greenwashing

By Joe Hayns - Jacobin, November 11, 2016

Each year, the world’s heads of state meet at the Conference of Parties (COP) to discuss how to “stabiliz[e] greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system,” as the guiding United Nations Framework on Climate Change demands.

Last year’s COP garnered international attention and praise. Le Monde’s verdict included a quote from the event’s president and Parti Socialiste foreign minister, Laurent Fabius (“a compromise guided by ‘climate justice’”). The Guardian called the meeting “a rare and heartening case of disparate peoples being led to a common conclusion by evidence and reason.” The New York Times declared that the negotiations ended with “a historic breakthrough.”

But many climate justice activists and scientists disagree. Against the “People’s Test” — “a set of criteria that the Paris deal would need to meet in order to be effective and fair” created by social movements, unions, and environmental groups — the Paris agreements failed on every count.

On Monday, COP22 began in Marrakech, Morocco. International attention will again focus on the political class’s negotiations. But if we’re serious about fighting climate change globally, we might be better off listening to the Moroccan activists currently fighting environmental ruination.

This resistance comes out of the country’s imperialist environmental policy, which, to paraphrase William Faulkner, isn’t past: it isn’t even history.

By Fabian Wagner - Green European Journal, November 28, 2016

Young Green Fabian Wagner attended the COP 22 negotiations in Marrakesh and found that despite the host’s eagerness to project itself as a constructive force in the fight against climate change, its policies in other areas raise serious concerns – not least the levels of repression around the question of Western Sahara.

Morocco certainly did not hold back in terms of advertising its efforts to become a country powered by renewable energy during the COP22. Only the most oblivious of visitors could have missed the banners at the airport, posters in the city, ads on horse carriages, and stickers on cars. Wind power, solar power — Morocco is transitioning towards clean energy at a very quick pace.

Africa’s forgotten conflict

Sounds great? Here’s the downside: Africa has a largely forgotten and ignored conflict right on the doorsteps of Europe. After colonial Spain retreated from Western Sahara in the ‘70s, Morocco quickly imposed itself following a bit of a struggle with Mauritania which ended in its favour, and subsequently annexed the entire territory as its “Southern Provinces”. The UN installed a peacekeeping mission there (without a mandate to observe human rights in the region) and spent the next almost half a century repeatedly, and without success, calling for a referendum on the independence of resource rich territory, and its identity as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. It was interesting to see how much effort Morocco invested into presenting this as the “African COP”, despite Morocco being the only country in Africa that is not a member of the African Union (AU) — Morocco left after the AU acknowledged the independence of Western Sahara. In the run-up to the COP in Marrakech the topic naturally attracted slightly more attention than usually, but very little criticism was raised openly for obvious reasons. Morocco’s reaction to any kind of criticism of its Western Sahara politics is brusque. When the UN Secretary General called the situation out for what it is — an illegal occupation — Morocco expelled the entire peacekeeping mission. A subsequent apology from the Secretary General was still not enough to re-admit the entire mission. Moreover, our own Green activists from several of the Federation of Young European Greens’ (FYEG) member organisations have been evicted from or denied entry to both Western Sahara and Morocco, when trying to report from the ground. Plain-clothes and uniformed police are everywhere, as FYEG’s activists witnessed first-hand, when trying to work on unrelated, but still undesirable for the Moroccan government, media projects. Under these circumstances FYEG, the Western Sahara Support Committees from around the world, the Sahrawis themselves, and other civil society organisations and movements like the teachers group we met in Marrakech found it very difficult to raise concerns about the topic of Western Sahara while being present for COP22 in Morocco.

By Genevieve LeBaron and Jane Lister - New Internationalist, November 24, 2016

In recent years incidents such as the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh in April 2013 and the exposé by The Guardian of slavery and human trafficking in the Thai shrimp industry in 2014 have focused attention on the supply chains of global corporations.

