Climate Emergency
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-emergency-colleges-universities-2639161884.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-emergency-colleges-universities-2639161884.html</a></div><div>
</div><div>7K</div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7,000 Colleges and Universities Declare Climate Emergency, With a Plan to Fight It</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Common Dreams Jul. 11, 2019 08:16AM EST CLIMATE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology on the campus of Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. The university announced in April that it has achieved carbon neutrality. Colgate University / CC BY-SA 4.0</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Jessica Corbett</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More than 7,000 colleges and universities across the globe declared a climate emergency on Wednesday and unveiled a three-point plan to collectively commit to addressing the crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The declaration came in a letter — which other education institutions are encouraged to sign — that was organized by the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC), U.S.-based higher education climate action organization Second Nature, and UN Environment Program's (UNEP) Youth and Education Alliance.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The letter, according to a statement from organizers, "marks the first time further and higher education establishments have come together to make a collective commitment to address the climate emergency," and outlines the three-point plan:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Committing to going carbon neutral by 2030 or 2050 at the very latest;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mobilizing more resources for action-oriented climate change research and skills creation; and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Increasing the delivery of environmental and sustainability education across curricula, campus, and community outreach programs.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The young minds that are shaped by our institutions must be equipped with the knowledge, skills, and capability to respond to the ever-growing challenges of climate change," the letter says. "We all need to work together to nurture a habitable planet for future generations and to play our part in building a greener and cleaner future for all."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UN Environment</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@UNEnvironment</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> #ClimateAction</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Networks representing more than 7,000 higher & further education institutions from 6 continents ?????? are declaring a #ClimateEmergency & agreed to undertake a 3??-point plan to address the crisis through their work with students. https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/higher-and-further-education-institutions-across-globe-declare …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1,033</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9:21 PM - Jul 9, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Higher and Further Education Institutions across the globe declare Climate Emergency</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today, networks representing more than 7,000 higher and further education institutions from 6 continents announced that they are declaring a Climate Emergency, and agreed to undertake a three-point...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">unenvironment.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">481 people are talking about this</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The letter, which calls on other institutions and governments to declare a climate emergency and pursue urgent action to combat it, was presented at a Wednesday event hosted by the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative — a partnership of various United Nations agencies — at UN headquarters in New York City.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The expectation is that over 10,000 institutions of higher and further education will come on board before the end of 2019, with governments invited to support their leadership with incentives to take action," said the organizers' statement. So far, the letter has been signed by 25 networks that represent approximately 7,050 institutions and 59 individual institutions that, combined, have about 652,000 students.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The individual institutions that have joined the declaration include five in the continental U.S. and two in Puerto Rico as well as colleges and universities in Argentina, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Kenya, Kuwait, Mauritius, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Venezuela.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"What we teach shapes the future. We welcome this commitment from universities to go climate neutral by 2030 and to scale-up their efforts on campus," said UNEP executive director Inger Andersen. "Young people are increasingly at the forefront of calls for more action on climate and environmental challenges. Initiatives which directly involve the youth in this critical work are a valuable contribution to achieving environmental sustainability."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The declaration follows months of students — from all levels of education — taking to the streets around the world as part of the school strike for climate movement, which calls on governments and powerful institutions to pursue bolder policies targeting the human-caused climate crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Praising the college and universities' letter on Wednesday, Charlotte Bonner of Students Organizing for Sustainability (SOS) said that "young people around the world feel that schools, colleges, and universities have been too slow to react to the crisis that is now bearing down on us."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We welcome the news that they are declaring a climate emergency, we have no time to lose," Bronner added. "We will be calling on those who haven't yet supported this initiative, to come on board. Of course, the most important element is the action that follows."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read the full letter below. Representatives for education institutions can sign the letter here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As institutions and networks of higher and further education from across the world, we collectively declare a Climate Emergency in recognition of the need for a drastic societal shift to combat the growing threat of climate change.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The young minds that are shaped by our institutions must be equipped with the knowledge, skills and capability to respond to the ever-growing challenges of climate change. We all need to work together to nurture a habitable planet for future generations and to play our part in building a greener and cleaner future for all.