WATCH: The Betrayal by Technology: A Portrait of Jacques Ellul

“This movement is invading the whole intellectual domain and also that of conscience. … What is at issue here is evaluating the danger of what might happen to our humanity in the present half-century, and distinguishing between what we want to keep and what we are ready to lose, between what we can welcome as legitimate human development and what we should reject with our last ounce of strength as dehumanization. I cannot think that choices of this kind are unimportant.”

 

— Jacques Ellul, Ce que je crois (1987) [What I Believe] translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley (1989), p. 140

 

“Technology forces us to go faster and faster. One does not know where one goes. The only thing that matters is the speed.” French philosopher Jacques Ellul has analyzed modern Western society on basis of the premise that technology has become an autonomous, all-determining factor.

In 1950, Ellul finished his manuscript La Technique ou l’enjeu du siècle (The Technological Society), his seminal analysis of the way technology shapes every aspect of society. As contemporary thinker, he was strongly influenced by Kierkegaard, Marx and Barth. After a life, in which he wrote close to fifty books, Ellul died in the summer of 1994, at the age of 82.

The team of ReRun Producties visited Ellul in 1990. During five subsequent days, long interview sessions were held with him in his old mansion in Pessac. The Betrayal by Technology is one of the very few existing filmed recordings of Jacques Ellul speaking.”

54 minutes

 

 

 

Threats to security, health, public infrastructure—and other potential costs of Canada’s 5G rollout

Maclean’s

February 19, 2020

By David Zarnett

 

 

We Have No Reason to Believe 5G Is Safe

Scientific American

October 17, 2019

By Joel M. Moskowitz

 

 

The telecommunications industry and their experts have accused many scientists who have researched the effects of cell phone radiation of “fear mongering” over the advent of wireless technology’s 5G. Since much of our research is publicly-funded, we believe it is our ethical responsibility to inform the public about what the peer-reviewed scientific literature tells us about the health risks from wireless radiation.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently announced through a press release that the commission will soon reaffirm the radio frequency radiation (RFR) exposure limits that the FCC adopted in the late 1990s. These limits are based upon a behavioral change in rats exposed to microwave radiation and were designed to protect us from short-term heating risks due to RFR exposure.

Yet, since the FCC adopted these limits based largely on research from the 1980s, the preponderance of peer-reviewed research, more than 500 studies, have found harmful biologic or health effects from exposure to RFR at intensities too low to cause significant heating.

Citing this large body of research, more than 240 scientists who have published peer-reviewed research on the biologic and health effects of nonionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF) signed the International EMF Scientist Appeal, which calls for stronger exposure limits. The appeal makes the following assertions:

“Numerous recent scientific publications have shown that EMF affects living organisms at levels well below most international and national guidelines. Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans. Damage goes well beyond the human race, as there is growing evidence of harmful effects to both plant and animal life.”

The scientists who signed this appeal arguably constitute the majority of experts on the effects of nonionizing radiation. They have published more than 2,000 papers and letters on EMF in professional journals.

The FCC’s RFR exposure limits regulate the intensity of exposure, taking into account the frequency of the carrier waves, but ignore the signaling properties of the RFR. Along with the patterning and duration of exposures, certain characteristics of the signal (e.g., pulsing, polarization) increase the biologic and health impacts of the exposure. New exposure limits are needed which account for these differential effects. Moreover, these limits should be based on a biological effect, not a change in a laboratory rat’s behavior.

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified RFR as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” in 2011. Last year, a $30 million study conducted by the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) found “clear evidence” that two years of exposure to cell phone RFR increased cancer in male rats and damaged DNA in rats and mice of both sexes. The Ramazzini Institute in Italy replicated the key finding of the NTP using a different carrier frequency and much weaker exposure to cell phone radiation over the life of the rats.

Based upon the research published since 2011, including human and animal studies and mechanistic data, the IARC has recently prioritized RFR to be reviewed again in the next five years. Since many EMF scientists believe we now have sufficient evidence to consider RFR as either a probable or known human carcinogen, the IARC will likely upgrade the carcinogenic potential of RFR in the near future.

Nonetheless, without conducting a formal risk assessment or a systematic review of the research on RFR health effects, the FDA recently reaffirmed the FCC’s 1996 exposure limits in a letter to the FCC, stating that the agency had “concluded that no changes to the current standards are warranted at this time,” and that “NTP’s experimental findings should not be applied to human cell phone usage.” The letter stated that “the available scientific evidence to date does not support adverse health effects in humans due to exposures at or under the current limits.”

The latest cellular technology, 5G, will employ millimeter waves for the first time in addition to microwaves that have been in use for older cellular technologies, 2G through 4G. Given limited reach, 5G will require cell antennas every 100 to 200 meters, exposing many people to millimeter wave radiation. 5G also employs new technologies (e.g., active antennas capable of beam-forming; phased arrays; massive multiple inputs and outputs, known as massive MIMO) which pose unique challenges for measuring exposures.

Millimeter waves are mostly absorbed within a few millimeters of human skin and in the surface layers of the cornea. Short-term exposure can have adverse physiological effects in the peripheral nervous system, the immune system and the cardiovascular system. The research suggests that long-term exposure may pose health risks to the skin (e.g., melanoma), the eyes (e.g., ocular melanoma) and the testes (e.g., sterility).

Since 5G is a new technology, there is no research on health effects, so we are “flying blind” to quote a U.S. senator. However, we have considerable evidence about the harmful effects of 2G and 3G. Little is known the effects of exposure to 4G, a 10-year-old technology, because governments have been remiss in funding this research. Meanwhile, we are seeing increases in certain types of head and neck tumors in tumor registries, which may be at least partially attributable to the proliferation of cell phone radiation. These increases are consistent with results from case-control studies of tumor risk in heavy cell phone users.

5G will not replace 4G; it will accompany 4G for the near future and possibly over the long term. If there are synergistic effects from simultaneous exposures to multiple types of RFR, our overall risk of harm from RFR may increase substantially. Cancer is not the only risk as there is considerable evidence that RFR causes neurological disorders and reproductive harm, likely due to oxidative stress.

As a society, should we invest hundreds of billions of dollars deploying 5G, a cellular technology that requires the installation of 800,000 or more new cell antenna sites in the U.S. close to where we live, work and play?

Instead, we should support the recommendations of the 250 scientists and medical doctors who signed the 5G Appeal that calls for an immediate moratorium on the deployment of 5G and demand that our government fund the research needed to adopt biologically based exposure limits that protect our health and safety.

 

[Joel M. Moskowitz, PhD, is director of the Center for Family and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been translating and disseminating the research on wireless radiation health effects since 2009 after he and his colleagues published a review paper that found long-term cell phone users were at greater risk of brain tumors. His Electromagnetic Radiation Safety website has had more than two million page views since 2013. He is an unpaid advisor to the International EMF Scientist Appeal and Physicians for Safe Technology.]

 

The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg – for Consent: To Plunder What Little Remains: It’s Going To Be Tremendous [Volume II, Act III]

By Cory Morningstar

September 15, 2019

 

The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg – for Consent series has been written in two volumes.

[Volume I: ACT I • ACT II • ACT III • ACT IV • ACT V • ACT VI • Addenda I] [Book form] [Volume II: An Object Lesson In Spectacle • ACT I • ACT II • ACT III • ACT IV • ACT V • ACT VI] [ACTS VII & VIII forthcoming]

• A 100 Trillion Dollar Storytelling Campaign [A Short Story] [Oct 2 2019]

• The Global Climate Strikes: No, this was not co-optation. This was and is PR. A brief timeline [Oct 6 2019]

 

 

Unlocking Finance – the Growth Story of the Century

“Therein lies the failure of the environmental movement in its pragmatic neoliberalism. That the mainstream media is obsessed by framing its reportage in terms of financial and economic consequences is hardly a secret (see Chalmers, 2012). What is less readily admitted is the extent to which ENGOs have done likewise and so lost their connection to the non-human world that environmentalism aimed to represent in the first place. In the appeasement of presumed state and corporate economic interests, the language of environmental values is commonly reformulated to actually deny the existence of value in nature, non-human to non-human value and even the importance of human to non-human relationships. There is only the human-to-human relationship and associated values, and clearly some humans are more equal than others.”

 

— Environmentalism and Democracy in the Age of Nationalism & Corporate Capitalism, Clive Spash, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria, December 14, 2017

Above: [Left to right] Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group; Al Gore, Former Vice President of the United States, Chairman, The Climate Reality Project; and Christiana Figueres, the Mission2020 Convenor. Photo Credits: Max Thabiso Edkins/Connect4Climate [Source]

In 2017, the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held a panel discussion titled “Unlocking Financing for Climate Action“. The June 9, 2017 article, “Invest4Climate Inspiration to Unlock Financing for Climate Action” published on the Connect4Climate website outlines the imperative to mobilize trillions of dollars in private and public investment. Erik Solheim, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme from 2016 to 2018, would remark “there is every reason to be a global optimist” while Christiana Figueres made clear that the discussion was about “unlocking financing for economic growth that, by the way, has climate benefits…This is the story of growth of this century.” [1] [Source] Today, Solheim serves as executive director for the New Plastics Economy.