What has been reported less is that both of these incidents, and many others, took place within ‘certified’ and audited supply chains. The Thai shrimp in British supermarkets had been ‘ethically’ certified by an NGO that sets voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products and encourages producers to adopt ‘safe and sustainable practices’. Similarly, in Bangladesh the Rana Plaza factory, which made clothes for Matalan, Primark and Walmart amongst many others, passed a compliance audit just months before it collapsed.

Many key questions and serious concerns hang over the ethical audit regime. These include: are audits effective in identifying non-compliance and driving up standards, what does the audit regime mean for governments and NGOs, where does power lie within the audit regime and, ultimately, in whose interest is the ethical audit regime working?

To monitor and verify standards, NGOs have developed transnational ‘sustainable production’ certification standards, such as the Rainforest Alliance certification, Marine Stewardship Councils and Fair Labour programmes.

These certification standards are voluntary and rely on private audits, designed and paid for by corporations, to assess standards. NGOs have also increasingly partnered with firms to develop bespoke voluntary programmes: Greenpeace has worked with Coca Cola to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and Oxfam with Unilever to integrate smallholder farmers into its supply chains.

As such, the contemporary governance of global supply chains is increasingly reliant on an ethical and voluntary ‘benchmarking regime’ supported by both corporations and civil society groups, which has audit inspections as its cornerstone. This auditing regime comprises company codes of supplier conduct, voluntary certifications, standardised metrics (e.g. the Higg Index for ‘ethical’ clothing) and aggregated indexes for comparing corporate environmental and social performance (e.g. the Global Reporting Initiative).

Corporations can choose whether to use independent third-party auditors or in-house auditors. Third-party auditors are generally deemed more neutral and hence legitimate, but even third-party auditors are not impartial. Walmart, for example, applies its own criteria for selecting a list of whom it deems ‘acceptable’ auditors.

Auditors are bound by rigid confidentiality clauses and clients exercise full discretion over what audit information is reported. Auditors produce standardised metrics and rankings that give the appearance of transparent and neutral monitoring; yet the information audits provide is selective and fundamentally shaped by the client. Information about abuses and non-compliance is rarely made available to governments or consumers and, as such, they are rarely resolved.

Auditors typically offer advice to help factories prepare action plans to address non-compliance findings. However, auditors have no influence over a company’s eventual business decisions; their advice can be ignored; and there is no external accountability for the action plans.

Corporations have embraced Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals and ethical audits as an opportunity to preserve their business model and take responsibility for supply-chain monitoring out of the hands of governments. Corporate adoption of CSR has brought the ‘supply chain ball’ back into their court, and away from governments.

Through the presentation of active monitoring and ‘continuous improvement’, corporations have been able to deflect pressure for stricter state and international regulation that might otherwise curb business growth. This enables the preservation of existing business models and profits.

Adopting ethical audits has also enabled corporations to position themselves as responsible companies. This helps drive sales as retailers increasingly recognise the importance of ‘eco’ and ‘ethical’ products for consumers. A 2013 study of 1000 brands found that 28 per cent of brand value relates to corporate social responsibility.

The increasing use of private audits to monitor supply chains is serving to restructure the global regulatory system to privilege the private interests of business growth, profit and market advantage over the public interest and social goods of improving labour standards, general wellbeing and ecological protection. In a nutshell, the audit regime is ‘working’ for corporations, but failing workers and the planet.

The increasing use of audits as a tool of governance is bolstering corporate interests and influence over consumers and policymakers and, ultimately, deepens corporations’ power to make their own rules and norms and evaluate and report on their own performance.

Whilst audits give the impression of active supply-chain monitoring and ‘continuous improvement’, the regime actually reinforces endemic problems in supply chains. It deflects pressure for stricter, state-based regulation and legitimises unsustainable global production models – in particular, a retail economy that promotes consumption and environmental degradation.

Through voluntary certification programmes, and with state support, the structural problems within the audit regime – deception, failing to detect or ignoring problems within supply chains, and a compliance mentality – are being swiftly institutionalised within global governance mechanisms.

