June, 24 2020, 12:00am EDT
![Environmental Working Group (EWG)](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012671/origin.jpg)
For Immediate Release
Contact:
(202) 667-6982
WASHINGTON
In a settlement reached today, Bayer AG agreed to pay $10 billion over claims its signature herbicide Roundup causes cancer in people, according to a report by Reuters.
The $10 billion settlement will be apportioned to four leading plaintiffs' law firms, who will in turn distribute the money to nearly 100,000 clients who were stricken with cancer after prolonged use of the toxic weedkiller.
The German company acquired the St. Louis-based agrochemical giant Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion, and inherited liability in thousands of lawsuits filed by people who claim exposure to Roundup and its main ingredient glyphosate was the cause of their cancer.
EWG President Ken Cook made this statement on the settlement:
Today's settlement is vindication for all those who have fallen ill with cancer as a result of being exposed to this chemical. No amount of money can reverse the damage Bayer-Monsanto has inflicted on these victims and countless others, but because of their and their attorneys' tireless fight for justice, the company that exposed them is now paying a heavy price for its duplicitous deception.
The most damning revelations in this case uncovered, through the company's own internal documents, the extent to which Monsanto-Bayer recognized early on the risk of cancer and other health problems posed by glyphosate and its commercial formulations. Monsanto-Bayer aggressively conspired for decades to withhold or lie about the evidence to the public and to regulators, while relentlessly attacking scientists and organizations that sought to tell the truth about the company's products.
This damning information only became public because plaintiff's lawyers pried it out of the company in court and made it public. That coverup killed the company's integrity as systemically as its chemicals kill plants. Monsanto-Bayer's dissembling for profit at the expense of public health is a permanent stain on its reputation. Nothing in this settlement amends the conclusion that this is a company that simply cannot be trusted.
Glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world, was classified in 2015 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as "probably carcinogenic" to people. In 2017, glyphosate was also listed by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment as a chemical known to the state to cause cancer.
Glyphosate is mostly applied to corn, soybean and wheat crops, but is increasingly sprayed just before harvest on oats, chickpeas and other crops as a drying agent, or desiccant, to speed the harvest. The pre-harvest use is why many oat-based cereals are contaminated with glyphosate.
Three separate rounds of laboratory tests commissioned by EWG in 2018 and 2019 found glyphosate in nearly every sample of popular oat-based cereals and other foods marketed to children. The contaminated brands included cereals and breakfast bars made by General Mills and Quaker.
A new EWG testing report, coming next month, will show glyphosate contamination widespread in hummus and chickpeas.
Besides its use in agriculture, millions of Americans spray Roundup on their yards and gardens - a main source of exposure for those who were sickened and sued Bayer-Monsanto. Four people in California have already won their cases in jury trials, including Dewayne Johnson, a Bay Area school groundskeeper.
"Even as we celebrate and congratulate those who made this day possible, millions of people are being exposed to glyphosate through the food they eat, working as groundskeepers or farmworkers, or gardening at home," Cook said. "Bayer-Monsanto must be held accountable beyond today's settlement, The Food and Drug Administration must immediately eliminate its use as a pre-harvest desiccant, and the Environmental Protection Agency must ban all home uses. That is the only way to assure future generations of Americans do not get sick or die from exposure to this cancer-causing chemical."
The Environmental Working Group is a community 30 million strong, working to protect our environmental health by changing industry standards.
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Top Progressive Groups Launch Massive Grassroots Mobilization for Harris
"Our coalition was critical to defeating Trump in 2020," said one organizer. "We're ready to do it again in 2024."
Jul 25, 2024
Announcing their endorsement of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, three of the country's largest progressive organizations announced Thursday their plan to mobilize their hundreds of thousands of members to reach out to millions of swing state voters about Harris' fight for abortion rights, the climate, and democracy.
The Center for Popular Democracy Action (CPD), the Working Families Party (WFP), and People's Action pledged to knock on more than five million doors in states including Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Arizona, where they will tell voters about the key role Harris played in passing far-reaching climate action and jobs legislation in the Inflation Reduction Act, her strong support for abortion rights, and her commitment to delivering on President Joe Biden's housing agenda.
"Our coalition was critical to defeating [Republican presidential nominee Donald] Trump in 2020. We're ready to do it again in 2024," said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party. "This election is bigger than any one person. It’s about the kind of country we want to be and whether we will let the rights and freedoms our ancestors spent generations fighting for—the right to participate equally in our democracy, to organize our workplaces, and to control our own bodies—be taken away from us. Over the next four months, we'll be mobilizing voters in key states to elect Kamala Harris and build our ranks of WFP champions up and down the ballot."
The three groups' joint announcement of their endorsement of Harris comes four days after the vice president launched her campaign following Biden's decision to step aside under pressure from Democrats, due to concerns about his age, health, and sinking popularity among voters.