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We are today committing to collectively step up to the challenge by supporting a three-point plan which includes:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mobilizing more resources for action-oriented climate change research and skills creation;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Committing to going carbon neutral by 2030 or 2050 at the very latest;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Increasing the delivery of environmental and sustainability education across curriculum, campus and community outreach programmes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We call on governments and other education institutions to join us in declaring a Climate Emergency and back this up with actions that will help create a better future for both people and our planet.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EcoWatch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@EcoWatch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 77 Health Organizations Call for #ClimateAction to Fight #Public Health Emergency http://bit.ly/2YAMLsE </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">30</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3:03 PM - Jul 6, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">77 Health Organizations Call for Climate Action to Fight Public Health Emergency</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More than 70 leading public health groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, agree that the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ecowatch.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">33 people are talking about this</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reposted with permission from our media associate Common Dreams.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">guk 719</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>Biggest compliment yet': Greta Thunberg welcomes oil chief's 'greatest threat' label</div><div>Activists say comments by Opec head prove world opinion is turning against fossil fuels</div><div>
</div><div>Jonathan Watts</div><div>
</div><div> @jonathanwatts</div><div>Fri 5 Jul 2019 11.13 EDT Last modified on Fri 5 Jul 2019 12.55 EDT</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Greta Thunberg and other climate activists have said it is a badge of honour that the head of the world’s most powerful oil cartel believes their campaign may be the “greatest threat” to the fossil fuel industry.</span></div><div>
</div><div>The criticism of striking students by the trillion-dollar Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) highlights the growing reputational concerns of oil companies as public protests intensify along with extreme weather.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Mohammed Barkindo, the secretary general of Opec, said there was a growing mass mobilisation of world opinion against oil, which was “beginning to … dictate policies and corporate decisions, including investment in the industry”.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He said the pressure was also being felt within the families of Opec officials because their own children “are asking us about their future because … they see their peers on the streets campaigning against this industry”.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Although he accused the campaigners of misleading people with unscientific arguments, the comments were welcomed by student and divestment campaigners as a sign the oil industry is worried it may be losing the battle for public opinion.</div><div>
</div><div>“Thank you! Our biggest compliment yet!” tweeted Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish initiator of the school student strike movement, which continues every Friday.</div><div>
</div><div>“Brilliant! Proof that we are having an impact and be sure that we will not stop,” said Holly Gillibrand, who was among the first students in the UK to join the global climate strikes.</div><div>
</div><div>Opec – which is made up of 14 countries with 80% of the world’s proven oil reserves – is planning to expand production, which is undermining efforts to slow global heating. The backlash is not just from students, Extinction Rebellion activists and climate scientists.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Insurance companies </b>– which have the most to lose from storms, floods, fires and other extreme weather – are increasingly pulling investment from fossil fuel assets. The governor of the Bank of England has warned of growing climate risks to the financial sector.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Earlier this week, the London Stock Exchange reclassified oil and gas companies under a non-renewable energy category that effectively puts them on the wrong side of climate crisis.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Parliaments in three countries – the UK, Canada, France – have declared a climate emergency,</span> as have dozens of municipalities</b>. They include most recently a first major US city, New York, which has previously filed a lawsuit against the five biggest private oil companies.</div><div>
</div><div>The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of wealthy countries, has also taken a more strident tone in calling for government to put a higher price on oil, gas and coal, to end subsidies and to rethink fossil fuel investment.</div><div>
</div><div>“Our policies have to be made with our children’s future in mind … short-term decision-making can lock countries into expensive mistakes in financing and developing infrastructure … that will be neither necessary nor profitable in a low-emissions world, they will be stranded assets,” said the OECD secretary general Angel Gurría.</div><div>
</div><div>Scientists are also backing a phaseout of fossil fuels as the signs of climate disruption grow more evident.</div><div>
</div><div>In the past two weeks, temperature records have been broken in France, Alaska and Cuba; there have been wildfires in Germany, Spain, Sweden and Anchorage; Chennai is among more than a dozen Indian cities running out of water; Russia is experiencing historic floods; Mexico experienced freak hailstorm that left Guadalajara streets more than a metre deep in ice; while the Chinese meteorological agency said records had been broken at 40 weather stations.</div><div>
</div><div>While Opec continues to insist oil is not responsible for climate chaos, campaigners feel they are finally winning the argument.</div><div>
</div><div>Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, which has led a series of divestment and anti-pipeline campaigns in recent decades, said the fossil fuel companies were finally losing their social licence.</div><div>
