aa6224e9e34aee88"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1277670809310552064" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">US taxpayers spent $70,000,000 developing this drug. This is an absolute robbery. https://t.co/6qSMOlmqWF</div> — Public Citizen (@Public Citizen)<a href="https://twitter.com/Public_Citizen/statuses/1277670809310552064">1593455433.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Shortly after Gilead's announcement, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department said it <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/06/29/trump-administration-secures-new-supplies-remdesivir-united-states.html" target="_blank">reached an agreement</a> with the pharmaceutical giant to purchase more than 500,000 treatment courses of remdesivir for American hospitals.</p><p>The <em>Wall Street Journal</em> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-drug-remdesivir-to-cost-3-120-for-typical-patient-on-private-insurance-11593428402" target="_blank">reported</a> that the United States is "the only developed country where Gilead will charge two prices"—one for government buyers ($390 per dose) and one for non-government buyers like hospitals ($520 per dose). The typical remdesivir treatment course consists of around six doses.</p><p>Unlike the U.S., the <em>Journal</em> notes, the governments of other advanced nations "negotiate drug prices directly with drugmakers."</p><p>Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), chair of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, said in a <a href="https://doggett.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/big-price-modest-covid-19-drug" target="_blank">statement</a> that "Trump's refusal to stop pandemic profiteering with a stroke of a pen is a green light to other manufacturers to exploit this tragedy."</p>
<p>Doggett said he is pressuring the Trump administration and Gilead to disclose the details of their agreement, including the sum the government paid for the 500,000 treatment courses of remdesivir.</p><p>On Twitter, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) condemned Gilead's price-tag as "beyond disgusting."</p><p>"Taxpayers provided funding for the development of this drug. Now Gilead is price-gouging off it during a pandemic," said Sanders. "Coronavirus treatment must be free to all."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/29/absolute-robbery-gilead-announces-3120-price-tag-covid-19-drug-developed-70-million" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Pence Praises Texas Governor for Reopening Despite Massive Surge in COVID-19 Cases
29 June
Health + Wellness
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci watches as Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on June 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. Joshua Roberts / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday heaped praise upon Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and said "every Texan can be proud of" his leadership in reopening one of the nation's largest economies even as lawmakers and public health experts say the governor's decision to relax social distancing guidelines led directly to the Covid-19 surge that is currently pummeling the state.
<p><br/></p>
<p>"I... want to commend the governor for—for your decisive action," Pence <a href="fhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-vice-president-pence-briefing-covid-19-dallas-tx/" target="_blank">said</a> during a news conference with Abbott, a Republican, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. "Reopening this economy, which began in early May, is a tribute to your leadership and the steady progress in—in putting Texas back to work."</p><p>Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, also hailed Abbott's reopening plan as "very serious and safe."</p><p>"You can see the impact of the opening plan and how it worked out," said Birx. "All of May, for almost five weeks, and then there was an inflection point."</p><p>The vice president went on to acknowledge the alarming recent spike in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the state before applauding Abbott for <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/25/texas-gov-abbott-warns-covid-19-getting-out-control-yes-say-critics-because-you" target="_blank">announcing steps last week</a> to slow the reopening process—steps that were criticized as inadequate to the scale of the crisis. Pence then conceded that "gatherings and meeting in certain places in communities... may well be contributing to the community spread."</p><p>"Our objective is to save lives as Texas continues to reopen your economy and help to lead this country back to work," Pence said.</p><p>Watch:</p>
<div id="d5239" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ca83fab4dd03238e21b1a18c7acffe3d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1277325911726186497" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">"I want to commend the governor for your decisive action reopening this economy" -- Pence lauds Greg Abbott for tak… https://t.co/QrZUqDkE1W</div> — Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar)<a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/statuses/1277325911726186497">1593373203.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"The head of the Covid Task Force just commended our governor for his role in opening the economy and creating the largest outbreak to date (until tomorrow's new record). He's grateful for Abbott's incompetence," <a href="https://twitter.com/RussellFosterTX/status/1277327262371713028" target="_blank">tweeted</a> Democratic U.S. House candidate Russell Foster, who is running to represent Texas' 4th Congressional District.</p><p>Pence's remarks came hours before Texas—which now has the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pence-encourages-texans-to-wear-mask-as-coronavirus-cases-surge-2020-6" target="_blank">fourth-most</a> coronavirus cases in the U.S.—<a href="https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2020/texas-coronavirus-cases-map/" target="_blank">reported</a> its sixth consecutive day of more than 5,000 new Covid-19 infections.</p>
<div id="b8521" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="10e6fbb612092fbc7f1fcd5ff15490ce"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1277359002708566020" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">NEW from @texastribune: Texas reports sixth consecutive day of more than 5000 new #coronavirus cases… https://t.co/clt4obTFrH</div> — Evan Smith (@Evan Smith)<a href="https://twitter.com/evanasmith/statuses/1277359002708566020">1593381093.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Last Thursday, Abbott—who <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/06/leaked-audio-texas-governor-admits-reopening-economy-will-lead-increase-and-spread" target="_blank">predicted</a> during a private call in May that the reopening process would lead to a spike in cases—announced a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/25/texas-gov-abbott-warns-covid-19-getting-out-control-yes-say-critics-because-you" target="_blank">temporary pause</a> in reopening phases in an effort to "help our state corral the spread." The following day, as Covid-19 hospitalizations surpassed 5,000 and <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/504957-houston-hospitals-stop-reporting-covid-19-related-data-after-reaching-base" target="_blank">placed further strain</a> on the state's intensive care units, Abbott <a href="https://apnews.com/5361ddeed347c61bffdbd06c92059a5f" target="_blank">ordered</a> the closure of bars and rolled back in-person restaurant dining.</p><p>"It is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars," said Abbott.</p><p>In a <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/29/texas-coronavirus-governing-reaction/" target="_blank">column</a> Monday morning, <em>Texas Tribune</em> executive editor Ross Ramsey wrote that the "Texas resurgence was predictable" and slammed Abbott and other state leaders for refusing to act until the coronavirus spike was out of control.</p><p>"Local officials who wanted stronger rules on masks and crowds and social distancing—in both big and small Texas cities and counties—were right after all," wrote Ramsey. "And Abbott, who blocked local governments from acting on their concerns about the coronavirus, waited until case numbers, infection rates, and hospitalizations jumped."</p><p>"You can get ready when a storm is coming or wait until it blows your roof off," Ramsey added. "Abbott, who's been reinstalling some of the regulatory safeguards he dismantled in May, dithered until the wind was blowing."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/29/pence-praises-texas-governor-reopening-fueled-massive-surge-covid-19-cases-and" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A forest fire in central Yakutia (Sakha Republic) on June 2. Yevgeny Sofroneyev / TASS / Getty Images
By Eoin Higgins
The number of fires in the vast north Asian region of Siberia increased fivefold this week, according to the Russian forest fire aerial protection service, as temperatures in the Arctic continued higher than normal in the latest sign of the ongoing climate crisis.