By Daniel Voskoboynik - The Verb, November 6, 2016; Image by Hasna Lahmini

Climate summits let host governments publicise their environmental credentials, but we cannot be blind to their injustices.

This year the United Nations climate negotiations descends upon Marrakech. The stage is set for negotiators to continue their granular discussions, but also for the Moroccan government to showcase its own environmental ambition.

Praise has surrounded the Moroccan government’s audacious plans for renewable energy, which aim to generate over half of the country’s energy from wind, water and solar by 2030. In February, King Mohamed VI unveiled the first part of the world’s biggest solar energy complex in the city of Ouarzazate.

While the Moroccan government has welcomed the spotlight, the conference has also drawn attention to its more authoritarian and repressive elements.

Morocco has just experienced its most intense public protests since the Arab Spring. On 28 October, fisherman Mouhcine Fikri was crushed to death by a garbage truck compactor in the port town of Hoceima, as he tried to recover goods confiscated by the police. Activists accused police officers of ordering Fikri’s death, and civil rights associations denounced the illegality of the confiscation. Fikri’s individual case has been seen as emblematic of what is known as hogra: arbitrary abuses at the hands of the authorities.

These abuses occur in a wider context of human rights violations, corruption and impunity, in which the makhzen (the King and the royal establishment) exert decisive political control. Abuse of the rule of law by security forces is widespread.

Moroccan activists and journalists are routinely harassed or arrested. During the conference, negotiators and observers will likely be communicating through platforms such as Whatsapp, Skype and Viber. These VoIP (voice over international protocol) applications however were only recently unblocked in Morocco, and citizens fear they will be restricted once the summit concludes.

By Matt Huber - Jacobin, October 9, 2016

Climate change is often chalked up to “market failure.” We’re told that, despite prevailing assumptions that prices accurately transmit “signals” about the costs of goods and services, emitters like power plants, refineries, automobiles, and households simply do not pay the full ecological costs of their emissions. Hence, the market has failed.

To fix the problem, the argument goes, we must internalize the costs of emissions into the price mechanism so that emitters pay the full costs of their actions. If we could craft a policy that accurately monetized the ecological costs of emissions — a carbon tax, or fee and dividend scheme — fossil fuels would become costlier and renewables would be more competitive and cost effective. The failure could be corrected, and the market would succeed in guiding us to a clean energy future.

Accounting for ecological costs has become the primary way of crafting environmental policy for public officials and legal experts. But the rhetoric of cost internalization is a political dead end for a left climate politics.

Focusing on getting the price right, and thereby assuming the market can be corrected, allows right-wing and fossil-fuel interests to effectively argue that any and all climate policy will be a cost to working people. Recently, the CEO of Chevron put it bluntly “I’ve never had a customer come to me and ask to pay a higher price for oil, gas, or other products.” Indeed, while many on the climate left attribute slow movement on climate to a problem of education and denial of climate science, popular opposition to climate policy is more often framed in economic terms, focusing on costs to the economy and to everyday people’s lives.

In an ideological landscape dominated by an obsession with accounting for and trimming costs, environmental policy proposals often advocate raising costs—costs that are likely to end up being passed down to working people. Opponents of climate justice easily argue that any tax or cost will end up percolating throughout the economy and hitting ordinary people: wealth doesn’t trickle down, but costs do.

A left climate politics must move beyond a language of cost-internalization, and emphasize the real material benefits for a society beyond fossil fuel: not only in terms of a cleaner environment, but also cheaper energy and green jobs. This requires a language of public goods and collective action, not a language of markets and costs. If the Left must speak of costs at all, it needs to be framed in class terms — costs that the wealthy and corporations must pay to fund a better energy economy.

By Steve Brown - Labor Notes, September 30, 2016

The White House is hell-bent on forcing the Trans-Pacific Partnership through Congress during the lame-duck session immediately after the election, when political accountability to constituents is at its lowest.

That’s why it’s critical that workers and unions demand that waffling members of Congress state their opposition to the TPP this October, before the election—while we still have some leverage.

