ExclusiveYour Life Has a Score and You Might Not Even Know It

Let's just say you're not doing so well on the E or the S or the G or all of the above. Well, you might just get boycotted. Welcome back to Silicon Valley Front Row. We have a guest again, Brian Sussman, meteorologist, weatherman with KPIX Channel 5 CBS in San Francisco for many years. Last week we alluded about talking about ESG and what it means. I have a vague understanding of what ESG is. It's a rating system that applies to many companies and is related to climate change. Tell us more about it because I feel it's a topic that many people don't know about and they may get surprised. When I wrote about this in my book Climate Cult, I received a lot of feedback from people who read the book and said, is this for real? And others I heard from who said, oh, let me tell you something. I teach at a college, and I won't name the college, and it's very real. Or I work for this Fortune 500 company and it's super real. So ESG, environment, social and governance. Okay, well, how does that work with the environment? What are you even talking about this for? Because it's in play. So what Fortune 500 companies are doing and what we're also getting at college campuses and even individuals who are of a prestigious, you know, famous individuals, they want to have a high ESG score because it's better for their business. So what do I mean by that? Environmental. So you want to make sure that, hey, I'm giving money to Greenpeace. No, no, no, no, no. Listen, I recycle. Oh, yes, I'm a champion of recycling in my house. You have to prove it to show the bins or whatever, or the pickup or something. Or better yet, better yet, better yet. Listen, I believe CO2 is evil. It's a culprit that's changing our climate. That's why I drive my electric car. Of course, I drive my electric car. Now, let's just stop for a moment, because I talk a lot about this in the book as well. And we've talked about this in past discussions. When you look at your average electric vehicle, to create that vehicle with all the lithium batteries in the chassis, which, by the way, are not recyclable, no one's figured out how to do this. So when you have that used electric vehicle, guess what? No one wants it. It's going to wind up in a dump. But that vehicle puts out 10 metric tons of CO2 during its production. 10 metric tons. Your average sedan that runs on gasoline puts out 7 cubic tons of CO2. So which is the worst polluter right off the bat? But hey, no, I'm driving an electric vehicle. I plug it in. That means I'm a good steward of this planet. So this becomes part of the score. Part of your E in the ESG. So you got all this stuff going on. Doesn't matter if it's rubbish, but you got your big E. Now, social. What about your social? For a company, it would be this. No, we make sure that we take care of the little guy. We offer our product at a lower cost for the poor. And we give to groups that are benefiting society. Or for the individual, it would be, well, no. I mean, my social score is really, really good. If you look at my friends, I've got a lot of trans friends. So I'm rubbing shoulders with all sorts of people. So how dare you say I'm but socially fit. I've got a high S score. So E, S, and then G, governance. This primarily applies to big corporations, but you've got that wheel behind you, by the way. That is probably the best wheel that explains ESG in its totality. But for the Fortune 500 company, or even the small company, let's just try to get by. Well, look at our governing board. Look at our corporate officers. Look at our managers. I mean, we've got a little bit of everything. We've got this race. We've got that race. And we've got this sexuality. We've got that sexuality. And we have this particular person who has a handicap. No, we put them all together and elevate them to be leaders in our company. So we've got a great E, S, G score. It increases the score. And I would assume that, you know, that's why maybe many times we see on websites something about footprint, like our carbon footprint is this, or whatever. There you go. Right. That probably helps with the score. Sure. It helps with the score. Now, okay, let's just say you're not doing so well on the E, or the S, or the G, or all of the above. Well, you might just get boycotted. We may not get a loan. Okay. Okay. This is where I talk about in the book that many people fear it could go. When you start getting rated by your bank on your E, S, G score, because there are a lot of people in their twenties and thirties who believe everyone should be rated accordingly. We'll have a better society if we do this. So your bank may look at you and say, okay, well, you know, we can certainly see by the way you're spending money, but we're just wondering how environmentally concerned are you? What about your social score? I mean, I'm looking at all these places you visit, and I don't think of them as really being diverse. And then your governance score, well, you know, just how do you lead your life in terms of the way you vote? For example, did you vote for that person or that person? That could harm your score as well. So there are many people who fear this is the way it's going to go based upon a younger generation that's been educated in our public school system and public universities, and has come out believing that everyone should abide by these E, S, G standards. So, you know, it seems like the standards is judging people on what they do or how they seem. So who comes up with these scores? Is there an actual rating or some company that's doing it? You mentioned banks, you know, like, do we get to see these scores? Yeah, it's, this is really kept under the radar, but the activist community pays attention to this and they're doing their own scoring. So environmental organizations, various social organizations, they're doing their own scoring and they're keeping track because they want to keep you in line, but you use the word judgment. And really, I know that so many on the left would say, no, I don't judge anybody. But at the same time with E, S, G, they're judging everybody. Yeah, they're judging all of us. It's a very judgmental game that they're playing, especially when it comes to what's between our ears. If what we believe between our ears and in our hearts doesn't match what they believe, oh, they start thinking terrible things about us. I mean, I just look at what's been happening, for example, in a big city like Minneapolis, what they think about anyone who would be for immigration enforcement. I mean, I've heard some of the nasty things they say, and it's beyond judgmental. It's quite frankly, frightening. So that could also be a