<p>The news of the increase comes a week after the small Siberian town of Verkhoyansk reported a high temperature of 100.4° F on June 20, a reading that, if confirmed, would mark the hottest day ever recorded in the region. </p>
<p>"While fires are common at this time of year, record temperatures and strong winds are making the situation particularly worrying," the European Union's Earth Observation Programme, which is monitoring the situation, <a href="https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/arctic-wildfires-burning-further-north-than-previously-spotted-from-space-satellite-shows/" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement. </p>
<div id="73927" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="09b86e126577646f203d29afcf911879"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1276290239753936897" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A record heatwave in Siberia has led to forest fires in the Republic of Sakha.
Temperatures spiked to 30C (86F) on… https://t.co/sCMYu6OUaj</div> — Shakthi #StayHomeSaveLives (@Shakthi #StayHomeSaveLives)<a href="https://twitter.com/v_shakthi/statuses/1276290239753936897">1593126280.0</a></blockquote></div><p>As the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/081bb0a6004b3f0596a2dab7cfd9817d" target="_blank">reported</a>:</p><blockquote>According to figures reported Saturday by Avialesookhrana, Russia's agency for aerial forest fire management, 1.15 million hectares (2.85 million acres) were burning in Siberia in areas that cannot be reached by firefighters.<br>The worst-hit area is the Sakha Republic, where Verkhoyansk is located, with 929,000 hectares (2.295 million acres) burning.<br></blockquote><p>The Sakha Republic's fire service reported 127 natural fires in the Russian federal sector.</p><p>The fires and heat are due to the climate crisis, Weather Channel meteorologist Carl Parker <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/siberia-fire-arctic-temperatures-1513721" target="_blank">told</a> Newsweek. </p><p>"What climate change is doing is moving the distribution of weather events, such that historically low-frequency, extreme events occur more frequently," said Parker. "Had the climate not changed due to man-made greenhouse gases, the heat we've seen in parts of Siberia would have been a 100,000-year event."</p><p>Parker warned that the fires are part of a dangerous feedback loop in the northern region. </p><p>"What's scary about the warming in Siberia is that there are huge quantities of carbon in permafrost, which can be unleashed during periods like this, particularly as fires develop in the region," said Parker.</p>
<div id="ecd41" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0468dfb70d2572cf52eaeaba0b44f15c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1276949453023346688" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The situation is getting much worse in Siberia.. #WeDontHaveTime
https://t.co/XZ3EN1WueB</div> — We Don’t Have Time (@We Don’t Have Time)<a href="https://twitter.com/WeDontHaveTime/statuses/1276949453023346688">1593283448.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Jonathan Overpeck, University of Michigan environmental school dean, <a href="https://apnews.com/39c5b62946a0951cf0d98e4f952f47fd" target="_blank">told</a> AP in an email on June 24 that the situation in the Arctic region is unprecedented.</p><p>"The Arctic is figuratively and literally on fire," wrote Overpeck. "It's warming much faster than we thought it would in response to rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and this warming is leading to a rapid meltdown and increase in wildfires."</p><p>"The record warming in Siberia is a warning sign of major proportions," he added.</p><p>Temperatures in Siberia for the first five months of 2020 were an average 14° F over normal. </p><p>"That's much, much warmer than it's ever been over that region in that period of time," Zeke Hausfather, a Berkeley Earth climate scientist, told AP.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/27/warning-sign-major-proportions-number-siberian-forest-fires-increase-fivefold-week" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em><em></em></p>
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Police Condemned for Charging Peaceful Environmentalists With 'Terrorizing' in Louisiana
27 June
Climate
Two Louisiana Bucket Brigade activists are facing felony "terrorizing" charges for leaving a box of plastic pellets collected from Texas waters near a coastal Formosa Plastics facility on the doorstep of a fossil fuel lobbyist in December 2019. MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
At least 40 U.S. climate and environmental advocacy groups on Friday rallied behind two Louisiana Bucket Brigade activists who are facing felony "terrorizing" charges for leaving a box of plastic pellets collected from Texas waters near a coastal Formosa Plastics facility on the doorstep of a fossil fuel lobbyist in December 2019.
