[Themaintainers] question about CEQA in response to {Ideas for Varun}...Digest, Vol 74, 9
Cowan, Ruth S
rcowan at sas.upenn.edu
Tue May 3 11:37:03 EDT 2022
I’d just like to remind readers of The Maintainers List that this is a multi-generational list. Please keep in mind when you write things like “I am reminded of the Denethor, Steward of Gondor from LOTR...” that some of us will have no idea what you are referring to.
And, while I’m at it, what is a Comms degree?
And, further, while I’m at it, why has it become a convention to capitalize Nature but not society? And how is Nature different from nature? Or, for that matter, Society different from society? And how do I know when I am looking at/thinking about a cow in a field that it is part of nature or Nature or neither? Or since both the cow and the field are domesticated, am I looking at/thinking about society or Society? Or none of the above?
---------------------------
Ruth Schwartz Cowan, PhD
Janice and Julian Bers Professor Emerita
History and Sociology of Science
University of Pennsylvania
From: Angela Woodall<mailto:awwoodall at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 3, 2022 8:27 AM
To: themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu<mailto:themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>
Subject: Re: [Themaintainers] question about CEQA in response to {Ideas for Varun}...Digest, Vol 74, 9
Varun,
I am working on a research project that involves public access to waterways and the instrumentalization of CEQA to push forward development projects that affect this access. (I won't bog anyone down at this point with details about the otherwise counterintuitive community-polluter alliances happening in this case but would be happy to do so if you're interested in hearing more.) I would appreciate understanding more about your experience and thoughts regarding the comment about CEQA as stewardship but also as tactic. This is the first time I've come across a mention of CEQA in this regard, so I'm looking forward to reading the thoughts that you and others' on the listserv have.
Any suggestions for literature also welcome.
Best regards,
Angela Woodall
(I'm a Comms doctoral candidate at Columbia University)
re:stewardship*
yes, all for stewardship but In a way the weaponization of CEQA laws could
be also be branded as "stewardship"
I'm reminded of the Denethor, Steward of Gondor from LOTR who is a
steward-curmudgeon and blocks and actively sabotages necessary action :|
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Today's Topics:
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2. Re: {Ideas for Varun} Themaintainers Digest, Vol 74, Issue 9
(Tim MacDonald)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2022 12:14:40 -0400
From: Varun Adibhatla <varun.adibhatla at gmail.com<mailto:varun.adibhatla at gmail.com>>
To: Tim MacDonald <timmacdonald1 at me.com<mailto:timmacdonald1 at me.com>>
Cc: "Ewy, Lindsay" <lindsay.ewy.21 at ucl.ac.uk<mailto:lindsay.ewy.21 at ucl.ac.uk>>,
"themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu<mailto:themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>" <themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu<mailto:themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Themaintainers] {Ideas for Varun} Themaintainers Digest,
Vol 74, Issue 9
Message-ID:
<CACQpXG7WOS9BZNauf=C0wGz9gMjdgWuLPxq9z5cswhATHA0VsQ at mail.gmail.com<mailto:C0wGz9gMjdgWuLPxq9z5cswhATHA0VsQ at mail.gmail.com>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Tim,
Thank you.
As a millennial immigrant who's graduate school tuition was paid for by the
US government, my experience with either pensions or endowments is close to
0.
I'm naive about the possibilities here but very curious.
You appear to suggest that the combined capital forces of pension &
university endowments ought to be more aggressively deployed into
decarbonized focussed strategies while also guaranteeing a steady return?
Some signals that you may already be aware of:
- Climate Safe Pension Network
<https://climatesafepensions.org/about-us/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/climatesafepensions.org/about-us/__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaBEwv9bD$>>
- Divest101 <https://www.divest101.com/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.divest101.com/__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaNemzTjw$>> gets your college to divest
from fossil fuels
- This article discusses reinvestment
<https://grist.org/sponsored/divestment-campaigns-and-reinvestment-efforts-gain-strength-as-climate-change-intensifies/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/grist.org/sponsored/divestment-campaigns-and-reinvestment-efforts-gain-strength-as-climate-change-intensifies/__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaJF-78jt$>>
of
endowments.
