Her Fault: Queen Pelosi Links Border Crisis To Climate Crisis (scam)

By William Teach March 15, 2021 – 7:10 am

Perhaps Nancy should stop taking so many fossil fueled cross country trips on evil airplanes (video at the link)

Pelosi: Climate Change Causing ‘Humanitarian Challenge’ at the Border

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that climate change has contributed to the surge of migrant children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Pelosi said, “There are more children, about 600, 700 more children, unaccompanied children coming over the border. This is a humanitarian challenge to all of us. What the administration has inherited is a broken system at the border, and they are working to correct that in the children’s interest. I’m so pleased that the president, as a temporary measure, has sent FEMA to the border to help facilitate the children going from one 72-hour issue where they are cared for as they are transferred into family homes or homes that are safe for them to be. So this, again, is a transition for what was wrong before to what is right. Of course, we have to also look to Central America, Mexico, and the rest. The corruption, the violence, all of that.”

She added, “My most recent trip to the northern triangle, that would be Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador. You saw the impact of climate change. These people were leaving because of the drought. They couldn’t farm, and they were seeking other ways to survive. There are many reasons to go into this, but the fact we have to deal with it at the border, and some of the people coming there are seeking asylum. I always like to quote our friends in the Evangelical movement. At one of our hearings, we had before the majority of the representatives said to us. The United States refugee resettlement program is the crowned jewel of American humanitarianism. So we have certain responsibilities that we must honor. We have to have a system that accommodates that, and that is what the Biden administration is in the process of doing.”

By mentioning ‘climate change’, Pelosi sets the terms that we in the United States owe these people entrance into the nation, along with food, shelter, money, clothing, jobs, housing, medical care, money, education, citizenship for free, and money. This is much like the way aid for other nations is being deemed, that 1st World nations now owe it, so, it should come with zero strings attached. That owed nations shouldn’t have to repay it or give anything back.

If they can’t farm, why not go somewhere else? Why trek thousands of miles to the U.S.? Why not implement more modern farming techniques? Because blaming the climate crisis scam is easier to demand entrance to the U.S. The U.S. has no need to accommodate that. If necessary, we can help them out in their home countries.

Read: Her Fault: Queen Pelosi Links Border Crisis To Climate Crisis (scam) »

Posted in Global Warming, Illegal Immigration, Queen Nancy | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

Biden Admin Considering Updating Social Distancing Rule, World Wants Our Vaccines

By William Teach March 15, 2021 – 6:55 am

Interestingly, this is the same rule that most of the rest of the world has been using for most of the pandemic, as it is the distance that the World Health Organization has been recommending, even though many studies show COVID from a cough can travel up to 20 feet

Fauci: US weighs 3-foot distancing rule, a major change

COVID dancing penguinsThe United States’ top pandemic advisor said Sunday that authorities were considering cutting social distancing rules to three feet (one meter), a move that would change a key tenet of the global fight against Covid-19.

Anthony Fauci, a world-respected figure during the coronavirus crisis, said experts at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) were examining a Massachusetts study that found “no substantial difference” in Covid cases in schools observing six-foot and three-foot rules.

Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” show whether that meant that a three-foot separation was sufficient, Fauci replied, “It does, indeed.”

While cautioning that the CDC was still poring over the new data and conducting tests of its own, he said its findings would come “soon.”

The six-foot social distancing rule has been a widely-adopted global measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, along with mask-wearing and hand-washing.

First off, kids haven’t been the group that was really concerned with catching COVID. Second, here’s what WHO says

Maintain at least a 1-metre distance between yourself and others to reduce your risk of infection when they cough, sneeze or speak. Maintain an even greater distance between yourself and others when indoors. The further away, the better.

Sure, maintain an even greater distance inside, but, their basis is 3 feet (1 meter). And that’s the way it’s been since at least last May, when the CDC updated their guidance on masks, and I remember comparing the 2 political health departments.