<p>Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh, respectively the director and a program assistant for Louisiana Bucket Brigade, "turned themselves into the Baton Rouge Police Department Thursday," <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_ebee9ed6-b586-11ea-8819-439269c90a96.html" target="_blank">according to</a> NOLA.com. "Rolfes was booked with terrorizing, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. McIntosh was booked with principal to terrorizing. Each was released Thursday afternoon after posting $5,000 bond."</p>
<p>The new wave of support for the activists and their nonviolent protest against plastic pollution came in a collection of comments <a href="https://earthworks.org/media-releases/intimidation-tactics-in-louisiana-wont-silence-opposition-to-formosa-plastics/" target="_blank">circulated</a> by the nonprofit Earthworks.</p><p>"These charges are mere retaliation in response to the critical work done by Louisiana Bucket Brigade," said Scott Eustis, community science director at HealthyGulf. "Formosa Plastics is a serial offender of the United States Clean Water Act, and discussing their criminal record with executives and government is essential work in this time of climate emergency, when Formosa Plastics seeks to derail all the good work for Coastal Restoration that Louisiana has accomplished."</p>
<p>"It is outrageous and chilling to see people criminalized simply for speaking out and advocating against toxic pollution in their neighborhoods," declared Liz Butler, vice president of organizing and strategic Alliances at Friends of the Earth (FOE). "Louisiana needs to hold Formosa accountable for poisoning St. James Parish, not punish people who are trying to protect their communities."</p><p>Rolfes and McIntosh deposited the box outside the home of lobbyist Tyler Gray on Dec. 11 with a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6956444-Letter-Included-in-Nurdles-Package-Sent.html" target="_blank">note</a> which said in part that the plastic pellets, also called nurdles, "are just some of the billions of nurdles that Formosa Plastics dumped into the coastal waters of the state of Texas, from their Point Comfort production facility."</p>
<p>The note also said the nurdles should not be removed from bags or left around children or pets, and explained that thousands of Louisiana residents are urging state officials to reject a key permit for a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/14/groups-challenge-louisiana-permits-formosa-plastics-giant-petrochemical-complex" target="_blank">controversial</a> $9.4 billion petrochemical complex that Formosa plans to build in a region nationally known as "<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/welcome-to-cancer-alley-where-toxic-air-is-about-to-get-worse" target="_blank">Cancer Alley.</a>"</p><p>Last year, Taiwan-based Formosa <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/10/15/formosa-plastics-pay-50-million-texas-clean-water-act-lawsuit/" target="_blank">agreed</a> to a $50 million settlement for dumping nurdles into Texas' Lavaca Bay. Activists in Louisiana continue to organize in opposition to Formosa's proposed complex in St. James Parish, warning that the facility will adversely impact public health and the environment in the predominantly Black community.</p><p>"Black and Indigenous communities in the Gulf South have long been treated as a sacrifice zone for the profits of the fossil fuel industry, and activists fighting for their health, safety, and future should be thanked, not penalized," Angela Anderson, climate and energy program director at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), said Friday.</p><p>Tamara Toles O'Laughlin, director of 350.org North America, noted specifically that "Black residents of St. James Parish have been subjected to infamous levels of pollution and outrageous neglect from the agencies that should prevent it."</p><p>"This is a clear instance of the law and law enforcement being used to protect corporations, profit, and property over people," she said of the charges against Rolfes and McIntosh. "Louisiana is criminalizing protesters for speaking out against environmental injustice that the state has done next to nothing to address."</p>
<div id="2d9b4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="aba472beff2e0cc9e7fa9ded595ae9b1"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1276202787915870210" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Here's an incomplete tally of previous attempts to silence us:
📌Charging Pastor Manning with "inciting a riot" for… https://t.co/bz1t3dvowP</div> — LA Bucket Brigade (@LA Bucket Brigade)<a href="https://twitter.com/labucketbrigade/statuses/1276202787915870210">1593105429.0</a></blockquote></div><p>The charges against the pair "come on the heels of a series of incidents where environmental activists have been dealt hefty charges for actions challenging the petrochemical, oil, and gas industries in Louisiana," The Intercept <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/06/25/environmental-activists-charged-terrorizing-louisiana-formosa/" target="_blank">reported</a> Thursday.</p><blockquote>In August 2018, Louisiana legislators passed a law <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/08/22/recent-arrests-under-new-anti-protest-law-spotlight-risks-that-off-duty-cops-pose-to-pipeline-opponents/" target="_blank">establishing a new felony charge</a> for anyone who trespasses on critical infrastructure facilities, including chemical manufacturing facilities and oil and gas pipeline construction sites. Over the following couple months, police used the new law to charge 15 people protesting the oil company Energy Transfer's Bayou Bridge pipeline. Local prosecutors have not yet acted on the charges.<br></blockquote><p>Local organizers have responded to the crackdown on Rolfes and McIntosh by forming the<a href="https://defenddemocracyalliance.org/" target="_blank"> Alliance to Defend Democracy</a>. RISE St. James founder Sharon Lavigne says in a statement on the coalition website that "we will not stand by as law enforcement and a toxic chemical company from Taiwan attempt to scare, silence, and intimidate us."</p><p>Representatives for national groups also reiterated their opposition to the proposed Louisiana complex. As Center for Biological Diversity attorney Julie Teel Simmonds put it Friday: "Black communities are being sickened by corporate polluters and these sham charges won't deter our opposition to this terrible project."</p><p>Other organizations that voiced support for the arrested Louisiana Bucket Brigade activists include Amazon Watch, Break Free From Plastic, the Center for International Environmental Law, Earthjustice, Greenpeace USA, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club, and Women's Earth and Climate Action Network International.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/26/outrageous-and-chilling-police-condemned-charging-peaceful-environmentalists" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em><em></em></p>
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Trump Plans to End Federal Funding for COVID-19 Testing Sites as Cases Spike Across U.S.
25 June
Politics
Medical personnel from Riverside (CA) University Health Systems administer a coronavirus test during drive-through testing on March 22, 2020 in Lake Elsinore, California. Bob Riha, Jr. / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
As Covid-19 cases continue to spike across the U.S.—the nation on Wednesday saw its largest daily increase in confirmed new infections since the pandemic began—the Trump administration is reportedly planning to cut off federal funding for 13 coronavirus testing sites in five states at the end of the month, a move that is in keeping with the president's vow to slow screenings for the virus.
