Multinational Duplicity

Last night I watched the film "Dark Waters" about one lawyers decades long fight to hold DuPont accountable for the massive contamination of water due to chemicals in "Teflon", which the company had known about, but supressed & ignored.

https://time.com/5737451/dark-waters-true-story-rob-bilott/

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/03/29/attorney-who-sued-dupont-over-tainted-water-takes-his-case-nationwide/7158116001/

I knew nothing about this particular case, but I do remember buying "Teflon" pans when I first got married in 1966. Teflon cookware containing PFOA, which has been shown to come with serious health risks, wasn't banned in the UK until 2005. This chemical was banned globally in 2019. Teflon manufactured after 2005 in the UK does not contain PFOA.

Rob Billott has tried to make DuPont accountable for the harms they knew about for over 20 years. He is an amazingly tenacious man whose whole life was taken over by trying to make a hugely powerful & wealthy multinational company accountable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bilott 

The thing that gets me is that DuPont is by no means alone in having their own scientific evidence proving the ecological & human harm their products do & ignoring it. The bottom line is always profit & the profits are beyond imagination. So "collateral damage" is accepted. The companies spend huge amounts of money, lobby & obfusticate, denying scientific fact. Exxon Mobil is another prime example. In 1985 the French secret service actually bombed Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand because they were protesting against nuclear testing because of the environmental & human harm it was doing.

The world is finally waking up to the harm that has been done. Multinationals like Coca Cola & Danone are being taken to court because of the massive plastic pollution they have caused. INEOS is being taken to court over new plastics manufacturing projects. Greenpeace publishes a list of the 10 most plastic polluting companies.

https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/18876/these-10-companies-are-flooding-the-planet-with-throwaway-plastic/

Multinationals are finally being held responsible & accountable. But it may be too late. People worldwide have microplastics & chemicals in their bodies already. No one knows what the long term impact of that will be. People are suffering from diseases directly caused by pollution. Babies are being born with defects caused by pollution. Eco systems are being destroyed. Species are declining worldwide.

The behaviour of the multinationals is completely unacceptable. Rampant consumerism & massive profits have resulted in a world where hardly a corner is untouched by contamination & pollution. But that isn't the worst part of the story. We are running out of time to reverse this. The damage is huge, some things are already lost & cannot be reversed. 

The only real hope is a massive public outcry, huge amounts of money to clean up & develop new technologies to live in a better way in harmony with our environment. That will take enormous political will from every continent. 

I don't see much sign of that happening at the moment.

Selfish Economics

Selfish - "a person, action, or motive lacking consideration for other people; concerned chiefly with personal profit or pleasure. Having no regard for how behavior impacts others. Consistently acting in ones own self-interest instead of meeting the needs of others. Having no empathy for the suffering of other people. Showing no remorse when others are hurt".

My dilemma is that it seems to me that many human actions are revealed to be selfish in the face of the Climate Emergency & the impact our actions have had & are having on the world we inhabit & everything in it. So things I did in my life, without thinking about the impact they had, have now adversely affected everything. I spent years after early retirement travelling all over the world several times a year. My husband & I were a two car family & commuted long distances to work. We had 3 wood burning stoves in one of our houses. We ate red meat & food imported from all over the world. We both had far more clothes than either of our parents. We took all of that & more as quite reasonable & normal.

Economics is the study of how consumers, firms and governments make decisions that together determine how resources are allocated. The study of scarcity and its implications for the use of resources, production of goods and services, growth of production and welfare over time, and a great variety of other complex issues of vital concern to society. There are 3 Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian. There are 5 concepts of economics - Scarcity, Supply & Demand, Incentives, Trade Off & Opportunity Cost, Economic Systems.  At this point I glaze over. So if you want to know more, then research for yourselves.

The real difficulty I have is reconciling the fact that countries have to generate income to support their populations. Some countries have more natural resources than others. Some have a more highly skilled workforce. Some have a larger young working population as opposed to a more ageing demographic. But all countries need growth & income to raise the standard of living of their people. In order to do that unsustainable companies, which pollute the earth or use finite resources or decimate the landscape & habitats are tolerated.

To take just one simple point. I now feel that any air travel for leisure purposes is unacceptable because of the impact it has on climate change. (I can hear you saying, that's fine, "you have travelled the world". Very true). The thing is there are benefits in seeing other cultures & lives. Not least if rich Westerners are forced to really face up to true poverty. Holiday makers contribute a lot to the wealth of the countries they visit. (Unless they stay in all inclusive ghettos or 5* hotels, where very little of the money goes to the local population).  The fact remains that if all leisure air travel ceased the economic repercussions would be enormous. 

But ultimately can humanity continue to take leisure travel as a right? Has the imbalance between benefit & harm reached a tipping point? I feel it has. Whatever we do, something has to change pretty soon. Is it so bad to be forced to holiday in your own country or somewhere you can travel to on land? 

https://www.narasolar.com/en/the-most-and-least-polluting-means-of-transport/

None of this is simple. We have very difficult choices. But those choices have to be taken by everyone. Or our grandchildren will live with the consequences.

