Fossil fuel companies paying top law firms millions to ‘dodge responsibility’

Isabella Kaminski
Sat, October 9, 2021

Photograph: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images

The world’s biggest corporate law firms have been making millions of dollars representing fossil fuel companies but, as the climate crisis intensifies, this work is coming under increasing scrutiny.

Over the last five years, the 100 top ranked law firms in the US facilitated $1.36tn of fossil fuel transactions, represented fossil fuel clients in 358 legal cases and received $35m in compensation for their work to assist fossil fuel industry lobbying, according to a “climate scorecard” published in August.

Related: Biomass is promoted as a carbon neutral fuel. But is burning wood a step in the wrong direction?

The scale of law firms’ work for the fossil fuel industry is huge, said Tim Herschel-Burns, a third year student at Yale Law School and co-founder of Law Students for Climate Accountability, which developed the scorecard. “As we started digging we realised how holistic this is. Everything fossil fuel companies want to do, they need lawyers to accomplish.”

Fossil fuel companies rely heavily on armies of lawyers to advise on projects, lobby, negotiate contracts, secure permits and navigate an increasing number of climate lawsuits. Law firms’ fossil fuel industry work has increased compared with the previous year’s scorecard, even as climate warnings become more dire and the International Energy Agency has warned new fossil fuel development is incompatible with the target of net zero emissions by 2050.

The climate scorecard awarded firms grades based on their involvement in lawsuits “exacerbating climate change”, their support for fossil fuel transactions and fees received for lobbying on behalf of the fossil fuel industry.

Paul Weiss, a top 10 US firm according to Vault Law’s rankings, was one of 37 to receive the lowest F grade. The firm, which has its own sustainability practice, has acted for fossil fuel companies in 30 cases over the last five years, according to the scorecard. Among the most high-profile was the firm’s work representing ExxonMobil in a landmark trial where the company was accused of having misled investors about the risks of climate change to its business. The court ruled in favour of Exxon in 2019. Paul Weiss did not respond to a request for comment.

Climate protesters in October 2019 outside the New York county courthouse, where the trial against Exxon took place. 

Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA

Only 12 law firms were rated an A or B in the scorecard, which meant they did not conduct work for fossil fuel clients. Three firms – Cooley; Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati; and Schulte Roth & Zabel – have actively addressed the climate crisis through renewable energy transactions, lobbying or pro-climate litigation, according to the scorecard report.

“We definitely agree that the law can be this force for good,” said Herschel-Burns. “But one thing that we found really striking is that overwhelmingly the top law firms are [representing] the wrong side of it.”

There’s a tangible human cost, said Alyssa Johl, legal director for the Center for Climate Integrity. “Elite law firms are representing the oil and gas companies and providing them with a deep bench of high-priced lawyers,” she said. “For the communities across the country that are seeking justice, the end result is that their cases have been delayed and bogged down by procedural hurdles put forward by some of the biggest law firms in the country.”

Law Students for Climate Accountability is calling on law firms to pledge to stop taking on new fossil fuel industry work, phase out their current work by 2025 and ramp up their work for the renewable energy industry and in support of litigation to tackle the climate crisis.

It’s a potentially controversial stance given the principle that everyone should have access to legal representation. But Herschel-Burns said this principle is often used in “really sloppy ways which end up justifying law firms being able to represent whoever pays the most”.

Some firms have acknowledged a choice. Speaking at a conference last year about the link between law and climate change, the global senior partner at Clifford Chance Jeroen Ouwehand said firms “can choose what we support, and what we don’t support. We do not have to be neutral professional service providers”.

Law firms are starting to ramp up their own climate action, even as they continue their fossil fuel work. A number of firms that scored F grades on the climate scorecard, including Shearman & Sterling and Hogan Lovells, have signed up to the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance, which launched in July. Members pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and to work with clients to embed climate goals and to help drive “systemic change”. Neither firm responded to the Guardian’s request for comment.

Another alliance member, DLA Piper, has set its own science-based target to halve all emissions by 2030, including indirect emissions from the firm’s supply chain. The firm was recently appointed official legal services provider for the forthcoming Cop26 climate talks. But it scored only a D on the climate scorecard and has represented clients including Shell, ExxonMobil and BP. The firm declined to comment.

Thom Wetzer, law professor and director of the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, one of the organisations supporting the alliance, said the firms may be serious about taking steps in the right direction but they do not necessarily have the best practices yet. “We need to move the whole sector, and for many firms involved this is the start of a journey.”

Some law firms that ranked low on the climate scorecard were keen to promote their green energy work. Allen & Overy, which according to the scorecard worked on fossil fuel transactions worth $125bn over the last five years, said in a statement that it does “more renewables work than any other law firm in the world by most key measures”. Clifford Chance, which the scorecard calculated worked on fossil fuel transactions worth $123bn, said it is “perennially at or near the top” for advising on renewables financing.

But neither firm, both of which scored an F, responded to questions about how they reconcile this work with their representation of fossil fuel firms.

Lawyers have a responsibility to reflect on their own role and to ask whether their clients’ values align with their own, Wetzer said. “Firms that engage constructively with the net zero transition will be rewarded; clients will value their judgment and expertise, top talent will be more easily attracted and retained, and these firms will strengthen their social license to operate.”

Law firms’ best resource is their employees, said Sam Sankar, of the nonprofit environmental law organization Earthjustice, which makes the climate scorecard a powerful tool. “In the future nobody is going to think twice about making career decisions with an eye to whether it aligns with their climate ethics.”

There’s now a conversation about legal ethics and climate which is well overdue, Sankar said. “The [fossil fuel] industry is paying law firms tons of money in an effort to dodge responsibility and block regulatory reforms that could help avert this crisis.”

