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Whole Truth Five Sentenced To 4-5 Years At Southwark Crown Court

In an obscene perversion of justice, five Just Stop Oil supporters were handed multi-year prison sentences today for nothing more than attending a Zoom call. [1] At Southwark Crown Court, Judge Christopher Hehir jailed Roger Hallam (57, from Wales) for five years, whilst Daniel Shaw (38, from Northampton), Lucia Whittaker De Abreu (34, from Derby), Louise Lancaster (58, from Cambridge) and Cressida Gethin (22, from Hereford) were each sentenced to four years. They were convicted last week of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance in relation to the M25 motorway disruption in November 2022. [2] They will join Amy Pritchard who was sentenced in June to 10 months in prison for breaking a window belonging to the world’s largest fossil fuel funder, JP Morgan.

EU Admits ‘Double Standards’ On Israel, Ukraine, Iraq, Climate Crisis

The European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, has acknowledged that the West has hypocritical “double standards”. Borrell argued that “diplomacy is the art of managing double standards”. As examples of Western hypocrisy, the top EU diplomat cited international law, the Russia-Ukraine-NATO war, Israel’s bombing of Gaza, the US-led invasion of Iraq, and climate change. “Wherever I go, I find myself confronted with the accusation of double standards”, Borrell recalled. “I used to say to my ambassadors that diplomacy is the art of managing double standards. Certainly, something difficult, but it is about [that]: to manage double standards”.

Building A Planet Of Peace Is The Only Realistic Thing To Do

There are times in life when you want to set aside complexity and return to the essence of things. Last week, I was on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, travelling from Isla Grande to the mainland of Colombia, when it began to rain heavily. Though our boat was modest, we were in minimal danger with Ever de la Rosa Morales, a leader of the Afro-Colombian community on the twenty-seven Rosario Islands (located off the coast of Cartagena), at the helm. During the downpour, a range of human emotions swept through me, from fear to exhilaration. The rain was linked to Hurricane Beryl, a storm that struck Jamaica at a Category Four level.

Climate In The Crosshairs

NATO spent $1.34 trillion dollars on the military in 2023, an increase of $126 billion in one year.1  It is therefore accelerating the climate crisis in a decade that the UN Secretary General António Guterres has called ‘climate crunch time’, where urgent action is needed on ‘every front’.2 NATO is currently responsible for 55% of total global military spending. In October 2023, TNI, Tipping Point North South and Stop Wapenhandel published, Climate Crossfire - How NATO’s 2% military spending targets contribute to climate breakdown. This report examined the climate impact of NATO’s 2% GDP target for spending on the military, and the related target of at least 20% of expenditure spent on equipment. I

Environmental Protesters Under Attack And Often Treated As Terrorists

Events in February felt like a legal double whammy for the environment and its defenders. First, the United Nations Environment Assembly declined a Bolivian proposal to grant rights to nature and Mother Earth. Then, Michel Forst, the U.N. special rapporteur on environmental defenders under the Aarhus Convention, raised the alarm with his new paper: “State Repression of Environmental Protest and Civil Disobedience: A Major Threat to Human Rights and Democracy.” Although the right to protest is safeguarded by universal human rights like freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, Forst signals a worrisome rise in police brutality in dealing with environmental defenders.

Extinction Rebellion Announce ‘Mass Occupation’ In Response To Election

Extinction Rebellion UK has responded to the general election result by inviting people to join Upgrade Democracy. It will be a three-day mass occupation of a high-profile location from Friday 30 August to Sunday 1 September. As the result of the UK general election was declared, Extinction Rebellion’s response is clear: it’s the system that needs to change, not the government. Analysis by Vote Climate showed all of the main political parties’ plans would take us over 1.5C between 2030 and 2035. Moreover, Keir Starmer’s new government is at best not going far enough – and art worst, actively complicit in the destruction of our planet.

Extinction Rebellion Gives Stunning Performance At Royal Albert Hall

The UK’s top insurers were forced to face up to their lethal role in climate breakdown at their annual awards ceremony on Wednesday 3 July. This is because Extinction Rebellion launched Insure Our Survival, a sustained campaign of nonviolent direct action demanding the insurance industry pull the plug on new fossil fuel ventures. The group did so at the Royal Albert Hall – even performing for onlookers. As leading figures arrived at the major industry event at the Royal Albert Hall, activists held up huge images by photographer Gideon Mendell of extreme climate crisis-driven flooding across the country that is wrecking homes, destroying lives, ruining crops and driving up food prices.

