Climate Change

Thousands March To Keep Coal In Ground Ahead Of Climate Summit

November 8, 2017 Staff, telesurtv.net Resist! Climate Change, Coal, March

By Staff of Tele Sur - Implementation of the Paris accord will be discussed at the 195-nation climate meeting in Bonn between November 6 and 17. Thousands of people took to the streets of Bonn on Saturday to call for the phasing out of coal as a source of power ahead of global talks on climate change in the German city next week. The issue of whether to end coal production has been one of the main sticking points in coalition negotiations between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her would-be allies: the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP). Organizers of the march called for the German government to implement the 2015 Paris plan to shift the world economy away from reliance on fossil fuels this century.

As Climate Talks Open, Federal Report Exposes U.S. Credibility Gap

November 8, 2017 John H. Cushman JR., insideclimatenews.org Educate! Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, United States

By John H. Cushman JR. for Inside Climate Change - As global climate talks resume this week, the U.S. is straddling a climate credibility gap, with the Trump administration's policies on one side of an abyss and what the government's own scientists know about climate change with increasing certainty on the other. The disconnect became more evident last week as the administration published, but then basically shrugged off, a comprehensive report on the state of climate science. Written by authoritative government and academic experts, then honed by the extreme vetting of a formal National Academy of Sciences peer review, the latest volume of the National Climate Assessment paints a stern and explicit picture of the risks of climate change. The report's executive summary pronounced that temperatures have reached the warmest point in human civilization, that our own actions are the cause, and that the worst is yet to come. It followed with a staccato drum-roll of familiar findings: "Thousands of studies conducted by researchers around the world have documented changes in surface, atmospheric, and oceanic temperatures; melting glaciers; diminishing snow cover; shrinking sea ice; rising sea levels; ocean acidification; and increasing atmospheric water vapor." On Monday, the G7 countries—including the U.S.—also affirmed that climate change exacerbates health risks.

Big Banks Are Committing Major Crimes Against The Climate

November 6, 2017 Alison Kirsch, alternet.org Educate! Banks, Big Banks, Climate Change, Corporate crime

By Alison Kirsch for AlterNet - At the start of next week, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the U.N.'s negotiating body on climate change, will meet in Germany to discuss next steps after the historic agreement by 195 countries to curb global climate change to 1.5° Celsius, or 2° at most—an agreement whose only logical conclusion is that the world cannot afford expansion of the fossil fuel industry. Various players in the financial industry have talked a big game on their commitments to the Paris Agreement. But their business practices prove otherwise. According to the new report Funding Tar Sands: Private Banks vs. the Paris Climate Agreement, in the first three quarters of 2017, major international banks have financed the extraction and transportation of tar sands at levels one and a half times higher than in the whole of 2016. How can it be that in the last 9 months, $32 billion has gone to an extreme fossil fuel whose development is flatly incompatible with meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement? Moreover, banks continue to stand behind their clients whose proposed tar sands projects, from Teck Resources' Frontier open-pit mine, to Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline, would further damn our climate and infringe upon Indigenous rights.

Ahead Of COP23 Climate Talks; End To ‘Era Of Fossil Fuels’ Now!

November 6, 2017 Jake Johnson, commondreams.org Resist! Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, Protests

By Jake Johnson for Common Dreams - The stated aim of the COP23 talks—this year presided over by Fiji—is to "advance the aims and ambitions of the Paris Agreement and achieve progress on its implementation guidelines." But Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the agreement casts a "dark shadow" over the negotiations. As the New York Times reported Thursday, the Trump administration will attempt to use COP23 as a platform to "promote coal, natural gas, and nuclear energy" and argue that fossil fuels should "continue to play a central role in the energy mix"—despite the fact that the U.S. government's own climate assessment, unveiled Friday, links fossil fuels to the warming of the climate. So while Trump and his allies are "twisting themselves into pretzels to justify blocking national and international climate action," environmentalists are working to place pressure on world leaders to forge ahead with ambitious goals that place people and the planet over the interests of oil giants. "The wildfires, hurricanes and floods of these last few months show us that we don't have time to play games of climate denial or greenwashing of dirty energy," Cindy Wiesner, executive director of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, said in a statement. "COP23 is an opportunity for world leaders to catch up to the solutions already coming from communities on the ground."