School officials across the world are under enormous pressure to fully reopen as soon as safely possible, but many say the six-foot requirement makes it extremely difficult without adding portable classrooms or shortening the school day.

Many teachers unions have also insisted on six-foot distancing.

Ah. That’s why the CDC is considering changing this, so the damned schools can open in the face of teacher’s unions, despite the CDC having said time and again that it is safe to open the schools. How about if the teacher’s, being adults, at least by age if not mentality, stay 6 feet away, while kids are 3? Teacher’s unions just want more money, power, and to not have to actually go into work for as long as possible.

Meanwhile

US comes under pressure to share vaccines with rest of world

President Biden is under increasing pressure to share the U.S. vaccine stockpile with the rest of the world.

The federal government has been amassing doses, growing its supply into what will likely become a surplus, as the rest of the world struggles with shortages. The U.S. has purchased enough vaccines to immunize every adult in the country three times over.

Then why is it taking so long to get vaccines to some areas? My area is slammed with vaccines. Right now there is, at most, a few days waiting period. Others have weeks or more for waits.

The White House said the extra doses could be a backstop for possible manufacturing issues, help vaccinate children, or serve as booster doses if they become necessary to fight against variants of the virus.

That makes sense, making sure they are available if necessary. Biden’s advisors are playing it safe (Joe just sits around and plays Mario Kart, naps, and does what he’s told)

When asked at the White House event about the widening gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world, Biden acknowledged the global nature of the pandemic but said his goal is to bring COVID-19 under control in America first.

“This is not something that can be stopped by a fence, no matter how high you build a fence or a wall,” Biden said. “So we’re not going to be ultimately safe until the world is safe. We’re going to start off making sure Americans are taken care of first, but we’re then going to try to help the rest of the world.”

Wait, that sounds like an America First agenda. Isn’t that racist?

Yet administration officials reiterated that the United States will not donate any vaccines until the full American population is inoculated, and did not say what threshold the country would set before considering exporting vaccines.

Experts and global health advocates think the U.S. has the ability to donate vaccines to other countries without significantly impacting their availability to Americans, but has been unwilling to make such a plan.

These are the same types of people who always throw hate America’s way, until they want something from us. They can wait. Or pay. Let’s take care of America first.

Read: Biden Admin Considering Updating Social Distancing Rule, World Wants Our Vaccines »

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The Climate (scam) Crisis Has Become A Mental Health Crisis (part lots)

By William Teach March 14, 2021 – 3:00 pm

Now that it’s starting to get warm again, the stories about the climate scam messing with people’s mental health start to become more prevalent. Is it real? In a way. The grand high poobahs of the Cult of Climastrology constantly trot out prognostications of utter doom. They teach the Coming Doom in schools. Warmists read about doom online. They buy into it, and start spreading fables of doom coming Soon. And there they have created artificial mental health problems

Between anger and sadness: How the climate crisis has become a mental health crisis

What Phoenix Heberling remembers most about the tornado is the screaming. She was 2, living in a trailer park in rural Indiana, and her father and some friends were having a party when he got a phone call.

Get out now, a tornado is headed straight for you.

In a frantic scramble, the adults ran outside. The world was eerily silent. Some of them scattered and the rest piled into a car, including Phoenix and her father. To this day, the adults’ faces stick with her. A woman clawed at her cheeks in terror, tears streaming down her face. Others screamed and cried frantically: I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die. (snip)

“You’re so young that you don’t have words to define what that feeling of ‘we’re about to die’ is,” Heberling said. “You only know if you felt it, that death looming over you. That pure terror. Knowing that whatever was happening, it was beyond anything I could define or ever know. It was just so powerful.” (snip)

At 27, the experience remains stamped in Heberling’s mind. In hindsight, she thinks it influenced her anxiety and depression in the face of the climate crisis, another force that to many feels profoundly intractable and terrifyingly destructive.

But this one is primarily human-caused.

