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climate crisis

United Nations: We Have ‘Two Years To Save The World’ From Climate Crisis

April 12, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , ,
We are running out of time to take action on climate change, says Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In a speech titled “Two Years to Save the World,” Stiell emphasized that governments, development banks and business leaders must take steps to avert much more serious impacts of the climate crisis within that time frame, reported Reuters. “For those who say that climate change is only one of many priorities, like ending poverty, ending hunger, ending pandemics, or improving education, I simply say this...

Married Couple Block Mountain Valley Pipeline In Large Wooden Possum

April 11, 2024 Appalachians Against Pipelines, Popular Resistance. , , , , , ,
Roanoke County, VA - Early Wednesday morning, married couple Ted Glick (74) and Jane Califf (83), locked themselves inside a large wooden possum on Honeysuckle Rd in Roanoke County, VA, blocking Mountain Valley Pipeline construction in the area. Ted and Jane prevented MVP's access to the pipeline easement, a work yard, and 2 access roads, for 6.5 hours, before they were extracted from their blockade and arrested. They were each charged with 3 misdemeanors, given bail of $3,000, and bailed out the same day.

India’s Supreme Court Expands ‘Right To Life’ To Include Climate Change

April 10, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , ,
In another landmark climate decision, the Supreme Court of India has ruled that an individual’s “right to life” includes protection against the impacts of climate change. The verdict reflects fundamental rights stated in Article 21 of the country’s constitution, reported The Independent. “Without a clean environment which is stable and unimpacted by the vagaries of climate change, the right to life is not fully realised,” the decision of the court said. “The right to health (which is a part of the right to life under Article 21) is impacted due to factors such as air pollution, shifts in vector-borne diseases, rising temperatures, droughts, shortages in food supplies due to crop failure, storms, and flooding.”

Three ‘Most Important’ Greenhouse Gases Reached Record Highs

April 9, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , , ,
Levels of the three “most important” greenhouse gases — methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide — in the atmosphere reached record highs again in 2023, according to research conducted by scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML). Air samples taken by GML indicated that levels of the heat-trapping gases did not rise as fast as the record leaps of recent years, but were still in accordance with sharp increases recorded in the past decade, a press release from NOAA said.

US Banks ‘Sabotaging’ Climate Targets By Financing Meat And Dairy

April 6, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , , , ,
A new study has found that 58 banks in the United States are “sabotaging” their own net-zero commitments by providing financing to meat, dairy and animal feed corporations. Research for the report, Bull in the Climate Shop: Industrial livestock financing sabotages major U.S. banks’ climate commitments, was conducted by U.S. environmental nonprofit Friends of the Earth and Profundo, a research group based in the Netherlands. From 2016 to 2023, $134 billion in loans and underwriting was provided to meat, dairy, food processing, animal feed and agri-commodity corporations by 58 U.S. banks, according to the report.

Climate Justice Means Holistic Transformation, Not Tinkering

April 5, 2024 Helen Yuill, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , ,
‘The climate crisis has many dimensions: social, political, economic, environmental, moral, ethical, and ideological. The way out of the crisis must address the root cause: the endless, limitless, mindless accumulation and concentration of capital on a planet with finite resources,’ Valdrak Jaentschke, head of the Nicaragua delegation, said in his speech at the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai. In turn, climate justice must be multi-dimensional recognising that climate justice is an integral part of social, political, environmental, and ethical justice.

Ad And PR Industry Directors Have Ties To Heavily Polluting Industries

April 4, 2024 TJ Jordan and Pachel Sherrington, DeSmog. , , , , ,
Half of the board members at the world’s six largest advertising and public relations companies have ties to polluting industries, DeSmog can reveal. Of the 64 total board members at Omnicom Group, WPP, Interpublic Group (IPG), Publicis Groupe, Dentsu and Havas, 32 have significant experience in carbon-heavy sectors such as fossil fuels, fossil fuel financing, plastics, utilities, and aviation. Twenty-two are still serving in roles at such companies. With combined revenues of $67 billion in 2022, the six firms dominate the communications industry, and have hundreds of subsidiary agencies around the world. Of the 64 total board members at Omnicom Group, WPP, Interpublic Group (IPG), Publicis Groupe, Dentsu and Havas, 32 have significant experience in carbon-heavy sectors such as fossil fuels, fossil fuel financing, plastics, utilities, and aviation. Twenty-two are still serving in roles at such companies.

