A message from the co-facilitators of January 27th UUMFE Community Read:

Hello! We missed you all in December, and we’re really looking forward to this month’s UUMFE Community Read of What If We Get It Right by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, “Follow the Money,” pages 136-196.  Below, please find your facilitators’ chapter summaries and some questions to ponder in advance of January 27. 

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

“Divest and Protest”
with Bill McKibbon

McKibbon has long been a prolific author and longtime environmental activist. His latest efforts focus on targeting the banks (JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America) that continue to lend money to companies who profit from fossil fuel (drilling, refining, selling, building pipelines. Along with others, he founded Third Act, which aims to engage an older audience—including by marching in the streets. He is particularly concerned about the inequities due to the Global North generating the profits from renewable energy (at the expense of resources flowing to the Global South) despite the fact that Africa, for example, produces only 2-3 percent of global carbon emissions. 

“Corporations, Do Better”
with K. Corley Kenna 

Corporations are hugely responsible for the mess our planet is in, so the earth needs the help of companies – along with governments and individuals – to reduce carbon emissions and address the harm from fossil fuels. This is particularly meaningful because Kenna (presumably the author or co-author of this piece) is Chief Impact and Communications Officer for Patagonia, an outdoor clothing company. She offers “ten things every corporation can do;” “five ideas that only governments can implement;” and “four things each of us can do to influence corporate behavior.”

“Since Billionaires Exist”
with Régine Clément 

There is potentially a lot of money to be made by investing in climate solutions. Yet both venture capitalists and banks shy away from lending money to unproven or nascent technologies. So Clément founded the non-profit CREO Syndicate, which is a collective of 200 “family offices” [ultra-rich families] who seek to invest funds in climate and sustainability solutions. She describes dozens of examples of technologies CREO has invested in on their behalf. To make it work, CREO must identify the sources of capital, the technology that needs to be capitalized, the potential market for the product, bring research to bear on its development, and then help find traditional investment sources to bring it to scale. Yes, she argues, we need to work on bringing new moral norms to capitalism. 

“Your Tax Dollars at Work”
with Jigar Shah 

Jigar Shah, at the time of this interview, was head of the Loan Programs Office in the US Department of Energy, under President Joe Biden. He is a fervent believer in capitalism but believes government needs to make huge investments in climate solution technologies in order to address the climate crisis. Just as in the creation of CREO (last chapter), these ideas need to be capitalized outside the usual sources – just as the government did with many emerging technologies in the past. This office is “supposed to be the first lender, and not scared of new technology.” The track record for repayment of these loans, he contends, is pretty high. Examples that need this kind of support include industrial decarbonization, hydrogen, carbon sequestration and storage, nuclear, and EV charging networks. He calls this loan program “the bridge to bankability.” He is able to describe (in layperson’s terms) the promise of some of these underdeveloped technologies. The interview concludes with him arguing:  1) we have all the technologies we need to pursue decarbonization at scale right now; 2) most of the problems can be addressed at the local level; and 3) more people should be choosing to pursue careers in the trades rather than traditional college degrees.

In peace, 

Cheyenne Herlandstein & Anne-Marie McCartan
Co-Facilitators