HAWAII
Expired 'burrito' sandbags litter beaches on Oahu's North Shore

Sophie Cocke, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Sun, October 10, 2021

Oct. 10—On a gusty Saturday morning, local residents and visitors lounged along Oahu's picturesque Sunset Beach, breathing in the thick, salty air and swimming in the deep-blue and turquoise waters. Two women strolled along the beach where waves glide up the deep deposits of golden sand, until they encountered a tangled mound of thick, black fabric, sand bags the size of large tree trunks, boulders and wood planks with protruding screws, and turned back.

Here, waves slam angrily against the littered shoreline, tugging at the black fabric and debris that property owners have strewn along the public beach to protect their homes from being sucked into the ocean. The large heap that fronts about half a dozen homes prevents residents and visitors from walking along the shoreline.

Ocean Lemus, who was at the beach with his friends Saturday, stared intently at the mess and questioned how this could be allowed to exist along one of the world's most famous stretches of sand.

"It looks like a trash heap ... not something you would assume to find on Sunset Beach, which is the premier surf spot, " he said.

Indeed, it's not supposed to be there.

In 2018, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources gave property owners along the span of North Shore coastline that fronts surf breaks known as Monster Mush and Kammies permission to install emergency "burritos, " long, sand-filled tubes covered by heavy fabric that create a hard barrier against ocean waves.

Typically, such protections are forbidden under state law. In order for property owners to armor a shoreline or install a structure on a public beach, they need to get a conservation district use permit. The process includes conducting an extensive study that looks at potential environmental impacts, opportunities for the public to weigh in on the use of the public trust resource, and approval from the Land Board that oversees DLNR.

But DLNR deemed the homes "imminently threatened " and allowed the homeowners to install the protections on a temporary basis with the condition they be removed in three years, or even earlier if there were signs they were damaging the beach.

The homeowners have refused to remove the protections, however, which expired between July and September of this year. They are among dozens of property owners throughout the islands who have been allowed to install temporary sandbags and other protections that are now expired.

In addition to marring the beauty of the coastlines, scientists worry they pose an existential threat to Hawaii's prized beaches. When waves slam up against a hardened shoreline that is migrating inland, they claw away at the sand, causing beaches to disappear.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser and ProPublica published an last year that found DLNR had granted 66 emergency shoreline permits to property owners across the islands. Nearly half of the permits were for properties along Oahu's North Shore, known as the Seven Mile Miracle because of its abundance of prime surf breaks and stunning beaches.

Many of the beneficiaries are owners of multimillion-dollar homes along some of the most prized beaches in the state and include famous surfers Kelly Slater and Fred Patacchia. While DLNR says Slater's system was installed without permission, they haven't forced him to remove it.

The news organizations found the temporary sandbags and burrito systems are rarely removed from public beaches when they expire. Instead, state officials repeatedly have granted homeowners extensions or don't enforce their own deadlines, while granting after-the-fact approval for structures that were built illegally.

DLNR now seems to be trying to rein in the protections, particularly along the North Shore, though none of the homeowners have been fined or faced any other enforcement action. The state can fine property owners $15, 000 a day for unauthorized structures that remain on the beach.

Asked why DLNR hadn't forced the homeowners to remove the burritos, the department said in written responses to questions that the homes remain imminently threatened and that property owners have a right to due process.

"We understand that many of these homeowners are in a very stressful and challenging situation, " wrote DLNR's Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands.

DLNR officials, including Board of Land and Natural Resources Chairwoman Suzanne Case, who oversees the department, did not respond to interview requests. But in written responses, officials said the temporary protection measures along areas such as Kammies have "led to obvious degradation of the public beach resource."

The officials say there are now about 70 coastal properties throughout the state that have expired emergency permits and that those owners have or will be receiving letters of "alleged noncompliance " along with requests for information about how they intend to "correct the situation " and their "plans moving forward in the long term."

OCCL says it is requiring certain homeowners, though it didn't specify how many, to prove that a "bona fide planning effort " is underway, including employing "professional planners, engineers, or consultants to develop and implement a long-term solution whether it involves relocation or abandonment, beach restoration, or some other form of shoreline management."

OCCL also said a surety bond or other financial assurance may be required as part of any potential approvals for a time extension to ensure the temporary protections are removed when they expire.

Officials didn't specify how long of an extension may be granted to the homeowners.

Many of the North Shore homeowners declined or didn't respond to requests for comment. But William Kernot, who is among the owners of homes that front the Kammies surf break, confirmed he received one of the letters.

He acknowledged his burrito system "looks terrible " but maintained it wasn't harming the beach, even though it's blocking the public shoreline. He said DLNR should approve a seawall for his property to improve the aesthetics of the coastline.

Coastal experts say engineering a seawall along this stretch, which isn't permitted under state law, would be extremely difficult because the base would have to be so wide and deep in order for it to be stable.

"It would take over the whole beach, " said Dolan Eversole, a coastal geologist with the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program, referring to the much wider beach that exists there during the winter months when the sand shifts.

"If we desire beaches on the North Shore, we are going to have to get out of the way, " Eversole said.

Meanwhile, Randy Rarick, a well-known surfer and surf promoter who has lived along Sunset Beach for 50 years, says he is already seeing damage to this stretch of coastline from sea-level rise and the burritos.

In the winter months, western swells typically deposit large amounts of sand to the east of the homes along Kammies, replenishing the long stretch of Sunset Beach. But he says the homes with burritos are blocking this from occurring, causing the sand to be depleted, a sign the burrito systems could contribute to a domino effect of beach loss down the coastline.

Rarick says backwash from the waves hitting this stretch of coastline hardened with sandbags, tarps and boulders is disrupting the famous surf breaks.

"I feel really sorry for the homeowners, " Rarick said, "but sea-level rise is upon us."