Climate Emergency: Greenhouse Gas Levels Surge To Historic Levels

November 3, 2017 D. Lascaris, therealnews.com Educate! Climate Change, Global Warming, greenhouse gases

By D. Lascaris for The Real News Network - This is Dimitri Lascaris for the Real News Network. On October 30th, the World Meteorological Association issued a greenhouse gas bulletin reporting that concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged at record-breaking speed in 2016 to 403.3 parts per million. According to the bulletin, the rate of increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 70 years, is nearly 100 times larger than that at the end of the last ice age. Such abrupt changes in the atmospheric levels of CO2 have never been seen before. Rapidly increasing atmospheric levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases have the potential to initiate unprecedented changes in climate systems, leading to, "severe ecological and economic disruptions," said the report. Scientists say that recent devastating hurricanes in the US and the Caribbean are examples of major disasters that may have been made much more destructive by human-caused climate change. With us to discuss the World Meteorological Association's report, and what these record levels of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere mean, we are joined by Dr. Kevin Trenberth. Dr. Trenberth is a distinguished senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, climate and global dynamics laboratory. He joins us today from Boulder, Colorado. Thank you for joining us again today, Kevin.

Trump Climate Genocide Day Of Action

November 2, 2017 Staff, www.trumpclimategenocide.org Resist! 2016 Elections, Climate Change, Genocide, Trump

By Trump Climate Genocide. On November 8th last year Donald Trump was elected President of the USA. He was elected on a program to expand the use of fossil fuels, especially coal, and to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement - the only international agreement to limit climate-destabilising greenhouse gases that we have – a pledge that he has since turned into reality. The imminent threat of the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate is the defining reality of out time. It puts literally billions of lives at risk, well within this century. Yet the world is set on a trajectory towards global catastrophe meaning that failure to change course will result in a humanitarian tragedy of unthinkable scale.

New Zealand Considers Creating Climate Change Refugee Visas

November 1, 2017 Charles Anderson, theguardian.com Create! Climate Change, New Zealand, Refugees

By Charles Anderson for The Guardian - New Zealand’s new government is considering creating a visa category to help relocate Pacific peoples displaced by climate change. The new category would make official the Green party’s pre-election policy which promised 100 visas for those affected by climate change. As part of the new Labour-led coalition government, the Green party leader James Shaw was given the role of climate change minister. He told Radio New Zealand on Tuesday that “an experimental humanitarian visa category” could be implemented for people from the Pacific who are displaced by rising seas resulting from climate change. “It is a piece of work that we intend to do in partnership with the Pacific islands,” Shaw said. Before the election, the Greens also proposed increasing New Zealand’s overall refugee quota from 750 each year to 4,000 places over six years. Shaw’s announcement comes after the New Zealand immigration and protection tribunal rejected two families from Tuvalu who applied to become refugees in New Zealand due to the impact of climate change. The families argued rising sea levels, lack of access to clean and sanitary drinking water and Tuvalu’s high unemployment rate as reasons for seeking asylum. The tribunal ruled they did not risk being persecuted by race, religion, nationality or by membership of a political or religious group under the 1951 refugee convention.

To Close Climate Goals Gap: Drop Coal, Ramp Up Renewables

November 1, 2017 Georgina Gustin, insideclimatenews.org Create! Climate Change, Coal, Renewable, United Nations

By Georgina Gustin for Inside Climate News - Countries will have to phase out coal and invest in renewable energy even faster than previously expected to keep global warming below perilous levels and fend off the most dangerous impacts of climate change, according to a United Nations report released just before the next round of international climate talks. The United Nations Environment Program on Tuesday released its annual report on the "emissions gap"—the distance between countries' pledged commitments for meeting the targets of the 2015 Paris climate agreement and the pathways that scientists estimate could actually achieve those targets. The report, prepared by dozens of scientists and incorporating the latest scientific findings, includes new information to help negotiators zero in on more ambitious commitments that might achieve the Paris Agreement's most stringent target: keeping the rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius since the start of the industrial era. "The overarching conclusions of the report are that there is an urgent need for accelerated short-term action and enhanced longer-term national ambition, if the goals of the Paris Agreement are to remain achievable," the report says. "And that practical and cost-effective options are available to make this possible." In other words, the world's countries need to get moving—and fast. But there's hope.