Since Sunday, the gun violence prevention group March for Our Lives has also announced its first-ever presidential endorsement of Harris, and the vice president has secured support from at least four national climate action groups.
"The Biden/Harris administration created real momentum toward an economy that puts working people before billionaires and a democracy that protects hard-won freedoms for everyone. We need to build on that momentum."
"We see an unprecedented surge of enthusiasm on the doors and from our members about Vice President Kamala Harris," said Marta Popadiak, movement governing director of People's Action. "The Biden/Harris administration created real momentum toward an economy that puts working people before billionaires and a democracy that protects hard-won freedoms for everyone. We need to build on that momentum."
People's Action has utilized "deep canvassing," an organizing tactic that eschews the brief, scripted conversations typical in traditional phone-banking and door-knocking operations in favor of longer discussions and open-ended questions aimed at developing an understanding of voters' beliefs, priorities, and values.
"We are mobilizing tens of thousands of volunteers to have deep conversations about why voting for Harris is a vote for a future in which our families and communities will thrive," said Popadiak.
People's Action expressed hope that a Harris presidency could initiate a shift in the Biden administration's "disastrous support" for Israel.
DaMareo Cooper and Analilia Mejia, co-executive directors of CPD, called on progressives to "rally behind Vice President Harris to build upon" the achievements of the Biden administration, including strengthening the U.S. economy following the coronavirus pandemic and canceling student debt for nearly one million Americans.
"Vice President Kamala Harris is a strong candidate who will beat Donald Trump, preserve our democracy, and drive our country forward," said Cooper and Meija.
The WFP noted that 95% of its members and delegates voted this week to endorse Harris as the Democratic nominee, and said the organization plans to knock on two million doors in key states including North Carolina and Georgia.
The organizing push is kicking off as Sen. JD Vance (D-Ohio), the Republican vice presidential nominee, faces blistering criticism for comments he made in 2021 in which he described Harris and other Democratic leaders as "childless cat ladies," and for his support for a nationwide abortion ban and call to track people who cross state lines to obtain abortion care. On Wednesday, the Harris campaign warned voters about Trump's promise to oil tycoons that he would ensure they can continue drilling for planet-heating fossil fuels if they gave him $1 billion in campaign donations.
Nic O'Rourke, a member of the Philadelphia City Council who represents the WFP, said that a Harris victory in November would ensure "the best conditions possible for activists as they join with and empower their communities" to fight for economic, racial, climate, and reproductive justice.
Unlike Harris', said O'Rourke, "the GOP's vision for America doesn't hold space for the righteous demands of the constituents I serve and the people I come from."
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House GOP Accused of Injecting 'MAGA Project 2025 Agenda' Into Funding Bills
"We can see the fingerprints of Project 2025 across each of the majority's appropriations bills," said Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro.
Jul 25, 2024
A leading House Democrat on Wednesday accused her Republican colleagues of hijacking the government funding process to pursue a "MAGA Project 2025 Agenda" that aims to further roll back abortion rights, cut education programs, and attack workers and the planet.
"House Republicans are unable and unwilling to govern," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee. "House Democrats are at the table ready to negotiate. The quicker House Republicans realize their extremist agenda cannot become law, the quicker we can get down to the business of the American people."
"This year should have been easier than last. We began the 2025 process—weeks after successfully passing the final 2024 bills—with a top line in place, yet Republicans reneged on it," DeLauro continued. "They wrote partisan bills to further their Trump MAGA Project 2025 Agenda instead of working with Democrats to pass bills that could become law. At every turn, the Republicans are making abortion illegal, eliminating federal support for public education, undermining workers, and disarming America in the face of the climate crisis."
In recent weeks, House Republicans have put forth government funding bills for fiscal year 2025 that would slash the Education Department's budget by $11 billion, curb funding for the understaffed Social Security Administration, and assail climate agencies while boosting offshore drilling and other destructive practices—all of which is consistent with the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025 agenda.
"Project 2025 advocates for climate and environmental arson. And we can see exactly where the majority has taken its cues from the climate catastrophe manifesto in this bill."
At least 140 people who worked in the administration of former President Donald Trump, the GOP's 2024 presidential nominee, helped craft Project 2025, according toCNN.
The House GOP's appropriations bills stand no chance of becoming law with Democrats controlling the Senate and the White House, but they have offered a preview of what the right-wing party is likely to do if it wins control of Congress and Trump secures another term in November.
Currently, Republicans "find themselves in a stalemate of their own doing," The Washington Postreported Thursday, "even after House SpeakerMike Johnson (R-La.) pledged to pass all 12 bills before their monthlong break from Washington in August." So far, the House has only passed five of the 12 bills.