Climate activist Nakate visits huge German coal mine

Sat, October 9, 2021, 10:00 AM·2 min read

LUETZERATH, Germany (AP) — Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate on Saturday visited a vast German open-pit coal mine and a village that is to be bulldozed for its expansion, saying the destruction is “really disturbing” and has implications far beyond Germany.

The visit by Nakate and other young climate activists comes a few weeks before U.N. climate talks open in Glasgow, Scotland on Oct. 31.

The Garzweiler lignite mine, operated by utility giant RWE, has become a focus of protests by people who want Germany to stop extracting and burning coal as soon as possible. Activists and local residents say expanding the mine runs counter to Germany’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to meet the Paris climate accord’s target of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).

They also oppose the destruction of villages such as Luetzerath and nearby woods to make way for the mine. Coal mining is due to end in Germany by 2038, but environmentalists say it needs to stop much earlier.

“I came to see how much destruction is being done in Luetzerath with the coal mine and to see how much of this destruction is not just affecting the people in this place, but also the people in my country, Uganda,” Nakate told The Associated Press.

Because of rising global temperatures, “the weather patterns are changing in my country and we are experiencing more extreme rainfall and extreme droughts,” she said.

“With the expansion of this coal mine, it means people’s cultures will be destroyed, people’s traditions, people’s histories of this place," Nakate said.

Noting the mine's size and its implications for greenhouse gas emissions, she added "it’s really disturbing to see how much destruction is taking place.”

German activist Leonie Bremer said “it’s absurd that my friend Vanessa has to come here from Uganda to show people that what we are doing here in Germany, that what RWE is doing here, that’s affecting countries like Uganda.”

Germany Climate ProtestClimate activist Vanessa Nakate from Uganda during her visit to the Garzweiler open-cast coal mine in Luetzerath, western Germany, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021. Garzweiler, operated by utility giant RWE, has become a focus of protests by people who want Germany to stop extracting and burning coal as soon as possible. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)More

Meet the Teen Who Got the Pro-Choice Movement on TikTok

Emily Shugerman
Fri, October 8, 2021, 

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Getty/Mahi Bath

The email sent to hundreds of reproductive rights organizations last year contained an urgent warning: Anti-abortion groups had seized on TikTok and were gaining “extreme traction” with the platform’s young audience.

“There is serious, untapped potential here, and you should capitalize on it,” it read.

Perhaps even more surprising than the message was the identity of its author: a 15-year-old California high school student who was stuck home because of the pandemic and had, like many Americans, gotten sucked into the app.

Another surprise: The abortion rights movement listened to her.

Now, a year and a half after sending that email, Mehtaab Kaur is a high-school senior who juggles homework, equestrian polo practices, and consultations with advocacy groups on how they can harness the power of the video-sharing service.

“The way I had planned it out initially was that they would just get on the app,” Kaur told The Daily Beast. “But something I realized is a lot of these organizations don’t understand TikTok.”

“And that’s where I came in,” she added.

“AbortionTok”—the term pro-choice advocates use to describe their space on the app—has grown steadily in recent years as abortion access in the U.S. has waned. The most popular accounts have more than half a million followers and regularly garner tens of thousands of likes. Last month, when an anti-abortion group set up a tip line to catch violators of a restrictive Texas abortion law, activists on TikTok flooded it with false reports and Shrek memes. The site was taken down within a week.

But it wasn’t always that way. Before Kaur and other advocates joined the app, anti-abortion organizations like LiveAction had an outsized voice among TikTok’s predominantly young, liberal audience. At the time of Kaur’s email, Live Action had more than 80,000 followers; the anti-abortion clothing line A Chance at Life had nearly 48,000. (They now have more than 477,000 and nearly 125,000, respectively.) Explaining the breadth of the problem in her email, Kaur wrote: “Not saying you should be concerned, but you should be concerned.”

But the teenager also knew that pro-choice accounts gained traction on TikTok much faster than pro-life ones—“that’s a literal fact,” she wrote. She urged the organizations she emailed—which included the Guttmacher Institute, multiple abortion funds and every branch of NARAL and Planned Parenthood she could find—to create accounts and start posting videos. (Thirty- to 40-second videos were best, she wrote, 15 was acceptable; it was probably a good idea to put a younger staff member in charge of the account.)

“I don’t mean to push a sense of urgency, but I cannot allow pro-life organizations to blatantly spread lies on an app that is comprised of so many younger, and impressionable children/teens,” she wrote.

At the same time Kaur was doing her outreach, some other advocates were slowly coming to the app on their own. Denise Rodriguez, the communications manager at the Texas Equal Access Fund, noted the hundreds of millions of people who joined TikTok during the pandemic, and hired a class of interns exclusively to make content for the app. A group of clinic escorts in North Carolina went viral several times for their videos mocking anti-abortion protesters.

Eleanor Grano, the program manager at abortion-rights advocacy group Jane’s Due Process, set about creating a pro-abortion “hype house”—Gen-Z-speak for groups that get together to make TikTok content. But every time she reached out to an organization about joining, she said, she got the same response.

"Everyone was telling me how they got this email from this bossy 16-year-old who was like, ‘Why aren’t you on TikTok?’” she said. “And I was like, I need to find this teen.”

Kaur sticks out among her peers for her gumption and for her single-minded focus on abortion. A New York Times article last summer detailed the apathy some teens feel toward the issue; a survey it cited found Gen Z women consistently ranked mass shootings, climate change, education, and racial inequality as more important to them than abortion.

But for Kaur, the issue is personal: When she was 13, an aunt in India was impregnated by a man who did not want to marry her; she wound up killing herself by ingesting arsenic. The incident impressed on her the weight of the stigma around abortion and unwanted pregnancy, and reminded her that these issues are closer to home than you might think. “There’s this huge campaign: ‘[Everyone knows] someone who’s had an abortion,’” Kaur said. “It’s the same for me, but I know someone who couldn’t get an abortion and had to deal with the consequences of that.”