<p><em>Politico</em> <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/24/trump-administration-drive-through-coronavirus-testing-338217" target="_blank">reported</a> Wednesday that "the federal government is ending its support for 13 drive-thru coronavirus testing sites on June 30, urging states to take over their operations—even as cases spike in several parts of the country."</p><p>Seven of the sites set to lose federal funding and support are located in Texas, which has seen new Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations skyrocket during the reopening process—a spike that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott predicted last month in a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/06/leaked-audio-texas-governor-admits-reopening-economy-will-lead-increase-and-spread" target="_blank">private call that leaked</a> to reporters. Texas was <a href="https://twitter.com/COVID19Tracking/status/1275920681662771201" target="_blank">one of six states</a> that saw a record increase in new infections on Wednesday.</p><p>The other testing sites that will lose federal support next week are located in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New Jersey.</p>
<div id="af2df" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="db8f64b2fed57c3db2bce79feaacfe60"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1275841656676376576" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Trump admin is cutting off federal funding for 13 community testing sites in 5 states, including one in Colorad… https://t.co/uVPXRFPX1O</div> — Rep. Diana DeGette (@Rep. Diana DeGette)<a href="https://twitter.com/RepDianaDeGette/statuses/1275841656676376576">1593019329.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Texas lawmakers <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/24/texas-coronavirus-testing-sites/" target="_blank">reacted with alarm</a> to the administration's plan, which was reported days after President Donald Trump said during a weekend rally in Oklahoma that he <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/21/trump-panned-campaign-hate-saying-he-called-less-covid-19-testing" target="_blank">ordered</a> a slowdown in coronavirus testing. White House officials claimed Trump's comments were made "in jest," but the president on Tuesday <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/23/trump-doubles-down-claim-he-ordered-slowdown-covid-19-tests-just-fauci-testifies-its" target="_blank">doubled down and told reporters that he was not joking</a>.</p><p>"Texas continues to set records for the number of new cases and hospitalizations and Harris County leads the state in number of confirmed cases," Texas Democratic Reps. Sylvia Garcia, Al Green, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, and Sheila Jackson Lee wrote in letters this week to U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams and to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Pete Gaynor.</p><p>"Without FEMA's supplies, fiscal aid, and personnel, these sites may no longer be able to serve our communities," the lawmakers warned. "FEMA's removal in this moment would be harmful and irresponsible. We urgently ask you to extend FEMA's presence at these testing sites through August 30, 2020."</p><p>Rocky Vaz, the director of emergency management for Dallas, <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/exclusive-feds-about-to-bail-on-supporting-covid-testing-sites-in-texas-and-other-states" target="_blank">told</a> <em>Talking Points Memo</em> that the city asked for an extension of federal support for two testing sites in Dallas County but was denied by the Trump administration.</p>
<p>"They told us very clearly that they are not going to extend it," Vaz said. "We are not expecting it to continue beyond June 30, but things change."</p><p>On several occasions in recent weeks, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/16/pence-urges-governors-parrot-trumps-lie-spikes-covid-19-cases-largely-caused" target="_blank">falsely claimed</a> that the recent surge in Covid-19 cases is the result of an expansion of testing rather than an actual spread of the virus. In an <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/19/trump-claims-covid-19-testing-overrated-cases-and-hospitalizations-surge-across-us" target="_blank">interview</a> with the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> last week, Trump said coronavirus testing is "overrated" and "makes us look bad."</p><p>Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, demanded in a statement Wednesday that Trump immediately reverse the plan to end federal support for testing sites. On Sunday, as <em>Common Dreams</em> <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/22/senators-find-14-billion-unspent-funds-after-trump-admits-ordering-slowdown-covid-19" target="_blank">reported</a>, Murray slammed the Trump administration for failing to spend $14 billion appropriated by Congress to expand coronavirus testing and tracing.</p>
<p>"The pandemic is clearly getting worse in states nationwide—and instead of trying harder to stop it, President Trump is apparently trying harder to hide it," said Murray. "It's completely unacceptable that while billions in federal dollars Congress passed to support testing sit unspent, this administration is closing testing sites in states where new Covid-19 cases are rapidly on the rise."</p><p>Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1275958588868038658" target="_blank">echoed</a> Murray and urged Congress to intervene to ensure that the testing sites remain open and at full capacity.</p><p>"Donald Trump can't run from the facts: Covid-19 cases are still increasing and Americans are still dying," Warren tweeted. "This is unacceptable—and Congress must act immediately to counter this reckless and inhumane measure."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/25/downright-dangerous-trump-moves-end-federal-support-testing-sites-us-sees-record?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A Greenpeace rally in front of the Democratic National Committee headquarters on June 12, 2019 in Washington, D.C., calling for a presidential campaign climate debate after DNC chairman Tom Perez rejected the request . Sarah Silbiger / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
Despite mounting pressure on the party to craft a 2020 platform that includes ambitious climate policies, Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez on Monday announced a drafting committee that, in the words of journalist Emily Atkin, "snubs progressive climate activists again."