Water of Life - Not!

I've been emailing Thames Water, having watched the BBC2 documentary "Our troubled Rivers" on Sunday evenings. The current situation, (excuse the pun, because it isn't funny), is shown graphically. I got a bland response to the first email, so have now copied the CEO Sarah Bentley, who gets £2m a year plus a £727,000 bonus, into my response. I will be interested to see what she says because I simply cannot see that the Water companies can justify their abysmal record.

Water companies offer customers free water saving devices & discounted water butts, but Thames Water doesn't.

The Guardian states that "Thames Water had 68 complaints per 10,000 connections last year, compared with Wessex Water which had 10 and Anglian Water which had 17". 16 Oct 2022. "Thames Water's creaking infrastructure loses 635m litres in leaks every single day". 24 Aug 2022 

The Times said "Thames Water, which has said it will ban hosepipes in the coming weeks, paid shareholders £37.1 million last year and £1.6 billion over the past 12 years". 13 Aug 2022

Thames Water have a real time map showing the dumping of effluent into rivers & seas so they know exactly how much they are doing it. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/23/thames-waters-real-time-map-raw-sewage-discharges-rivers  Water companies are literally killing rivers & everything in them except for algae. Bathers are swimming in effluent in rivers & seas. T W has missed compliance on water treatment & received the biggest fine of £51m, and will have to return money to customers in the form of lower bills in the 2023-24 financial year. 

 

Thames Water & Southern Water are top of a league that shames all water companies who are simply not doing their job effectively. The public is becoming ever more aware of the damage that is being done to the environment generally & rivers & seas specifically. Water companies were privatised in 1989 under the Conservative Thatcher government - 34 years ago. Initially that resulted in unprecedented spending and cleaning of our beaches and rivers to reach record quality levels. Now, sadly, the record is profit over people & planet. https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o2076

What can consumers do? Not pay their water bills? Stage demonstrations? Complain? Well yes, but how effective & speedy will that be? 

This is a serious & massive issue. It needs political will to force privatised companies to clean up their act. Or it needs current legislation to be enforced through the courts. A NGO like ClientEarth could be very effective. 

It's so prevalent & so serious it probably needs all of this to happen at the same time.

 

Braverman & Patel

I have to admit to substantial emotional bias. I simply cannot warm to either of the recent conservative Home Secretary's. Braverman's parents came to the UK from Kenya & Mauritius. Patel's parents came here from Uganda. Both womens grandparents were from India. You would think that background would mean they were empathetic to migrants, whether economic or refugees. But apparently what was good enough for their family members isn't equally good for the many people fleeing far worse conditions in their home countries now. It is debatable whether Patel's parents would have been allowed into the UK now under current law.

Both women are members of the ERG (European Research Group), which is notably Eurosceptic. A 2017 Open Democracy's report said that "Taxpayers’ money is being used to fund an influential group of hard-line pro-Brexit Conservative MPs who are increasingly operating as a "party-within-a-party". The ERG has also been funded by a secretive group called the Constitutional Research Council.

Extreme views on either the right or left always worry me. Fundamentalist ideology is concerning. When the issues are as complex as population migrations due to war, famine, persecution, climate change or economic reasons there are innumerable grey areas. It isn't a simple problem. 

https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/information/refugee-asylum-facts/top-10-facts-about-refugees-and-people-seeking-asylum/

https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/information/refugee-asylum-facts/refugee-resettlement-facts/

The underlying problems are a human catastrophe, which isn't going away. The factors driving population movements are becoming more widespread & devastating. The relatively stable countries of the world need to act jointly to tackle whatever the issue is at source if possible, so that people don't feel forced to flee. If that isn't an option, all of us need to have proper equitable routes to re-settle people temporarily. Because it is a fact that the majority of migrants do actually want to return home. For a start the UK government has to tackle the lack of safe & legal routes into the UK which forces so called "illegal" routes. https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/2021-01/Amnesty%20International%20UK%20-%20Safe%20and%20Legal%20Routes%20Briefing_0.pdf

Just raising the drawbridge & using emotive & inaccurate language, ("invasion of illegal migrants", "overwhelmed by small boat crossings"), to incense voters isn't acceptable. This is a humanitarian story & educated politicians are deliberately obfusticating the real issues. 

Every one of us has to try to imagine three things;-

• What it would be like to live in Syria, Ukraine, Yemen.......
• What we would do to protect our families & ourselves
• What it must be like to flee across continents & seas, at the mercy of traffikers.

Frankly I don't have the capacity to do it. But I do think that we should all do everything we can to care for these people. Because it's just an accident of birth that makes us safe & them not. 

A Sense of Perspective

Perspective - Attitude towards, or way of regarding, something; A point of view; A sensible outlook on life, A philosophy guiding someone's interpretation of an individual's behavior​.

https://simplypsychology.org/perspective.html

 

There are times when I want to scream, shout, swear, almost resort to a physical response. In my youth I would have been much more volatile than I am now with the benefit of age and experience. I'm really not sure which is better - letting it all out or supressing it & trying to see another point of view.

