Title text: ""While I try to do my part to destroy the environment, I try not to focus too much on individual responsibility. By pushing for broad policy changes, we can collectively do far more damage to the biosphere than any of us could on our own.""
I had no idea ISDS had such a long history. I'd always assumed they'd have popped up post-WTO
At this point, I'm taking of my MSF hat and putting on my academic economist hat to step back and try to make sense of this for folks. (Again, to be clear - this is speculation about markets and I do not speak for MSF).
Why would a pharma company like Gilead forego a profitable sale? 🤔8/
Bernie & AOC call for a moratorium on AI data centres. This is what we need here too. To roll out AI infrastructure as we’re doing gives unimaginable power to the worst people in the world, destroys the environment and leads to massive social harm.
www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026...
“The ‘privatisation premium’, according to an analysis by the Common Wealth thinktank, sees almost a quarter of the average household energy bill – roughly £450 – flow today into corporate profits.”
Our latest briefing covered in @theguardian.com 👇
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
My analysis. With consistently deteriorating status quo, given the choice between two "change" parties, the public will inevitably vote for the less racist one
Has this just been released?
should say multinational, not US
Drug development has utterly stagnated in the three decades since TRIPs provisions granted large US pharma companies extensive IP protections for every tiny slice of the drug development process. Revoking lengthy IP protections so drug development can develop elsewhere would be a massive start
Good media launch and I'm pleased with many of the answers, looking forward to going through the #ipbes12 SPM and seeing how the report is taken up
👍 and even asked a "provocative" question...
A redacted version of a popular political cartoon showing a man with many cookies pointing out a man with none to a man with a single cookie. Above the cookie-laden man a speech bubble says, "Careful mate, that foreigner is going to steal your cookies". In this version, the man with many cookies is drawn over crudely in black marker.
The UK is being sued for stopping a coal mine. Ask your MP to help stop the fossil fuel industry’s secret weapon: act.globaljustice.org.uk/stop-fossil-...
It's that magical time of year when private jets descend on a Swiss mountain village to discuss climate change and poverty! Anyway, here's my annual reminder. I'll stop posting this when they stop avoiding the real issue: their own massive tax avoidance 💰
It is the source of so many of our evils: the astonishing concentration of wealth in the hands of a very few, and the immense political power that gives them. We cannot solve our problems until we tackle it.
This week's column.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
People will spend anything on their loved ones and, as ever, that sort of sentiment will have others rubbing their grubby hands with glee
Even independently owned vets are having to jack prices because their suppliers are pushing up costs. We need to question the role of private equity in vet care and more widely in society because currently they're largely off the hook
Yes!
Trump’s economic warfare presents us with an opportunity - let’s take back control from the Big Tech monopolists.
Brilliant by Cory Doctorow 👇
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
What do us feeble-minded public need to be protected from that outweighs all other potential public interest arguments?
Screenshot from the Information Commissioner Office website: "How do we define what is in the public interest? To carry out the public interest test, it is necessary to understand what “the public interest” means in the context of FOIA. The public interest can cover a wide range of values and principles relating to the public good, or what is in the best interests of society. Public interest can take many forms. For example, there is a public interest in: - transparency and accountability, to promote public understanding and to safeguard democratic processes, - good decision-making by public bodies, - upholding standards of integrity, - ensuring justice and fair treatment for all, - securing the best use of public resources, and - ensuring fair commercial competition in a mixed economy."
I'd think most of these "forms" of public interest would apply here ("the best use of public resources"?) (from ICO)
Given the FOI Act is meant to favour the release of information on principle, I'm wondering how they've qualified the exemption here
If you go on vinted/gumtree/ebay you'll find 10, 15 year-old, older tech with swapped out, modern parts. Gameboys with modern LCDs, older mini PCs with SSDs, game controllers with Hall effect sticks - better and cheaper than the original
Very happy to see the #circulareconomy promoted by @green-alliance.org.uk . Refurbished products are often better than new. Could often be called 'upgrades' instead - repair/refurbish almost a misnomer sometimes.
"For new products that come through from our vendor base, they only actually test a sample of those...For the refurbished products, every single product is tested"
Today, @madisoncondon.bsky.social makes the case that we should stop thinking of climate change as an externality.
The latest in our series on @alybatt.bsky.social's *Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature.*
I think large companies suing their government is enough to boil anyone's blood
Agreed ISDS not a sexy term. But the crux of it - that companies are able to sue governments - incensed me enough that I went into global health as a result. Specifically Phillip Morris moving their headquarters to Hong Kong so they could sue the Aussie government over a plain packaging law
There's a reasonably well-known adage, in global health law at least - 'it's not rule of international law, but rule of international lawyer'
Some of the best paid lawyers in the world are experts on treaty/trade law and paid enormous sums to help multinationals extract concessions and payments from nations using ISDS, TRIPS+ etc. (And send a message to other nations with the temerity to consider laws to protect public health)
