{"id":142746,"date":"2019-09-16T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=142746"},"modified":"2019-09-23T10:12:50","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T09:12:50","slug":"activists-follow-the-money-fueling-amazon-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/09\/activists-follow-the-money-fueling-amazon-fires\/","title":{"rendered":"Activists Follow the Money Fueling Amazon Fires"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protesters around the World Are Singling Out the Bad Actors Profiting Off<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

9 Sep 2019 – <\/em>While the world watches in horror as fires rage on in the Amazon, activists are shining a light on the big businesses destroying what\u2019s popularly known as the \u201clungs of the Earth.\u201d On September 5, people around the globe stood in solidarity with the rainforest\u2019s indigenous communities by partaking in the Global Day of Action for the Amazon, staging protests and singling out the bad actors profiting off deforestation.<\/p>\n

In Washington, D.C. protesters chanted \u201cPut out the flames, we name your names \u2014 politicians, corporate vultures, you\u2019re the ones we blame,\u201d as they marched from the White House to the Brazilian Consulate. Activists around the world have been protesting<\/a> Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has steadily rolled back<\/a> indigenous land rights and environmental protections from his very first hours in office. A coalition \u2014 which includes Amazon Watch and Friends of the Earth, among others \u2014 is also putting pressure on the multinational corporations turning a profit off the destruction of the Amazon.<\/p>\n

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An illustration of the burning Amazon rainforest. (Shutterstock)<\/p><\/div>\n

Amazon Watch, a California-based organization that works in concert with indigenous and environmental groups, issued a report<\/a> earlier this year documenting the dozens of companies that stand to make money as Bolsonaro strips regulations in Brazil. The report, titled Complicity in Destruction<\/em><\/a>, highlights the main drivers of deforestation \u2014 from soy and beef commodity traders like Cargill and JBS, to their financiers in North America and Europe, like BlackRock, Santander, and JP Morgan Chase. And research from Mighty Earth has documented the retailers<\/a> most associated with those traders, like Costco, Walmart, and Ahold Delhaize \u2014 which owns Stop & Shop, Giant, and Food Lion.<\/p>\n

Protesters in D.C. took aim at the U.S.-based companies highlighted in the campaign to defund deforestation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many, many large corporations in the United States \u2014 including Cargill, ADM and BlackRock \u2014 who all have a hand in the destruction of the Amazon and we encourage all Americans to use their economic power to put pressure on these companies to do the right thing,\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Todd Larsen, the Executive Co-Director for Consumer & Corporate Engagement at Green America told Inequality.org<\/em>. Green America is encouraging Americans to use their investments to put economic pressure on the companies profiting off deforestation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason these companies are able to keep burning down the forest year over year is because their customers keep paying them to do so,\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

B\u00e1rbara Amaral of Brazilians for Democracy and Social Justice told the crowd in D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for supermarket giants like Costco, Walmart, Ahold, to immediately suspend contacts with Cargill and JBS, and for the public to show up at the front doors of Cargill headquarters and yell that it\u2019s time to protect the Amazon.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Multinational Corporations most closely linked to the Amazon Forest deforestation\/burning\/decimation<\/p><\/div>\n

Protecting the environment must include structural changes to the economy that keep companies from making a quick buck off climate disaster, protesters said. \u201cI came out today because I am in support of changing the climate debate into a debate that is critical about the current economic system that exists in the world that is perpetuating climate change,\u201d Gabby Rosazza, a campaigner with the International Labor Rights Forum told Inequality.org. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn particular, I\u2019m tired of hearing about how individual actions can address climate change such as buying metal straws versus plastic straws. I\u2019m more interested in learning about who is profiting from climate change.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the companies profiting the most? BlackRock \u2014 the largest asset manager in the world. A report <\/a>released last month by Amazon Watch and Friends of the Earth found BlackRock to be among the top three shareholders in 25 of the largest publicly-traded deforestation-risk companies. And the asset manager\u2019s deforestation presence grew by more than $500 million between 2014 and 2018. Activists in London, Stockholm, San Francisco, Boston and Hong Kong targeted<\/a> BlackRock during Thursday\u2019s Global Day of Action, holding protests and die-ins outside the asset manager\u2019s offices.<\/p>\n

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Map: Soohee Cho\/The Intercept<\/p><\/div>\n

The recent report and protests are the latest addition to a pressure campaign<\/a> mounting on BlackRock for continuously profiting off climate destruction, from the Amazon to the Alberta tar sands to Arctic oil reserves. Indigenous and environmental activists held protests at BlackRock\u2019s annual general meeting earlier this year. Luiz Eloy Terena, legal counsel for the National Indigenous Organization of Brazil (also known as APIB) and a member of Brazil\u2019s indigenous Terena community, expressed her criticism to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink directly during the meeting and demanded an audit of BlackRock investees operating on Brazilian indigenous territories.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cBrazilian indigenous peoples and lands are under immense threat from the beef and soy industries working hand in glove with the Bolsonaro regime to undermine protections that keep our forests standing and our climate stable,\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Terena said in a statement<\/a> released after his conversation with Fink.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen BlackRock funnels investments to these bad actors in Brazil, it is complicit in the destruction of tropical forests and violation of human rights. BlackRock must use its significant influence over these companies to signal that it will not tolerate policies that violate indigenous rights and damage the climate.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

________________________________________<\/p>\n

Negin Owliaei co-edits Inequality.org. <\/em><\/p>\n

Kelsey Hawkins-Johnson is a Landau Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 inequality.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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