Life is a bumpy road for most of us. The problems vary in degree from the basic necessities of life - food, shelter, security, to minor inconveniences often caused by other people with a different perspective to our own. In order to survive we have to find ways of dealing with problems & other people. If everyone had the same moral compass & degree of empathy & sympathy, life would be much easier. But they don't.

People vary from saints to sinners & everything inbetween. The differences in behaviours are unbelievably wide. On the one hand dictators craving power & wealth & utterly devoid of any concept of human rights, to wonderful altruistic people who genuinely try to make the world a better place & care for others.

So when my life is beset by problems caused by other people I try, very hard, to bear all this in mind. But it wears me down. It's costly in terms of both time, money & stress. It occasionally baffles me completely, or even keeps me awake at night. It could take away my control over my life & make me feel vulnerable & anxious. So I try to have a strategy.

Currently I have several issues on the go;- A long running fence dispute with a neighbour. A contractor who over ordered turf for landscaping, which has been blocking my driveway for a fortnight, (3 dates to be picked up missed. No response to my contact). 2 leaks in the new extension built on my house. A new sedum & wild flower roof which had no wildflowers & is looking very sad & bare. A blind company who seems incapable of sending out samples....

These are concerning, but not life threatening & that is the point. They shouldn't have happened, but they have, so they must be dealt with. They were all caused by other people so are out of my control. It's about expectations & perspective. I expect people to behave well & do their job well. But my perspective, after years of dealing with trades people & a couple of neighbours, is that other people just don't have the same outlook as me.

I can only change myself. I can't change other people. So I have to find a way of overcoming the problems life seems determined to challenge me with. Part of that is to put my problems into pespective with the millions of people in the world living with war, famine, poverty, disease, discrimination & a lack of the real basic necessities of life.

It's all a question of perspective.   

 

HS2

Firstly HS2 seems to be a misnomer. There doesn't seem to be anything "high speed" about this project.

2009 - The line was announced in January.

2012 - It got the go ahead after consultations in January.

2013 - Concerns over rising costs - Original cost between £31 - £36 billion

2016 - National Audit Office (NAO) report on HS2’s progress and finance issues. The project was facing cost and schedule delivery problems and should be delayed by a year.

2019 - BBC report finds the Government and HS2 bosses were aware the project was grossly over budget and behind schedule for the past three years. HS2 Ltd chairman Allan Cook didn't believe the project could be delivered within its £55.7bn budget and would be delayed.

2020 - Previous chairman of HS2 Douglas Oakervee issued an independent review stating the project could cost as much as £108bn.The NAO added it was uncertain what the final cost of the project could be. PM Johnson gives the project the green light despite rising concerns. Independent Construction Commissioner appointed. MPs warn the project has gone “badly off course”. Formal construction begins.

2021 - Public Accounts Committee HS2 accountability sessions in Birmingham. Major concerns regarding the projected increase in time and money. MPs stating there is “no clear end in sight”. Public Accounts Committee “increasingly alarmed” regarding vital parts of the project. MPs from both sides argue over the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan (IRP), which aims to transform the rail network in the North and Midlands. Clashes within Government and ongoing protests. PM Johnson announces "we will do Northern Powerhouse Rail, we will link up the cities of the Midlands and the North”. The eastern leg of HS2 to Leeds is scrapped with no east-west line linking Leeds to Manchester being built. The Oakervee review of HS2 showed a major rethink was needed, (finds that HS2 could cost up to £106bn), with the National Infrastructure Commission report meaning “a flexible approach” was needed.

2022 - Ministers come under fire for cancelling a £3bn section of HS2, which would have allowed Scotland to benefit from the rail line. 

2023 - Acivists state that justifications of the HS2 project “have gone out the window” after reports that the Euston route could be axed due to rising costs. Department for Transport looks to commission HS2 to rethink its scheme, with the possibility of axing parts of the proposed line due to rising costs. Completion of the project could now be as late as 2045. (The original completion date for the original HS2 was 2033 More delays announced by Thurston in order to curb rising costs, with the route’s final destination yet to be confirmed as central London.

14 years & counting. A significantly worse deal for the North. A cost increase of at least £70 billion so far. 

 

The UK definitely needs a much better integrated public transport system. The most important part of HS2 was the improvement to the Northern cities. Why on earth didn't they start building it in Leeds & Manchester or Crewe? London to Birmingham would only be 29 minutes shorter & it's already direct. It's so typical of this government's London centric policy making. What logic is behind scrapping the Leeds link? 

This has been shambolic from start to not even finish. Its way overrun on time & cost. There have been 9 Sectrtary's of State for transport since 2009, all but 3 lasting less than a year! How can the public expect that to mean good understanding & oversight of the brief? More than 35 contracts were handed to construction firms by HS2 as of 2022. Balfour Beatty recorded an £83M pre-tax profit in its half year results 2022 - an increase on £35M a year earlier.  

It's a recipe for waste & disaster & that is exactly what we have got. Tax payers should be incensed - especially those in the North.