Connect4Climate is a global partnership program under the Communication for Climate Change Multi-Donor Trust Fund of the World Bank Group. The 2018 COP24 Stepping Up Climate Action campaign was initiated by the United Nations (UN) with Connect4Climate. As touched upon in ACT II of the Manufacturing Consent series [“The Inconvenient Truth Behind Youth Co-optation“], the “global leaders, thinkers, activists and influencers” serving as spokespeople for the campaign included Greta Thunberg.

 

“Global Optimism, Ltd., a purpose-driven enterprise focused on social and environmental change”, was launched in January 2019. [Source]

The Global Optimism Twitter account was created in October 2017 and would become active on April 4, 2019.

Above: It’s Going to be Tremendous, Source: Twitter

On January 24, 2019, the Washington Post published an op-ed titled “Davos, This is Outrageous”, authored by Christiana Figueres and Greta Thunberg:

“The two of us are from different generations, yet we stand together in Davos, hoping to be joined by more people of all ages and from all places. We are going to do everything we can to put an end to dirty fuels and dirty air so we can improve the prospects of people everywhere. The future is going to be tremendous.” [Emphasis added]

It’s Going to be Tremendous – by Global Optimism

“What’s more, the decisions we take over the next two to three years are crucial for the unprecedented structural changes needed to safeguard our climate and clean up our air. Now is the time: the world is expected to invest about US$90trn on infrastructure in the period up to 2030, and much of this will be allocated in the next few years.”

 

— Christiana Figueres, The Power Behind Climate Action, The Economist Intelligence Unit, March 15, 2019

Global Optimism – “a purpose driven enterprise focused on social and environmental change” [Source] – was founded by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac. The initial funding for Global Optimism was provided by We Mean Business.

The Global Optimism YouTube channel was created on May 28, 2018. “It’s Going to be Tremendous” is a pilot series of podcasts produced by Global Optimism:

“It’s Going to be Tremendous, a new podcast about living with optimism in a time of change, has just completed its pilot mini series. Co-hosted by Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson, the episodes explored issues such as the progress on climate change since the Paris Agreement, the role of student protests, and the rise of electric vehicles in cities. Guests were Jane Goodall, President Carloa Alvarado Quesada of Costa Rica, Nigel Topping and Greta Thunberg.” [Source] [Emphasis added]

The United Nations Global Goals promoted a video trailer for the podcast on February 11, 2019. After airing the short pilot season in April 2019, “It’s Going to be Tremendous” was rebranded to “Outrage and Optimism“.

On May 21, 2019, “Outrage & Optimism” released a bonus podcast featuring Greta Thunberg. In this podcast, Rivett-Carnac disclosed that he, and his co-hosts (Paul Dickinson and Figueres), shared living arrangements with Thunberg and her father while attending the January 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos. [“A few months ago in Davos, at the World Economic Forum, we shared an apartment with Greta and her dad Svante, and had the opportunity to get to know them.”] According to Thunberg’s father, Svante Thunberg, Greta is assisted by various climate organizations. This includes “Every Breath Matters”, a campaign co-founded by Figueres, that arranged for Greta’s presence in Davos. (This is further explored in Volume II of this series.)

The new episodes of “Outrage & Optimism” consist of thirteen separate podcasts (as of July 18, 2019), including a recent episode titled “Everyone is Needed” with 350.org founder, Bill McKibben, and two “bonus” podcasts featuring Greta Thunberg and Jane Goodall. Other guests include David Miliband, CEO of the International Rescue Committee and former UK Foreign Secretary, United Nations Environment Global Goodwill Ambassador and WWF Ambassador Ellie Goulding, and English broadcaster David Attenborough. Both Goulding and Attenborough are prestigious influencers for the “New Deal For Nature” (the financialization of nature under the guise of protecting biodiversity) and the UN.

Rion magazine, January 25, 2019: “Global music star, UN Environment Global Goodwill Ambassador and WWF Ambassador, Ellie Goulding [centre] woke up the World Economic Forum at Davos to climate change.” Standing left of Goulding is Christiana Figueres.

Publicly disclosed Global Optimism “strategic engagements” include The World Bank, DeepMind (artificial intelligence), Stanford (the financialization of nature), the Under2 Coalition (The Climate Group), Eni (oil and gas), the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (“smart cities”), Richard Branson’s B Team (co-founder of We Mean Business), ClimateWorks Foundation, Conservation International (board members include representatives of Northrup, Walmart, Generation Investment), Leaders’ Quest, Acciona (infrastructure at scale), and FIA (Formula E Championship).

Co-founder Tom Rivett-Carnac is the managing partner of Global Optimism. He serves as Senior Advisor to both the board of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, and to the Climate Leaders of the President of the World Bank Group. Rivett-Carnac is the former President and CEO of CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) North America. Prior to these positions, he served as senior advisor to then executive secretary of the UN Climate Convention, Christiana Figueres. Rivett-Carnac also serves as chief strategist to Mission 2020 unveiled in 2016. [2] [Full bio]

Outrage & Optimism co-host Paul Dickinson co-founded the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in the year 2000. CDP is “an entity that utilizes the financial markets to drive greater disclosure of climate change related risks and opportunities in the operations of listed companies.” Currently, more than 7,000 corporations work with CDP. The organization launched a North American program as a sponsored project within the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in 2007. CDP is also a founding partner of We Mean Business launched in 2014. A more recent venture is Dickinson’s agency “Beautiful Corporations” inspired by a book he authored which was published by the Financial Times in 2000.

Global Optimism has launched several initiatives including Mission 2020, Profiles of Paris, Future Stewards and Every Breath Matters.

Profiles of Paris

From the Profiles of Paris website:

“Please explore the remarkable stories of the people who created the Paris Agreement, and what it means for the future.” [Emphasis added]

Before we continue to explore “the remarkable stories” of those behind the creation of the Paris Agreement and what “it means for the future”, including Bill Gates Mission Innovation’s partnership with the Global Covenant of Mayors, which will bring us “smart cities”, it is essential that we first explore the profiles of the Figueres family dynasty.

Christiana Figueres

“Collectively we are writing a business plan for the world. The feasibility study phase has finished… it is high time to execute.” – Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC at Climate Week NYC, September 2014, [Source]

Above: Costa Rican postage stamp honouring Christiana Figueres [Source]

The privileged background of Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) from 2010 to 2016, may not be well known by those outside of the elite establishment. On her personal website, Figueres informs us that “in the natural world, a newly discovered tropical moth (Struthoscelis christianafigueresae), a wasp (Pseudapanteles christianafigueresae) and an orchid (Vanilla karen-christianae) have been named after her,” and that Costa Rica has recently issued a commemorative postage stamp in her honour.

After serving as a member of the Costa Rican climate negotiating team from 1995 to 2009, and having played a number of key roles in the governance of the UNFCC, Figueres formally joined the Secretariat in 2010.

Figueres, an anthropologist, economist and analyst having studied at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Georgetown University, presided over the UN climate negotiations that culminated in the 2015 Paris Agreement. For this achievement Ms. Figueres has been credited with “forging a new brand of collaborative diplomacy”. With almost four decades of experience in multilateral negotiations, high-level national and international policy, coupled with extensive involvement in the corporate/private sector, in 2016, TIME magazine named Figueres one of the 100 most influential people in the world. As a side note, on May 16, 2019, Greta Thunberg was included in TIME’s 2019 list of 100 most influential people, as well as one of 10 “Next Generation Leaders” of 2019, as well as gracing the TIME magazine cover.

Today, Figueres serves as vice-chair of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, ClimateWorks Board Member, World Bank Climate Leader, B Team leader, leader of Mission2020, and board member of both the World Resources Institute and Unilever.

“Collectively we are writing a business plan for the world. The feasibility study phase is finished… it is high time to execute.”