TPP is like a giant version of NAFTA, covering 12 countries around the Pacific. This multinational treaty poses an urgent threat to our democracy, jobs, health, environment, drug prices, and the Internet.

Communications Workers (CWA) Local 3611 member Grant Welch hadn’t even heard of the TPP until he attended a union training in June. Now he’s helping his local to phonebank, asking every member to call their Congressperson. CWA held a national call-in day September 14.

“People are eager and willing to learn,” says Welch, a telecom worker in Raleigh, North Carolina. “We have a group of very passionate young workers who have visited every work center and every yard to tell workers about the TPP.” He and fellow activists have also passed out flyers at Moral Monday rallies, and they’re spreading the word to family and friends.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, September 20, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• Chevron PR Firm's Local "News" Site Draws Attention from Koch Industries, Alarm from Media Watchdogs – By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, September 18, 2016
• Challenging Rising Inequality – By Mark Goldring, The Ecologist, September 17, 2016
• Corporations rule the world? Not quite. But we must stop them while we still can! – By Aisha Dodwell, The Ecologist, September 13, 2016
• Chevron’s "Hell Freezes Over" Tour – By Paul Paz y Miño and Kevin Koenig, Amazon Watch, September 12, 2016
• Just 90 companies are to blame for most climate change, this 'carbon accountant' says – By Douglas Starr, Science, August 25, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Australia's Climate Denialist Senator Malcolm Roberts Fails High School Science in Maiden Speech – By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, September 15, 2016
• ARENA is down – but not out – By Tristan Edis, REnew Economy, September 14, 2016; [related]: Myth of gas; has South Australia capitulated to fossil fuels? – By Dr David Shearman and Dr Graeme Mcleay, REnew Economy, September 14, 2016 | Turnbull marks 1st anniversary with act of clean energy vandalism – By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, September 14, 2016 | Australia Reaches Cross-Bench Agreement To Cut Renewable Energy Funding By $500 Million – By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, September 13, 2016
• Leaked documents reveal secretive influence of corporate cash on politics – By Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, September 14, 2016
• Sugar Industry Paid Harvard Scientists to Shift Blame to Fat – By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists, September 14, 2016
• Trump and the Republican Party are doing Big Oil's bidding – By Dana Nuccitelli, The Guardian, September 14, 2016
• Garbage in, garbage out: Why the CCA got it so wrong – By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, September 12, 2016
• Here Are All the Ways That Politicians Lie About Science – By Erica Langston, Climate Desk, September 12, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• Oil-Backed Lawmakers Accused of Orchestrating 'Charade' on Behalf of ExxonMobil – By Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, September 14, 2016; [related]: N.Y. investigation looking at Exxon’s valuation of reserves – By Bloomberg, FuelFix, September 16, 2016 | Does Congress have authority to subpoena AGs over climate change? – By James Osborne, FuelFix, September 14, 2016 | The #ExxonKnew hearing was perfectly on brand for Congress right now – By Samantha Page, Think Progress, September 14, 2016 | Lamar Smith Hearing Attempts to Bolster Legal Argument for Subpoenas – By David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, September 14, 2016 | Lawyers told House Science Chair Lamar Smith his subpoenas are trash – By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Grist, September 14, 2016 | Is There a Legal Precedent for Fighting Lamar Smith Subpoenas? Try 1960 – By David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, September 13, 2016 | Constitutional Scholars Object to Lamar Smith's Exxon Subpoenas – By David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, September 12, 2016
