CGTN’s Kate Kui takes you to Changsha, capital of central #China‘s Hunan Province, to see how the local retail industry is recovering post pandemic. Apart from being the hub of heavy machinery in China, the city offers a rich culinary culture and a vibrant night life, which make it one of happiest cities in the country. Kate will also revisit several companies in Changsha, which she toured last year for the Rising Star Cities series. Chayan Yuese, one of the leading retail beverage companies, will update us on the last year’s happenings.
Is it OK to accept money from fossil fuel companies?
At Stanford University, the question is ringing loud. This month, hundreds of students, faculty members and alumni, in an open letter, called on the university’s new climate school to decline funding from fossil fuel companies.
The letter was partly a response to an interview the school’s inaugural dean, Arun Majumdar, gave to my Times colleague David Gelles, in which he said the school was open to donations from oil companies. Majumdar said the school, known as the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, would be willing to work with companies “that want to diversify and be part of the solution.”
But the students and faculty members argue that fossil fuel companies just want to deflect attention from their role in a climate crisis that they continue to perpetuate. Accepting money from an industry with “a proven record of actively obscuring the scientific consensus on climate change,” the letter said, “presents a conflict of interest.”
It’s an issue that many institutions around the world, not only universities, are struggling with. Two environmental nonprofit groups, Stand.earth and 350.org, started a website to keep track of divestment pledges from universities, banks, companies and even Queen Elizabeth II. So far, the list includes more than 1,500 institutions and businesses worth some $40 trillion. (The New York Times accepts advertising from fossil fuel companies.)
In a commencement speech this morning at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, urged students to shun fossil fuel companies. “Don’t work for climate wreckers,” he said. “Use your talents to drive us toward a renewable future.”
Back at Stanford, a survey of students about measures they wanted the new climate school to implement found that refusing money from polluting industries was a top priority.
Celina Scott-Buechler, a doctoral student at the Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, said she thought the moment echoed the decline of the tobacco industry.
The parallels between the two cases are clear. Both sectors have been accused of running campaigns to mislead consumers and government institutions on the true dangers linked to their products. Both have faced lawsuits on those grounds.
In 2016, researchers unearthed documents that suggested that both oil and tobacco companies had hired the same public relations firms and research organizations to fight off allegations that their products were harmful.
There are also differences, though. As we know all too well, fossil fuels are central to modern life in a way that cigarettes are not, and it is an enormous challenge to change that. And, like Majumdar, many say they believe in working with companies on their plans to transform their businesses. The general idea is that collaboration on credible plans to transition to the clean energy sector is a lot more helpful than shunning companies.
For example, when the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, the largest of its kind in the world, announced in 2019 that it would divest from fossil fuels, it didn’t include oil companies that invest in clean energy technology.
Whatever happens, scientists say, it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
According to a timeline by the PBS program “Frontline,” four decades passed between the first scientific studies showing the dangers of smoking and the moment states started suing to recover what they had spent treating sick smokers in the 1990s.
It was around then that institutions started to reject tobacco money (The Times stopped accepting cigarette ads in 1999), though a few medical schools only decided to refuse donations a few years ago.
Scientists started to agree that human activity has an impact on the planet’s climate around the 1980s. But only in recent years have U.S. states filed lawsuits against fossil fuel companies. They are arguing, much like they did in suits against the tobacco industry, that companies misled them.
But activists in the divestment movement argue that, in the case of climate change, the planet doesn’t have decades to ramp up the pressure on fossil fuel companies.
The siege of active Atlantic hurricane seasons will continue for yet another year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted Tuesday. In its annual seasonal outlook, the agency forecast the seventh straight above-normal Atlantic season, with 14 to 21 named storms — compared with 14 in an average year — and three to six major hurricanes, rated Category 3 or higher.
Major hurricanes are of particular concern, as they tend to rapidly intensify, or increase by 35 mph or more in wind strength in 24 hours — leaving coastal residents with little time to prepare. These major storms are responsible for the overwhelming majority of damage because of wind and ocean surge, the rise of water above normally dry land at the coast.