 

— Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Climate Week NYC, 2014

Christiana Figures video. Climate Week NYC, 2014 [Running time: 3m:17s]:

Outrage and Optimism video. Christiana Figueres in support of Extinction Rebellion, [Running time: 1:05]:

Figueres is also identified as a “distinguished member” of Conservation International. [Other “distinguished members” of Conservation International include those such as Wes Bush chairman, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Mark Ferguson, founding partner, Generation Investment Management (with Al Gore and Goldman Sachs’s David Blood), and Rob Walton, chairman of the board (retired), Walmart, who all serve on the board of directors.][Source]

While studying at the LSE, Figueres met and later married Konrad von Ritter, former head of the World Bank’s sustainable development unit. Von Ritter founded the Global WEnergy corporation in Singapore. His work with the World Bank spans two decades. [Bio]

Although meticulous in detail, Figueres biography on her personal website neglects to disclose her royal connection to Costa Rica. On Figueres’ lengthy Wikipedia entry, it is disclosed, in a single sentence, that her father, José Figueres Ferrer [3], served as President of Costa Rica on three separate occasions. In August 1953, the Guatemalan Communist paper, Octubre, characterized the new president of Costa Rica, José “Don Pepe” Figueres, as an “unconditional servant of American imperialism” and the latest “United Fruit Company President.” Both pro-American and anti-communist, José Figueres supported the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état overthrowing Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954. [4] [Further reading: Resistance and Accommodation: The United States and the Nationalism of José Figueres, 1953–1957.]

Figueres’ mother, Karen Olsen Beck, served as Costa Rican Ambassador to Israel in 1982 and was a member of the Costa Rica Legislative Assembly.

Figueres’ brother José María Figueres also served as President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998. In 2013, he co-founded the Global Ocean Commission, an initiative funded by the Pew Charitable Trust, the Adessium Foundation in the Netherlands, and U.S. philanthropic group Oceans 5. Former Greenpeace adviser Simon Reddy would serve as the commission’s executive secretary. [Source] María Figueres serves as chair to the Global Ocean Commission (since rebranded to Mission Ocean) with David Miliband (recently featured on the Global Optimism podcast series), and Trevor Manuel (one of South Africa’s longest serving Ministers of Finance, now Minister in the Presidency and head of the National Planning Commission). The original members of the Global Ocean Commission remain unchanged in 2019 with one member having deceased. Members include John Podesta (chair of the Center for American Progress and a former White House chief of staff and member of the ClimateWorks board of directors), Sri Mulyani Indrawati (managing director and chief operating officer of the World Bank Group), Pascal Lamy (former director-general of the World Trade Organisation) and other high profile individuals. María Figueres is also the co-founder of Ocean Unite. This is important, as the oceans are set to be privatized under the “New Deal For Nature” scheme.

Other key roles held by José Figueres include serving as president for the Carbon War Room (founded by Richard Branson, which has since merged with The Rocky Mountain Institute). José Figueres has occupied an instrumental role in the leading institutions disclosed and explored in the 2019 Manufacturing for Consent series [ACT VI]. He has served as director for the World Wildlife Fund, the World Resources Institute, and the Stockholm Environment Institute. [Source] He served as the first CEO of the World Economic Forum in 2003, and later served as CEO of Concordia 21 (a global convener, campaigner, and innovation incubator with over 50 heads of state, 600 corporate executives and 300 press. Over 20 trillion USD in private sector assets are represented with a key focus on privatization in Latin America).

Christiana Figueres:

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 2010-2016

Vice-chair of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, [June 22, 2016 European Commission press release; partnered with the World Bank on December 12, 2017]

B Team Leader [Source]

Climate Leader for the World Bank [Source]

Distinguished Fellow of Conservation International [Source]

Board member of Climate Works

Board member of the World Resources Institute

Board member of Unilever

Member of the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health

Fellow of DeepMind: “DeepMind is the world leader in artificial intelligence research and its application for positive impact.” DeepMind was acquired by Google in 2014, its largest European acquisition to date, and is now part of the Alphabet group.

Member of the commission on the Global Consequences of Renewable Energy Transformation [Source]

Ambassador of the Under 2 Coalition (The Climate Group)

Advisory Board member of ENI (An Italian multinational oil and gas corporation identified as one of the “global supermajors”, it has operations in 79 countries. It is the world’s 11^th largest industrial corporation.)

Board member of ACCIONA (a Spanish conglomerate founded on the development and management of infrastructure (construction, water, industrial and services) and renewable energy.

Co-chair of the Advisory Committee for Formula E, electric vehicle racing (one might wonder why car racing for sport/entertainment would be maintained in the face of the climate emergency declared by the ruling classes.)

Chair of the Lancet Countdown High Level Advisory Board

Parliament of the World’s Religion member

UN Climate Action Summit 2019, Youth & Mobilization steering committee

 

To further define “the new discipline of planetary health” The Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health was established on June 1, 2017 at the Oxford Martin School. The Rockefeller Foundation directed a 15 million USD grant toward establishing the pillars of a new planetary health discipline. The concept of planetary health is directly aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are planned to be achieved by 2030.

Chaired by former president of Mexico and current director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, Ernesto Zedillo, other members of the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health include Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and Director-General of the WHO, Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UNFCCC, Nicholas Stern, international advisor for the Global CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) Institute and vice-chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, former Chief Economist of the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, commissioner serving Energy Transitions, Indraprasad Gordhanbhai (I.G.) Patel, professor of Economics and Government, London School of Economics and member of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, Mark Tercek, former president and CEO, The Nature Conservancy, Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Group and Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, co-chair of the New Climate Economy, vice-chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, founding member of The B Team, board member to the UN Global Compact, former chair of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and founder of the recently launched foundation and corporation called Imagine. [Full list]

Future Stewards

Above: January 24, 2019, WEF, Davos, Arctic Basecamp. William Pfeiffer (left), executive chairman and co-founder of Globalgate Entertainment, senior advisor to Lionsgate, Bono (right) Source: Twitter

Future Stewards is a coalition of three partners: Leaders’ Quest, Global Optimism and We Mean Business. Their stated aim “over the next five to 10 years is to unlock the collective will – across business, government and civil society – to achieve a regenerative future. To realise this goal, “Future Stewards creates experiential programmes that equip teams, organisations and partnerships to work with major influencers to accelerate transformation.” [Source]

Past participants include Zia Kahn, The Rockefeller Foundation, Asholk Vaswani, Barclays UK, Jamie Henn, 350.org, Peter Wheeler, The Nature Conservancy, Jim Hagemann, World Economic Forum, and Virginie Helias, Procter & Gamble. [Source] The next high-profile quest takes place at the Arctic Basecamp, at the 2020 World Economic Forum:

“Arctic Basecamp, Leaders’ Quest, Global Optimism and We Mean Business are pleased to announce Basecamp Quest 2020… The 1.5-day glacier-based programme will take place immediately before the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, January 2020… We’ll travel from Davos to a nearby ice field and stay overnight… The programme will include: Deep dive discussions on how free markets can respond — and the role of leaders in reimagining capitalism… The programme is open to senior leaders from all sectors.”

 

— Leaders’ Quest Website [Full description] [Emphasis added]

2019 Arctic Basecamp guests included the aforementioned Ellie Goulding, Greta Thunberg, Christiana Figueres, Deb Duggan (Redd), and many others of elite and celebrity status. Bono, also in attendance, also has his hand in the climate strikes. Luisa Neubauer, “youth ambassador” to ONE (founded by Bono) is the highly groomed young Thunberg’s shadow. Wherever Greta appears, ONE’s Neubauer is not too far away. Serving as the figurehead/spokesperson for “Fridays for Future” (climate strikes) Neubauer is often referred to as “the German Greta”. Neubauer’s CV already reads as prestigious with references to Greenpeace, Right Livelihood Award Foundation and 350.org.

Deborah Dugan, CEO of RED (the sister organization of ONE founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver) until May 2019, was also present at the WEF Arctic Basecamp. Prior to RED, Dugan was President of Disney Publishing Worldwide, a $2 billion retail division of the Walt Disney Company.

January 24, 2019: WEF, Davos, Arctic Basecamp, Greta Thunberg (left) with Christiana Figueres (right) Source: Twitter

January 24, 2019: WEF, Davos, Arctic Basecamp, Jane Goodall (left), Greta Thunberg (centre), Deborah Dugan (right)  Source: Twitter

Clients at Leaders’ Quest include Actis, Bain & Company, Barclays, British Airways, Daimler, DMGT, Oxfam, Procter & Gamble, Rockefeller Foundation, Russell Reynolds Associates, SAP, and UBM. [Source]

“We came up with a tremendous amount of energy, many fresh connections, and new thinking that will be really helpful to us at the Rockefeller Foundation.”

 

— Zia Khan, Vice President for Strategy & Evaluation, The Rockefeller Foundation [Source]

 

“…the world is expected to invest around $90 trillion in infrastructure over the next 15 years. The next two to three years are crucial in securing a fundamental shift of direction for this to happen.”

 

– Nigel Topping, December 8, 2016, Leaders’ Quest Website

Future Nightmares

“To paraphrase former French president Jacques Chirac in 2002, our house is indeed burning down, only now we stare, uncritically, at philanthropists.”