<p>Perez's announcement followed reporting that Democratic Party leadership was "<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-climate-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-democratic-party-irked-by-councils-insurgent-climate-plan-sources-idUSKBN23M1DO" target="_blank">irked</a>" when the DNC Council on the Environment and Climate Crisis <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/04/planet-stake-dnc-panel-pushes-biden-back-16-trillion-plan-fight-climate-crisis" target="_blank">released</a> policy <a href="https://www.dncclimate.org/the-platform" target="_blank">recommendations</a> for the platform on June 4 that are bolder than the proposals in presidential candidate Joe Biden's climate plan. Party insiders <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/15/dncs-climate-council-urges-party-go-beyond-biden-plan-calling-fracking-ban-and-16" target="_blank">told</a> <em>Reuters</em> the panel is an "insurgent" group that is not "taken seriously."</p><p>Several climate advocacy groups have endorsed the panel's recommendations, including Greenpeace USA on Tuesday. Charlie Jiang, a campaigner for the group, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/06/23/greenpeace-usa-endorses-dnc-climate-crisis-council-2020-platform" target="_blank">declared</a> that "as we confront the interwoven crises of climate change, white supremacy, and Covid-19, we must demand nothing short of a visionary, transformative agenda from Democratic leadership."</p><p>Perez, for his part, <a href="https://www.wispolitics.com/2020/democratic-national-committee-announces-platform-drafting-committee-members/" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement that "crafting our party platform is important work, and I'm confident that the members of this committee will engage Americans in a substantive dialogue of ideas and solutions that will articulate our party's vision for the country and mobilize voters in every community to elect Joe Biden."</p><p>However, the positions and backgrounds of those charged with drafting that Democratic Party's platform suggest the final version could fall far short of climate activists' demands. As Atkin <a href="https://heated.world/p/dnc-snubs-progressive-climate-activists" target="_blank">detailed</a> in her <em>HEATED</em> newsletter Tuesday:</p><blockquote>[The] majority of people on the drafting committee are Gen Xers and Baby Boomers (average age: 55) who have either have no history of prioritizing climate; aren't on record as supporting the Green New Deal; and/or haven't signed the <a href="https://email.mg1.substack.com/c/eJwlkE1uxCAMhU8zLCMgJCQLFt3MNRABkzBDIOKnbW5f6Eje-LP17Pe0KrDHdIsr5oJqhiSdEZwQwlZkBOZU8w25LG0COJXzAl11806r4mLou5TxER1iIdzoWesZr2ZaNlgJ1ZZau4BmHaB-QKpqHAQNIgZ_y0s5g7w4Srke49eDPluFaGPOztsK_owB7iGmvXHkBMUU45mOhDHK5oEM-8Tzaz7z73d-MHzuZMh1y0Xp96DjiZJ4qTe0SWualEmgztzlugXZYQ2u3BKC2jwYUVIFVD5J_H9b7gtEgJ_soRRIH9gsT3xZV4raMRNbJkEc0GI0f_hScwM" target="_blank">No Fossil Fuel Money</a> pledge. There's only one person on the drafting committee who could credibly considered a climate-focused Democrat. There are more big bank executives on the Democratic platform drafting committee than there are climate activists or millennials.<br></blockquote><p>Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will chair the drafting committee, Biden adviser Carmel Martin will be a non-voting member, and Rep. Barbara Lee (Calif.) will be an ex-officio member. The other members are Tony Allen (Del.), Stuart Appelbaum (N.Y.), Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), Sen. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Rep. Sylvia Garcia (Texas), Heather Gautney (N.Y.), Don Graves (Ohio), Rep. Deb Haaland (N.M.), Analilia Mejia (N.J.), Josh Orton (Wis.), state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez (Fla.), Julianne Smith (D.C.), Richard Trumka (Penn.), and former Gov. Tom Vilsack (Iowa).</p>
<div id="c0733" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="eb3f5677897dd1fe3c24ce36f065c2bd"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1275207870615781383" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Breaking: DNC announces membership of the 15-person #DemPlatform2020 Drafting Committee. A sub-committee of the 187… https://t.co/iDWmFmZSIv</div> — DNC Environment and Climate Council (@DNC Environment and Climate Council)<a href="https://twitter.com/DNCClimate/statuses/1275207870615781383">1592868223.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Atkin created a <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PloB-PNkeg8j2s0UFFnFFPfcoxTMalI8S6pm8PhrVJ0/edit#gid=0" target="_blank">spreadsheet</a> of all the committee members with identifiers such as age, gender, and race as well as parts of their political histories—including whether they endorsed Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who were the two most progressive 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates before suspending their campaigns.</p><p>Haaland is the only elected official on the committee who has signed the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge, and she and Clark are the only two members who supported Warren's presidential run, according to the spreadsheet. Just Gautney, Mejia, and Orton backed Sanders—who, as Atkin noted, "had the most aggressive climate plan."</p><p>Atkin's analysis came after she <a href="https://heated.world/p/the-dncs-troubling-platform-process" target="_blank">reported</a> for <em>HEATED</em> last month that Michelle Deatrick, who chairs the DNC climate panel, was worried that the platform drafting committee "would be filled with people who don't prioritize progressive climate policy like the Green New Deal." As Atkin put it Tuesday: "Her fears were founded."</p>
<div id="11fd5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1e9c59dad31ab77f4c0d7f0545b434c6"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1275441365178937344" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The DNC's powerful platform drafting subcommittee announced yesterday does not include anyone from the DNC climate… https://t.co/AiVUrgAZUC</div> — Emily Atkin (@Emily Atkin)<a href="https://twitter.com/emorwee/statuses/1275441365178937344">1592923892.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The DNC council <a href="https://www.dncclimate.org/press/first-ever-dnc-environment-and-climate-crisis-council-launched-to-urge-the-democratic-party-to-take-bolder-more-aggressive-approach-to-the-climate-crisisnbsp" target="_blank">launched</a> in February to pressure the party to pursue more aggressive policies in the wake of Perez <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/10/dnc-wrong-side-history-challenged-activists-tom-perez-says-hosting-2020-debate" target="_blank">refusing</a> to hold a climate-focused primary debate. Deatrick is a former Sanders campaign surrogate and the panel's platform recommendations <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/04/planet-stake-dnc-panel-pushes-biden-back-16-trillion-plan-fight-climate-crisis" target="_blank">largely align</a> with the former presidential candidate's climate plan.</p><p>The panel suggested spending $10-$16 trillion on tackling the climate crisis over the next decade and committing to various emissions and renewable energy targets—specifically, "near-zero emissions by 2040; 100% clean renewable energy by 2030 in electricity generation, buildings, and transportation; and 100% zero-carbon new building infrastructure by 2025."</p><p>The council also called for prioritizing "working families above fossil fuel corporations by ensuring a just transition and building a green economy with millions of new, family-sustaining jobs" and addressing "the disproportionate environmental and climate harms to frontline and vulnerable communities"—and detailed various policies for each of those demands.</p>
