Week 24: The Flickering Beacons of Justice in a Climate Crisis

Dear all,

Justice. Maybe a shadow or a glimpse of ancient myth. What is justice? How is it made, and what is its measure? Proving something is just in a legal term may be one thing; making it happen is another. Most people know this. Over the course of human civilization, humankind has developed systems and institutions to protect people from harm and secure stability. Rule of law. In front of the blind “Justitia,” we are all the same. Or at least, that is the narrative we are told and tell our children. A beacon of civilization. Globally, the beacons of the rule of law are flickering weaker and weaker. As the storms and damages caused by the climate emergency intensify, people affected will seek legal, moral, and, in some cases, just simple justice for the sake of it. I have written about this before, but following the developments around the world, we can clearly see the danger of the flickering rule of law.

In this ESG on Sunday, a $56 billion governance failure. When illusory reality like that of Elon Musk gets backed by 77 percent of shareholders, you have to ask yourself if reality is just an illusion. When countries and the judicial systems developed to steward them falter, the covenant between citizens (albeit consumers) and liberal democracies weakens, and so does the trust. Trust and justice. This ESG on Sunday is all about that.