Links tagged “funding”

CNBC: "If you’re like most Americans, you worry about global warming. But it can be hard to know how to channel that anxiety into action that will help the planet." ... 

"In 2021, you may want to allocate some of your money toward funds with a focus on addressing climate change." ... "For a number of reasons, 401(k) plans — which hold nearly a third of all U.S. retirement assets — lag in their environmentally focused funds." ... "Blue Marble, which owns robo-advisor EarthFolio, has been around for 20 years, but Art Tabuenca, its founder, said he’s “seen a dramatic increase in interest over the past two years as climate change and social equality issues have become a major concern, financially and politically, for a majority of Americans.” ... 

"Half the stocks in Betterment’s climate portfolio screen out companies holding fossil fuel reserves and the other half invests in companies with the lowest carbon footprint, Khentov said. The bonds, meanwhile, are linked to environmentally beneficial projects, such as pollution prevention and energy efficiency."

Glenn Greenwald: "The COVID-driven centralization of economic power and information control in the hands of a few corporate monopolies poses enduring threats to political freedom." ... A much-discussed 2014 study concluded that economic power has become so concentrated in the hands of such a small number of U.S. corporate giants and mega-billionaires, and that this concentration in economic power has ushered in virtually unchallengeable political power in their hands and virtually none in anyone else’s, that the U.S. more resembles oligarchy than anything else. ... 

The lockdowns from the pandemic have ushered in a collapse of small businesses across the U.S. that has only further fortified the power of corporate giants. “Billionaires increased their wealth by more than a quarter (27.5%) at the height of the crisis from April to July, just as millions of people around the world lost their jobs or were struggling to get by on government schemes,” reported The Guardian in September. 

Meanwhile, though exact numbers are unknown, “roughly one in five small businesses have closed,” AP notes, adding: “restaurants, bars, beauty shops and other retailers that involve face-to-face contact have been hardest hit at a time when Americans are trying to keep distance from one another.”

Employees are now almost completely at the mercy of a handful of corporate giants which are thriving, far more trans-national than with any allegiance to the U.S. A Brookings Institution study this week — entitled “Amazon and Walmart have raked in billions in additional profits during the pandemic, and shared almost none of it with their workers” — found that “the COVID-19 pandemic has generated record profits for America’s biggest companies, as well as immense wealth for their founders and largest shareholders—but next to nothing for workers.” ...

What makes this most menacing of all is that the primary beneficiaries of these rapid changes are Silicon Valley giants, at least three of which — Facebook, Google, and Amazon — are now classic monopolies. That the wealth of their primary owners and executives — Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai — has skyrocketed during the pandemic is well-covered, but far more significant is the unprecedented power these companies exert over the dissemination of information and conduct of political debates, to say nothing of the immense data they possess about our lives by virtue of online surveillance."

Rogan O’Handley: "Greenpeace, Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and Sierra Club all have financial assets in the $100 to $300 million-dollar range. Name a Fortune 500 company and chances are they're writing big checks to Big Green. Banking giant, Citigroup, for example, has committed $100 billion to "combat climate change."

But the real money is at the government level. In 2009 the Obama Administration directed more than $110 billion to be spent on renewable energy "investments" under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act alone. What the taxpayer got for this investment other than long-forgotten $500 million-dollar boondoggles -- like Solyndra -- is hard to say. According to the best economic models, the Paris Climate Accord will cost the world $1 to 2 trillion every year. ... 

Big Green is not poor, not honest, and certainly not powerless."

Washington Post: "Until now, any lawmaker who asked for $2 trillion in federal funding without offsetting savings would have been laughed out of politics. But then came the Green New Deal. And then the coronavirus pandemic. And then another bout of rock-bottom interest rates. Suddenly, a couple of trillion dollars doesn’t sound like as much money as it used to. And that’s good news for President-elect Joe Biden, who is planning to pursue a costly package of climate change policies aimed at transforming the country’s economy, including the way farmers plant crops and the way automakers design engines." ... 

"Biden intends to insert or earmark new money for climate plans in every department budget: the Transportation Department, for highway construction; the Energy Department, for research and appliance standards; the Treasury Department, for tax incentives; the Defense Department for renewables at bases; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, for resilient shoreline construction."

"SEC.405. CLIMATE SECURITY ADVISORY COUNCIL. (1) STUDY REQUIRED. -- "The Director of National Intelligence, in coordination with the heads of other elements of the intelligence community determined appropriate by the Director, shall conduct a study on the effectiveness of the Climate Security Advisory Council as a potential model for future administrations."

#

‘Reality Check: Global warming’ causes war claims — debunked – ‘Warm periods are more peaceful than cold ones’ – Bonus Chapter #2 for Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change

How The COVID Relief Bill Turned Into A Climate Change Bill

China is not only not reducing its own carbon emissions, but instead has well more than tripled them over the past twenty years (during which period U.S. emissions have declined modestly by about 15%); and today China is in the midst of a new round of massive expansion of its fossil fuel energy generation capacity, particularly with respect to the most carbon-intensive fuel, coal. ...

All the "news" organizations and social media companies are in bed with China as well, so you aren't going to see any criticisms from them that might risk their access (or parent company access) to 1.3 billion consumers and/or China's huge cheap labor force. Throw in the money that China "donates" to US universities and environmental groups and they also silence them on China's poor environmental record (and human rights record. Russia has also made big donations to environmental groups to encourage their continued criticisms of US fracking that has brought down the price of oil and gas much to Russia's detriment, but since Russia is a declining power with a relatively small consumer base the media (and Democrats) can still use them as the boogey man when convenient.