*re:stewardship*
yes, all for stewardship but In a way the weaponization of CEQA laws could
be also be branded as "stewardship"
I'm reminded of the Denethor, Steward of Gondor from LOTR who is a
steward-curmudgeon and blocks and actively sabotages necessary action :|
On Thu, Apr 28, 2022 at 8:20 AM Tim MacDonald <timmacdonald1 at me.com<mailto:timmacdonald1 at me.com>> wrote:
> Varun
>
> Thank you for these good thoughts, and your important work.
>
> Can I invite you to consider with us if stewardship might prove to be a
> better way than speculation for giving Nature a voice in human social
> decision making?
>
> The stewardship we seek to activate is a potency latent in the structure
> of Pensions & Endowments as the institutional fiduciary owners of ten of
> trillions, collectively, worldwide, of intergenerational fiduciary money.
> The intergenerational characteristics of fiduciary money makes it a proxy
> for Nature, and our Future, in how we decide the shape of the right economy
> for keeping a good society ongoing into a dignified future. A dignified
> future, of course, includes one in which we work with Nature, and not
> against Nature, on energy and other things, including water and oceans!
>
> The instrument of that stewardship is the equity payback investment
> structures I referenced. These are innovations upon the proven reliable
> practice common in Institutional Real Estate and also US-style tax credit
> transfer partnerships.
>
> We, too, are looking at the law as a way to break the prevailing
> neoliberal monopoly mindset of extraction and externalization through
> securitized financialization for institutional speculation with fiduciary
> money, by alleging that participation in such financialized extraction and
> externalization is a violation of the fiduciary duty of institutional
> fiduciary money that is causing harm to society, Nature and our future.
> They must stop. Some of the legal theories we are exploring, in addition
> to fiduciary duty straight up, include pubic nuisance, public trust,
> product liability/untaken safer alternative, breach of contract and fraud.
>
> The alternative is to require fiduciary money to invest in enterprise and
> the economy, directly, and not derivatively, through negotiated agreements
> on sharing in the cash that flows through the flourish and fade of the
> social contract between enterprise and popular choice (think brand
> loyalty), prioritized for fiduciary sufficiency and social and
> environmental justice in the conduct of commerce. This focuses the action
> of investing fiduciary money on the search for the right answer to these
> two questions. WHO can and should fiduciary money negotiate WITH? WHAT can
> and should fiduciary money negotiate FOR? Seeking the answers to these
> questions empowers fiduciary money to speak with a voice for Nature, and
> our future, as a proxy for Nature, in choosing our future. It also opens
> up space in that conversation for each of us and all of us to exercise our
> own personal agency in considering the answers to these questions as
> reasonable people whose common sense sets the evidentiary standards for
> prudent loyalty of fiduciary power to fiduciary purpose.
>
> I imagine participation in these conversations will fall within the field
> of interest of at least some in this discussion group, as responsible
> maintaining must surely also include prudent decommissioning from time to
> time, as times change, and humanity evolves prosperous adaptation to life?s
> constant changes, making new learning, new technologies and new enterprises
> more popular as better fit to changing times, while letting previously
> popular learning, technologies and enterprises fade into history as a good
> fit to an earlier time.
>
> The prevailing, mainstream neoliberal philosophy of securitized and
> financialized extraction and externalization ignores that fade, insisting
> that it does not, in fact exist, until we crash into it, recklessly and
> irresponsibly booming and busting our way through creative destruction.
>
> Surely, prudent stewardship of the flourish and fade is a better, more
> maintainable, way.
>
> Tim
>
> Bankofnature.eco
> Fiduciary for the Future on LinkedIn
>
> On Apr 27, 2022, at 7:57 PM, Varun Adibhatla <varun.adibhatla at gmail.com<mailto:varun.adibhatla at gmail.com>>
> wrote:
>
> Tim,
> Thank you! This is a very abundantly imagined thesis!
