Foreclosing the Future: The World Bank and the Politics of Environmental Destruction

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has vowed that his institution will fight poverty and climate change, a claim that World Bank presidents have made for two decades. But if worldwide protests and reams of damning internal reports are any indication, too often it does just the opposite. By funding development projects and programs that warm the planet and destroy critical natural resources on which the poor depend, the Bank has been hurting the very people it claims to serve. On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Bruce Rich, author of Foreclosing the Future: The World Bank and the Politics of Environmental Destruction, which depicts how the World Bank is a microcosm of global political and economic trends—powerful forces that threaten both environmental and social ruin. We'll find out how the Bank has reinforced these forces, undercutting the most idealistic attempts at alleviating poverty and sustaining the environment, and damaging the lives of millions.