• Six Months Without Berta, Six Months Without Justice – By Laura Carlsen, CounterPunch, September 14, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, September 13, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• Neither the TPP Nor National Sovereignty – By Elliot Sperber, CounterPunch, September 9, 2016; [related]: Leading Economists Oppose TPP Provision Giving Corporations Upper Hand in Investor-State Disputes – Lori Wallach interviewed by Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, Democracy Now!, September 8, 2016 | As White House Spotlights Conflict With Democratic Presidential and Congressional Candidates by Escalating Toward TPP Lame-Duck Vote, Sen. Warren and Hundreds of Academics Urge Rejection – By Jeffrey Sachs, et. al., Public Citizen, September 7, 2016 | Good News for the People of Europe: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Is Dead. Negotiations have Failed – By Peter Koenig, Global Research, September 7, 2016 | Obama’s TPP Would Widen the Divide –  By Manuel Pérez-Rocha, Institute for Policy Studies, September 1, 2016
• Humans have destroyed a tenth of Earth's wilderness in 25 years – By Adam Vaughan, The Guardian, September 8, 2016; [related]: The Sick Ocean – By Robert Hunziker, CounterPunch, September 8, 2016
• Our energy system has changed since 1913; why hasn’t this subsidy? – By Julia Raven, Oil Change International, September 7, 2016
• Frack, Rattle and Roll: Drilling into Oklahoma’s Earthquake Epidemic – By Joshua Frank, CounterPunch, September 6, 2016; [related]: ‘Preemption’ Is Major Obstacle Across the Country as Progressive Laws Like Fracking Bans Passed in Liberal Cities Are Immediately Crushed by Right-Wing State Legislatures –  By Abby Rapoport, The American Prospect, September 2, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• The Clean Power Plan: Justice Delayed — For Whom the Rule Tolls – Joel B. Stronberg, Renewable Energy World, September 9, 2016
• Fox News acknowledged climate change, then promptly took it back – By Katie Herzog, Grist, September 8, 2016
• 13 Academics Who Have Become Shills for Corporate Giants in the Food, Agrochemical and Fossil Fuel Industries – By Lorraine Chow, AlterNet, September 8, 2016
• The Truth Behind The Kochs’ New Fossil Fuel PR Campaign – By Jeremy Deaton, Think Progress, September 8, 2016
• To Fight Clean Power Plan, Fossil Fuel Companies Paid for Private Meetings with Republican State Prosecutors – By Ashley Braun, DeSmog Blog, September 7, 2016; [related]: Confidential Documents Show Fossil Fuel Industry Plotted With GOP AGs to Attack Clean Power Plan – By Climate Denier Roundup, EcoWatch, September 8, 2016 | Fossil Fuel Industry Paid for Meetings With GOP Attorneys General to Plan Attack on Clean Power Plan – By Nick Surgey, PR Watch, September 7, 2016 | Republican State AGs Met With Coal, Electricity Companies Before Filing Against The EPA’s Carbon Rule – By Samantha Page, Think Progress, September 7, 2016
• Hillary Clinton Is Raking In Fossil Fuel Money At An Alarming Rate – By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog, September 7, 2016; [related]: Big Oil is backing Hillary Clinton – By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Grist, September 7, 2016
• U.S. companies tout climate policies, fund climate skeptics – By Richard Valdmanis and Grant Smith, Reuters, September 6, 2016; [related]: New Reuters Exposé On Climate Change Denial Aims At Small Fry, Misses The Big One – By Tina Casey, Clean Technica, September 8, 2016 | Major corporations that claim to support climate action are funding politicians who oppose it – By Ben Adler, Grist, September 7, 2016 | U.S. Companies Publicly Support Climate Action, Privately Fund Deniers – By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, September 6, 2016
• Conservative media bias is inflating American climate denial and polarization – By Dana Nuccitelli, The Guardian, September 6, 2016; [related]: Who's Driving Climate Denial? Big Companies and Conservative Media – By Jax Jacobsen, EcoWatch, September 6, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, September 7, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• For-Profit Pipeline Company Claims "Public Benefit" in Seizing Private Lands in Pennsylvania - By Larry Buhl, DeSmog Blog, August 31, 2016
• If the U.S. is talking about abandoning NAFTA, then maybe we should too - By Gordon Laxer, Rabble.Ca, August 31, 2016
• Study assesses climate change vulnerability in urban America - By Milken Institute School of Public Health, Eureka Alert!, August 31, 2016