>
> As someone named after a vedic god of water & oceans, I'm compelled by
> tradition and ancestry to confer god-like agency onto nature. A deeply
> spiritual proposition.
> To confer actual financial agency on nature, we need to take a hard look
> at the neoliberal bias *against* nature.
> That neoliberal calculus has led to desecrations such as
> speculative financialization and the weaponization of well-intentioned
> environmental laws
> <https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/signature-environmental-law-hurts-housing/618264/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/signature-environmental-law-hurts-housing/618264/__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaBhWJBSG$>>
> .
>
> Here's where I look to indigenous calculus. Some signals, maybe more out
> there?
>
>
>
> * - Jason Flores-Williams sued the state of Colorado and Gov. John
> Hickenlooper on behalf of the Colorado River and its ecosystem for
> violating the river?s ?right to exist, flourish, regenerate..."- "In
> Ecuador, the constitution now declares
> <https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/ecuador-constitution-grants-nature-rights/?mcubz=3<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/ecuador-constitution-grants-nature-rights/?mcubz=3__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaOTJi2RY$>> that
> nature ?has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital
> cycles.?- In New Zealand, officials declared that a river
> <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/16/new-zealand-river-granted-same-legal-rights-as-human-being<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/16/new-zealand-river-granted-same-legal-rights-as-human-being__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaEFJRjaj$>> used
> by the Maori tribe of Whanganui in the North Island to be a legal person
> that can sue if it is harmed.- A court in the northern Indian state of
> Uttarakhand has called the Ganges
> <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/21/ganges-and-yamuna-rivers-granted-same-legal-rights-as-human-beings<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/21/ganges-and-yamuna-rivers-granted-same-legal-rights-as-human-beings__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaP7zzzu9$>> and
> its main tributary, the Yamuna, to be living human entities." (via NYT
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/us/does-the-colorado-river-have-rights-a-lawsuit-seeks-to-declare-it-a-person.html<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/us/does-the-colorado-river-have-rights-a-lawsuit-seeks-to-declare-it-a-person.html__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaJLNNtcC$>>)*
>
>
> *re: equity payback investment structures that align enterprise cash flows
> with fiduciary minimums and fiduciary values, of a dignified future in a
> prosperous present.*
> Any examples that you could offer?
> Outside of the Green Liberty Bonds by the CT green bank
> <https://www.ctgreenbankbonds.com/connecticut-green-bank-ct/i6126<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.ctgreenbankbonds.com/connecticut-green-bank-ct/i6126__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaAKTa_OF$>> (debt
> instruments), are there any equity instruments out there linked to a
> dignified / prosperous future?
>
> I've been thinking of ways to securitize early adoption of decarbonized
> consumption.
> The concept is simple / Carbon avoided today is more valuable than carbon
> avoided later. and sets up incentive and payback mechanisms.
> A household that purchases an EV today ought to be granted shares whose
> value is linked to the Global Carbon Budget
> <https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/21/infographics.htm<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/21/infographics.htm__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaLopykVv$>> that
> estimates that *CO2 cuts of 1.4 Gigatons are needed every year to reach
> net zero by 2050*
>
> Lastly, Atmos Financial is a banking services platform where 100% of your
> account balance is used to fund climate-positive infrastructure to
> decarbonize the economy.
>
> On Wed, Apr 27, 2022 at 9:06 AM Tim MacDonald <timmacdonald1 at me.com<mailto:timmacdonald1 at me.com>>
> wrote:
>
>> Varun writes in a recent post:
>>
>> On Apr 26, 2022, at 6:03 PM, Varun Adibhatla <varun.adibhatla at gmail.com<mailto:varun.adibhatla at gmail.com>>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> - To decarbonize, we need to deploy capital in a way that likely has
>> not been witnessed before.
>>
>>
>>
>> Two things to explore more closely in this statement.