 

– The Failure of Climate Philanthropy by Edouard Morena, November 12, 2018 [Source]

The question never asked is this: What does 90 trillion USD of growth equate to in CO2 emissions and pollution? What does 90 trillion USD in new growth look like in depleted resources? Considering we are already inflicted severe devastation on the planet up to this point, hence our multiple ecological crises, the idea that we grind up even more of our natural world and turn it into capital – is truly staggering. The climate “movement” demands we plunder what remains of the exhausted planet – in order the save the climate.

On June 1, 2019, We Mean Business via social media put forward the question: “What if one of the biggest things stopping us from saving the ocean was money? What if it didn’t have to be?”

It’s not money that will save the oceans. It’s not for lack of financing that we cannot restore health to the oceans. Rather, the very thing destroying the oceans is the pursuit of money. Earth’s natural resources are extracted, pulverized and reduced into commodities. The faster the rate of destruction and exploitation – the faster the financial gains (profits) are realized. The greater the intensity of destruction and exploitation – the higher the profits.

Herding its audience to the predetermined answer (“@nature_org presents 4 innovative solutions for #WorldOceansDay“) we find The Nature Conservancy’s promotional video “How Do We Pay For Healthy Oceans?“. This falls under the jurisdiction of Nature Conservancy’s “Blue Growth” strategy, one of eight areas of focus highlighted in the “Global Insights” division. The Nature Conservancy, a co-founder of Nature4Climate with We Mean Business, is a leader in the financialization of nature scheme (the “New Deal For Nature” that no NGO, climate “leader” or “movement” opposes). The “How Do We Pay For Healthy Oceans” advertisement asks four questions:

1. “What if – restructuring debt for island and coastal nations protected 15% more oceans in just five years?” [Answer: Colonization, coercion, theft, ocean grabbing]
2. “What if – investors put the fastest-growing form of food production on a sustainable path?” [Answer: Industrial fish farming, infectious pathogens, virulent diseases]
3. “What if – carbon markets helped pay to restore coastal wetlands?” [Answer: Already proven not to work.]
4. “What if – a coral reef had its own insurance policy?” [Answer: Sounds similar to Walmart taking out life insurance policies on employees who have a terminal illness.]

“It’s no longer what if. Nature – The investment of our lifetime” — The Nature Conservancy

The latest colour on the greenwash palette is turquoise blue. 

Mitigation/species banking (also referred to as “biodiversity offsets”) has created new markets. This is a fairly new instrument for corporations, industry and entrepreneurs to create faux wetlands (“replacement wetland”) for massive financial gain (sold as credits to developers) – that simultaneously – provide a legal instrument for developers to pave over and destroy vital wetlands that have slowly evolved in nature. As an example of how ridiculous it is to compare an impromptu wetland created by humans, to wetlands having evolved naturally in nature, consider sedge meadows have taken millennia to establish themselves. To expect species wiped out in the wetlands – being paved over at breakneck speed – and magically find and thrive in manufactured wetlands – is magical thinking that deliberately ignores and disregards sacred biological processes that can never be replicated by man. To be clear – in order for a developer to be permitted to destroy a wetland – it only needs purchase a credit/credits in a newly created/faux wetland.

For a crash course in how a mitigation bank actually assists and propels ecosystem destruction at breakneck speed – one need look no further than what has unfolded in Madison, USA. The wetland credits not only offset and negated any/all responsibility to protect or restore natural habitat – they created the legal means to destroy them completely.

Creative Destruction

In the same article encompassing the aforementioned quote by We Mean Business CEO Nigel Topping, Topping reflects on “the need to create a just transition to ensure Schumpeterian creative destruction does not leave a trail of unemployed, angry voters in its wake.” This is vital to explore, as it demonstrates the ideology of those at the helm of the “new climate economy” required to rescue capitalism. The term “creative destruction” is a concept in economics. Joseph Schumpeter derived the concept from the work of Karl Marx, concluding that creative-destructive forces unleashed by capitalism would eventually lead to its demise as a system. Despite this conclusion, the theory of “creative destruction” was reframed and popularized as a theory of economic innovation and natural business cycle. In essence, a co-optation of theory and rebranding exercise. Alongside neoliberalism, the term became popular to describe/justify corporate decisions such as downsizing in order to increase corporate profits under the guise of efficiency, boldness, and dynamism.

In The Communist Manifesto of 1848,  Marx and Friedrich Engels elaborate on the crisis tendency of capitalism in terms of “the enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces”:

“And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the one hand by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented.” [p. 17]

Written in 1848, one can easily envision this passage featured on the first page of the New Climate Economy handbook.

David Harvey sums up the differences between Marx’s usage of these concepts and Schumpeter’s: “Both Karl Marx and Joseph Schumpeter wrote at length on the ‘creative-destructive’ tendencies inherent in capitalism. While Marx clearly admired capitalism’s creativity he […] strongly emphasised its self-destructiveness. The Schumpeterians have all along gloried in capitalism’s endless creativity while treating the destructiveness as mostly a matter of the normal costs of doing business”. [The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism, 2010]

Current Nightmares – The Corporate Capture of the UN

“Prompted by the uncertainties about the stability of globalisation, in 2009 the World Economic Forum (WEF) convened an international expert group to formulate a new system of global governance. This project was led by the three most senior leaders of the World Economic Forum (WEF) – Klaus Schwab, its Executive Chairman; Mark Malloch-Brown, then its Vice-Chairman; and Richard Samans, its Managing Director…  What is ingenious and disturbing is that the WEF multi-stakeholder governance proposal does not require approval or disapproval by any intergovernmental body.”

 

— Multi-stakeholderism: A Corporate Push for a New Form of Global Governance, The Transnational Institute, January 19, 2019

As touched upon in the Manufacturing Consent series, the World Economic Forum (WEF) is at the helm of the global transition to a fourth industrial revolution. The interlocking directorate between those that steer the WEF ship and those that lead the most powerful institutions, corporations, states and NGOs – is what could be termed a 21st century matrix of global hegemony.

13 June 2019: UN and WEF Sign MOU on Strategic Partnership Framework for 2030 Agenda. “Secretary-General António Guterres (centre right) and Klaus Schwab (centre left), Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, witness the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations and the World Economic Forum on the Strategic Partnership Framework for the 2030 Agenda by Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed (right) and Børge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum.” United Nations, New York, Photo # 811012, UN Website

A July 2, 2019 article sheds light on a new development: “How the United Nations is quietly being turned into a public-private partnership – A new agreement with the World Economic Forum gives multinational corporations influence over matters of global governance.” From the article:

“A new corporate and government marriage quietly took place last week when the leadership of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the United Nations (UN) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to partner with each other. While this MOU is proudly displayed on the WEF website, it is nowhere to be found on the UN website. The only indication on the UN website of this important new development is a picture of the pen used to sign the agreement, and two pictures of the signing ceremony…

 

Now the new WEF-UN agreement creates a second special place for multinational corporations inside the UN. There is no similar institutional home in the UN system for civil society, for academics, for religious leaders, or for youth…

 

The agreement announces new multistakeholder partnerships to deliver public goods in the fields of education, women, financing, climate change, and health.” [Emphasis added]

As pointed out in the article, the WEF-UN agreement circumvented the intergovernmental review process by 193 member states. It is doubtful that sovereign states such as Bolivia, Cuba, Venezuela, Eritrea, Nicaragua, Syria, Iran, etc. would have agreed to hand the world’s most egregious corporations the planet on a plate.

The author observes, “[I]t is hard to imagine a national government signing a similar formal partnership with one of its business organizations.” This is true, and yet such partnerships are happening behind closed doors with virtually no public oversight. Consider Bill Gates’ Mission Innovation: “Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative of 24 countries and the European Commission (on behalf of the European Union).” Together, these member states seek to double public investment in clean energy RD&D on behalf of the private sector. [Source] Other groups with the same/similar model include Under 2 Coalition, a Western-led coalition of 220 states led by The Climate Group, the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), the Global CCS Institute, and C40 cities, to name just a few. All represent coalitions created in order to propel economic growth in the private sector.

“Our Members are setting the course for the future of CCS. They include the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Japan and Australia, and multinationals such as Shell, ExxonMobil, Toshiba, Kawasaki and BHP.”

 

— Global CCS Institute website

Akin to “sanctions (and trade blockades) and currency devaluation [as] weapons of mass destruction, often applied prior to economic restructuring or military obliteration, just as “winning hearts and minds” is a weapon of economic occupation” [5] the “Strategic Partnership Framework for the 2030 Agenda” must be considered the weapon of choice for the renewed colonization of the Global South under the guise of a climate emergency. A “winning hearts and minds” behavioural change project, as method of soft power for a planetary economic occupation and destruction.