100% Renewables: ‘Wishful Thinking’ Or An Imperative Goal?

October 25, 2017 David Schwartzman, www.medium.com Create! Climate Change, Energy, Environment, New Economy, Renewable Energy

By David Schwartzman for Insurge Intelligence - The Military Industrial (Fossil Fuel Nuclear State Terror and Surveillance) Complex (“MIC” for short) is the main obstacle to making this rapid shift to 100% renewable energy possible. As I have long argued in my papers, and most recently in Schwartzman (2016), the MIC’s perpetual wars driven by a neo-imperial agenda, fuelling the vicious cycle of conflict between state terror and its non-state terrorist antagonists, is perhaps the most fundamental obstacle to constructive action on climate change. Hence, a path towards the dissolution of the MIC is essential for the world to have any remaining chance to keep warming below the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal by 2100, coupled with bringing down the atmospheric carbon dioxide level below 350 ppm. A Global Green New Deal is such a path (Schwartzman, 2011), as argued by Felix FitzRoy in his outstanding contribution to this symposium “How the renewable energy transition could usher in an economic revolution”. In this vein, the underlying structural obstacle to transition is the presently existing political economy of neoliberal capitalism, and not the alleged technical problems cited by Cox — which are misleadingly used as ammunition against the feasibility of the imperative need to facilitate a rapid 100% global renewable wind/solar energy transition.

GAO: Climate Change Already Costing US Billions In Losses

October 24, 2017 Staff, www.AP.org Educate! Budgets, Climate Change, Taxes

By Staff of Associated Press - A non-partisan federal watchdog says climate change is already costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year, with those costs expected to rise as devastating storms, floods, wildfires and droughts become more frequent in the coming decades. A Government Accountability Office report released Monday said the federal government has spent more than $350 billion over the last decade on disaster assistance programs and losses from flood and crop insurance. That tally does not include the massive toll from this year's three major hurricanes and wildfires, expected to be among the most costly in the nation's history. The report predicts these costs will only grow in the future, potentially reaching a budget busting $35 billion a year by 2050. The report says the federal government doesn't effectively plan for these recurring costs, classifying the financial exposure from climate-related costs as "high risk."

Portuguese Children To Sue European Govs Over Climate Change

October 21, 2017 Staff, www.heraldscotland.com Resist! Climate Change, Europe, Government, Lawsuit

By Staff of The Herald - Seven children are to sue European governments in a landmark lawsuit over the impact that climate change is having on their lives. The Portuguese youngsters, some from the Leiria region which has been devastated by wildfires twice this year, are seeking a ruling to force 47 countries to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions. And they want the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to order nations to keep remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground. One of the children spearheading the unprecedented case is 18-year-old Claudia from the Leiria district, who said older generations have a responsibility to stop releasing dangerous pollution. "What worries me the most about climate change is the rise in temperatures, which has contributed to the number of fires taking place in our country," she said. Claudia said she is taking the case "for the children and for the future generations who are not responsible for the current state of the environment". Three days of national mourning are being held in Portugal after scores of people died as deadly forest fires twice hit the country this year. Outbreaks in June claimed 64 lives and another 41 are believed to have been killed in the last week after winds associated with Storm Ophelia fanned flames sparked in drought-like conditions.