Shell In Court Over Its ‘Dire’ Exacerbation Of The Climate Crisis

April 2, 2024 The Canary. , , ,
Shell squared off against seven environmental groups in a Dutch appeals court on Tuesday 2 April, with climate activists accusing the multinational oil giant of failing to implement a landmark 2021 judgement – worsening the climate crisis. Judges at the Hague District Court ruled three years ago that Shell must reduce its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030. They said it was contributing to the “dire” effects of climate change. That ruling was a historic victory for climate change campaigners. It was the first time a company had been made to align its policy with the 2015 Paris climate change accords.

Court Prohibits Eurowings Greenwashing Advertisements

April 2, 2024 Mira Kapfinger, Stay Grounded. , , , ,
Berlin – On March 28th, “Deutsche Umwelthilfe” (DUH) achieved a success against misleading sustainability advertising by the airline Eurowings. The Cologne Regional Court in Germany fully upheld the complaint brought by the environmental and consumer protection organisation. The court prohibited the airline from advertising flights whose emissions are offset with a few euros as “CO2-neutral” in the form in which they were advertised at the time the lawsuit was filed.  The court found that the forest protection projects used for the alleged offsetting of emissions are not suitable for achieving actual compensation.

The Hidden Potential Of Bicycles

April 1, 2024 Brian Kaller, Resilience. , , ,
In perhaps one of the great ironies of human civilisation, mechanical devices to truly magnify human power came along as soon as we didn’t need them.  Pedal-powered devices like bicycles only appeared after coal had already begun to transform the landscape, however – mass production was necessary for the standardised metal parts — and around the same time that gasoline was first being introduced as a fuel for automobiles. We tend to forget, then, three important things about the bicycle. First, it remains the most efficient method of using our bodies, allowing us to attain higher machine speeds for longer than we would on muscle power alone – and without using any more fuel or causing any more weather to go haywire.

More Than Half Of U.S. Landfills Are Methane ‘Super-Emitters’

March 31, 2024 Cristen Hemingway-Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , ,
Methane is a heat-trapping greenhouse gas (GHG) that is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Most methane comes from human activities — roughly 60 percent — such as agriculture, fossil fuels and the decomposition of waste in landfills. According to a new study led by nonprofit Carbon Mapper, more than half the landfills in the United States are “super-emitters” of methane. “Addressing these high methane sources and mitigating persistent landfill emissions offers a strong potential for climate benefit,” said Dr. Dan Cusworth.

Groups Pressure Ottawa To Ban Fossil Fuel Ads

March 30, 2024 Taylor Noakes, DeSmog. , , ,
For the first time in 20 years, this month Ottawa will review its Corporate Sponsorship and Advertising Policy. Community groups such as Ecology Ottawa are looking forward to the review as a rare opportunity to stop fossil fuel companies from advertising in the city. If successful, this would prevent fossil fuel companies and their advocates from advertising in city-owned buildings, such as hockey arenas or community centres. The community groups intend to lead a separate campaign to also ban fossil fuel advertising on vehicles and infrastructure owned by the city’s transit agency.

As Climate Crisis Expands, Canada Hands Billions To Fossil Fuel Industry

March 28, 2024 Taylor Noakes, DeSmog. , , , ,
A new report by the nonprofit Environmental Defence indicates that, despite record profits for the fossil fuel industry and Canadian claims to eliminate subsidies, the government of Justin Trudeau continues to spend massive quantities of public money supporting the primary cause of climate change. “As people across Canada faced a fossil fuel affordability crisis, and climate disasters continued to ravage the country and the world, the government of Canada continued providing financial support to an industry that we need to be winding down in order to avoid catastrophic levels of warming.”

You Can’t Be Neutral In A Flooding House

March 27, 2024 Ankur Singh, In These Times. , , , ,
Cicero, Illinois - A crowd swells outside an auditorium one summer evening in 2023, trying to enter a special town hall meeting. The air fills with chants: ​“Where’s our money?” and ​“El pueblo unido jamás será vencido” (“The people, united, will never be defeated”). Soon, police inform the hundreds outside that no one else is allowed in. It felt apt: We wanted answers about why our city was so dysfunctional, and the city couldn’t even host a proper meeting. I’m a journalist and also a Cicero resident, and I was there because I, too, was angry. Howard Zinn famously said you can’t be neutral on a moving train; it’s also difficult in a flooded house.

Alberta’s Brutal Water Reckoning

March 25, 2024 Andrew Nikiforuk, Resilience. , , ,
Alberta’s water reckoning has begun in earnest. Snowpack accumulations in the Oldman River basin, the Bow River basin and the North Saskatchewan River basin range from 33 to 62 per cent below normal. A reduced snowpack means less summer water for the fish and all water drinkers. Ancient glaciers that feed and top up prairie rivers in the late summer melted at record speeds last year, the hottest on global records. Many indomitable ice packs, such as the well-studied Peyto Glacier, are disappearing altogether, wasted by the desiccating hand of climate disorder.
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