“At the same time, it [the agreement] avoids any commitment to reduce global inequality, to make energy affordable, to hold multinational corporations accountable for human rights violations, or even to rein in the behavior of the WEF’s firms that act inconsistently to the re-defined goals set out in the agreement.”

 

— How the United Nations is quietly being turned into a public-private partnership, Open Democracy, July 2, 2019

In essence, this partnership represents a coup d’état of the United Nations. A United Nations which has long been bending to corporate power and influence has finally succumbed.

With governments bypassed and media silent, this coup represents the strengthening of the global corporatocracy that now dominates the world. They are accountable to no one.

“The UN-WEF partnership document indicates the UN’s structural subserviency to the western hegemony. It’s an expression of the global capitalist hierarchy manifesting in the shape of international institution. Lying to people is a fundamental building block of the empire.”

 

— Hiroyuki Hamada, artist

At the same time, efforts towards global tax co-operation continue to advance. The Platform for Collaboration on Tax continues to gain momentum and is being positioned on centre stage, yet makes zero mention in the media or news outlets. Under the guise of a “growing importance of taxation in the debate to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT) initiative reduces the UN to one of four players (alongside the World Bank, IMF and OECD) and is not accountable for SDG implementation.” [Source]

As Al Gore siphons one quarter of a Kenyan’s yearly salary for a solar television and light kit, the World Bank et al. are preparing to tax the most vulnerable populations in the developing and emerging states, under the pretense of mitigating an ecological crisis created by the rich.

Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, Mission Innovation, “Smart Cities”

“(…) the politicians actually, behind the scenes, including this current government, are telling us they need a social movement like ours to give them the social permission to do the necessary.”

 

— Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbrook, April 18, 2019

Above: December 13, 2018, Global Covenant of Mayors promoting Greta Thunberg for climate action. Source: Twitter

As we peel back the layers of an orchestrated movement that serves to protect the ruling classes and the suicidal capitalist system itself, we need to look at Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (Global Covenant of Mayors).

The Global Covenant of Mayors is partnered with both the World Bank [December 12, 2017] and Bill Gates’ Mission Innovation [May 28, 2019]. Mission Innovation is (thus far) partnered with 24 states and the European Commission [6] – on behalf of the European Union. [“These 25 members have committed to seek to double public investment in clean energy RD&D and are engaging with the private sector, fostering international collaboration and celebrating innovators.’] Because we cannot expect billionaires such as Bill Gates to pay for their own research, development and deployment (RD&D) that will further enslave us, the money must come from the peasants (i.e. tax dollars and pension funds).

The Compact of Mayors officially merged with the Covenant of Mayors in 2016. The Global Covenant of Mayors unites more than 9,209 cities (already committed) in 132 countries across six continents. This represents the world’s largest coalition. The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy formally brings together the European Union’s Covenant of Mayors and the Compact of Mayors. [Source]

The Global Covenant of Mayors board is co-chaired by former European Commission vice-president Maroš Šef?ovi? and former New York City Mayor and the U.N. Secretary-General’s special envoy for climate action, Michael Bloomberg. As of March 2019, Bloomberg, who, like Al Gore, has publicly feigned concern on economic inequality and the growing gap between rich and poor, was ranked as the 9th-richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $57.1 billion. Bloomberg is heavily invested in both fracking and natural gas.

Christiana Figueres serves as vice-chair of the Global Covenant of Mayors. Tasked with her role as a “World Bank Climate Leader”, the leader of Mission2020 (“exponential transformation” focusing on six sectors that will play a key role in municipal governments and “Green New Deals”), board member of the World Resources Institute, ClimateWorks, Unilever, etc. – her role in the implementation of the fourth industrial revolution, in all of its realms, cannot be understated.

Current UNFCCC executive secretary, Patricia Espinosa, serves an advisor and observer to the Global Covenant of Mayors board.

[The Global Covenant of Mayors Founders Council comprises groups and institutions including C40 Cities, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), and the European Commission. [73]

Smart cities are identified as the “backbone of climate action”. For the maxed-out West, “climate emergency” means in large part, smart cities. As emphasized in this series, for the largely untapped Global South, “climate emergency” means continued, even renewed colonization, under the guise of green.

The Exponential Climate Action Roadmap (Global Climate Action Summit, September, 2018) reports that, “[T]he next technologies down the ramp are artificial intelligence, 5G networks, digital fabrication, smart sensors, the large-scale deployment of the internet of things and drones.” [p. 91, Source]

Consider the recent launch of Partnership on AI (Artificial Intelligence). Partners include Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, PayPal, Sony, UNDP, Carnegie, BSR (co-founder of We Mean Business), and NGOs in servitude to imperialism such as Access Now (Avaaz), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Witness. [Full partner list] There are no partners from either Latin America or Africa.

“The Partnership [on AI] was formally established in late 2016, led by a group of AI researchers representing six of the world’s largest technology companies: Apple, Amazon, DeepMind and Google, Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft. In 2017 the addition of six not-for-profit Board members expanded the Partnership into a multi-stakeholder organization – which now represents a community of 50+ member organizations.” [Source]

On January 23, 2019, the World Economic Forum announced its own “Artificial Intelligence Council”. The membership of the AI Council includes political figures such as the now former British Prime Minister Theresa May with many “iconic business figures” at the helm. [Source]

Here, it is critical to pay heed to the dire warning by Dr. Martin Pall to the National Institutes of Health.

Video: Dr. Martin Pall to the Health in Buildings Roundtable, “The 5G Rollout Is Absolutely Insane.” [Running Time: 9:08]:

https://youtu.be/kBsUWbUB6PE

A key partner in the race toward “smart cities” is Google, also co-founder of the aforementioned “The Partnership on AI”.  More and more, we are collectively and deliberately being alienated from the natural world. The more technology, the more entrenched and enslaved in the suicidal system we become. An epidemic in depression in the West is just an example of the collateral damage.

The “Smart City Expo World Congress 2018, Digital Transformation” can still be found on the Smart City Expo website. Supporting institutions included the European Commission, C40 Cities, ICLEI, the World Bank, CDP, and the Covenant of Mayors. The Smart City Expo World Congress 2019, Cities Made of Dreams, will take place in Barcelona from November 19-21, 2019.

The reporting and data partners of the Global Covenant of Mayors include many of the same entities explored in the 2019 Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg series: The Climate Group, World Resources Institute, WWF, the World Bank, the UN, and the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project).

As “smart trees” are installed to fight air pollution in “smart cities”, real trees will be churned into biofuel under the guise of the branded terms “clean energy” (already happening at scale) and “net zero”. This is not protection of biodiversity, this is a future as envisioned by psychopaths.

This is what “sustainability” looks like through the lens of a capitalist. Source: Twitter

Former UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres, Global Covenant of Mayors vice-chair. Source: Twitter

The technologies desired for the “fourth industrial revolution”, the “climate emergency” declarations and adjacent legislation required to unlock the funding required in order to save the capitalist economic system, this is all happening very quickly by design in said response to the global mobilizations demanding action on climate change. Each municipality declaring a climate emergency is presented as a victory for the people and the planet. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Future is CCS & Nuclear

And while the masses in the West are hypnotized by elite financed/manufactured global climate mobilizations – in the real world, Bill Gates Mission Innovation, Christiana Figueres and Michael Bloomberg’s Global Covenant of Mayors (partnered with the World Bank) et al. were scaling up their efforts at the CEM10/MI-4 [The 10th Clean Energy Ministerial and 4th  Mission Innovation Ministerial] held in Vancouver, Canada from May 27–May 29, 2019. During this event, hosting the ministers of 25 governments, Mission Innovation and the Global Covenant of Mayors entered into a formal collaboration.

Here too, youth were being primed to embrace the “fourth industrial revolution”:

“For the first time, CEM10/MI-4 will feature a Youth Program…70 youth clean energy leaders from over 25 countries will join us in Vancouver to be agents of change for our energy future. In addition, through a partnership with Student Energy, over 50,000 youth in over 130 countries will be engaged through social media, promotional videos and livestreaming of select events at CEM10/MI-4.” [Source] [CEM and MI Youth Leaders Forum]

Bill Gates addressed the opening plenary session in Vancouver, highlighting the new partnerships between Breakthrough Energy and Canada (May 27, 2019), and Breakthrough Energy and the European Commission (Breakthrough Energy Europe, October 17, 2018):

“The “Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy Future” (NICE Future) is an international collaboration under CEM that envisions a world in which nuclear energy innovation plays a key role and advances clean energy goals. At CEM10, the NICE Future initiative will be releasing a book, Breakthroughs: Nuclear Innovation in a Clean Energy System, that tells the stories of the people and the solutions that are driving near-term innovation in nuclear energy. Its goal is to generate excitement and create ideas about what nuclear energy’s role can be in clean energy systems of the future.”