• The Billion Dollar Ultimatum - By Chris Hamby, BuzzFeed, August 30, 2016
• Major Insurers to G20 Nations: Stop Wasting Time, Phase-Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies by 2020 - By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog UK, August 30, 2016; [related]: Major Insurers With $1.2 Trillion In Assets Urge G20 Leaders To Phase Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies - By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, August 30, 2016 | Insurance funds worth $1.2tn tell G20 to stop funding fossil fuels by 2020 - By Karl Mathiesen, Climate Change News, August 28, 2016
• Here’s Why Americans Are Mad as Hell at Wall Street and Washington - By Pam Martens and Russ Martens, Wall Street on Parade, August 12, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Fossil fuel subsidies are “the world’s dumbest policy” – so why won’t G20 leaders end them? - By Alex Doukas, Oil Change International, September 5, 2016
• The Dense web of financial interests - By Mike Spille, The Cost of the Pipeline, September 3, 2016
• Public Relations Firm Claims to Have Ghost Written Thousands of Op-Eds in Major U.S. Newspapers - By David Swanson, CounterPunch, September 2, 2016
• Climate Change Authority cops out – just when we need it most - By Christine Milne, REnew Economy, September 1, 2016
• Network Map of the Koch-Funded Fueling U.S. Forward Campaign - By Brendan DeMelle, Koch vs Clean, September 1, 2016
• Railroad Commission needs transformation, not reform - By Priscilla Villa, Houston Chronicle, September 1, 2016
• When Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts Thanked 9/11 Truthers and New World Order Conspiracists For Their Science Guidance - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, September 1, 2016
• Americans Now More Politically Polarized On Climate Change Than Ever Before, Analysis Finds - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, August 31, 2016
• Canadian Taxpayers Fork Out $3.3 Billion Every Year to Super Profitable Oil Companies - By Kevin Grandia, DeSmog Blog, August 31, 2016
• Dutch Wind Power Proponents Face Opposition -  By John J. Berger, Renewable Energy World, August 31, 2016
• Lamar Smith to hold hearing over Exxon climate fight - By James Osborne, FuelFix, August 31, 2016
• Using Trump Playbook, Chamber Of Commerce Invents Absurd Fossil Fuel Claims - By Mary Ellen Kustin, Think Progress, August 31, 2016
• Colorado Senator Says Candidates Who Oppose Fossil Fuels ‘Unfit’ For Office - By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, August 29, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• "We shall not rest until we’ve freed all our political prisoners", affirms Via Campesina - By Iris Pacheco, La Via Campesina, August 30, 2016
• Texas Ranch Owner Battles TransCanada to Restore Her Pipeline-Scarred Land - By Julie Dermansky, DeSmog Blog, August 28, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Landscapes of Dispossession: the National Park Service at 100 Years - By Nick Alexandrov, CounterPunch, September 3, 2016
• National Energy Board hearings into Energy East pipeline suspended - By Brent Patterson, Rabble.Ca, August 31, 2016
• [Video]: Trailer for COP21 Documentary ‘Not Without Us’ - By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, August 31, 2016
• Conservation Efforts Are Still Violating Indigenous Rights - By Andrew E. Miller, Amazon Watch, August 30, 2016
• Governor Ayade’s contradictions on REDD in Cross River State, Nigeria - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, August 30, 2016
• India: The Parliament violates forest people’s rights and promotes further plantations - By staff, World Rainforest Movement, August 30, 2016
• Wildlife conservationists need to break out of their Stockholm syndrome - By Margi Prideaux, Open Democracy, August 29, 2016
• Delta tunnels fail financially - By Alex Breitler, Stockton Record, August 24, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Gulf Oil Leases Spark Outcry But Little Revenue - Anne Rolfes interviewed by Helen Palmer, Living on Earth, September 2, 2016
• Hurricane Katrina, Brought to You by Big Oil - By Anne Rolfes, Bridge the Gulf, September 2, 2016
• Public Cost of Fukushima Cleanup Tops $40 Billion and Is Expected to Climb - By Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams, August 29, 2016