>>
>> One, we do not need to decarbonize. We need to completely redesign and
>> restructure our entire global energy economy, to replace energy extraction
>> from hydrocarbons, which is pushing earth?s habitats out of human-friendly
>> zones, with new energy choices that will not change earth?s habitats.
>>
>> Two, YES we will ?need to deploy capital in a way that likely has not
>> been witnessed before?. That way must be a fiduciary way, putting an end
>> to financialization for institutional speculation and instead directing the
>> tens of trillions of institutional intergenerational fiduciary money
>> aggregated into Pensions & Endowments, collectively, worldwide, into
>> enterprise and the economy directly, through evergreen equity payback
>> investment structures that align enterprise cash flows with fiduciary
>> minimums and fiduciary values, of a dignified future in a prosperous
>> present.
>>
>> The first place we need to deploy Fiduciary Money through equity paybacks
>> is in financing the restructuring of our global energy economy to resolve
>> the climate crisis.
>>
>> Tim MacDonald
>>
>> Bankofnature.eco
>>
>
>
> --
> Thanks,
> Varun
>
>
>
--
Thanks,
Varun
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------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2022 15:06:36 -0400
From: Tim MacDonald <timmacdonald1 at me.com<mailto:timmacdonald1 at me.com>>
To: Varun Adibhatla <varun.adibhatla at gmail.com<mailto:varun.adibhatla at gmail.com>>
Cc: "Ewy, Lindsay" <lindsay.ewy.21 at ucl.ac.uk<mailto:lindsay.ewy.21 at ucl.ac.uk>>,
"themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu<mailto:themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>" <themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu<mailto:themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Themaintainers] {Ideas for Varun} Themaintainers Digest,
Vol 74, Issue 9
Message-ID: <DEDC6DC8-40FD-4AC2-BEF6-1ECAA3ED5553 at me.com<mailto:DEDC6DC8-40FD-4AC2-BEF6-1ECAA3ED5553 at me.com>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Hi Varun
Yes. You are right.
Let?s start with stewardship. Like all institutions of human social decision making, stewardship must be accountable to purpose. Otherwise, things can go horribly wrong, as your example of Denethor from JRR Tolkien?s imaginary history, The Lord of the Rings, shows. Think also about the much-ballyhooed ?moral hazard? that is supposed to keep speculation markets on the right side of history, but always fails in boom times, with catastrophic consequences for the economy and society when the boom goes bust, as it always does. Remember 2008. A boom is just a bust that has not happened yet!
In the case of Pensions & Endowments, accountability is effected through the law of fiduciary duty. This law requires fiduciaries to exercise prudence in the use of their powers of ownership in undivided loyalty to the purpose for which that ownership was created and is continued by society. In the case of pensions, their purpose is to write retirement checks to qualifying retirees, every month, forever. Endowments for universities, philanthropies and other civil society institutions are less formulaic in their qualifications and entitlements, but the principle is the same: every month, forever.
The law of fiduciary duty also holds that the standard for prudence and loyalty is us: that is, it is the common sense of reasonable people.
So, I advocate that we all have a right and a responsibility to learn somewhat about the powers and purposes of pensions and endowments, sufficient so that we can participate in public discourse about prudent loyalty of institutional fiduciary power to intergenerational fiduciary purpose. If Pensions & Endowments have the power to negotiate, as I argue that they do, WHO can and should they be negotiating WITH? And WHAT can and should they be negotiating FOR? We all have a right and a responsibility to engage in discourse that explores the answers to those questions.
I am taking the liberty of attaching a drawing I have made that tries to show people what these important public discussions can and should be about.
Online discussion groups like this one can be important digital places where reasonable people can contribute to this important public discourse that as of this moment is not yet really ongoing.