Chaos Continues as Court Swiftly Brings Back Texas’ Abortion Ban

Despite her obvious passion, Kaur’s cold-email campaign didn’t take off instantly. Many organizations said they didn’t have time for another social media app; a few said they wanted to join but didn’t know how. One of those people was Whitney Shanahan of ProChoice with Heart.

Shanahan’s group, which was started in response to a proposed six-week abortion ban in Ohio, often staged protests in which pregnant people scrawled the words “pro-choice” across their stomachs with lipstick. Footage from the protests had gone viral on other social media platforms, but Shanahan knew nothing about Gen Z’s favorite app. “When [Kaur] reached out to me and was like, ‘We need pro-chociers like you on TikTok,’ I think I said to her, ‘What’s TikTok?’” Shanahan recalled.

At Kaur’s urging, Shanahan agreed to download the app and uploaded some of her old protest footage. It took off instantly. From there, Shanahan set about mastering TikTok, with Kaur as her consultant. Almost entirely through Instagram DM, Kaur walked her through TikTok basics like sounds, dance moves, and hashtags, “She was basically a tour guide,” Shanahan said.

Today, Shanahan has one of the most popular pro-choice accounts on TikTok, with more more than half a million followers. She estimates 99 percent of her advocacy is now done through the app, where she often uploads multiple times per day. And she says she owes it all to Kaur. “I would never have even gone to TikTok if I hadn’t gotten an Instagram message from her,” she said.

Grano, the Jane’s Due Process manager, did eventually get in touch with Kaur and convince her to join her hype house. There, the teenager functioned as the resident Gen-Z correspondent, reporting back on what sounds and styles were trending and how they could tailor it to pro-choice content. She and Grano also developed several lectures about how to use the app and presented them to abortion funds and at reproductive rights conferences.

Some of their recommendations are at odds with traditional pro-choice tactics. While older generations were taught to treat abortion as a serious, personal issue, TikTok activists often joke about it and even record fake abortion appointments. And while many pro-choice groups adopt an argumentative tone to persuade skeptics, Kaur tells her clients that the point of TikTok isn’t to convince the viewer, but to make them feel something.

“I tell people, ‘If you want to get people hooked, try making them feel hopeful, try making them feel proud, and try making that emotion come through in the video you’re making,’” she said.

“If they feel the right way, they're going to remember it, and they're going to continue having that conversation with other people they know, and it's just going to spread like wildfire.”

Grano said her biggest struggle is convincing millennial activists to let go a little. The generation raised on Instagram is often overly concerned with aesthetics, she said, and forgets that the way to connect with younger viewers is through authenticity. On TikTok, she said, “you can have uncombed hair and talk about something and Gen Z will listen."

But they can get their older clients to cooperate, both Kaur and Grano say getting them on TikTok is always worth it. The beauty of the app, Kaur explained, is in its largely captive audience: Viewers don’t have to follow your organization or search for it to find your content—if you work the algorithm right, it will simply pop up on their “For You” page. Once it’s there, she said, “Everyone will guaranteed give you at least five seconds before they scroll.”

Today, Kaur is balancing her social media consulting with a more typical high school activity: applying to colleges. She says she wants to major in marketing and apply it to work at nonprofits. She is writing her college admissions essay about her passion for activism.

Even when Kaur moves on with her life, her legacy in AbortionTok will live on. Paige Alexandria, the creator behind the popular pro-choice account @abortioncounselor, called Kaur a “catalyst” for AbortionTok, and even gave her a shout-out during a presentation last year.

Amelia Bonow, the founder of Shout Your Abortion, credited Kaur with inspiring her to launch an artists residency for pro-choice TikTok creators. She still remembers the email she received from the self-confident teen.

“She wasn’t just like ‘You should do this,’” Bonow said over email. “She was basically like, ‘If you are calling yourself a pro-abortion culture change organization and you’re not on Tik Tok, please take several seats.’”

“And based on her cold email game at age 15,” she added, “I have decided to endorse Mahi Beth for President of the United States of America in 2040.”

There's a generational shift in how we talk about women's health



Tina Reed
Sat, October 9, 2021


When it comes to women's health, Americans — and the advertisers that market to them — are getting blunter.

What's happening: Women's health is undergoing a generational cultural change. Younger women talk more openly about their periods and sexual health concerns — and more companies are marketing to them with messages that women only whispered about a few years ago.

Why it matters: The shift in conversation, and what people feel comfortable addressing head-on, could ultimately lead to changes in the health care women receive.

"Consumers and women are more empowered today than they ever have been to speak about issues that historically have been stigmatized or spoken about in a shameful manner," said Varsha Rao, CEO of Nurx, a women's telehealth company.

Much of this shift has come with changing expectations among Gen Zers.


A survey of more than 2,000 women ages 18 to 38 by menstrual cup company Lunette found 83% of Gen Zers felt periods are a totally natural process and should be discussed by everyone, including men. In comparison, only 72% of millennials agreed.


There's a "profound seismic shift" from previous generations, Deena Shakir, a partner at Lux Capital, told Insider.

There has also been an increase in understanding about the market power of women's health in recent years.


Female-led health care brands such as Maven, Elvie and Nurx have become more common in recent years, raising hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital for technology solutions directed at women's health concerns.


In 2019, the “femtech” industry generated $820.6 million in global revenue, according to PitchBook.

State of play: Accompanying this shift are messages from marketers that are far franker than years' past.


Just a decade ago, the menstrual hygiene company Kotex had its ads banned from airing in the U.S. because it used the word "vagina."


But last year, the period underwear brand Thinx launched an advertisement depicting women experiencing stained sheets from their periods before discovering their product.


