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Plutocracy video game5/30/2023 Among the groups leading these campaigns was Americans for Prosperity, set up by the Koch brothers: oil tycoons with a long record of funding rightwing causes. It arose from a concerted programme to replace democracy in the US with judicial dictatorship.Īs Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has documented, hundreds of millions of dollars in dark money (funds whose sources are unknown) were poured into the nomination and confirmation of the three judges appointed to the court by Donald Trump. The supreme court’s ruling was neither random nor based on established legal principles. The UK government and the US supreme court look as if they are willing the destruction of our life support systems. But I never imagined that we would one day confront what appears to be an ideological commitment to destroying life on Earth. When I began work as an environmental journalist in 1985, I knew I would struggle against people with a financial interest in destructive practices. Just at the point at which we need a coordinated global effort to escape our existential crises – climate breakdown, ecological breakdown, the rising tide of synthetic chemicals, a gathering global food emergency – those who wield power string razor wire across the exit. It’s as if, when ministers go to bed, they ask themselves, “What have I done to make the UK a worse place today?” Even when the cost to the government is small, it seems determined to destroy everything good and valuable about this country. It’s the pettiness of the decision that makes it so shocking. But in a letter published last week, the UK’s environment minister, Rebecca Pow, refused permission, claiming it “would impose new and distinct regulatory obligations on the farmers and businesses within the catchment”. It applied to the government to create a water protection zone, defending the River Wye against the pollution pushing it towards complete ecological collapse. After two decades of disastrous policies that turned its rivers into open sewers, Herefordshire county council, following a shift from Tory to independent control, finally did the right thing. But the final straw for me was a smaller decision.
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