Here I am going to lean into your use of LOTR to illustrate the situation we are in today. This time, however, I ask you to call to mind the story of the character Theoden, King of Rohan, who falls into dotage under the whisperings of Grima Wormtongue. This Grima speaks in ways solicitous to the King, lulling him into inaction, while actually advancing his own interests, in league with Saruman, who has his own plans for conquering and ruling Middle Earth, indefiance of the Dark Lord, Sauron. The wizard Gandalf wakes Theoden from his dotage by calling for Theoden?s sword to be retrieved from the keeping place where Grima had secreted it, and placing. It once more in the hand of the King. Thus awakened from his somnambulance, Theoden rediscovers his strength, and the strength of the Rhohirrim who ride in glory to the succor of Gondor, the defeat of Saruman, and eventually also the throwing down of the Dark Lord, Sauron, and the triumphal Return of the King.
Without taking the analogy too literally, we can say that Pensions & Endowments today are in a kind of dotage similar to that of Theoden, lulled into thinking they have no power by the experts in financialization who want to appropriate the great power of these vast aggregations of fiduciary money for their own use and benefit.
It will be good for Pensions & Endowments to shake off the theories of financialization that currently hold them in a kind of thrall, and take up again their own ?sword? of fiduciary power to negotiate, to feel authentically their own strength to shape enterprise, the economy, society and our future through negotiation with enterprising visionaries, directly.
The first place to begin, I argue, is with changing the shape of the global energy economy, for climate security and real endgame sustainability. These are the steps I argue can and should be taken:
Acquire existing energy-extraction-from-hydrocarbons enterprises out of public markets ownership, and place them into superfiduciary stewardship, where they can be decommissioned in synchronized coordination with the commissioning of new energy technologies. Before it is too late.
Once placed into stewardship, and set on a path to replacement and decommissioning, STOP funding Dark Money obstruction of climate action, and instead spend that money on campaigns of climate awareness and the design of the right new energy economy for the 21st Century.
I have long thought that the good people who organize and contribute to this discussion group have much to contribute to the design of such a reshaped energy economy.
Tim
> On Apr 30, 2022, at 12:14 PM, Varun Adibhatla <varun.adibhatla at gmail.com<mailto:varun.adibhatla at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Tim,
>
> Thank you.
> As a millennial immigrant who's graduate school tuition was paid for by the US government, my experience with either pensions or endowments is close to 0.
> I'm naive about the possibilities here but very curious.
> You appear to suggest that the combined capital forces of pension & university endowments ought to be more aggressively deployed into decarbonized focussed strategies while also guaranteeing a steady return?
>
> Some signals that you may already be aware of:
> Climate Safe Pension Network <https://climatesafepensions.org/about-us/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/climatesafepensions.org/about-us/__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaBEwv9bD$>>
> Divest101 <https://www.divest101.com/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.divest101.com/__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaNemzTjw$>> gets your college to divest from fossil fuels
> This article discusses reinvestment <https://grist.org/sponsored/divestment-campaigns-and-reinvestment-efforts-gain-strength-as-climate-change-intensifies/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/grist.org/sponsored/divestment-campaigns-and-reinvestment-efforts-gain-strength-as-climate-change-intensifies/__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaJF-78jt$>> of endowments.
>
> re:stewardship
> yes, all for stewardship but In a way the weaponization of CEQA laws could be also be branded as "stewardship"
> I'm reminded of the Denethor, Steward of Gondor from LOTR who is a steward-curmudgeon and blocks and actively sabotages necessary action :|
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 28, 2022 at 8:20 AM Tim MacDonald <timmacdonald1 at me.com<mailto:timmacdonald1 at me.com> <mailto:timmacdonald1 at me.com<mailto:timmacdonald1 at me.com>>> wrote:
> Varun
>
> Thank you for these good thoughts, and your important work.
>
> Can I invite you to consider with us if stewardship might prove to be a better way than speculation for giving Nature a voice in human social decision making?
>
> The stewardship we seek to activate is a potency latent in the structure of Pensions & Endowments as the institutional fiduciary owners of ten of trillions, collectively, worldwide, of intergenerational fiduciary money. The intergenerational characteristics of fiduciary money makes it a proxy for Nature, and our Future, in how we decide the shape of the right economy for keeping a good society ongoing into a dignified future. A dignified future, of course, includes one in which we work with Nature, and not against Nature, on energy and other things, including water and oceans!