Far from using the euphemisms of intimate washes, Lume Deodorant ads encourage women to apply the product to fight their "crotch and butt smells."


Schitt's Creek actress Annie Murphy tells viewers, "Welcome to my vagina," before extolling the benefits of non-hormonal birth control gel Phexxi, while an ad for estrogen therapy drug Imvexxy exclaims: "Your vagina is queen."

That level of openness can be valuable in setting the tone for conversations with health providers.


It can empower "women to be thoughtful about their pelvic health in ways that aren't embarrassing to them," Verywell Health chief medical officer and OB/GYN Jessica Shepherd told Axios.


Rao of Nurx said that "around here, we talk about gonorrhea the way some people talk about the common cold."


"What we've found is, when you start talking about these issues, it's very liberating and it's when you're able to deliver the best care possible."

Yes, but: Some subjects are still off-limits. Pitchbook wrote last year that Facebook rejected an ad by Lily Bird, a subscription startup delivering bladder leakage products to women in menopause, that exclaimed, "Laugh more and leak less."


Language restricts. A Columbia University Irving Medical Center study from 2020 found that women who identify as being non-heterosexual may not seek preventative sexual and reproductive health care at the same rates as their heterosexual peers because their providers aren't using inclusive language.


Inequities persist. A 2020 study from Indiana University-Bloomington found that Black women reported having conversations about their sexual activities (e.g., condom use) and were offered sexually transmitted disease testing more often than white women.

The bottom line: We've come a long way, but we've still got a long way to go.

Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

I'm a Christian minister who's had 2 abortions. Here's how faith informed those decisions.

Rebecca Todd Peters

Sun, October 10, 2021, 

I am a Presbyterian minister, a Christian ethicist, a professor of religious studies, a wife and a mother of two.

I have also had two abortions.

I did not make my abortion decisions despite my Christian identity and faith, but rather because of it.

Christian values that support healthy and secure families also require careful, thoughtful and morally rich consideration about the decision to become a parent or not.

The fact that the social, physical and moral well-being of children is primarily the responsibility of parents meant that my husband and I thought carefully and deeply about our decisions to have and not have children.

And I can say, without a doubt, that the two decisions we made to have children were far more morally significant than the decisions to end two pregnancies.

Parenting is a sacred task

Guided by Christian principles that promote abundant life, seek justice and recognize the human dignity of women, the decision to end a pregnancy can be a morally good decision. And in a world where the dominant Christian voices insist that abortion is morally wrong, it is time for those Christians who believe otherwise to say loudly and clearly that abortion can be a moral good.

In 1967, 19 ministers and two rabbis announced formation of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion via a front-page story in The New York Times.

Before Roe v. Wade, when legal access to abortion was almost nonexistent and tens of thousands of women got illegal and often life-threatening abortions annually, clergy across the country courageously began a public campaign to help women secure safe abortions in defiance of the law.

Many of these clergy had been active in civil rights and anti-war organizing, and they saw the need for women to have control over their reproductive health as part of that same drive for social justice.

By the time abortion was decriminalized, more than 3,000 largely white, male clergy had provided counseling and referral to an estimated 450,000 women in 38 states.

More than 50 years later, we are on the precipice of returning to that pre-Roe world. While women like me will continue to find access to abortion care, it is largely poor women, women of color, and young women and their families who will bear the brunt of the burden of abortion bans.

Today’s Christians cannot stay silent while pregnant people in our communities are being harassed, abused and forced to bear children by the state.

Recognizing and affirming that parenting is a sacred responsibility means that we need to recognize the moral wisdom my momma shared with me: “You shouldn't have a baby just because you are pregnant – you should have a baby because you want to be a mother, you want to have a family.”

That is the message that people of faith need to shout from the rooftops. That because parenting is a sacred task, pregnant people must be supported in using their moral agency to know when and whether they are able to embrace that sacred trust of parenting.

Ending a pregnancy when one cannot afford to care for a child (or another child) can be a morally responsible decision.

Ending pregnancy can be a moral good

Ending a pregnancy when one is not emotionally or physically able or ready to parent a child can be a morally responsible decision.

Ending a pregnancy that will interrupt one’s education or career, the tools that enable people in our culture to prepare themselves to live stable and abundant lives, can be a morally responsible decision.

Ending a pregnancy in the midst of an abusive relationship, a failing marriage, a job loss, a health crisis or any number of other reasons can be a morally responsible decision for a woman and her partner who want to be able to provide a stable and healthy family situation for their children.

What is missing in public life today is a nationwide presence of Christian leaders who can give full-throated support to this perspective. It’s not that we aren’t around; it’s just that our voices are not being heard.

We need more people of faith who will stand up and speak out in support of respecting women as full moral agents, created in the image of God, and capable of making the important moral decisions that shape our lives, our families and our futures.

We need more Christians to stand up and testify that abortion can be a morally good decision and women must be trusted to make moral decisions.

Rebecca Todd Peters is a professor of religious studies at Elon University and is the author of "Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument for Reproductive Justice."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abortion decision: My Christian faith led me to end 2 pregnancies

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME #UBI
The solution to poverty could be as "simple as expanding cash"



Bryan Walsh
Sat, October 9, 2021

Experts in philanthropy are gradually coming around to the idea that simply giving poor people cash — rather than services or in-kind benefits — is the most efficient way to make progress on severe poverty.

The big picture: The divergent economic experiences between rich and poor countries during the pandemic has shown the value of directly giving money to those in need.

With extreme poverty in developing countries spiking during the pandemic, direct cash giving is more important than ever.

What's happening: GiveDirectly — a charity that pioneered the practice of sending money to people in poverty, no strings attached — recently announced it sent $1,000 each to more than 178,000 U.S. households in need during the pandemic, with plans to reach another 20,000 over the next few months.