Surveys have found that 47% of Americans aged 18 to 34 feel that stress related to climate change impacts their daily lives. That number is even higher for teens, at 57%. Climate anxiety is increasingly being seen as a public health issue, especially for young people and children.

So, wait, are they trying to say that experience with a tornado, something that has happened forever, is actually human caused climate crisis? Or not? It’s not particularly clear, which is exactly the point, because weak minded, indoctrinated climate cultists will immediately link the “climate crisis” with what happened to Heberling 25 years ago.

There’s good reason to be anxious, experts say. In 2018, scientists warned world leaders they needed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of climate change. The world is not on track to reach that goal.

As a result, scientists say extreme heat, wildfires and other disasters will likely become more frequent and destructive. Rising sea levels, civil unrest and food shortages could displace billions by 2050 if human-caused greenhouse gas emissions aren’t severely cut.

Is it any wonder these Warmists are having mental issues when all they hear about is doom?

“I think younger people are generally more affected because they know they’re going to see these changes actualized in their lifetime,” said Collin Hagood, a therapist in Flagstaff who has seen the issue come up with his clients.

“It’s an anticipatory grief,” Hagood said. “I think it’s really important that we all are part of this conversation, being open about it, being expressive about it, trying to connect with one another and most importantly connect to nature so we can recognize why this is such a big deal.”

Or, bear with me here, it could be because they’ve been indoctrinated into this, hence losing their minds.

Anyhow, the continuation of Doom continues on in this very long screed. Have at it for a laugh. And, yes, people giving themselves what they think are mental health issues over a completely fake issue is funny.

Read: The Climate (scam) Crisis Has Become A Mental Health Crisis (part lots) »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach March 14, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is an area flooded by carbon pollution driven extreme weather, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Green Jihad, with a post on defunding the police aiding racist green depopulation efforts.

It’s tops working overtime week.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach March 14, 2021 – 10:29 am

Gil Elvgren Patriotic Pinup

Happy Sunday! Another great day in the Once And Future Nation of America. The Sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the whiners are whining about Daylight Savings Time. Did they whine about it this much back when it was adopted in 1918 in the US? The whining gets worse every year. It’s no big deal. Chill. Anyhow, this pinup is by Gil Elvgren, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Weasel Zippers covers a wild shooting incident in Nashville
  2. This ain’t Hell… discusses Feinstein’s new assault weapons bill
  3. The Rio Norte Line highlights the Luv Gov and public health laws
  4. The People’s Cube covers Peace In Our Time
  5. The Lid discusses the latest pro-union act passed by House Dems
  6. The Last Tradition covers Texas Gov Abbott slamming Biden for not providing vaccines to the Border Patrol
  7. The First Street Journal highlights Killadelphia
  8. White House Dossier notes Biden’s deputy OMB nominee wanting to fund abortion for “social justice”
  9. Powerline covers Minneapolis’ no-go zone
  10. Pacific Pundit highlights the AP’s scorching hot take on the Cuomo affair
  11. Never Yet Melted covers the repulsiveness of Princess Pushy and Harry
  12. neo-neocon discusses Oregon looking at reparations
  13. Moonbattery notes China Joe’s decree allowing sex changes for military members
  14. Knowledge Is Power covers dignity dying first in a feeding frenzy
  15. And last, but not least, Jihad Watch notes Swedish women being blamed for Muslim men committing most of the rapes

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page (nope, that’s gone, the newest Apache killed access, and the program hasn’t been upgraded since 2014). While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your “Pinups for Vets” calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me.

Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. And do you have a favorite blog you can recommend be added to the feedreader?

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

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China Joe Admin Won’t Call What’s Going On At The Border A Crisis

By William Teach March 14, 2021 – 9:31 am

Of course not, because they pretty much asked for this. Maybe they didn’t think it would be so bad, but, this is what they got. Of course, Dementia Joe probably has no idea what’s actually going on

The word the Biden administration won’t use when it comes to the border? ‘Crisis’

The Biden administration is facing what it admits is an “overwhelming” number of migrants at the southern border while scrambling to construct new facilities to hold child migrants — but it is doggedly refusing to describe the situation as a “crisis.”

Agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas are encountering 1,500 migrants a day, overwhelming the sector — and Fox News on Saturday obtained exclusive photographs of a temporary outdoor processing site there in Mission, Texas.

This site is near the point of contact after the migrants illegally cross the Rio Grande River. There, they sort them among family units, unaccompanied minors and single adults and bus them to the appropriate destinations.

“Bus them.” Why? Send them away. Don’t let them in. We have no compelling need to bring them in. What happens if you show up at the White House and demand to be let in through the fencing? How about the Congressional buildings (main one and offices) surrounded by lots of fencing? CIA building? FBI? Fort Knox? Military bases? Only if you are authorized, if you are meant to be there. Why are we simply letting in people who will disappear into the US interior?

But the administration isn’t calling the situation a crisis.

“It doesn’t matter what you call it. It is an enormous challenge,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday, before saying: “We don’t feel the need to, you know, play games with what it’s called.”

While numbers have been increasing at the border for months, particularly of unaccompanied children (UACs) and family units, they have spiked since President Biden took office. The number of UACs in custody has tripled in recent weeks, while there were more than 100,000 migrant encounters in February.

The Biden administration has claimed it is moving to replace the “cruelty” of the prior administration with a more “humane” system and warned that will take time. But it has refused to acknowledge that there is in fact a “crisis” — preferring instead to describe it as a “challenge.”

It’s “cruelty” to not let people in who have no business here? Let’s see Democrats put them up at their own homes. You how not a crisis it is?

Mayorkas, who last week flat-out denied there was a crisis, this week emailed DHS staff urging them to volunteer to help CBP at the border amid what he described as “overwhelming” numbers.

“Today, I activated the Volunteer Force to support Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as they face a surge in migration along the Southwest Border,” Mayorkas said in an email to staff, seen by Fox News.

“You have likely seen the news about the overwhelming numbers of migrants seeking access to this country along the Southwest Border,” he said. “President Biden and I are committed to ensuring our Nation has a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system while continuing to balance all of the other critical DHS missions.”

So not a crisis that they activated the Volunteer Force. And we have a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system. People apply for work and other visas to come for a period of time. Others apply to become citizens, are accepted, and go through a long process. Rather than just bringing in people with limited skills, limited education, limited money, and often have lots of 3rd world diseases.

EDITORIAL: How the border crisis could define Biden’s presidency

Joe Biden has spent his first couple of months in office enjoying what his predecessor never had: a presidential honeymoon. Americans have rewarded Biden with early approval ratings of 60 percent or higher. He may be benefiting from the inevitable diminishing of the coronavirus as cases decline and more states reopen. Or the public may simply be relieved to have a president who isn’t perpetually in the spotlight, even if he doesn’t always seem aware of the fact he is president.

But no honeymoon can last too long, and Biden’s is coming to an end at America’s southern border, where a crisis is escalating. Eighty thousand people tried illegally to cross the border in January, double the figure of a year ago. In February, nearly 100,000 did the same. At current rates, the spring and summer may bring hundreds of thousands more. Caught off-guard, the Biden administration has scrambled to reopen ‘facilities for migrant children’. Just weeks earlier, Democrats had called such facilities American ‘concentration camps’.

America’s border has become the first serious failure of the Biden presidency. Texas congressman Vicente Gonzalez has warned that the rate new arrivals are being admitted at will invite thousands more to make the journey north, and will be ‘catastrophic’ for his district and the country. Gonzalez isn’t a white nationalist; he is a Hispanic Democrat.

In Tijuana, migrants have sported t-shirts and printed signs begging ‘Biden, Please Let Us In!’ And why shouldn’t they? It is exactly that kind of sentimentalism that will inevitably push Biden to do exactly that.We can all pretend to be merciful.