part of your E, S, G. What's your political ideology? What do you think about this issue or that issue? Forget the environment. What about, what about immigration? How do you feel about that? We're getting scored. So the connection with climate change on this is, it's a continuation of control over individuals. Yes. Or companies. Yes, because there were some thinkers, starting with Karl Marx and his writing partner, Friedrich Engels, as I talk about in Climate Cult, and many of their disciples going all the way forward to Rachel Carson, who wrote Silent Spring, which was a big, huge hit in the 60s and could still be found in any book, bookshop to this very day. They really believed that the environment could be one of their strongest tools to essentially judge people, but also one of their strongest tools to coerce people to coming on board with their overall political doctrine or indoctrination, as it were. Brian, so I'm a millennial, right? I went to college. And now that you mentioned it, I do remember seeing a lot of things relating to environmental activism, social, you know, governance. Now, could this be used for good? You know, what if somebody's being rated on ESG, but it's not like saying, oh, you know, if you're for this person, but what if you're like, yeah, could it be used for the other side? Yeah. Okay. Well, that's really interesting. If somebody, I'm looking at the ESG right behind you, Steve. I'm looking at that. Who wouldn't be for anti-corruption? Okay. Who wouldn't be for tax transparency? Okay. I'm all for those things. Who wouldn't be for human rights and community, but they're taking it to an extreme and they want to make sure that their particular position on these, on these particular issues is magnified to the point where if you're a fortune 500 company and people are scratching their heads saying, why is their CFO this particular person? This particular person has had a failed career, but they elevated them to this status, perhaps for looks. And the same thing with the climate change mantra. Well, all of our cars in our fleet are all electric. Okay. Great. I'm glad, glad they're all electric, but what is that really doing to change the climate? So I think about what you said in maybe a little different terms. I'm thinking about what, what about the student who says, I'm just going to go along with the program for now, because I want a better grade. You know, I'll just, I'll make it sound like I'm for all the above, because I want to get an A in this class and I want to get my degree and I want to get out of this place. There are some essays, assignments saying, oh, you know, the prompt is how do you reduce climate change? Right. So you're not going to say, I read this book by the former meteorologist at channel five. You're not going to go there. You'll just play the game, right? Because you just want to get the better grade. And I could see how somebody might do that. But the problem is for a certain percentage of those people, you know, they're going to get drawn in. So they've compromised on this issue that they really weren't sure about, or maybe they were very sure about, but it's like, if I write it, write it this way, I'm going to get an F. It's just not going to work. So I'll go along with the program. There's going to be a percentage of those people who end up going along with the program altogether. And I think that's what the left is banking on, because as I know you guys believe, their agenda's for the long haul. They're not thinking just between now and graduation. They're thinking we're going to get you and we're going to get your kids. We're going to get your grandkids because we're playing out there for 50 years because we want to see the United States of America eventually fail. And we're committed to this. And it's not a bunch of—I mean, I'm thinking of the film The Agenda, which I know you're aware of. In the film The Agenda, this is where we find out that there are high-level people in high-level places who are playing this game, and they're in it for the long haul. These aren't a bunch of crazy radicals with tattoos and piercings all over their bodies. These are people who otherwise look rather successful, kind of normal. But what's between their ears is anything but. So you mentioned how you address climate change. Like, what do you do? Like, you get an assignment in school. It says, what do you do to address climate change or to save the Earth, right? So that doesn't give you the option to say, well, let's analyze or let's debate whether this really is an issue first. It doesn't give you that option. You don't have the option. The only option you have is, what are you doing to address it, even if it's not a real problem? And then if you're not doing anything, you're the bad guy. So you have to do something that may not be an issue. And the debate is not allowed because if you debate, you're going to be marginalized. So I think that's the bigger problem. I'm sure there are some smart students that could find ways to turn the prompt into the way they want, like with counterpoints. But it seems like, from what I remember, the direction is towards activism. I think a lot of research needs to be done by people. I'm trying to think of another analogy. So let's just make up something. So if the whole environmental climate change theory is just completely untrue, what could be something else we would say that people are doing that we're just going to say is untrue, or that is real but is untrue? It's like, we've determined that there's a chemical in your flatulence that is going to kill the world. People are going to start buying all these potions and drinking all these things and walking around with mufflers on their rear end or something like that. I mean, we've scared them, but no, it's because of you. It's what you're eating. It's just causing all these fumes to go in the atmosphere. It could be something as silly as that. That's kind of happening with the cows, right? Aren't they saying we should not eat? Okay, you're exactly right. I hadn't thought about that. Okay, that's a perfect example. Cow flatulence. Yes, it's true. It's raising the CO2 content. But cows have been around forever. Yes, forever. Well, they're saying there's more of them now, or now we're at the point where we need to address it. That's a great example. Brett, thank you again for your time. We really appreciate your insight, your inputs on this topic that's controversial in many ways, but that's what we like to hear. To our audience, we'd like to know what you know about ESG, how familiar are you, what you think about it, and if you enjoy our conversation on this topic, please put your comments below.