EU-US relations: US faith-based conservative EU lobbyists billionaires funding EU culture war - by Michael Bird and Blaz Zgaga

The number of faith-based conservative EU lobbyists in Brussels is growing and the Roman Catholic Church is itself a big spender.

But US billionaires, some of whom are friends of American president Donald Trump, are also paying anti-abortion groups in Europe tens of millions of dollars to influence policy and law.

The US groups have not scored any big wins yet.

But they are acting in concert and they are just getting started, European MPs who work on sexual and reproductive health have warned.

And the culture war is broader, with women's rights, LGBTI rights, embryonic research, and euthanasia also involved in the clash of values.

Some 21 religious think-tanks, NGOs, and other entities currently spend €2.1m to €3.1m a year lobbying the European Parliament and European Commission on these fronts, according to the EU transparency register. 

Read more: US billionaires funding EU culture war

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Britain - Brexit: President Macron dampens Johnson's plans to renegotiate Brexit

Macron dampens Johnson's plan to renegotiate Brexit

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https://p.dw.com/p/3OJzz

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The Netherlands: Dutch families making use of food banks increased by 8% last year

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https://nltimes.nl/2019/08/21/dutch-families-making-use-food-banks

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Britain-Brexit: Boris Johnsons Brexiteers' bid to force no-deal suffers legal blow, as constitutional expert warns UK 'heading for deep trouble': by Adam Forrest, Ashley Cowburn, Zamira Rahim, Jane Dalton

A new Trans-Atlantic Axis

Britain is in “deep trouble” unless Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn can act like “good chaps” and find a way to resolve the Brexit crisis, a leading constitutional expert has warned.

In a boost for pro-EU campaigners, a Court of Session judge has ruled that a legal challenge seeking to prevent Mr Johnson from suspending parliament to force through a no-deal exit will be heard before 31 October.

It comes as No 10 is said to be ready to pull British diplomats out of Brussels. Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, meanwhile, said the UK was “first in line” for a trade deal with the US after meeting the PM.

Meanwhile John Bercow, the House of Commons speaker, has warned that he will try to stop the prime minister from suspending parliament.

Mr Bercow told an audience at the Edinburgh Fringe festival that he "strongly" believes the House of Commons "must have its way", in remarks reported by the Herald newspaper.

"And if there is an attempt to circumvent, to bypass or - God forbid - to close down Parliament, that is anathema to me," he said.

"I will fight with every breath in my body to stop that happening."

Amber Rudd also told the BBC on Tuesday that she would urge the prime minister not to suspend the Commons.

Read more at:: Boris Johnson news: Brexiteers' bid to force no-deal suffers legal blow, as constitutional expert warns UK 'heading for deep trouble' | The Independent

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Global Consumption: Humanity is increasingly living above its means – by Stéphanie Senet

By 29 July, humanity had consumed more resources than the planet is capable of offering within a year, according to the Global Footprint Network, an environmental NGO. EURACTIV’s partner le Journal de l’Environnement reports.

At the current level, it would take an average of 1.8 planets to meet our global resource needs. And for some countries, the ecological imbalance is particularly high.

For example, world countries would require the equivalent of 5 planets to ensure their resource needs if they were to follow US consumption patterns, well ahead of Australia (4.1 planets) and Russia (3.2). France comes eighth on the global scale, with an ecological footprint requiring 2.7 planets.

These high resource consumption levels are exacerbating desertification, soil erosion, species loss and water shortage. It is also reducing agricultural productivity and depleting fish stocks.

In comparison, India’s resource needs only average that of 0.7 planets, despite it having a population of 1.4 billion.

Note EU-Digest: For those who are attached to their "stuff" and believe in the consumer society, maybe this Biblical quoute says its best: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." Job 1, verse 21
 
Read more at: Humanity is increasingly living above its means – EURACTIV.com

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Britain- Brexit: No deal shows food and medicine shortages, chaos

Brexit: No-deal dossier shows worst-case scenario - 

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49388402

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Climate Change: No, Climate Change Will Not End the World in 12 Years - by Sheril Kirshenbaum

Climate scientists, biologists, engineers and others with expertise have been speaking and writing about our changing planet for a long time. My own work has focused on how we'll figure out a way to come to terms with billions more people, limited resources and more extreme extremes. Droughts will be worse. Floods more severe. Storms increasingly intense.

I've often felt like a modern Cassandra, writing and speaking about the dramatic and unprecedented planetary shifts taking place due to short-sighted policy choices. Deforestation, the burning of fossil fuels, and the ways we use water and produce food inevitably do take a toll on the environment, our health and security. As a marine scientist, I observed firsthand how the pH of oceans has been changing along urban coasts in a process called acidification due to excess emissions.

The evidence of climate change has been all around us for a long time. Protecting people and Earth's co-inhabitants from its most devastating impacts will require institutional reckoning and action.

Doomsday scenarios may generate clicks and sell advertisements, but they always fail to convey that science is nuanced. Arbitrary "time left to apocalypse" predictions are not evidence based and the story of climate change doesn't fit neatly into brief bullet points competing for your attention in today's saturated media environment. Stoking panic and fear offers a false narrative that can overwhelm readers, leading to inaction and hopelessness.

When I worked on Capitol Hill 13 years ago, I faced a cacophony of staffers and lawmakers choosing inaction on the assumption that climate change wasn't real. Today many of the same people point to the dire predictions dominating the news and shrug off better policies with the excuse that the world is ending anyway.

If history teaches us anything, it's that humans have a penchant for anticipating our End Times. Ancient mythologies from cultures all around the world describe catastrophic floods and religious cults continue to recruit followers with predictions of death by comet or solar flare.

Earth isn't ending in 12 years. It didn't end at Y2K or when the Mayan calendar predicted the collapse of civilization in 2012.

Earth, as a whole, will be okay—for at least another few billion years. What's less settled is how humans and the rest of biodiversity on the planet will fare in the decades and centuries to come. That's up to us and I hope we work to highlight hope over Armageddon.

The world will end one day, but not today. And not tomorrow. And not in 2030. Earth will continue to change, but we're not necessarily doomed. Yet.

Read more at: No, Climate Change Will Not End the World in 12 Years - Scientific American Blog Network

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