</div><div>“By this point, most people realise that the oil companies lied for decades about global warming – they are this generation’s version of the tobacco companies. And it’s clearly affecting their ability to raise capital, to recruit employees and so on. People set out to cost them their social licence, and it’s working. Whether it’s working fast enough – that’s another question.”</div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/aoc-bernie-sanders-to-introduce-resolution-calling-existential-threat-of-the-climate-crisis-an-emergency/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/aoc-bernie-sanders-to-introduce-resolution-calling-existential-threat-of-the-climate-crisis-an-emergency/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>AOC, Bernie Sanders to introduce resolution calling ‘existential threat’ of the climate crisis an ’emergency’</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">written by Eoin Higgins / Common Dreams<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>July 9, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A cohort of progressive Democrats plan to introduce a resolution declaring a climate emergency Tuesday in Congress, a move that could open the door to decisive action on the crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Guardian‘s Emily Holden reported Monday afternoon that Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) are expected to introduce a resolution calling for naming the climate crisis an “emergency” on Tuesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, also plans to introduce the resolution in the upper chamber, according to the reporting.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In comment to The Guardian, Blumenauer’s office said that the congressman “decided to draft the resolution after Donald Trump declared an emergency at the U.S. border with Mexico so he could pursue building a wall between the two countries.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In her reporting, Holden urged caution.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Even if the resolution passed and was signed by the president, it would not force any action on climate change,” wrote Holden. “But advocates say similar efforts in <b>Canada and the United Kingdom</b> have served as a leverage point, highlighting the hypocrisy between the government position that the situation is an emergency and individual decisions that would exacerbate the problem.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A spokesperson for Sanders said the senator was moving forward on the resolution because President Donald Trump’s policies are making things worse.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“On the existential threat of climate change, Trump insists on calling it a hoax,” said the spokesperson. “Senator Sanders is proud to partner with his House colleagues to challenge this absurdity and have Congress declare what we all know: we are facing a climate emergency that requires a massive and immediate federal mobilization.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The news came just before Trump delivered a climate address dismissed by the Environmental Working Group as an “utter fantasy.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Twitter, Sanders leveled criticisms on the president donning the mantle of a climate advocate.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We don’t have time for more lies,” said Sanders. “We must address the climate crisis now.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">News of the upcoming resolution was welcomed by progressive organizations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The climate crisis is a true emergency, and it must be dealt with as such,” the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee tweeted, thanking the lawmakers for their action.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Democratic Socialists of America said on Twitter that Sanders understands “this isn’t just climate change, it’s a climate emergency.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The solution is to reorganize our economy so it works for both people and the planet, not the profit of fossil fuel companies,” the group added.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><span style="text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ecowatch.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=214ab5fbb3f6015d74ffab4ec&id=c3ec35acb4&e=c2e8fdabfa" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Francis Declares Climate Emergency in Meeting With Big Oil Leaders</font></a></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ew</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">scary version // 2 santas?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/a-political-tragedy-in-3-parts/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/a-political-tragedy-in-3-parts/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A political tragedy in 3 parts</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things…” —Alfred North Whitehead</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Part One — The Climate Crisis</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Imagine a world heading—remorselessly, inexorably—towards tragedy. A world in which a clear alternative to tragedy was available, cheap, and simple, but was being undercut, if not ignored. That’s our world. That’s today. And of all Trump’s offenses against reason, reality, decency and honesty, it is his insistence that we continue on this tragic path toward a climate crisis that is his worst transgression.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And the chances are, the climate crisis and the tragedy it will create is likely far worse than you’ve been led to believe, for two reasons.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">First, most of the climate-related estimates you hear in the news and from the IPCC have built in assumptions that we humans will take necessary actions to mitigate the worst of the climate crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s no evidence that making such assumptions is a prudent thing to do. We’ve known about this unfolding tragedy for three decades now, yet we’ve been steadily increasing the amount of greenhouse gasses we release. In fact, in 2018 we set a record for the most CO2 ever emitted, and for the single largest increase in emissions year-to-year. Meanwhile, in May of this year, atmospheric CO2 levels reached 415 parts per million, a level higher than it’s been for more than 3 million years – literally before the dawn of human existence.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The second reason the climate crisis is likely far more dire than most people have been led to believe is that the IPCC, most of the scientific community, and the media present mid-range scenarios for temperature increases, not worst-case forecasts, and usually they don’t include potentially dangerous feedbacks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In other words, despite knowing that we were heading toward a planetary crisis for more than three decades we’ve stayed relentlessly, remorselessly on track to meet or exceed the worst-case IPCC estimates. The world we’re fashioning with our fossil fuel experiment is, to us, essentially an alien planet, unlike the one humanity evolved, developed and prospered in.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But here’s the real tragedy: The solutions to this problem are in hand, but we’re not adopting the policies needed to get them used, even though it would save us money and create high paying jobs.