But the difficult truth is that no act of God created the disaster at the border. It is a wholly human mess, created by America’s leadership class. Migrants have discovered that if they arrive at the border and say the right words about violence in their perpetually violent home countries, they will be freely admitted without fear of deportation. Once inside the country, they can benefit from a glacial asylum-review process, and even if their petition is rejected, they had little to fear from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Read the rest.

Read: China Joe Admin Won’t Call What’s Going On At The Border A Crisis »

Posted in Democrats, Illegal Immigration, Joe Biden | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Here’s What To Blame For ‘Climate Change’ Or Something

By William Teach March 13, 2021 – 3:00 pm

Interestingly, and, as usual, climate cultists never actually blame themselves. It’s always Big Things that they engage in but won’t themselves give up

5 causes of climate change: From fossil fuels to capitalism

In the midst of a global pandemic, some find it difficult to think about anything else. We’re already living a once-in-a-lifetime event, right, so why should any other issue take political precedence? Unfortunately, the problems that existed before coronavirus haven’t gone away. Climate change is one key example.

Before Donald Trump, the United States wasn’t exactly the pinnacle of environmentalism. But under the former president, the U.S. took major steps back. Notably, Trump did away with numerous environmental policies and withdrew from the Paris climate accords. So when President Biden took office in January 2021, he inherited not only the ongoing pandemic, but a worsening climate crisis, too.

#TrumpDerangementSyndrome

So, what can the government actually do? While taking individual action isn’t bad, focusing on that alone allows big players to shirk responsibility. They keep on with business as usual, while we’re all too busy policing each other for using disposable straws. Really, the responsibility for climate change extends far beyond you and me. Let’s break down some of the five major causes of climate change to see what I mean.

  1. Fossil fuel extraction (this is an obvious one, but, notice that most Warmists refuse to give up their own use of fossil fuels)
  2. The U.S. military (because, of course Warmists hate the U.S. military. They’re fine with China’s)
  3. Mass agriculture (you know, how all these Warmist urban dwellers are able to eat without doing anything but going to the store/restaurant)
  4. Deforestation (let’s tear down all the giant buildings in urban areas and replace them with trees (BTW, deforestation is actually an environmental issue, and I despise deforestation))
  5. Honestly, capitalism

Let’s see that last one, which is really the point

I’ve listed out some major players in climate change, but let’s be real. Capitalism is the driving force behind each and every thing that I mentioned.

Capitalism is the reason that countries prioritize big business over people’s lives. It’s the reason that countries in the global south, who are the least responsible for climate change, continue to bear the brunt of its effects while a select few in the global north profit. As science journalist Matt Simon wrote in Wired, “Capitalism has steamrolled this planet and its organisms, gouging out mountains, overexploiting fish stocks, and burning fossil fuels to power the maniacal pursuit of growth and enrich a fraction of humanity.”

Sure, we all have individual things we can do to lessen our carbon footprint. And certainly, we need to re-examine how we live our daily lives. We need to think about our relationship to the land, other people, and the non-human animal species who are also being devastated by this crisis. However, if we remain focused on individual actions, then we will be consumed by a monster much bigger than us.

See, it’s cool for people to engage in capitalism itself, it just needs to have the big companies (which is weird, since so many, especially the giants, are Democratic Party donors) cut down and controlled by government. And the true, ultimate point?

Instead, we must be a collective, big enough to take on anything, while understanding that confronting climate change means that the U.S. and other Western countries must reimagine their economic structures overall. To put it simply: Ending climate change necessitates an end of capitalism.

Surprise?

Read: Here’s What To Blame For ‘Climate Change’ Or Something »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach March 13, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible processing plant which might possibly be fossil fuels, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Right Scoop, with a post on those mostly peaceful protesters starting fires in the Portland federal courthouse. With people in it.

Doubleshot below the fold, check out Victory Girls Blog, with a post on Ilhan Omar wanting to take your rental property.