First Nations And Allies Resist Radioactive Waste Repository

On April 30, 2024, First Nations leaders organized a rally in Anemki Wequedong (Thunder Bay) to protest a proposed nuclear waste repository in northwestern Ontario between Ignace and Dryden. The speakers included representatives of Grassy Narrows First Nation, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation, Gull Bay First Nation, and Fort William First Nation. Michele Solomon, Chief of Fort William First Nation, welcomed all the participants to her traditional territory and stated that her community is “strongly opposed to the transportation of nuclear waste through our territory and we will stand by that, we will continue to stand by that, and we stand with all those who are also opposed.”

Green Amendments Gain Traction In More States Ahead Of Elections

A new wave of state legislators are pursuing the constitutional right to a safe environment, which attorneys say could strengthen climate lawsuits and policy if interpreted correctly. But the effectiveness of those amendments hinges on their legal language and other details. Nine states so far have proposed legislation that would let voters decide in November whether they want the right to a clean, safe environment spelled out in state constitutions. Washington state, New Jersey, and Hawaii are the farthest along, with committee hearings either recently held or scheduled for the coming weeks.

A Plea To The Next Government From Young People

Labour, which is likely to win the next general election, has just published its disappointing manifesto. While we should not look to the next government for an answer to climate breakdown, it is especially unfortunate that Labour is backing out of preexisting promises to provide adequate climate education. If the leaders of today cannot provide the far-sighted direction we need, let’s at least make sure those of us who are to inherit this tormented world have the tools to navigate it. As a woman in her twenties who has worked to promote mainstream climate action with the Climate Majority Project for the past two years, here are my thoughts on the kind of education we need in the coming decades

Campaigners Are Targeting Fossil Fuel Financial Backers With Lawsuits

Campaigners are increasingly taking out lawsuits against the funders of fossil fuels and other climate-harming activities, according to a new report. In its annual review of climate litigation, published June 26, the London School of Economics and Political Science’s (LSE) Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment identifies a modest but growing number of lawsuits challenging the flow of finance to projects that worsen climate change. In total, 33 cases that challenge the flow of funding have been recorded since academics began keeping track nine years ago. Six were filed in 2023.

Restoring Nature Is Our Only Climate Solution

Climate change is a huge, complicated problem. Therefore, many people have an understandable tendency to mentally simplify it by focusing on just one cause (carbon emissions) and just one solution (alternative energy). Sustainability scholar Jan Konietzko has called this “carbon tunnel vision.” Oversimplifying the problem this way leads to techno-fixes that actually fix nothing. Despite trillions of dollars already spent on low-carbon technologies, carbon emissions are still increasing, and the climate is being destabilized faster than ever. Understanding climate change requires us to embrace complexity: not only are greenhouse gases trapping heat, but we are undermining natural systems that cool the planet’s surface and sequester atmospheric carbon—systems of ice, soil, forest, and ocean.

Report: Climate Lawsuits Against Polluting Companies Are Increasing

A new report has found that climate lawsuits being filed against companies are on the rise all over the world, and most of them have been successful. The report by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) — Global trends in climate change litigation: 2024 snapshot — said that roughly 230 climate cases have been brought against trade associations and corporations since 2015, more than two-thirds of which have been filed since 2020. “Climate litigation… has become an undeniably significant trend in how stakeholders are seeking to advance climate action and accountability,” said Andy Raine.

Climate Activists Blockade Citigroup’s Doors With Model Pipeline

New York—Tensions were high outside of Citigroup’s global headquarters on Friday morning as climate activists blockaded the doors for an hour and hundreds of employees waited in the plaza to get to work. The demonstration marked the end of the second week of the “Summer of Heat on Wall Street,” a sustained, direct-action campaign targeting financial institutions, with a particular emphasis on Citi for its robust financing of fossil fuel projects, despite stated commitments to a clean energy transition. According to the Banking on Climate Chaos report from the Rainforest Action Network, an advocacy group, Citigroup is the largest financier of companies that expanded fossil fuel projects last year.

Hawaii To Decarbonize Transportation In Youth Climate Change Settlement

On Thursday, Hawaii agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by 13 young people alleging the state had violated their constitutional rights with infrastructure that adds to greenhouse (GHG) emissions, exacerbating climate change. In the settlement, the state agreed to decarbonize its transportation system by 2045. At a news conference, Governor of Hawaii Josh Green, a Democrat, called the settlement “groundbreaking,” reported Reuters. “We’re addressing the impacts of climate change today, and needless to say, this is a priority because we know now that climate change is here,” Green said, as Reuters reported. “It is not something that we’re considering in an abstract way in the future.”
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