Judge Allows Necessity Defense In “Valve-Turner” Trial

October 18, 2017 Stephen Kent, www.shutitdown.today Resist! Climate Change, Courts, Minnesota

By Stephen Kent for Shut It Down - While this is not the first time a court has approved presentation of the necessity defense in a criminal trial of a climate activist, the ruling is a milestone that will have far-reaching implications. "Only a few courts have allowed presentation of the climate necessity defense, and until Friday, no judge in a jury trial in the United States had recognized the defense in writing,” according to a statement from the Climate Defense Project, a legal nonprofit that provided pre-trial briefing and is part of the defendants’ legal team. The defendants are climate activists who sought to prevent climate damage by stopping the flow of carbon-intensive tar sands. “Valve-turners” Emily Johnston and Annette Klapstein closed safety block valves on Enbridge pipelines in Clearwater County, Minnesota, on October 11, 2016 as part of the coordinated “Shut It Down” climate direct action, which disrupted all five pipelines bringing carbon-intensive tar sands crude from Canada to the United States. Two other defendants face criminal charges for documenting Johnston and Klapstein’s action: videographer Steve Liptay and support person Ben Joldersma. They have also been granted permission to present a necessity defense, and will be tried separately from Johnston and Klapstein.

Radically Changing How We Face Food Insecurity And Climate Change

October 18, 2017 Josianne Gauthi, www.cidse.org Create! Climate Change, Food and Agriculture, New Economy

By Josianne Gauthi the Secretary General CIDSE - What we need is a profound and radical transformation, or dare we say, conversion of the world food system. Around the world, people are migrating within and across borders, and for many of them, hunger and food insecurity are driving them. We know that climate change, conflict, and political instability are adversely affecting food security, but if communities are still facing hunger today it is because of the flawed and damaging way in which we produce and distribute food around the world. Indeed, at the heart of the problem, and perhaps the solution, is our very relationship to food and the land it grows on. Food insecurity is largely driven by a food system that is highly controlled by agribusiness, believed to be the only model capable of producing large volumes of food – and waste. But more food is not the same as less hunger! The figures are clear: in 2016 the number of undernourished people in the world came to an estimated 815 million—from 777 million people in 2015. In addition, 75% of the world’s poor rely on agriculture and natural resources for their livelihoods yet, despite this, they are also the most food insecure, leading many to migrate to urban areas or other countries in search for better living conditions with great uncertainty for their own and their children’s futures. Hunger is not diminishing, it is increasing. We must be tackling its root causes, not increasing production.

Open Letter To Union Leaders: Act On Climate

October 13, 2017 Staff, www.popularresistance.corg Organize! Climate Change, Labor, Unions

By Staff of Labor Network for Sustainability - Working people, poor people, and frontline communities are most heavily impacted by the effects of climate change. We feel the force of this devastation first and worst—from more powerful hurricanes to wildfires, from rising sea levels to crop-destroying droughts and floods. Our families and communities receive the greatest blow and have the biggest stake in moving as rapidly as possible from a fossil fuel-based society to a sustainable energy society. Global warming represents an existential threat to the world’s people. We must act rapidly to avoid even more devastating climate change. But moving to 100% renewable energy will also impact jobs for many of us. So any transition, to be just, must protect workers and frontline communities impacted by the changes we must make from having to disproportionately bear rather than share the social cost. Organized labor with its allies is the strongest, best-organized force to turn this around. Who will speak for the global majority of working people and poor people if organized labor does not? The Earth is our only home. There is no Planet B. And there are no jobs on a dead planet.

Whistleblower Quits With Letter Over Trump Interior Dept. Leadership

October 9, 2017 Sabrina Shankman, www.insideclimatenews.org Resist! Climate Change, Trump Administration, Whistleblowers

By Sabrina Shankman for Inside Climate Change - A senior Interior Department official announced his resignation on Wednesday, accusing the Trump administration of poor leadership, wasting taxpayer dollars and failing to address climate change. Joel Clement's resignation comes four months after he invoked the protections of whistleblower law for what he said was an illegal attempt by the department's leaders to intimidate him for speaking out about climate change. "You and President Trump have waged an all-out assault on the civil service by muzzling scientists and policy experts like myself," Clement wrote in his resignation letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. "You have disrespected the career staff of the Department by questioning their loyalty, and you have played fast and loose with government regulations to score points with your political base at the expense of American health and safety." In the letter, Clement listed some of the groups of Americans who are reckoning with the impacts of climate change—including families and businesses in the path of hurricanes and flooding, the fishermen and farmers coping with new realities, medical professionals working to understand new diseases—and issued a warning.

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