Read More »

Read: If All You See… »

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Surprise: COVID Continues To Fall In Open Florida

By William Teach March 13, 2021 – 10:30 am

Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis have taken a lot of grief from Democrats for the way they’ve handled things during COVID. They were one of the least strict states. They never had a statewide mandate for masks, and DeSantis suspended all fines and penalties associated with not adhering to COVID-19-related restrictions on Sept. 25, hindering local leaders from enforcing their mandates. They’ve kept as much of the state open as possible. They really didn’t stop spring breakers last year, and you can bet if there had been big outbreaks it would have made the news. Same with this year. So, obviously, doom, right?

COVID cases continue to fall in Florida despite variants, hinting that America could avoid a ‘4th wave’

Ever since U.S. COVID-19 cases started their precipitous post-holiday decline, Americans have been anxious about the threat of yet another hurdle on the long road to recovery: a possible “fourth wave” of infections driven by the newer, more contagious U.K. variant known as B.1.1.7. Experts, meanwhile, have been watching Florida as a bellwether — the place where a fourth wave would probably crash first.

After all, Florida has more documented B.1.1.7 cases than any other state. It’s also rolled back precautions more quickly than most. If a spike is coming, the thinking went, Florida is where it would start.

Except … it hasn’t started yet.

Quite the opposite, in fact. After peaking on Jan. 8 at just under 18,000, Florida’s average daily case count has fallen by nearly 75 percent; today it’s down to 4,800. Hospitalizations have declined by half over the same period, as has Florida’s positivity rate (which now stands at 5.9 percent). And while other states such as New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee and Idaho are starting to see cases plateau — or even inch upward — as residents relax and restrictions are loosened, Florida’s case and hospitalization numbers have continued to fall by about 10 percent each week.

“We have a bellwether to know if the B.1.1.7 strain will hit the US — Florida,” Dr. Eric Topol of Scripps Research wrote earlier this week. “And there’s no sign of any increase in cases. All good so far.”

It’s probably helpful if the Blue staters stay in their own blue cities, rather than escaping and traveling and bringing COVID with them, as happened early on in the first few months of 2020. But, Florida haters (because it’s a Republican state) really, really want Florida to tank (which would mean people getting sick and dying) for political purposes

The key phrase, as always during this unpredictable pandemic, is “so far.” Just because a variant-driven fourth wave hasn’t yet struck Florida (or the U.S. as a whole) doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t, and nothing heightens the risk of another surge more than reckless, maskless indoor gatherings — at full-capacity restaurants; at crowded bars; at private parties — with lots of unvaccinated people. Events such as this week’s 300,000-person motorcycle rally in Daytona Beach are still risky. Like all Americans, Floridians should proceed with caution.

First, if people want to take that risk, that’s on them. It’s not government’s place to restrict freedom, even if it’s people making poor choices. Me, I wouldn’t go there. I’m fine with social distancing, no touching, washing hands a lot, don’t touch face (which is why I’m OK with a mask, because I’ll touch my face a lot during the day). That’s me. If you want to do different, OK with me, just don’t get in my space. I’ll avoid those situations.

But, what happens when there is no big spread? You won’t hear a peep out of the news.

Of course, Floridians have for months enjoyed more “freedom” to crowd indoors (without masks) than many of their fellow Americans, a fact that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis takes pride in. But that only strengthens the case for fourth-wave optimism. If a state with a lot of B.1.1.7 and not a lot of restrictions is still doing OK, shouldn’t the rest of the country take that as a sign of hope?

The tentative answer is yes. America’s overall immunity numbers are almost identical to Florida’s: 30 percent infected, 19 percent vaccinated, about 40 percent protected to some degree. Spring is 10 days away; the weather will only get warmer. And cases and hospitalizations continue to fall nationwide by 10 to 15 percent a week.

So, perhaps lockdown didn’t work, and DeSantis was right.