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Within the last decade, the cost of renewable energy has dropped rapidly and battery prices have plummeted, even as battery performance skyrocketed. And between 2010 and 2018, according to Bloomberg NEF, the volume weighted price of lithium ion battery packs has fallen by a remarkable 85 percent, reaching just $176/kWh. Bloomberg forecasts call for prices to continue to drop, falling from $176 per kilowatt hour to $87 per kWh in 2025, and just $62 per kWh in 2030.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A simple set of policies like putting a price on carbon, stopping new leases for fossil fuel development on federal lands, and creating a program for low-cost loans to support a switch to clean energy could make the difference. Even without these policies renewable energy is cheaper than energy generated from fossil fuels, electric cars will soon cost less than conventional cars (in fact, in Europe, they already are), and we know how to dramatically reduce the amount of carbon we generate from agriculture. But instead of acting on it, we’re continuing blindly on a path towards mass extinctions and civilization wrecking climate change.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Part 2 — Corporate Tyranny, Wealth and Income Inequality</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Imagine a world in which a very few exploited the many, absconding with the vast majority of wealth and creating an economy marked by an unsustainable mix of inequality and injustice. This too, is our world.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For example, here in the U.S., analysis of a recent study revealed that since 1989—when the data used in the study was first reported—the top 1 percent increased their wealth by $21 trillion, while the bottom 50 percent lost $900 billion. This trend began in earnest in 1980, when Republicans instituted their trickle-down, corporate-friendly two step, and neoliberal Democrats went along.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But obscene theft of wealth and income isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon, it’s global. And it too tracks the embrace of neoliberal economics and politics which seeks to shrink government’s influence, eviscerate regulatory programs, and tilt the playing field to favor capital instead of labor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Again, the numbers reveal just how badly this neoliberal con has played out. At the end of 2017, the world’s richest 26 people owned as much as the bottom half of the world’s population.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This inequality is a direct result of government policies, and the solutions are relatively well-known.</b> The dirty little secret that free-marketeers don’t want you to know is that embracing neoliberalism inevitably leads to monopolies and monopsonies, ultimately giving corporations and the ultra-rich sufficient market and political power not only to steal the 99 percent blind, but also to completely subvert democracy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The fact is, inequality of this magnitude typically presages people storming the palace gates with pitch forks and torches, and it is completely unsustainable. It is also simple (although not necessarily easy) to reverse using known policies once advocated by the New Deal and now being espoused by the likes of Warren and Sanders, but once again, the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Democratic Party, the media and the rest of the neoliberal establishment are gathered against them in a confederacy of dunces.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And therein lies the tragedy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Part 3 — The Death of the Enlightenment</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Imagine a world where superstition supplanted reason; where myth trumped reality. Increasingly, that’s our world too. In many ways this is the root cause of the other tragedies we are creating. We are witnessing an epochal shift in our socio-political world. We are de-evolving, hurtling headlong into a past that was defined by serfs and lords; by necromancy and superstition; by policies based on fiat, not facts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Much of what has made the modern world in general, and the United States in particular, a free and prosperous society comes directly from insights that arose during the Enlightenment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Too bad we’re chucking it all out and returning to the Dark Ages.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Literally.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Two main things distinguished the post Enlightenment world from the pre-Enlightenment Dark Ages.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">First, Francis Bacon’s Novo Organum Scientiarum (The New Instrument of Science) introduced a new way of understanding the world, in which empiricism, facts and—well, reality—defined what was real.</span> It essentially outlined the scientific method: observation and data collection, formulation of hypotheses, experiments designed to test hypotheses and elevation of these hypotheses to theories when data and experiments consistently supported them. It was and is a system based on skepticism, and a relentless and methodical search for truth.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now, we seek to operate by revealed truths, not reality. Decrees from on high—often issued by an unholy alliance of religious fundamentalists, self-interested corporations, and greedy fat cats—are offered up as reality by rightwing politicians. And of course, nothing can match the non-sense—and I use the term literally—of Trump’s insane prognostications.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We have climate change deniers in the face of a changing climate. We have people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnel who create massive deficits from tax cuts for the rich, even though we’ve tried trickle down and supply side at least three times now, and it has failed every time. Facts don’t matter. Belief in astrology is on the rise. And more than forty percent of Americans believe Jesus will return to Earth before 2050, presumably ushering in the “end times.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And we have a press that thinks a “balance” between the forces of darkness and reason is reasonable. Meanwhile, trust in scientists is eroding.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At a time when we have to navigate using empiricism, data, observation and skepticism in order to preserve some part of the progress we’ve made, and some of the natural life support systems we rely on, we are increasingly reverting to teleological reasoning in the pursuit of nonsense.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And this may be the greatest tragedy of all—those who advocate the kind of progressive policies that would halt climate change, restore an equitable distribution of wealth, and take on the increasingly irrational drift of our culture are rejected by their party, under-covered by the media, and discounted by the pundits.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unless we the people rise up these tragedies will continue to play out, remorselessly, inexorably, and inevitably.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div></div>