>
> The instrument of that stewardship is the equity payback investment structures I referenced. These are innovations upon the proven reliable practice common in Institutional Real Estate and also US-style tax credit transfer partnerships.
>
> We, too, are looking at the law as a way to break the prevailing neoliberal monopoly mindset of extraction and externalization through securitized financialization for institutional speculation with fiduciary money, by alleging that participation in such financialized extraction and externalization is a violation of the fiduciary duty of institutional fiduciary money that is causing harm to society, Nature and our future. They must stop. Some of the legal theories we are exploring, in addition to fiduciary duty straight up, include pubic nuisance, public trust, product liability/untaken safer alternative, breach of contract and fraud.
>
> The alternative is to require fiduciary money to invest in enterprise and the economy, directly, and not derivatively, through negotiated agreements on sharing in the cash that flows through the flourish and fade of the social contract between enterprise and popular choice (think brand loyalty), prioritized for fiduciary sufficiency and social and environmental justice in the conduct of commerce. This focuses the action of investing fiduciary money on the search for the right answer to these two questions. WHO can and should fiduciary money negotiate WITH? WHAT can and should fiduciary money negotiate FOR? Seeking the answers to these questions empowers fiduciary money to speak with a voice for Nature, and our future, as a proxy for Nature, in choosing our future. It also opens up space in that conversation for each of us and all of us to exercise our own personal agency in considering the answers to these questions as reasonable people whose common sense sets the eviden
tiary standards for prudent loyalty of fiduciary power to fiduciary purpose.
>
> I imagine participation in these conversations will fall within the field of interest of at least some in this discussion group, as responsible maintaining must surely also include prudent decommissioning from time to time, as times change, and humanity evolves prosperous adaptation to life?s constant changes, making new learning, new technologies and new enterprises more popular as better fit to changing times, while letting previously popular learning, technologies and enterprises fade into history as a good fit to an earlier time.
>
> The prevailing, mainstream neoliberal philosophy of securitized and financialized extraction and externalization ignores that fade, insisting that it does not, in fact exist, until we crash into it, recklessly and irresponsibly booming and busting our way through creative destruction.
>
> Surely, prudent stewardship of the flourish and fade is a better, more maintainable, way.
>
> Tim
>
> Bankofnature.eco
> Fiduciary for the Future on LinkedIn
>
>> On Apr 27, 2022, at 7:57 PM, Varun Adibhatla <varun.adibhatla at gmail.com<mailto:varun.adibhatla at gmail.com> <mailto:varun.adibhatla at gmail.com<mailto:varun.adibhatla at gmail.com>>> wrote:
>>
>> Tim,
>> Thank you! This is a very abundantly imagined thesis!
>>
>> As someone named after a vedic god of water & oceans, I'm compelled by tradition and ancestry to confer god-like agency onto nature. A deeply spiritual proposition.
>> To confer actual financial agency on nature, we need to take a hard look at the neoliberal bias against nature.
>> That neoliberal calculus has led to desecrations such as speculative financialization and the weaponization of well-intentioned environmental laws <https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/signature-environmental-law-hurts-housing/618264/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/signature-environmental-law-hurts-housing/618264/__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaBhWJBSG$>>.
>>
>> Here's where I look to indigenous calculus. Some signals, maybe more out there?
>> Jason Flores-Williams sued the state of Colorado and Gov. John Hickenlooper on behalf of the Colorado River and its ecosystem for violating the river?s ?right to exist, flourish, regenerate..."
>> "In Ecuador, the constitution now declares <https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/ecuador-constitution-grants-nature-rights/?mcubz=3<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/ecuador-constitution-grants-nature-rights/?mcubz=3__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaOTJi2RY$>> that nature ?has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles.?
