05:19Norway: Trump a 'pure sociopath', Paul Ryan 'despicable' – Jeffrey Sachs lays into US 'dark money'
Economist and director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University Jeffrey Sachs took apart the topic of US 'dark money' during a presentation at Starmus Festival in Trondheim, Wednesday, taking aim at the relationship between the US President Donald Trump, several other high ranking US officials and businessmen, and the oil and gas industry.
"We do not have a functioning democracy except in formal terms,” stated Sachs during his lecture entitled 'How we can survive Trump, Climate Change and other Global Crisis?', “it's the proverbial top one percent of the one percent that is really driving American politics.”
The US economist hit out at Trump, Speaker of the US House of Representatives Paul Ryan, and the high-profile US businessmen Charles and David Koch, listing how the influential US figures were using their power to circumnavigate climate change legislation for personal profit.
“The two top vectors are the Koch brothers. Charles and David Koch between the two of them have a net worth of 96 billion dollars. They're net worth in a low carbon world is maybe a tenth or a hundredth of that depending on when they bail out. They know it. They’re spending a lot of money, dark money to keep in control.”
“And they have that happy gentlemen [Trump] on the bottom, he does what they tell him to do, that's fine, don't take it to seriously, this is not a Trump decision, this a corruption of the American political system,” Sachs added.
Turning to the effect that the so-called oil and gas lobby has on climate change, Sachs stated that “Everywhere that I travel for the United Nations is in climate crisis right now.”
However, the economist ended his speech on a positive note, saying that despite the “big money racket” in US politics, “The world does belong to us, it does not belong to the Koch brothers, we have no place for this kind of corruption and misuse of the system.”
“Do not give up on the American people. They know it’s wrong too, but we have a fight on our hands and we're going to win.”
Sachs was speaking at the fourth Starmus Festival, which celebrates astronomy, space exploration, chemistry, physics, art and medicine, running from June 18 until June 23.
05:19Economist and director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University Jeffrey Sachs took apart the topic of US 'dark money' during a presentation at Starmus Festival in Trondheim, Wednesday, taking aim at the relationship between the US President Donald Trump, several other high ranking US officials and businessmen, and the oil and gas industry.
"We do not have a functioning democracy except in formal terms,” stated Sachs during his lecture entitled 'How we can survive Trump, Climate Change and other Global Crisis?', “it's the proverbial top one percent of the one percent that is really driving American politics.”
The US economist hit out at Trump, Speaker of the US House of Representatives Paul Ryan, and the high-profile US businessmen Charles and David Koch, listing how the influential US figures were using their power to circumnavigate climate change legislation for personal profit.
“The two top vectors are the Koch brothers. Charles and David Koch between the two of them have a net worth of 96 billion dollars. They're net worth in a low carbon world is maybe a tenth or a hundredth of that depending on when they bail out. They know it. They’re spending a lot of money, dark money to keep in control.”
“And they have that happy gentlemen [Trump] on the bottom, he does what they tell him to do, that's fine, don't take it to seriously, this is not a Trump decision, this a corruption of the American political system,” Sachs added.
Turning to the effect that the so-called oil and gas lobby has on climate change, Sachs stated that “Everywhere that I travel for the United Nations is in climate crisis right now.”
However, the economist ended his speech on a positive note, saying that despite the “big money racket” in US politics, “The world does belong to us, it does not belong to the Koch brothers, we have no place for this kind of corruption and misuse of the system.”
“Do not give up on the American people. They know it’s wrong too, but we have a fight on our hands and we're going to win.”
Sachs was speaking at the fourth Starmus Festival, which celebrates astronomy, space exploration, chemistry, physics, art and medicine, running from June 18 until June 23.