On Tuesday, following hours of debate, House Republicans abruptly pulled a federal energy and water funding bill from the floor and the party's leadership decided to begin August recess a week early, starting on Thursday. Politicoreported that the withdrawn bill would have revoked the Energy Department's pause on new permit approvals for liquefied natural gas exports and "cut funding for efficiency and renewable energy programs."
House Republicans were able to pass funding legislation for the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday. Just one Democrat, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), voted for the bill, which is dead on arrival in the Senate.
As E&E Newsreported:
The legislation's $38.5 billion top line is about $72 million below the fiscal 2024 level. EPA's budget would shrink by $1.8 billion, with significant cuts to agency programs focused on science and technology, environmental justice, and chemical risk reviews. The Superfund cleanup program and the Diesel Emissions Reduction Program would see higher budget lines.
Interior funding would drop by $42 million, in part because of cuts to offices such as the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and the National Park Service.
In a floor speech earlier this week opposing the legislation, DeLauro said that "rather than making sound investments to protect our air and water, preserve our National Parks, and ensure the environment we all share and live in remains clean and protected, the majority's bill benefits the most egregious polluters and climate science deniers, jeopardizes public health and safety, hinders our responses to the climate crisis, and endangers rural and low-income communities."
"This disastrous proposal did not come out of nowhere," she continued. "This is explicitly where the majority wants to take the country. Project 2025 is the Trump MAGA Republican agenda to take over the government and destroy our rights and freedoms. But it is not just a document on a website—we can see the fingerprints of Project 2025 across each of the majority's appropriations bills."
"In short, Project 2025 advocates for climate and environmental arson," DeLauro added. "And we can see exactly where the majority has taken its cues from the climate catastrophe manifesto in this bill."
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'Disgusting': Global 1% Captured $42 Trillion in New Wealth Over Past Decade
"The richest 1% of humanity continues to fill their pockets while the rest are left to scrap for crumbs."
Jul 25, 2024
The richest sliver of the global population hauled in more than $40 trillion in new wealth over the past decade as countries around the world cut taxes for those at the very top, supercharging inequality that poses a dire threat to democracy and the planet.
An Oxfam analysis released Thursday ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers estimated that over the past 10 years, the global 1% has accumulated $42 trillion in new wealth. That's "nearly 34 times more than the entire bottom 50% of the world's population," the group observed.
"That is disgusting," Michael Taylor, founder of the Australian Independent Media Network, wrote in response to the new figures.
The analysis comes amid a growing push by current and former world leaders for rich countries to enact a global tax on billionaire wealth that would begin to reverse the damage done by decades of regressive policy. Oxfam found in a separate analysis released earlier this year that economic and political elites' global "war on fair taxation" has slashed taxes for the rich by 32% since 1980.
Oxfam said Thursday that global billionaires "have been paying a tax rate equivalent to less than 0.5% of their wealth."
"Inequality has reached obscene levels, and until now governments have failed to protect people and planet from its catastrophic effects," Max Lawson, Oxfam's head of inequality policy, said in a statement Thursday. "The richest 1% of humanity continues to fill their pockets while the rest are left to scrap for crumbs."
"Momentum to increase taxes on the super-rich is undeniable, and this week is the first real litmus test for G20 governments," Lawson added. "Do they have the political will to strike a global standard that puts the needs of the many before the greed of an elite few?"
A recent report by renowned economist Gabriel Zucman of the University of California, Berkeley outlined how nations could go about implementing a 2% minimum tax on the wealth of global billionaires—a policy change that he shows would raise up to $250 billion in annual revenue that could be used to support a range of priorities, from climate investments to education and healthcare programs.
"Thanks to recent progress in international tax cooperation, a common taxation standard for billionaires has become technically possible," said Zucman. "Implementing it is a question of political will."
The economist's report was commissioned by the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has championed a global billionaire tax in the face of resistance from powerful nations, including the United States—which has more billionaires than any other country. In 2018, U.S. billionaires paid a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans.
But reporting indicates that the leaders of G20 nations—which are home to roughly 80% of the world's billionaires—are likely to rebuff Lula's push for billionaire wealth tax, opting instead to pursue what Bloombergdescribed as "research on taxation and inequality that could take years to deliver results."
Reuters similarly reported Wednesday that G20 finance ministers meeting in Brazil "are preparing a joint statement for Thursday in support of progressive taxation that will stop short of endorsing the hosts' proposal for a global 'billionaire tax.'"
The global billionaire wealth surge comes in the context of growing misery for large swaths of the world's population. A report released Wednesday by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that one out of 11 people around the world—or up to 757 million people—"may have faced hunger" last year.
"The world's poorest people are paying the highest price of hunger," Eric Munoz, Oxfam's food policy expert, said in response to the FAO report. "We need deeper, structural policy and social change to address all of the drivers of hunger, including economic injustice, climate change, and conflict."
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