Dear Editor: ESG

Dear Editor,

A new alphabet soup set of initials has been floating around recently, ESG (Environment, Social, Governance). Simply put, this is the cooperation of the United Nations, countries, and corporations to change the world. Obviously, it is not stated that way. Environmental changes include moving to wind and solar from fossil fuels, and electric vehicles from gas. Social includes racial, gender, and economic equity, which includes diversity training for employees; and of course, gun control. Notice it is no longer about equality. It’s not good enough to treat everybody the same. Hiring the best with the best abilities for your business without consideration of race or gender is no longer good enough for the globalist. Governance means focusing on how companies are run, including racial and gender quotas for corporate boards and management. Oh, and in the case of the petroleum industry, green energy advocates on the board of directors. When was the last time government interference in anything worked for the better? ESG sprouted from SDGs. Spelled out, SDGs stands for United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. At the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, UNSDGs was signed on to by the world’s most powerful politicians and corporate leaders. If you wish to read about this, WEF founder and Chairman Klaus Schwab, published the Davos Manifesto 2020: The Universal Purpose of a Company in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. At the November United Nations Climate Change Conference, the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders issued a letter to attendees stating “We are ready to work side by side with governments to deliver bold climate action. Accelerating the transition to net zero requires significant collaboration and shared responsibility between the private and public (government) sectors.” These companies include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Siemens, Sysco, Unilever, Dell, H.P., Microsoft, Nestles, and Black Rock.

Just this week, I heard our government has signed on to a United Nations climate deal to pay developing nations for the damage that our pollution has done. The United States share is ONE BILLION DOLLARS. Is this crazy? You haven’t heard the best part yet. China, the second-largest economy in the world, with the second-largest military in the world, is still considered a developing nation. China will get a share of this money. Even though China is the largest polluter in the world. China’s build rate of coal-fired power plants is one finished each week. As of September, China has over 3,100 plants.

I love my life in the United States. I love how I grew up. As a child, I didn’t have privilege. I had school years where I had to wash my only pair of pants to have clean pants the next day. Many dinners consisted of rabbits, deer, and elk as money was non-existent at times. In those days you could not get welfare at the drop of a job. But I would not change my early life under the constitution and laws of the United States for the foolishness of government interference. This is not just a recent development. The Paris Climate Accord has little to do with climate and much to do with globalization. Under the Paris Accords, United States banks are to work with the United Nations. In turn, the United Nations has told these banks to not invest or loan funds to the oil industry. As I see it, all moves that our government has made in the past decades is to introduce us to a global ruler. Yes, I said ruler. I could go on, but not this time. I urge all to research this for themselves. Maybe I’ll write more next week.

Jim Buterbaugh

Whitehall, Montana