Scientists have observed an increase in rapidly intensifying hurricanes over the past few decades, linked to warming ocean waters from human-caused climate change.
Who were the first Americans and how did they arrive in the Americas? The settlement of the Americas is one of the most studied and enigmatic topics in Ancient American history and not without controversy. Find out why this simple question is so puzzling to so many scientists and archaeologists.
Food sustains life, spreads joy and brings us together. But, if we are to feed 10 billion people within planetary boundaries, the way food is produced and consumed needs to change. The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated vulnerabilities in food systems – highlighting the insecurity of rural livelihoods, the tragedy of food loss and waste, and stark inequities in access to healthy food among the poor and vulnerable. It has also illustrated broadly the types of disruptions one can expect from the impact of climate change in years to come. With fewer than 10 years left to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021 presents an opportunity to bring together stakeholders to address these challenges and unlock barriers to food systems transformation.
Join this opening session as farmers, consumers, and stakeholders in the food supply chain, and women and youth express their vision for a future food system that can meet both people’s and planetary needs.
Speakers: Sunny G. Verghese, Agnes Matilda Kalibata, Sabrina Dhowre Elba, Kate Robertson, Massimo Bottura, Karen Tso, Geraldine Matchett, Alan Jope, Estrella Penunia, Dominic Kailash Nath Waughray
From artificial intelligence and blockchain-enabled traceability to people-centred innovative models fuelled by science and indigenous knowledge, all offer unprecedented opportunities to shape more inclusive and sustainable food systems.
Speakers: Tjada McKenna, Svein Tore Holsether, Mariam Mohammed Saeed Al Mheiri, Efa Muleta Boru, Christian Frutiger, Sean de Cleene
The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.
Mega-corporations like Amazon and Facebook are becoming more powerful. And their growth shows no signs of slowing down. They are in the public eye — but are they also above the law?
The pandemic has only made the “big four” — Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook — more influential. Our data has become big business. But are these corporations out of control?
Experts have long watched as corporations like Apple and Amazon flout antitrust laws, while receiving special treatment: When it comes to wages, taxes and laws, these corporations seem to rewrite the rules as they go. Many critics consider Facebook and Google’s systematic data exploitation a violation of our core democratic principals. Moreover, the line between the state and mega-corporations is growing even foggier. Some states believe there is simply no way around these giants. Corporate power seems like it is here to stay.
Market driven surveillance undermines our sovereignty and thus the very foundation of Western democracies. There is a storm brewing both in the U.S. and Europe. But the corporations are ready for it. Will they continue on this dangerous trajectory, or is there some chance we can still rein them in?
As Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger was head of the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013. Using archival footage and conversations with contemporary witnesses, this film provides insight into the rise and fall of the German pope.
Pope Benedict XVI led the Catholic Church into the greatest crisis it has faced since the Reformation. Namely, the worldwide child sexual abuse scandal. Filmmaker Christoph Röhl tells the story of this pope’s rise and fall, both of which were symptomatic of the church’s larger failures.
Bringing a combination of curiosity and scepticism to his subject, Christoph Röhl’s documentary shows us a man who dedicated his life to preserving the Church – but inadvertently led it into its greatest crisis. The interviewees, all of whom worked within the clerical system, describe how Ratzinger’s policies contributed to the dramatic loss of moral authority from which the Church still suffers, today.
This is an epic story, starring a tragic hero. Ratzinger believed that truth was to be found exclusively in the teachings of the Catholic Church and that contemporary society would be lost if it did not rediscover its Catholic values in time. But he came to realize that his worst enemies were inside the Church – even within his inner circle.
The film tells the story of a lonely man who began his career as a reformer, only to leave the public eye in disgrace.
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
This weblog explores the transition to a sustainable future on our finite planet. It provides links to current news, key documents from government sources and non-governmental organizations, as well as video documentaries about climate change, environmental ethics and environmental justice concerns.
The links are listed here to be used in whatever manner they may be helpful in public information campaigns, course preparation, teaching, letter-writing, lectures, class presentations, policy discussions, article writing, civic or Congressional hearings and citizen action campaigns, etc. For further information on this blog see: About this weblog. and How to use this weblog.
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