Read: Surprise: COVID Continues To Fall In Open Florida »

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Surprise: Whistle Blowers Say US Should Move Money Out Of Green Climate Fund

By William Teach March 13, 2021 – 7:35 am

Gee, who would have thought that a United Nations program/fund would have such a problem, especially when it involves climate cultists?

Green Climate Fund whistleblowers urge US to take its money elsewhere – until ‘toxic’ workplace is fixed

John Kerry is promising the US will “make good” on its contribution to the Green Climate Fund.

The presidential climate envoy is seeking to rebuild bridges with the rest of the world after Donald Trump reneged on US climate commitments.

Delivering a $2 billion outstanding pledge to the UN-backed climate fund, for distribution to projects in developing countries, is widely seen as a good place to start.

Campaigners are calling on the Biden administration to commit a further $6bn to the fund. Yannick Glemarec, executive director of the fund, says US reengagement “will send an extraordinarily positive signal” and allow it to accelerate support for the green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Or, we could spend that money on American citizens who are suffering during a global pandemic. We could spend it on fixing lots of the infrastructure. We could spend it on research and development for renewables, making them more effective. We could spend it on the homeless. We could send every single American a Kindle Paperwhite and a years worth of Kindle Unlimited. At least those are real issues.

But the latest staff survey results, presented internally last month and seen by Climate Home News, show faith in the fund’s leadership is at rock bottom. Views of the senior management team were 24% favourable, 40% unfavourable.

Unless there is urgent reform, whistleblowers tell Climate Home News, the money would be better directed elsewhere. 

Three employees of the GCF secretariat who quit in 2019 and 2020 cite concerns about a lack of integrity in vetting projects and abuses of power creating a hostile working environment. This, they say, affects the quality of projects on the ground.

“Sincerely, I don’t think that the GCF, the way it is managed today, is a good channel for climate finance,” says Pierre-Daniel Telep, a German national with Cameroonian heritage who worked on renewable energy projects at the fund for two and a half years.

The UN isn’t particularly known for their integrity when it comes to projects and spending. Especially when it comes to money given from nations where there are no strings attached, since it is deemed that the 1st World nations owe it to the developing nations

Some of the most problematic bids came from countries hosting GCF board meetings and expecting to secure multi-million-dollar investments in return. 

Bahrain put in a bid for $32 million ahead of hosting one such meeting in October 2018. Despite oil export wealth putting it in the World Bank’s “high income” bracket, it is classed as a developing country under the UN climate convention – and therefore eligible for international climate finance. 

And they ended up getting money. Not $32 million, but, about $3 million. No need.

Then there are concerns about the workplace culture. 

In August 2020, the Financial Times reported on a wave of misconduct allegations at the fund. It cited the Re-Green Initiative – a network claiming to represent staff – and interviews with 17 current and former employees who remained anonymous. 

Complaints to the fund’s Independent Integrity Unit (IIU) nearly doubled to 40 in 2019, with 24 categorised as staff misconduct. Subsequent analysis by the IIU found that while the overall complaint rate was within range of similar institutions, the rate of misconduct allegations was significantly higher: 7.5 per 100 staff, compared to 1.8 at the World Bank and 2.8 at the Asian Development Bank. 

In fairness, most of these people are hardcore leftists who whine about everything, conflate minor things into mountains. “Triggered”. Offended. So, I’d take that with a grain of salt.

The 2020 staff survey included new questions designed to “probe pain points” identified through a series of “safe space” meetings. It showed there was a long way to go to regain staff trust: only one in three respondents (31%) said they believed action would be taken to address the problems identified.

If you need safe spaces, you perhaps should go work elsewhere. And the worker bees are not in charge, no matter what they think.

For the whistleblowers, fixing the “toxic” workplace culture needs to come first. 

“Personally, I think if the US really cares about climate and not the political angle… a better investment could be something more effective, more nimble, more professionally managed,” says Telep. 

Personally, I think the US should use it’s money on it’s own people.

Read: Surprise: Whistle Blowers Say US Should Move Money Out Of Green Climate Fund »

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