WASHINGTON (10-12) – This being October, the International Money Fund (IMF) and the World Bank will hold their annual meetings here in Washington deciding on monetary policy and how the institutions will fund the fossil fuel industries at the peril of the planet. Activists are also calling the groups’ attention as to how funding has ignored our fragile biodiversity so important in maintaining life on our blue marble.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva was the target today for some creative action in calling her attention to “It’s the Ecology” by Bretton Woods, a paper published by the activist group Avaaz to emphasize the urgency of the climate crisis and the importance of biodiversity. The activists are intent on not letting the status quo of meetings take their usual course of underfunding or marginalizing these vitally important issues.
Using life-sized cardboard cut-outs of Georgieva depicting her as Super Woman along with one of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, activists dressed as Pan Am flight attendants took up position at the IMF building to greet passersby about their important message. For Trudeau’s part, the group is asking him to “host world leaders, hold nature talks” and to “honor his legacy” as a reminder of the responsibility of hosting the 15th UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal in December.
Several activists held oversized “Fastrack” train tickets with Georgieva’s name on it, a play on slow Amtrak service calling upon her not to “Miss the train to history” in encouraging her to attend also suggesting she use a mode of transportation with a smaller carbon footprint than flying.
The conference will work out and implement agreed upon guidelines in preserving biodiversity by calling on the IMF and the World Bank to make available funding needed to halt the loss of biodiversity that all life on earth depends upon.
To drive that point home on a basis that economists can appreciate, Avaaz in its paper included the factoid that “more than half of the world’s economic output – US$44 trillion –is dependent on biodiversity.” The loss of that diversity would have devastating consequences for the entire planet with the report noting that the world would be facing, “massive species extinction, aggravated climate change and the rise of more zoonotic diseases like COVID-19.” It is through Georgieva’s leadership that Avaaz is calling on her to “lasso” the IMF delegates and world leaders in preserving our global economy and a healthy future.
It is hoped with an aggressive financial investment intervention strategy that by 2050 the world will be able to achieve “harmony with nature.” These are lofty and noble goals. The question remains however if nature will go along or if it is too late to legislate, debate, discuss, finance, publish and implement change in ecosystems and processes we have for far too long ignored, exploited, eliminated and abused. Clearly, the time for action has been delayed for far too long with implementation critical and growing more so every day to put into play.
It may be noted that indigenous people lived for eons in harmony with nature without even having to meet. Harmony with nature was a natural way to exist in a world in which people respected and understood their dependence on the earth and its resources. Instead of exploitation, they worshiped and respected that which offered life and sustenance. With the advent of the industrial revolution however, the earth was viewed as a cheap and un-expendable source of materials for use in profit making enterprises and production where monetary gain was worshipped over respect for the very finite resources of the earth’s wealth and ecological balance.
And now, the bill for these exploitative and disruptive practices has come due in unimaginable ways. As usual, those least able to exploit them are the very ones suffering the most peril as this natural disruption has caused horrific consequences for all of mankind.
Report and photos by Phil Pasquini
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(This article has previously appeared in Nuzeink.)
Phil Pasquini is a freelance journalist and photographer. His reports and photographs appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Pakistan Link and Nuze.ink. He is the author of Domes, Arches and Minarets: A History of Islamic-Inspired Buildings in America.