GiveDirectly works with Propel — a company that provides software that helps Americans digitally manage food stamps and other benefits — to identify households in need and quickly send out money.

The direct cash giving model's greatest advantage is its "exceptional efficiency," says Alex Nawar, GiveDirectly's U.S. director, who estimates that 98–99 cents of every dollar donated to the charity goes directly to giving, with little required for overhead.

Between the lines: GiveDirectly's program, as successful as it was, is a drop in the bucket compared to the billions in direct stimulus checks and expanded jobless benefits from the federal government that have flowed to Americans during the pandemic.

That aid — much of it cash — not only prevented much of the massive economic pain Americans could have suffered during the pandemic, but it actually helped reduce the U.S. poverty rate in 2020.

But what both private philanthropy and government aid demonstrate is the power of rapidly distributed cash to shield the needy from catastrophe and actually lift people out of poverty.

What they're saying: "It was really exciting to see the U.S. embrace cash as a first solution for the financial security problems people are facing through the pandemic," Nawar says.

Globally, there has been a 148% increase in cash social programs during COVID-19, with a total of 782 cash transfer programs being implemented or planned across 186 countries.

"I think there's a lot of room for both governments and NGOs and other kind of disaster responders to increase how often we use cash, because we know it's more efficient than delivering in-kind aid," says Nawar.

By the numbers: Poverty declined in the U.S. during the pandemic but not in the poorest countries in the world.

The number of people in extreme poverty — defined as households spending less than $1.90 a day per person — had fallen from 1.9 billion people to 648 million people in 2019, even as the global population increased by 2.5 billion people.

Extreme poverty levels were projected to fall to 537 million people by 2030, but the pandemic interrupted this trend, with the number increasing for the first time since 1997 to an estimated 588 million people.

"There are people who might have exited poverty in the last few years or the last decade through growth and all of the progress that has been made, and unfortunately, have fallen straight back in," Vishal Gujadhur, deputy director of development policy and finance at the Gates Foundation, told Fast Company recently.

How it works: During the pandemic, GiveDirectly worked with the government of Togo — where half the citizens live below the poverty line — to identify and distribute millions of dollars in cash aid to those in need.

To speed the process up, GiveDirectly used satellite images to identify tell-tale images of poverty, like houses with thatched roofs rather than metal ones, as well as mobile phone data, employing an algorithm to find people who more often made short, cheap calls — another sign of poverty.

Details: A 2018 review of 165 studies of cash-giving programs found it tends to increase spending on food and other goods — dispelling the idea that much of the aid would be wasted by recipients — while not reducing recipients' willingness to work.

A 2019 study by GiveDirectly of its cash-transfer program in Kenya found positive spillovers even to those who didn't receive money, with little effect on price inflation.

The other side: "Cash can't buy everything," as Drake University economist Heath Henderson wrote this year.

Cash assistance can't always help with the structural issues that keep people in poverty, including the lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines in very poor countries.

The bottom line: Even if money isn't a cure-all, when it comes to tackling poverty as quickly as possible, "it can be as simple as expanding cash," says Nawar.

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Biden declares October 11 Indigenous Peoples' Day and says restoring national monuments is the 'easiest thing I've ever done so far as President'

Morgan Keith

Fri, October 8, 2021,

A demonstrator marches to Faneuil Hall with other protesters while participating in the Indigenous Peoples Day rally and march in Boston on Oct. 10, 2020. Photo by Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Image

• President Joe Biden declared October 11 Indigenous Peoples' Day.

• Biden acknowledged in a Columbus Day proclamation that European explorers harmed Native Americans.

• On Friday, the Biden administration restored protections for two national monuments in Utah.

Following years of campaigning by Native Americans for federal recognition, President Joe Biden issued the first presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples' Day, which he declared would be observed on October 11 in honor of America's first inhabitants.

"Since time immemorial, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians have built vibrant and diverse cultures - safeguarding land, language, spirit, knowledge, and tradition across the generations," a White House proclamation release from Biden said.

Although Indigenous Peoples' Day will be celebrated on the same date as Columbus Day, Biden acknowledged the atrocities inflicted on Indigenous communities by European explorers in another proclamation and urged the country not to try and bury "shameful episodes of our past."

"For Native Americans, western exploration ushered in a wave of devastation: violence perpetrated against Native communities, displacement and theft of Tribal homelands, the introduction and spread of disease, and more," a White House proclamation from Biden said. "On this day, we recognize this painful past and recommit ourselves to investing in Native communities, upholding our solemn and sacred commitments to Tribal sovereignty, and pursuing a brighter future centered on dignity, respect, justice, and opportunity for all people."

Biden also announced Friday that his administration will restore protections for the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, as well two monuments in New England.

"This may be the easiest thing I've ever done so far as President," Biden said Friday during a speech outside the White House.

Former President Donald Trump had previously revoked protections for thousands of acres across the four monuments, Indian Country Today reported, which opened them up to mining, commercial fishing, and other developments.

"Today's announcement, it's not just about national monuments. It's about this administration centering the voices of Indigenous people and affirming the shared stewardship of this landscape with tribal nations," said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, a citizen of the Laguna Pueblo nation.

Tensions persist between legacy of Columbus, native people

Indigenous Peoples Columbus-HolidaysFILE - In this Oct. 8, 2012 file photo, people ride on a float with a large bust of Christopher Columbus during the Columbus Day parade in New York. Monday, Oct. 11, 2021 federal holiday dedicated to Christopher Columbus continues to divide those who view the explorer as a representative of Italian Americans’ history and those horrified by an annual tribute that ignores the native people whose lives and culture were forever changed by colonialism.

(AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)


KATHLEEN FOODY and WILSON RING
Sat, October 9, 2021, 11:03 PM·5 min read


Monday's federal holiday dedicated to Christopher Columbus is highlighting the ongoing divide between those who view the explorer as a representative of Italian American history and others horrified by an annual tribute that ignores native people whose lives and culture were forever changed by colonialism.

Spurred by national calls for racial equity, communities across the U.S. took a deeper look at Columbus' legacy in recent years — pairing or replacing it with Indigenous Peoples Day.

On Friday, President Joe Biden issued the first presidential proclamation of “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” the most significant boost yet to efforts to refocus the federal holiday celebrating Columbus.

But activists, including members of Native American tribes, said ending the formal holiday in Columbus' name has been stymied by politicians and organizations focusing on Italian American heritage.

“The opposition has tried to paint Columbus as a benevolent man, similar to how white supremacists have painted Robert E. Lee,” Les Begay, Diné Nation member and co-founder of the Indigenous Peoples’ Day Coalition of Illinois, said, referring to the Civil War general who led the Confederate Army.

Columbus’ arrival began centuries of exploration and colonization by European nations, bringing violence, disease and other suffering to native people already living in the Western Hemisphere.

“Not honoring Indigenous peoples on this day just continues to erase our history, our contributions and the fact that we were the first inhabitants of this country,” Begay said.

Across the country tension, over the two holidays has been playing out since the early 1990s. Debates over monuments and statues of the Italian explorer tread similar ground, as in Philadelphia where the city placed a box over a Columbus statue last year in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer. Protesters opposing racial injustice and police brutality against people of color rallied for months in summer 2020.

Philadelphia lawyer George Bochetto, who has been fighting Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney's administration to uncover the statue, said Saturday many felt efforts to remove it were an attack on Italian-American heritage.

Kenney previously signed an executive order changing the city’s annual Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day. Monday will be the first city holiday under the new name.

“We have a mayor that’s doing everything he can to attack the Italian American community, including canceling its parade, removing statues, changing the Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day by fiat," Bochetto said.

Kenney spokesperson Kevin Lessard said the statue should remain boxed up “in the best interest and public safety of all Philadelphians.”

In 2016, Lincoln, Nebraska, joined other cities adding Indigenous Peoples' Day to the calendar on the same date as Columbus Day. Events on Monday will focus on the newer addition, including unveiling a statue honoring the first Native American physician, Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte.

Some feel a split day causes further harm. Activists plan a small protest outside the Robert V. Denney Federal Building, calling for an outright end to the holiday in Columbus’ name at all levels of government.

“It’s patently absurd to honor Indigenous people and the man who tortured and murdered their ancestors,” said Jackson Meredith, an organizer. “As far as we’re concerned, we’re going to keep protesting it until Columbus Day is abolished.”

In New York City, the annual Columbus Day Parade returns after a one-year, in-person absence attributed to the coronavirus pandemic. The parade is touted by some as the world’s largest Columbus Day celebration.

In May, Italian American activists complained after the Board of Education erased Christopher Columbus Day from the New York City school calendar, replacing it with “Indigenous People’s Day.” Following the outcry, the schools changed the designation to: “Italian Heritage Day/Indigenous People’s Day.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he supported the compromise.

“We have to honor that day as a day to recognize the contributions of all Italian Americans, so of course the day should not have been changed arbitrarily,” de Blasio said.

Chicago's annual Columbus Day parade also returns Monday after the pandemic forced 2020's cancellation of the event that draws 20,000 people. It's a vivid reminder of the ongoing fight over three statues of Columbus, still warehoused by the city after protesters targeted them in summer 2020.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot in July 2020 ordered the statues removed and said demonstrations were endangering protesters and police.

She later created a committee to review monuments in the city, including the fate of Columbus monuments. No plans have been announced publicly, but the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans that plans the Columbus Day parade this summer sued the city's park district, demanding that one be restored.

Ron Onesti, the organization's president, said the parade usually draws protesters and expects that on Monday too. He sees the holiday, parade and statues as a celebration of Italian Americans' contributions to the U.S., not just Columbus.

“The outcome I'm looking for is (for) our traditions to be respected and conversations to continue,” Onesti said Saturday. “Every plaque that goes along with a statue says it recognizes the Italian community's contributions. So people need to understand that's why it's there, and then let's sit down and figure out where to go from here."

Illinois in 2017 designated the last Monday in September as Indigenous Peoples Day but kept Columbus Day on the second Monday of October. A proposal to replace Columbus Day filed this year hasn't received any action.

Chicago Public Schools in 2020 voted to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, provoking outrage from several alderman and Italian American groups. The city's holiday calendar still lists Columbus Day.

Begay, the Indigenous Peoples Day advocate, said the organization decided to focus on changing Columbus Day first in Cook County, hoping it would be an easier path than convincing state or Chicago officials. But so far, members of the county's board haven't lined up behind the proposal.

“Why are 500 plus years still forgotten?” Begay said. “Why don't we have this single day to recognize these horrible atrocities committed against native people?”

___

Associated Press Reporter Lawrence Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.

DR. DEE THE ORIGINAL 007

The Aztec Origins of a Mysterious Elizabethan Mirror

Candida Moss
Sun, October 10, 2021

Public Domain/Oxford University

When Elizabeth I’s scientific adviser and “philosopher” John Dee died in 1609 at the age of 81 he left behind a trove of unusual artifacts. Among them was his speculum, a hand mirror made of polished obsidian (volcanic glass), that was also known as “the Devil’s Looking-Glass.” This mystical device for talking to the dead was coveted by his peers and later generations; it was acquired by politician and writer Horace Walpole before winding its way into the British Museum, where it resides today. Despite its popularity, however, the mirror’s history was shrouded in mystery. A just-published scientific study has tracked its origins to 16th century Mexico and the religious rituals of the Aztecs.