 

In servitude to capital by design, NGOs are called upon to facilitate the transition to the fourth industrial revolution. Trillions of dollars are funneled from corporations, Annex 1 states, hedge funds, into foundations, into the NGOS comprising the non-profit industrial complex. The funds, made politically correct by utilizing language via the term “grants” are, in reality, investments. These tax-free investments enable billionaires to have the world shaped and designed in their image.

At the helm of the climate mobilizations being orchestrated at scale, are the same NGOs who co-founded the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA/TckTckTck) – tasked with “herding the cats” since 2009. The purpose is to give the citizenry a sense of inclusion and ownership in critical decision making. The illusion that we, the citizenry, are in the driver’s seat. The accelerated servitude, oppression and exploitation will not be forced upon us. Rather, we will have demanded it.

The “fourth industrial revolution” will be a “smart industrial revolution”. The “climate emergency” will amount to, when put into practice, the further destruction of the natural world. This global campaign has nothing to do with the climate and everything to do with saving capitalism. This is the maintaining and expansion of current power structures.

A fully “smart city” is on the way for those in the West. Simultaneously, the financialization of nature, not the true protection of biodiversity, is the shared goal. The two will coalesce to form a “smart” dystopian hell.

Further, those that comprise the World Economic Forum have been handed the keys to the planet.

 

No, it’s not “going to be tremendous”. It’s going to be a nightmare.

 

 

End Notes:

[1] “During the 2017 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the panel discussion “Unlocking Financing for Climate Action” sent an inspirational message. The question was how to mobilize the trillions of dollars in private and public investment needed to ensure that the world meets the Paris Climate Change Agreement’s aim of keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius.

The high level-panel featured the President of the World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim, the Former Vice President of the United States and Chairman, Al Gore, the Mission2020 Convenor, Christiana Figueres, the Founder and Chairman of Skoll Foundation, Jeff Skoll, the Minister of Finance of Sweden, Magdalena Andersson, the UNEP Executive Director Erik Solheim, and it was moderated by the journalist Ghida Fakhry. To a capacity audience at the World Bank headquarters the overall message was one of optimism, that it is possible to tackle climate change by raising the necessary finances….

Al Gore emphasized that he is optimistic with regards to dealing with climate change: “There is no doubt in my mind that we will solve the climate crisis.” Pointing to the importance of a sustainable revolution, the Former Vice President of the United States made sure to highlight the importance of urgency: “How quickly we win this” is determined by how much finance can be leveraged.

The inspiration throughout the discussion was noticeable, as expressed by Erik Solheim: “There is every reason to be a global optimist.” Christiana Figueres underlined that the discussion is actually about “unlocking financing for economic growth that, by the way, has climate benefits…This is the story of growth of this century.” [Emphasis in original]

[2] Tom Rivett-Carnac:

• Serves as senior advisor to the Board of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (a network of more than 7,500 cities), and to the Climate Leaders of the president of the World Bank Group.
• Founder and chief strategist of Mission 2020.
• Managing partner of Global Optimism
• Former senior advisor to the executive secretary of the UN Climate Convention, Christiana Figueres. (“From this position he was responsible for political strategy and for the integration of non state actors into the international negotiation process. Leading an independent strategy team inside the Office of the Executive Secretary, he held this position up to and during the successful negotiations in Lima (COP 20) and Paris (COP 21), which resulted in the historic Paris Accords.”)
• Former President and CEO of CDP North America (“an entity that utilizes the financial markets to drive greater disclosure of climate change related risks and opportunities in the operations of listed companies.” Currently more than 7,000 corporations work with CDP
• Research fellow at Stanford University, home of “natural capital” research (the financialization of nature).
• Has held, or continues to hold, Advisory positions at the Clinton Global Initiative, NY Stock Exchange, Leaders’ Quest and the Global Impact Investment Network. [Source] [Source]

 

[3] “Contrary to dogmatic Marxist formulas, Figueres had the support of the country’s oligarchs that felt threatened by Calderon’s reforms. In 1948, after Calderon lost the election to a candidate backed by Figueres, the legislature dominated by Calderon’s party overturned the results—thus leading to a civil war that cost the lives of 2,000 Costa Ricans. Fighting on Calderon’s side was the Communist Party, while Figueres’s forces were composed mostly of students and professionals funded by sectors of the bourgeoisie. Figueres sought not only to topple Calderon but to foment revolutions against the big three oligarchs in the region: Batista, Somoza and Trujillo. As should be obvious, attempts to pigeonhole Costa Rican history are doomed.

After taking power, Figueres vowed to continue with Calderon’s social programs and to deepen them under the new Social Democratic party he founded. From that point on, Costa Rica became the bête noire of American imperialism and its allies in the region. Despite the threat they posed, Figueres believed a regular army was not only unnecessary but an institution that could easily transform Costa Rica into just another oligarchy. Instead, he urged the creation of a citizens militia but only during a national emergency—an approach not that different from that of the founding fathers of the USA.

The last twenty minutes or so of the film deal with the enormous pressures being put on Costa Rica to “get with the program”, which meant agreeing to free trade deals and even backing Bush’s invasion of Iraq as part of the “coalition of the willing”. Costa Rica went along with the first demand but rejected the second. As a willing partner in the Washington Consensus, Costa Rica is being transformed into a poster child for neoliberalism with Walmart stores replacing locally-owned small stores and five star hotels springing up everywhere to lure tourists.” [Source] [4] Guzmán was instrumental in the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution, which represented some of the few years of representative democracy in Guatemalan history. Code-named Operation PBSUCCESS, it installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed authoritarian rulers in Guatemala.

The 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état was a covert operation carried out by the CIA that deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–1954. Code-named Operation PBSUCCESS, it installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed authoritarian rulers in Guatemala. backed by a heavy campaign of psychological warfare. Castillo Armas quickly assumed dictatorial powers, banning opposition parties, imprisoning and torturing political opponents, and reversing the social reforms of the revolution. Nearly four decades of civil war followed, as leftist guerrillas fought a series of U.S.-backed authoritarian regimes whose brutalities included a genocide of the Maya peoples.

[5] “Geo-Economics and Geo-Politics Drive Successive Eras of Predatory Globalization and Social Engineering: Historical emergence of climate change, gender equity, and anti-racism as State doctrines”, by Denis G. Rancourt, Ontario Civil Liberties Association, OCLA Report 2019-1, April 2019, http://ocla.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/OCLA_Report_2019-1.pdf.

[6] The European Commission is the executive branch of the European Union, responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the EU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the EU. [Source]

 

 

An Object Lesson In Spectacle [Excerpt From the Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg for Consent – Volume II]

The Art of Annihilation

September 10, 2019

By Cory Morningstar

 

The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg – for Consent series has been written in two volumes.

[Volume I: ACT I • ACT II • ACT III • ACT IV • ACT V • ACT VI • Addenda I] [Book form] [Volume II: An Object Lesson In Spectacle • ACT I • ACT II • ACT III • ACT IV • ACT V • ACT VI] [ACTS VII & VIII forthcoming]

• A 100 Trillion Dollar Storytelling Campaign [A Short Story] [Oct 2 2019]

• The Global Climate Strikes: No, this was not co-optation. This was and is PR. A brief timeline [Oct 6 2019]

 

 

An object lesson in spectacle

On February 21, 2019, accompanied with much media fanfare, Greta Thunberg spoke alongside then European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the ‘Civil Society for rEUnaissance’ event in Brussels:

“The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) discussed the key role that organised civil society must play for the future of Europe during an event on 21 February 2019 – just over 90 days from the European elections – that brought together the highest representatives of the European institutions and civil society organisations from across the entire EU.”

Thunberg’s opening speech was followed by remarks from Juncker, who had kissed Thunberg’s hand upon introduction. The event took place alongside approximately 10,000 youth climate strikers, with politicians, officials, lobbyists and journalists abound. [1] Praising the climate strike movement, Juncker announced that one quarter of the EU budget would be spent on climate mitigation from 2021 to 2027.

Around the world, the media reaction was instant and sensational.

Common Dreams, February 21, 2019:

“Greta Thunberg, literally changing the world…

 

Sixteen-year-old climate action leader Greta Thunberg stood alongside European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Thursday in Brussels as he indicated—after weeks of climate strikes around the world inspired by the Swedish teenager—that the European Union has heard the demands of young people and pledged a quarter of $1 trillion budget over the next seven years to address the crisis of a rapidly heating planet.

 

In the financial period beginning in 2021, Juncker said, the EU will devote a quarter of its budget to solving the crisis.

