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Americans know that corporate excess is about more than flawed accounting. It corrupts democracy, drives a wedge between rich and poor, degrades the environment, and disrupts communities. So what might we the people do?

A New Yorker looks at the squandered opportunities to make desperately needed changes in the American psyche and global policy following last September 11th.

The International Criminal Court is not likely to prosecute environmental crimes due to military actions, a new report prepared for the U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute concludes. It examines the possibilities of environmental damage during military action becoming a criminal liability for military personnel and/or their contractors before the newly formed International Criminal Court (ICC).

In a twist of commercial fate, metal chunks from the World Trade Center are being melted down and recycled at a Malaysian factory -- an hour's drive from a spot where some of the Sept. 11 hijackers plotted. At the huge mill in Banting, outside Malaysia's largest city, Kuala Lumpur, shredded pieces of the fallen twin towers are among scrap headed for furnaces to be rolled into coils of flat steel used to make automobile panels and pipe, among other products.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Privacy International yesterday released the fifth annual Privacy and Human Rights survey. The report reviews the state of privacy in over fifty countries around the world. It was released at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Governor Gray Davis and the California Legislature have done the tobacco industry a favor and cheated the state's kids and taxpayers by agreeing to a budget that slashes funding for the state's highly successful tobacco prevention program and fails to increase the cigarette tax. With this shortsighted budget, California will cease to be the nation's leader in tobacco prevention, and the state will pay a high price as a result. We urge California's leaders to reverse course by increasing the cigarette tax and using some of the revenue to restore funding for tobacco prevention.

As the Earth Summit closes in Johannesburg, we present this requiem for sustainable development. However, resistance to the big business agenda is alive and well in the streets.

WASHINGTON (August 30, 2002) -- As citizens and governments descend on Johannesburg, South Africa, for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the oil industry is gathering in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the World Petroleum Congress. Ten years ago, Rio was host to the first Earth Summit, at which nations of the world promised to combat global warming and enhance global conservation efforts. But a new study released today by the Institute for Policy Studies shows that in the last ten years, over $22 billion in corporate handouts were given to the oil, gas and coal industry operating in Latin America.

Negotiators for 191 countries attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development have agreed upon a Plan of Action to alleviate poverty and conserve the Earth's natural resources. Summit delegates are expected to adopt the action plan, with a political declaration, at the conclusion of the summit on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON -- Advocates for global justice today announced their plans to quarantine finance ministers and corporate executives gathering in Washington at the end of September. Critics remedies will include demonstrations, teach-ins, vigils, and debates before and during the annual meetings of the Boards of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. Thousands of people are expected to converge on Washington to quarantine delegates to the IMF/World Bank annual meetings.