>> In New Zealand, officials declared? that a river <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/16/new-zealand-river-granted-same-legal-rights-as-human-being<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/16/new-zealand-river-granted-same-legal-rights-as-human-being__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaEFJRjaj$>> used by the Maori tribe of Whanganui in the North Island to be a legal person that can sue if it is harmed.
>> A court in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand has called the Ganges <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/21/ganges-and-yamuna-rivers-granted-same-legal-rights-as-human-beings<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/21/ganges-and-yamuna-rivers-granted-same-legal-rights-as-human-beings__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaP7zzzu9$>> and its main tributary, the Yamuna, to be living human entities." (via NYT <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/us/does-the-colorado-river-have-rights-a-lawsuit-seeks-to-declare-it-a-person.html<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/us/does-the-colorado-river-have-rights-a-lawsuit-seeks-to-declare-it-a-person.html__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaJLNNtcC$>>)
>>
>> re: equity payback investment structures that align enterprise cash flows with fiduciary minimums and fiduciary values, of a dignified future in a prosperous present.
>> Any examples that you could offer?
>> Outside of the Green Liberty Bonds by the CT green bank <https://www.ctgreenbankbonds.com/connecticut-green-bank-ct/i6126<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.ctgreenbankbonds.com/connecticut-green-bank-ct/i6126__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaAKTa_OF$>> (debt instruments), are there any equity instruments out there linked to a dignified / prosperous future?
>>
>> I've been thinking of ways to securitize early adoption of decarbonized consumption.
>> The concept is simple / Carbon avoided today is more valuable than carbon avoided later. and sets up incentive and payback mechanisms.
>> A household that purchases an EV today ought to be granted shares whose value is linked to the Global Carbon Budget <https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/21/infographics.htm<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/21/infographics.htm__;!!IBzWLUs!Xr5-ReWUaybpRuz5qZG9R_QYItX5v-h7NF2helOQtDnkUDBDyZ87cN-QBAbcu0eBItYK9OGYvyZZaLopykVv$>> that estimates that CO2 cuts of 1.4 Gigatons are needed every year to reach net zero by 2050
>>
>> Lastly, Atmos Financial is a banking services platform where 100% of your account balance is used to fund climate-positive infrastructure to decarbonize the economy.
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 27, 2022 at 9:06 AM Tim MacDonald <timmacdonald1 at me.com<mailto:timmacdonald1 at me.com> <mailto:timmacdonald1 at me.com<mailto:timmacdonald1 at me.com>>> wrote:
>> Varun writes in a recent post:
>>
>>> On Apr 26, 2022, at 6:03 PM, Varun Adibhatla <varun.adibhatla at gmail.com<mailto:varun.adibhatla at gmail.com> <mailto:varun.adibhatla at gmail.com<mailto:varun.adibhatla at gmail.com>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> To decarbonize, we need to deploy capital in a way that likely has not been witnessed before.
>>>
>>
>> Two things to explore more closely in this statement.
>>
>> One, we do not need to decarbonize. We need to completely redesign and restructure our entire global energy economy, to replace energy extraction from hydrocarbons, which is pushing earth?s habitats out of human-friendly zones, with new energy choices that will not change earth?s habitats.
>>
>> Two, YES we will ?need to deploy capital in a way that likely has not been witnessed before?. That way must be a fiduciary way, putting an end to financialization for institutional speculation and instead directing the tens of trillions of institutional intergenerational fiduciary money aggregated into Pensions & Endowments, collectively, worldwide, into enterprise and the economy directly, through evergreen equity payback investment structures that align enterprise cash flows with fiduciary minimums and fiduciary values, of a dignified future in a prosperous present.
>>
>> The first place we need to deploy Fiduciary Money through equity paybacks is in financing the restructuring of our global energy economy to resolve the climate crisis.
>>
>> Tim MacDonald
>>
>> Bankofnature.eco
>>
>>
>> --
>> Thanks,
>> Varun
>
>
>
> --
> Thanks,
> Varun
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