<div id="eaba6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b432a294e2acc3e8f7a18a6118ffa32c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1275442915930603521" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Excited by @greenpeaceusa's endorsement of @DNCClimate Council's bold, science-based Recommendations for the 2020 D… https://t.co/9w3m1Z8sa5</div> — Michelle Deatrick (@Michelle Deatrick)<a href="https://twitter.com/MDeatrick/statuses/1275442915930603521">1592924262.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>In Greenpeace USA's endorsement of the recommendations, Jiang celebrated that the council decided to "stake a bold and much-needed new direction for the Democratic Party" and expressed hope that "the many visionary and essential elements of this proposal [will be] included in the official DNC platform to be finalized in August."</p><p>"It's critical that candidates and elected officials champion a Green New Deal and a managed transition away from fossil fuels, including the end of federal permits, subsidies, and financing for oil, gas, and coal," he said. "A world beyond fossil fuels—one that prioritizes justice for workers and communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis over corporate profit—is possible if our elected officials are willing to fight for us."</p><p>"As platform negotiations continue, we hope to see more details emerge as to how the part plans to meet its important goals for achieving 100% clean power, transportation, buildings, agriculture, and industry; deploy federal investments quickly and equitably; and meaningfully engage with impacted workers and communities," Jiang added. "We must prioritize racial and economic justice for frontline communities while mobilizing the full power of the federal government to tackle the historic crises we face."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/23/dnc-snubs-climate-movement-just-greenpeace-endorses-democratic-panels-visionary-plan" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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House Dems Introduce Bill to Prevent Big Pharma Price Gouging During COVID-19 Pandemic
23 June
Politics
Sorrento Therapeutics in San Diego, California, is developing a COVID-19 treatment. ARIANA DREHSLER / AFP / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
On the heels of polling that showed 88% of Americans worry Big Pharma will exploit the ongoing pandemic to hike drug prices, House Democrats on Monday introduced two bipartisan bills to prevent price gouging for Covid-19 treatments and vaccines and to strengthen oversight of federal spending on coronavirus research and development.
<p>Public Citizen president Robert Weissman <a href="https://www.citizen.org/news/covid-19-medicine-pricing-transparency-bills-are-a-matter-of-life-and-death/" target="_blank">welcomed</a> the legislation in a statement. "This is about way more than ensuring taxpayers aren't ripped off, as important as that objective is," he declared. "Promoting transparency and reasonable pricing of Covid-19 treatments and vaccines is a life-and-death matter."</p><p>"President Donald Trump's sycophancy to drug corporations is endangering the nation's pandemic response," Weissman warned. "Although public investments are driving drug and vaccine development, the Trump administration is permitting drug companies to retain monopoly control over the drugs and vaccines, including those still under development."</p><p>"The administration is refusing to use its existing authorities to enable knowledge sharing and generic competition. Nor is the administration seeking enhanced powers from Congress," he added. "The certain result will be profiteering, rationing, and inadequate supplies of the medicines and vaccines desperately needed to treat and eliminate the virus."</p><p>The Make Medications Affordable by Preventing Pandemic Price-gouging (MMAPPP) Act introduced Monday is sponsored by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a senior chief deputy whip and chair of the House Energy and Commerce Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee. Schakowsky said that "we have good reason to be skeptical about the role of the pharmaceutical industry."</p><p>"Well before this pandemic, we saw price gouging that cost lives. Now, during a global health crisis, many pharmaceutical companies will see another opportunity to benefit themselves by 'pandemic profiteering.' That cannot stand," she said. "Congress must guarantee affordable Covid-19 drugs, eliminate monopolies on these drugs, and ensure transparency for taxpayers who developed them."</p>
<div id="56593" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a5aaf30ab1d4f744eba5761390ea7712"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1275149222917046272" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Over the past three months, Congress has appropriated BILLIONS of dollars to support research and development of… https://t.co/otYgBFWVJD</div> — Jan Schakowsky (@Jan Schakowsky)<a href="https://twitter.com/janschakowsky/statuses/1275149222917046272">1592854240.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>As a statement from the congresswoman's office outlined, the MMAPPP Act would prevent price-gouging by:</p><ul><li>Prohibiting pharmaceutical monopolies on new, taxpayer-funded Covid-19 drugs in order to ensure universal access to these drugs;</li><li>Requiring the federal government to mandate reasonable, affordable pricing of any new, taxpayer-funded Covid-19 drug used to diagnose, mitigate, prevent, or treat Covid-19</li><li>Ensuring transparency and requiring manufacturers to publicly report a specific breakdown of total expenditures on any Covid-19 drug, including what percentage of those expenditures were derived from federal funds; and</li><li>Preventing excessive pricing of drug used to treat any disease that causes a public health emergency by waiving exclusive licenses and compensating with a reasonable royalty.</li></ul>
<p>The second bill, the Taxpayer Research and Coronavirus Knowledge (TRACK) Act, would establish a single database for Covid-19 research and development detailing all the financial and non-financial federal support for pharmaceutical companies, information on clinical trials and patents, and the full terms of deals between the government and drug manufacturers.</p><p>"Transparency and accountability are always vital tonics to keep democracy healthy," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), the bill's lead sponsor and chair of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. "Crafting a new, strong oversight tool, the TRACK Act reveals to taxpayers how billions of public funds are being used—information any private investor would demand."</p><p>Both pieces of legislation are backed by Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chairs Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) as well as Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), and Francis Rooney (R-Fla.). DeLauro is chair of the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds the National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.</p>
<p>Because of that role, DeLauro said, "I am all deeply aware of just how much money the U.S. government invests in the critical, life-saving biomedical research in this country, and we have allowed the pharmaceutical industry to take advantage of this investment, and price-gouge taxpayers. Getting any sort of information from this administration has been virtually impossible during this pandemic, and taxpayers have a right to know how their dollars are being spent."</p><p>The MMAPPP Act is endorsed by dozens of organizations, including the Center for Popular Democracy Action, Oxfam America, and Peoples Action. Supporters of the TRACK Act include AARP, Project on Government Oversight, and Communication Workers of America. Some groups—such as American Federation of Teachers, Americans for Tax Fairness, Indivisible, MomsRising, Public Citizen, and Social Security Works—support both.</p><p>"The legislative proposals from Reps. Schakowsky and Doggett prioritize public health over Big Pharma's profits," said Weissman. "Public Citizen thanks Schakowsky and Doggett for their leadership and urges immediate passage of these bills."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/22/house-dems-introduce-bill-prevent-big-pharma-price-gouging-during-covid-19-pandemic" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg attends an event with scientists at the COP25 Climate Conference on December 10, 2019 in Madrid, Spain. Pablo Blazquez Dominguez / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
"A crisis is a crisis, and in a crisis, we all have to take a few steps back and act for the greater good of each other and our society. In a crisis, you adapt and change your behavior."