The mirror in question is part of a cluster of obsidian artefacts in the British Museum and measures about 7.2 inches in diameter and half an inch thick. Visually it resembles drawings of black mirrors that appear in the pages of codex Tepetlaoztoc, a 16th century Aztec book made by residents of Tepetlaoztoc in Central Mexico. The book depicts images of the tribute that indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica were forced to pay to the Spanish conquistadors and among jewelry and other precious objects were at least 10 obsidian mirrors. These objects were associated with the god Tezcatlipoca (literally “smoking mirror”), the authors explain, and were used for scrying, or examining the future.


Public Domain/Oxford University

Just because the mirror resembles those in the manuscript does not mean, however, that it is the real deal. Anything of value is susceptible to forgery, and Dee moved in spiritualist circles that included known forgers like the alchemist Edward Kelly. A scientific team, led by University of Manchester professor of archaeology Stuart Campbell, analyzed the various obsidian objects at the British Museum and compared their chemical composition to various samples from regions of modern Mexico. Their findings, which were published this week in the journal Antiquity, show that the mirror is very similar to the samples from Pachuca, an area that was heavily mined for obsidian during the period that it was under Aztec control.


Though rock mirrors date to 4000 B.C. Anatolia, they were not easy to make. The Franciscan missionary and ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagún (c. 1499–1590) writes that the mirrors were made by specialists, who polished the stone using abrasive sand and a fine cane to make it shiny. The obsidian was believed to have medicinal and religious properties that could protect the user from harm as well as allow them to look into the future. Though there were a variety of different kinds of spiritually useful mirrors in use in Mesoamerica, at least one important was a tool for metaphorical “self-reflection.” Contemporary mirror divination among the Huichol of Santa Catarina Cuexcomatitlan sees mirrors as “like the apprentice’s notebook” in which the diviner learns what is inscribed in the mirror. Among the Huichol, Karl Taube summarizes, the mirror “is much like a camera” and “functions similar to the sight and minds of human beings, with images recorded in the “memory” of the object.”

Though not all mirrors work the same way—some are portals, some are introspective devices, others are predictors of the future, some are combined with hydromancy (water divination), and others are recording devices—the idea that the mirror is a conduit to deities of one kind of another is a cross-cultural phenomenon. Similar kinds of catoptromancy (mirror-divination) took place among ancient Greeks. The travel write Pausanias describes a ritual at a Greek temple in Arcadia in which supplicants would look into a sacred mirror and “see himself very dimly or not at all, but the actual images of the gods” (8.37.7). The Romans also had religious experts who worked as scryers, called specularii (from the Latin word for mirror). Gazing into reflective surfaces was a widely practiced form of divining that involved religious specialists and training.

In Europe the association of polished surfaces with demonology became explicit in the medieval period. The 12th century writer John of Salisbury wrote that any shiny object—from the blade of a dagger to a polished fingernail—might inadvertently become a vessel for communicating with the devil. It is implicit in contemporary practices of crystal ball-gazing and forms the basis for the 2013 supernatural horror movie Oculus.

Given the history of mirror-gazing, one would expect that John Dee, who served as the queen’s philosopher during one of the most religiously contentious periods of history, was a secret occultist. This would only be partly correct, however, as there was nothing secret about it. While Dee was, in many ways, an occultist (his mirror is categorized as an ‘occult artifact’ by the British Museum today) he was also a scientist, a philosopher, and—most surprising of all—a devoted Christian.

The reason for this is that he was, as the quip goes, a true Renaissance man who wrote on everything from astrology and alchemy. In a period in which the line between magic and religion was constantly moving and was as much about power as it was anything else, he straddled the divide. Moreover, his interest in mirror-divination must be understood against the backdrop of Renaissance mirror technology in general. In the sixteenth century, as Sabine Melchior-Bonnet writes in her beautiful history of The Mirror, technologies of mirror-making were still evolving. Mirrors were as likely to distort one’s image as to reflect it. Fifteenth century visitors to the French Chateau of Hesdin were apparently fascinated by the mirror that adorned the entrance to the gallery. The Duke of Burgundy’s financial manager reported that “one sees someone else there rather more than oneself.” All mirrors, in other words, encouraged introspection and invited commentary about the source of the images. “The goal of reflection,” notes Harvard University curator Sara Schechner, “was not mimetic but transformative.” Mirror-gazing was supposed to take you beyond the superficial.

While he was once accused of treason for casting the horoscopes of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Mary, more recent evaluations of Dee see him as a serious book scholar, manuscript curator, and scientist. In addition to his role of court astrologer and scientist he was allegedly the first to coin the phrase “British Empire” (a questionable achievement) and contributed to developments in navigation and cartography. His commitment to the importance of mathematics led him to write a “Mathematical Preface” for craftsmen and artisans who had not attended university. Investigation into the supernatural wasn’t some side hobby for Dee, however, he hypothesized that mathematical objects could serve as mediators between the human and the divine. If this sounds strange, bear in mind that mathematics, metaphysics, and divination have been intersecting ways of discovering the mysteries of the cosmos since antiquity. That a mathematician might also be a book collector, or a spiritualist is not strange. If you want to commune with the divine why not use every available technology to do so? Arguably, it’s extraordinary that we partition our ways of understanding the world into hermetically sealed streams.

For the Aztecs, the obsidian mirrors had a very particular religious and ritual usage to which specific cultural meanings were attached. When Dee acquired and used his looking-glass and used it in his rituals, said Campbell, “it gained a whole new life and a whole new set of meanings — and it’s continued to acquire those.” For British intellectuals with interests in the occult, the mirror became quasi-famous and accrued a reputation as a demonic portal. “So,” says Campbell “it now sits in the British Museum as an occult artifact. It’s got its own biography and its own impact in the world. I think, because of that, it’s a particularly fascinating object.” Just don’t stare too long—you never know who will look back.