Glencore's appalling press coverage

The commodity trader Glencore, one of the most powerful global companies, has been in the news with its flotation on the London Stock Exchange, to raise funds for buying rival mining companies. But it “has received some appalling press coverage during the lead up to its listing …culminating in last week’s allegations in The Times that the CEO had failed to respond to ten African children who had written begging him to stop the pollution from a mine that was blighting their lives…On the day this was being reported around the world, Glencore was listing and Mr Glasenberg [the CEO] became an instant
billionaire with a personal fortune of almost £6billion.”

I am quoting Niamh O’Keeffe, founder of leadership consultancy CEOassist, who said the sensitivity and controversy surrounding Glencore’s industry made it more vital than in many other sectors for the chief executive to put in place a lasting legacy of good.
Read the full story at Director of Finance Online.

This raises the whole question of ethical investment. How many of us will be buying the shares hoping to make a quick profit, ignoring the plight of those children, and certainly many others, from the effects of Glencore’s polluting activities? Not only pollution seems to be at stake. There was a call for greater transparency of the company’s activities from a Christian Aid spokesperson on last night’s Channel 4 News, who was expressing concerns about Glencore’s activities.

But it isn’t only direct stock investments that are relevant here. Many of us own company stock, some of us perhaps without even knowing it, or at least thinking about it, because it is out of sight in our pension funds (although the deep recession at the end of the first decade of the new millennium, and the turmoil on world financial markets, brought such funds sharply into focus for many). Businesses must now be more accountable for their green credentials. But what about those companies that still operate unethical work practices. Those holding pension funds delegate full powers of investment to the fund managers who will be motivated and driven by the need to maximize profits and growth for the funds in their charge. As major shareholders these funds have enormous powers and are not likely to consider the ethical views of the individual pensioners against the overall drive for growth. It may seem that the individual does not have a voice. But we can have our say; we can influence others. All it needs is knowledge and courage and the support of other like - minded people. It can be done. Have you ever questioned your pension fund managers on this?
Does the small shareholder really know or even care how the company operates as long as he receives his regular dividend income? Can he possibly understand the full implications of the company’s business, how it treats its employees, how it deals with its waste, how it invests its own money. So many shareholders make their investments motivated solely by profit, without any regard for the ethical considerations. This is no less true of buying shares than buying consumer goods. And purchasers of the Glencore stock should be asking questions of the company.
The implications of all this are enormous. As individuals we may unwittingly be supporting the continuing suffering of communities near to a company’s activities (the Glencore example being a case in point.) Or we may be helping to fuel warfare, for example, by carelessly investing or allowing our pension funds or banks or investment funds or unit trusts to invest in any company involved along the way with the production of weapons.

I pray for there to be a shift in investment attitude, towards what is ethical, not what will make us the most money regardless of how that money is generated.

The Plastic Beach

“Marine pollution is a disgusting manifestation of modern consumerism and it necessitates rethinking the ‘story of packaging.’ ”
Thus begins an article The Plastic Beach, in the January/February 2011 edition of Resurgence, No. 264, the beautifully produced magazine “at the heart of earth, art and spirit,” edited by Satish Kumar and his team.

Now in its 45th year, Resurgence exists to encourage “inspiration for a more beautiful world where soil, soul and society are in harmony with each other.”

But back to the article and what it tells us:

Over 70% of the earth is covered by oceans, but we know more about Venus than we do about the ocean floor.
It is estimated that there are 46,000 pieces of marine debris in every square mile of ocean (United Nations Environment programme). Plastic is the greatest culprit.
There are enormous plastic gyres in the North and South Pacific, the North and South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean.
In addition the oceans are toxic with chemicals from plastics that have already degraded into microscopic particles, and these chemicals have reached the food chain: mussels and lugworms have already been rendered sterile by the chemicals in some areas. All UK coastal waters contain this toxic “plastic dust.”
At lest one million sea creatures are killed every year by ingesting plastic waste – bags, bottle tops, toothbrushes, cigarette lighters. The pictures of dead birds on the beach, full of this plastic rubbish, are shocking.
I could go on…..

We must stop any more plastic getting into our oceans. Foodstuff and cosmetic packaging is a good place to start. I am not particularly proud to say that if it wasn’t for plastic rubbish I would not need a dustbin. I recycle everything else from my weekly rubbish, but my council will not take plastic for recycling, although all plastics can be recycled; it is a money thing of course. What I can do is try hard to reduce week on week the food I buy that is pre wrapped in plastic – not always easy but I’ll try very very hard.

The plastics industry itself is making some efforts, working with local councils to improve plastic recyling rates, (there is the Plastics 2020 Challenge) but that is not enough. Recycling, reusing, reducing plastic is just sticking plaster on “the gaping wound of planetary pollution.” We must create a new story, make it absolutely unacceptable to produce something that is toxic, or single use or that creates pollution. British Company Cyberpac is producing plastic bags that degrade harmlessly in water. The Good Natured Fruit Company pack their berries in cardboard trays with cellulose windows. The organic tomatoes I buy come in cardboard.

Let’s support when we shop all companies that have made an effort to reduce the toxic pollution that comes from unnecessary packaging.

Oil and BP and the Gulf of Mexico - again

I urge you to read this article on the God's Politics blog - Attention must be Paid, by Jennifer Kottler:

http://blog.sojo.net/2010/08/05/attention-must-be-paid/

Just because the oil leak and BP are out of the news and other items crave our attention, this does not mean that the oil problem has gone away - in spite of what the papers imply; Far from it!