 

“Every fourth euro spent within the EU budget will go towards action to mitigate climate change,” Juncker said. The plan will spend billions over seven years…”

Reuters, February 21, 2019:

“Swedish student leader wins EU pledge to spend billions on climate…

 

In the next financial period from 2021 to 2027, every fourth euro spent within the EU budget will go towards action to mitigate climate change,’ Juncker said of his proposal for the EU budget, which is typically 1 percent of the bloc’s economic output, or 1 trillion euros ($1.13 trillion) over seven years.”

CNBC, February 22, 2019:

“EU’s Juncker proposes billions of spending on climate change after a 16-year-old’s speech…

 

Every fourth euro spent within the EU budget will go towards climate mitigation actions between 2021 and 2027, Jean-Claude Juncker says.”

Global Citizen, February 22, 2019:

“EU Boosts Climate Change Budget After Greta Thunberg Speech… Following a speech by student climate activist Greta Thunberg in Brussels on Thursday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced the EU should spend hundreds of billions of euros combating climate change during the next 10 years. Juncker proposed that between 2021 to 2027, every fourth euro spent within the EU budget go toward action to mitigate climate change.”

 

Above: Sasja Beslik, head of Sustainable Finance at Nordea Bank shares a photo Jean-Claude Juncker kissing the hand of Greta Thunberg. On the very first day of Thunberg’s strike (August 20, 2019), she would share a post on Twitter. Within hours Beslik shared the Thunberg post adding his own commentary.

The said victory would be highly referenced as a shining example of power conceding to Thunberg and the youth mobilizations, from that day forward to the present:

“These days, the New York Times and Financial Times are profiling her, and the EU has proposed to spend billions of dollars to address climate change, right after one of her speeches.”

 

— Pulsar, intelligence trends and techniques, addressing the influence of Greta Thunberg, February 28, 2019

 

“And the movement is winning. In February 2019, President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, standing next to Greta, stated his intent to spend hundreds of billions of euros on climate change mitigation, amounting to a fourth of the EU budget.”

 

— Why We’re Striking on September 20^th, Global Greengrants Fund, September 3, 2019

 

“She has “compelled the EU’s Jean-Claude Juncker to dedicate every fourth Euro to be spent between 2021-27 to climate action,” said Leah Qusba, deputy director of Alliance for Climate Education, a non-profit climate education organization “That is translating youth movement building into real political action.”

 

— CBS News, Youth are changing the game on climate change, March 13, 2019

 

+++

 

 

Not so fast.

May 3, 2018, EU plans to massively increase spending on climate change:

“The European Commission has put forward its future budgetary plans, which include spending a quarter of its entire finances on tackling climate change.”

On September 26, 2018, during the One Planet Summit, the following announcement was made:

“The European Commission proposed to dedicate 25% of the next European Union budget (2021-2027), i.e. EUR 320 billion to climate objectives and foresees a dedicated financial support for sustainable infrastructure investments through the “InvestEU” programme, expected to leverage more than EUR 150 billion.” [Source] [Emphasis in original]

The February 21, 2019 identical “win”, sensationalized to the world, had, in fact, already been pledged on September 26, 2018. The One Planet summit is a partnership of the World Bank, the United Nations (now officially subservient to the World Economic Forum), the Government of France, and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

To be clear, the financing that the European Commission had earmarked was not a concession in response to Greta Thunberg’s speech given that day, nor the climate strikes orchestrated with Global Call for Climate Action (GCCA/TckTckTck) at the helm. Here we see how reality can be made to turn on its head. Waving the magic wand of spectacle, a decision made on September 26, 2018 with the World Bank et al – is turned into a victorious changing of tide for the populace. [2]

What is not shared with the citizenry, is that the InvestEU programme [3] opens the door for the financing of carbon capture and storage, carbon-intensive bio-energy plants, “smart” grids, and ecosystem services financing (the financialization of nature) – all by leveraging private finance with public funds. All made invisible by the spectacle. As growth is sacrosanct under the capitalist economic system (paramount to life itself), a major component of InvestEU is research and innovation in order to allow the suicidal system to continue and expand.

Following the One Planet announcement on September 26, 2018, on October 17, 2018, the EU signed a memorandum of understanding between Mission Innovation’s Breakthrough Energy (Bill Gates et al) and the European Commission. The memorandum states that through the partnership formed with the European Commission (to form Breakthrough Energy Europe), Breakthrough Energy Europe portfolio corporations [4] will have preferential access to any/all funding “from relevant EU Programmes—including, but not limited to the European Innovation Council (EIC) in its future pilot and fully-fledged phases, InnovFin EDP and its successor(s) under InvestEU, the future EU financial instrument for the period 2021-2027.” Breakthrough Energy Europe individuals include Richard Branson, Bill Gates. Jack Ma, Mark Zuckerberg, George Soros, and Chris Hohn (the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation) [Full list]

Today, we have the United Nations on its knees to the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF having announced the “UN-Forum Partnership” (signed on June 13, 2019) is now at the helm of the so-called Sustainable Development Goals. In addition to this corporate coup d’état, we can bear witness to elected governments handing over billions of dollars (exploited from the working class) to the world’s most powerful billionaires and corporations via Breakthrough Energy partnerships. The same entities destroying our natural world (and devolving societies), are now in charge of most, if not all, decision making regarding our multiple ecological crises and shared futures.

From left: Borge Brend, president of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Klaus Schwab, WEF founder and chief executive, António Guterres, UN secretary-general, and Amina Mohammed, UN deputy secretary-general. On June 13, 2019, the UN secretary-general, signed the UN-Forum Partnership with the World Economic Forum to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals. The meeting was held at United Nations headquarters.

As Mission Innovation is partnered with the European Commission (on behalf of the European Union) and 24 states – we can fully expect similar memoranda to be signed in each of the states that have entered into partnership with Mission Innovation. (No, there were no referenda.)

“The smug acceptance of what exists can also merge with purely spectacular rebellion; this reflects the simple fact that dissatisfaction itself became a commodity as soon as economic abundance could extend production to the processing of such raw materials.”  — Guy Debord,  Society of the Spectacle

Such strategic and conniving theatre displays a patronising and an elitist contempt for the populace. There is no doubt that those behind Thunberg were not fully aware of the EU pledge made in 2018, or of the accompanying InvestEU programme. The European Climate Foundation is the European arm of US ClimateWorks. ClimateWorks is the largest beneficiary of climate “philanthropy” (i.e. investment) in the world. This is paramount, as all media relations and events for Greta Thunberg and her family are presided over by a media director for the European Climate Foundation and its Global Strategic Communications Council. [This is further explored in Volume II.]

As the thunder of triumphant applause shakes the global stadium, the joke is on us.

In 1959, the revolutionary Che Guevara remarked to journalist José Pardo Llada that “newspapers are instruments of the oligarchy.” Today, six decades later, the non-profit industrial complex and even “activism” itself must both be considered as instruments crafted and wielded by the 21st century oligarchs.

 

 

End Notes

[1] In addition to the above event, is an awkward and irrelevant conversation between EESC President Luca Jahier and Thunberg which was released for public consumption: https://youtu.be/TiUhBwTwaf8

[2] Climate Action Network (CAN is a co-founder of GCCA), published a news article outlining the proposal on May 2, 2018.

[3] InvestEU:

InvestEU is the successor to the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) or ‘Juncker Plan’ created to mobilize private/investment finance using guarantees from EU budget funds (tax dollars). Only 50% of projects under the sustainable infrastructure window need to contribute to EU climate and environment objectives while there is no exclusion of fossil fuel or carbon-intensive investments. [Source]

Infrastructure for carbon-capture, and for carbon storage in industrial processes, bio-energy plants and manufacturing facilities towards the energy transition are eligible for financing and investment operations. [See full policy document]

It will also house the “Natural Capital Financing Facility” (NCFF). Stepping up biodiversity and  ecosystem services financing is considered one of the prerequisites for achieving the EU’s 2020 biodiversity goals. The NCFF’s four project categories are 1) Projects using Payments for Ecosystem Services – payments involving payment or compensation for the benefits provided by ecosystems, 2) “Green” infrastructure projects – investments in “natural capital” that generate a range of “goods and services”, 3) Projects developing biodiversity offsets – “conservation measures designed to compensate for the unavoidable damage to biodiversity arising from development projects“, and “Innovative pro-biodiversity and adaptation businesses.” [Source]

The InvestEU programme will streamline and consolidate the EU financial instruments. The Innovation Fund will work in synergy with the InvestEU and other EU programmes on research and innovation for “low-carbon technologies”. The Innovation Fund will finance “a broad variety of projects achieving an optimal balance of a wide range of innovative technologies in all eligible sectors (energy intensive industries, renewable energy, energy storage, CCS and CCU) and Member States”. It will fund sufficiently mature projects that promise the biggest innovation potential. [Source]

 “To enable CCS to fulfil its role in delivering this long-term Strategy, action must begin now. Support mechanisms such as the Innovation Fund, Connecting Europe Facility and InvestEU programme, will all be critical for delivering the first EU CCS clusters.” [Source] [4] In December 2016, members of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition formed Breakthrough Energy Ventures. At the 2017 One Planet Summit in Paris, Breakthrough Energy announced the expansion of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition from the 26 private investors announced at COP21 to include corporations, institutional investors and banks to accelerate the commercialization of new energy technologies. The additional members include: African Rainbow Capital, African Rainbow Minerals, BNP, Paribas, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, ENGIE, General Electric, Microsoft, National Grid, OGCI Climate Investments, Prelude Ventures, Reliance Industries Limited, SAP SE, Total, University of California, Virgin Group, Wells Fargo, and the Wheatsheaf Group. The Breakthrough Energy Coalition also announced the piloting of public-private partnerships with five Mission Innovation members, including the EC.” [Source]

Raising the Alarm – On the Capitalists Seeking to Profit from the Climate Crisis

Statement from the Wrong Kind of Green Collective

 

May 10, 2019

 

Over the past few weeks there has been much discussion among the online community concerning our six-act investigative series “The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg”. Some have continued to question the veracity of the information compiled by Wrong Kind of Green (WKOG).