<p>That is one of the takeaway messages from a 75-minute radio program, "Humanity Has Not Yet Failed," that 17-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg released Saturday. In the program, available in <a href="https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1535269" target="_blank">Swedish</a> and <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/7E2Wz3C5XwtEw3Pi96tLQA?si=LoWmxKZbTYegq4-wRRRvHg" target="_blank">English</a>, the two-time Nobel Peace Prize <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/03/second-year-straight-teen-climate-activist-greta-thunberg-nominated-nobel-peace" target="_blank">nominee</a> discusses climate science and activism; how polluting activities of industrialized, rich nations are driving global conditions that disproportionately impact poor and historically marginalized groups; and the failures of the existing economic and political systems.</p><p>Thunberg, whose solitary protests outside the Swedish Parliament inspired the global Fridays for Future movement, also shares stories from and reflections on her recent travels as one of the world's most recognized climate leaders. In August 2019, she <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/28/greta-thunberg-comes-america-celebrations-teen-climate-activist-arrives-coney-island" target="_blank">sailed</a> across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. After <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/23/how-dare-you-greta-thunberg-rages-fairytales-eternal-economic-growth-un-climate" target="_blank">speaking</a> at a United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York City, she <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/18/greta-thunberg-just-delivered-her-testimony-us-lawmakers-it-was-landmark-un-climate" target="_blank">appeared </a>before the U.S. Congress and joined various protests demanding climate action while exploring North America.</p>
<p>That it falls on young people like her to direct global attention to scientific warnings about the climate and ecological emergency, Thunberg says, should be seen as "a failure beyond all imagination." That journalists and others often ask her how the international community should solve this "existential crisis," rather than listening to the scientists, is "absurd."</p><p>"People want something simple and concrete, and they want me to be naive, angry, childish, and emotional," Thunberg says, recalling an encounter with a Swedish journalist while criticizing how the global media has covered both her activism and the climate crisis. "That is the story that sells and creates the most clicks."</p>
<div id="20632" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f957b0a3f0ea88074ab65b1e7b7fc891"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1274261315691917314" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">“The emperors are naked. Every single one. It turns out our whole society is just one big nudist party.” I’ve spen… https://t.co/5RcLswHKMa</div> — Greta Thunberg (@Greta Thunberg)<a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/statuses/1274261315691917314">1592642546.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>During her tour of North America, Thunberg saw some of the impacts of the climate crisis, traveling to Paradise, California, which was <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/17/35-million-fine-no-prison-anyone-after-pge-pleads-guilty-felony-manslaughter-84" target="_blank">devastated</a> by the Camp Fire in 2018, and the receding Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park, which is located in oil-rich Canadian province Alberta—the only place Thunberg was discouraged from visiting.</p><p>"Alberta has a very powerful and highly criticized oil lobby that is well known for its harsh methods to silence anyone they consider a threat to their industry, and I'm definitely considered a threat to them," she explains. "On several occasions, I need to call for police protection when the level of threats and the sheer harassment become too serious."</p><p>After the 2019 U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP25) was <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/01/because-climate-crisis-does-not-wait-us-spain-host-cop25-place-chile" target="_blank">moved</a> from Santiago, Chile to Madrid, Spain, Thunberg <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/03/people-are-underestimating-force-angry-kids-greta-thunberg-returns-europe-climate" target="_blank">sailed</a> back to Europe for the event. Some of her future travels, including a potential trip to China, were canceled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has caused lockdowns and travel restrictions globally for the past several months.</p><p>The Covid-19 crisis—which <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/13/coronavirus-isnt-stopping-us-youth-activists-adapt-global-pandemic-digital" target="_blank">has led</a> the Fridays to Future movement to move to mostly digital campaigning—could serve as a wake-up call to the world about the type of action required to tackle the climate crisis, Thunberg argues while acknowledging the "catastrophic" impacts of the pandemic on people around the world and the global economy.</p>
<p>"The corona tragedy of course has no long-term positive effects on the climate, apart from one thing only: namely the insight into how you should perceive and treat an emergency. Because during the corona crisis we suddenly act with necessary force," she says, pointing to international meetings, massive financial bailouts, canceled events, tough restrictions, and focused media coverage.</p><p>While there are growing calls across the globe for a "green recovery" from the pandemic, Thunberg expresses concern that such plans will not go far enough in terms of transforming systems that contribute to the climate crisis; throughout the program, she repeatedly makes that case that "the climate and ecological crisis cannot be solved within today's political and economic systems."</p><p>Even if policymakers want to pursue ambitious climate action, their efforts are hampered by existing plans for polluting activities like fossil fuel production, she explains. "If we are to avoid a climate catastrophe, we have to make it possible to tear up contracts and abandon existing deals and agreements on a scale we can't even begin to imagine today—and that alone requires a whole new way of thinking, since those type of actions are not politically, economically, or legally possible today."</p>