Our series sought to illustrate how Thunberg’s image is being both propelled and exploited by various entities interested in promoting certain projects and ideas that will benefit their stock portfolios and bank accounts under the guise of “saving the planet”. In this regard, WKOG felt compelled to respond to some of the allegations made about our work, specifically those in a recent article by Media Lens in which our work was presented as playing a prominent part in influencing public opinion alongside those who are trying to disparage Thunberg and her symbolic role at the heart of the youth climate movement.

The fact is that WKOG has never made any claims that Thunberg was knowingly or willingly complicit in the machinations of those who are utilizing her presence as the head of the youth climate movement for their own nefarious ends. As we have no information on which to make such a claim, it would be against journalistic principles for us to express such thoughts. Doing so would simply trivialize our work with baseless claims and false allegations.

Instead, WKOG merely presented the facts regarding Thunberg’s associations. Thunberg could be a mere dupe in these relationships, but there is no refuting the key points which reveal that these relationships do actually exist and are not figments of the imagination, or conspiracy theories. Ultimately, Thunberg has entered into an alliance with people and organisations who have ulterior motives.

The current mass mobilization of the youth and the “green movement” is being sensationalized and exploited. This has been described by members of the elite and organizers as the “herding of cats”. Their objective – the furthering of the goals and dominance of the ruling class. By any unbiased analysis of the information provided in the series, the primary concern is in securing the economy and financial system, with saving the planet via a benign capitalism, a mere afterthought. This can best be described as the equivalent of the old idiom in trying to “have your cake and eat it too”.

On a deeper note, as much of the online conversation resides around a critique of our motivation for publishing the series, WKOG must ask what is the motivation of those promoting the Green New Deal. Is the Green New Deal inclusive to peoples in the Global South who bear the brunt of Western carbon emissions? Are they to have the middle class lifestyles we hold as sacrosanct and proof of our social and cultural superiority? Will this Green New Deal bring modernization to the rest of the world when said modernization is still dependent on infrastructure built by fossil fuels, such as roads, houses, cars and manufactured goods. How is this going to benefit the victims?

As no one in the mainstream is asking pointed questions such as these, evidenced by the lack of any mention as to how this will serve the interests of the non-Western world, the Green New Deal is simply a means of maintaining the status quo from a material aspect between those in the Global North and its marginalized counterparts in the Global South.

This all being portrayed as some sort of altruistic answer which allows us to continue our resource-intensive lifestyles under the pretense that we can solve the carbon emissions issue at the root of this problem. This bears no semblance whatsoever to our biophysical realities, nor our planetary boundaries.

In merely attempting to address these broad questions by placing microscopic focus on the connections between Thunberg and the major players behind the Green New Deal, the financialization of nature, and other supposed benign technocratic instruments, WKOG takes umbrage at the casting of aspersions against our character and integrity, in particular when it comes to our group being a part of the climate denial trope that is a major part of the mainstream Western world. As WKOG outlined in the series, the panacea of green technology is a ruse to enrich a new section of oligarchs trying to join the other robber barons who have comprised the upper class of the capitalist system since its inception. WKOG has laid out in painstaking detail the stakeholders behind the financial instruments who are investing in ‘clean’ renewable energy which is supposedly going to address the global environmental problem worsening with each passing day.

In shining a light on all this, we are in no way doing the work of those who are climate deniers. As we have no control over what entities use our resources, WKOG is powerless in dictating who shares our exhaustive research. It is a sad state of affairs when such critically important work is embraced by those on the right and shunned by those on the “left”. If we had legitimate grassroots environmental and social justice groups leading a united movement, this would not be the case.

What the series represents more than anything else is that WKOG merely elicits the reader to ask questions, such as: Is it acceptable to do “something” even if you know that something isn’t good enough? Is it acceptable to encourage an alcoholic to lightly curtail his or her drinking when the condition is so far advanced that cirrhosis of the liver is still a certainty by drinking at all? Does it make sense to enable a grossly overweight person in making a facile attempt to eat better when the diet still consists of the unhealthiest items imaginable, such as a diet Coke with an extra large pizza? Hence, if we know the “solutions” will fail to solve the problem, then what good are we honestly doing in pretending that they will?

In that vein, WKOG is not here to force change on anyone. Our only goal is to enlighten the public and present the truth as to what is happening with as much evidence as we can find. This is not the truth as we see it; these are the facts and we simply share them for people to make of them what they will.

We were asked to respond to a statement made by Greta Thunberg regarding one of the relationships we highlighted in our series. [1] We wish to make clear that it is not our place to make an addendum to our article as though we had spread a falsehood. In essence, the author of this Media Lens piece is asking WKOG to print a quasi-retraction as if we had actually written something untrue about the relationship. If anything, the response by Thunberg constitutes proof that what WKOG published was based in fact. As journalists, it is not our place to defend or eviscerate Thunberg. The statement published on Thunberg’s Facebook page in response to the information that we provided, in fact, validated our work as far as its veracity. If “We Don’t Have Time” did something untoward to Thunberg, then it is their responsibility to apologize for their misstep, not WKOG. Hence, an addendum in an apologetic tone from WKOG would be an explicit admission that we did something wrong when that is far from the case.

WKOG stands by our reporting on this matter and we will continue to defend our work since we are in full agreement that there is no more pressing issue than the protection of Mother Earth, for the survival of life as we know it. If anything, our critique of all these various characters is proof of how seriously we take this matter. As we are now so far down the rabbit hole, the last thing we need is half measures and lip service from the people in power. We must also highlight how the public is being misled by those in power – even if the message falls on deaf ears, causes rancor among the masses and ultimately makes them disparage us instead of the ones who are leading them astray.

Finally, WKOG would like to thank everyone who supports the investigative series. We are always willing to engage in civil conversation about the content of our work and defend it vociferously. WKOG only requests that any allegations have merit and do not venture into baseless accusations. There has unfortunately been too much of the latter, based on emotion rather than legitimate criticism.

 

[1]

The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg – for Consent: The Political Economy of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex [ACT I]

 

 

 

WATCH: Quiet Storm – Technology & Social Control

sub.Media

Published April 2, 2019

 

“We’re on the brink of a new era. In the coming years and decades, rapid advances in the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, data analysis, nanotech, quantum computing, bio-engineering and 3D-printing promise to drastically restructure our societies – much as the steam-powered engine and personal computer did during earlier phases of capitalist development. Coming waves of automation are expected to eliminate the majority of current job categories, raising the spectre of widespread unemployment and the potential for newer, more sophisticated forms of economic servitude and social control. These transformations will take place under the watchful eyes of a high-tech surveillance state, aided by a new generation of AI-driven facial recognition software, and the further proliferation of networked ‘smart’ devices that record nearly everything we say or do.

Many of the technologies of tomorrow are being designed today in the universities and corporate R&D labs of Shenzen, Singapore and Silicon Valley, by scientists and engineers working at the behest of military contractors and multi-billion dollar tech companies. Claims that ‘technology is neutral’ ring hollow in a world dominated by powerful states and capitalist social relations. It’s clear to anyone keeping score that those who control and shape technological development and mass production are best situated to reap the benefits. But at the end of the day, capital and the state don’t hold a monopoly on innovation. There are many anarchists also working on building new technologies to help thwart our enemies and unlock new paths of resistance. And despite what you may have heard, the master’s tools can be used to dismantle the master’s home – provided the person swinging the hammer knows where to aim.” [Source: sub.Media] [Running time: 33:26]