<p>"A lot may have happened in the last two years, but the changes and level of awareness required are still nowhere in sight," Thunberg says near the end of the program. "Things may look dark and hopeless, but I'm telling you there is hope and that hope comes from the people, from democracy, from you—from the people who more and more themselves are starting to realize the absurdity of the situation."</p><p>"The hope does not come from politics, business, or finance—and that's not because politicians or businesspeople are evil, but because what is needed right now simply seems to be too uncomfortable, unpopular, and unprofitable," she continues. Although public awareness and demands for progress aren't yet strong enough, Thunberg adds, "there are signs of change, of awakening."</p><p>"Just take the 'Me Too' movement, Black Lives Matter, or the school strike movement, for instance. It's all interconnected. We have passed a social tipping point. We can no longer look away from what our society has been ignoring for so long, whether it is equality, justice, or sustainability," she says. "From a sustainability point of view, all political and economic systems have failed, but humanity has not yet failed."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/22/greta-thunberg-says-covid-19-should-be-global-wake-call-act-necessary-force-tackle" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Fisherman push their boat during low tide on oily mud in the river at Ogoniland's village of K-Dere, near Bodo, which is part of the Niger Delta region, on Feb. 20, 2019. Decades of oil spills has left the Ogoniland region in southern Nigeria an environmental disaster zone — but now hopes are high of a rebirth of farming, fishing and clean water. YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP / Getty Images
By Jenna McGuire
In 2011, a ground-breaking report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on oil pollution in Ogoniland highlighted the devastating impact of the oil industry in the Niger Delta and made concrete recommendations for clean-up measures and immediate support for the region's devastated communities.
<p>Now, nearly ten years later, a new <a href="http://www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/extractive_industries/2020/no_clean-up_no_justice_final.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> published Thursday by Friends of the Earth Europe, Amnesty International, ERA and Milieudefensie, details Shell's failure to implement the "emergency measures" laid out by UNEP and says only 11 percent of contaminated areas in the Niger Delta have begun the clean-up process.</p>
<p>Titled "No Clean-Up, No Justice," the new report explains that for "more than five decades, the people of Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta, have struggled against oil pollution, destruction of the environment and human rights violations." </p><p>According to estimates, Shell Oil has <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/07/new-report-details-how-fossil-fuel-industrys-climate-destruction-also-exacerbates" target="_blank">dumped</a> an estimated nine to 13 million barrels of crude oil into the Niger Delta since 1958.</p><p>"Oil and gas extraction has caused large-scale, continued contamination of the water and soil in Ogoni communities," <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/06/18/shells-oil-pollution-niger-delta-people-sick-waiting-justice" target="_blank">said</a> Friends of the Earth in a statement. "The continued and systematic failure of oil companies and government to clean up have left hundreds of thousands of Ogoni people facing serious health risks, struggling to access safe drinking water, and unable to earn a living."</p>
<p>As Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/07/new-report-details-how-fossil-fuel-industrys-climate-destruction-also-exacerbates" target="_blank">reported</a> earlier this year, the local government has also worked with Shell to suppress the right of people in Ogoniland to fight against pollution.</p><p>"The discovery of oil in Ogoniland has brought huge suffering for its people," said Osai Ojigho of Amnesty International Nigeria. "Over many years we have documented how Shell has failed to clean up contamination from spills and it's a scandal that this has not yet happened."<br><br>The ecological damage, Ojigho added, "is leading to serious human rights impacts — on people's health and ability to access food and clean water. Shell must not get away with this — we will continue to fight until every last trace of oil is removed from Ogoniland."</p>
<p>Almost a full decade after the UNEP findings, the new report concluded that:</p><ul> <li>Work has begun on only 11 pecent of polluted sites identified by UNEP, with only a further 5 percent included in current clean-up efforts, and no site has been entirely cleaned up;</li></ul><ul> <li>Actions classified by UNEP as "emergency measures" - immediate action on drinking water and health protection - have not been implemented properly; there are still communities without access to clean water supplies;</li></ul><ul> <li>Health and environmental monitoring has not been carried out;</li></ul><ul> <li>There has not been any public accounting for how the 31 million USD funding provided since 2018 has been spent;</li></ul><ul> <li>11 of 16 companies contracted for the clean-up are reported to have no registered expertise in oil pollution remediation or related areas;</li></ul><ul><li>HYPREP has numerous conflicts of interest as Shell continues to be involved in the governing boards for the clean-up and even places its own staff in HYPREP.</li></ul><p>The report also lays out a set of demands for a rapid clean-up and funding for regional recovery, with chief responsibility for that effort aimed at the Nigerian government, Shell, and other governments — mostly in Europe — home to other major oil companies operating in the Niger Delta.</p><p>"After nine years of promises without proper action and decades of pollution, the people of Ogoniland are not only sick of dirty drinking water, oil-contaminated fish and toxic fumes," said Godwin Ojo of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria.<br><br>"They are sick of waiting for justice," Ojo added. "They are dying by the day."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/19/shell-must-not-get-away-niger-delta-still-waiting-big-oil-clean-devastating" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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