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Belgium’s PTB Kickstarts Campaign With Pro-People Action Plan

March 17, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
The Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB/PVDA) has kickstarted its campaign for the 2024 Belgian federal election with a conference in Brussels on Sunday, March 10. In the gathering, party leader Raoul Hedebouw officially released its program for the upcoming federal elections scheduled for June 9 this year. The party has charted out 150 meetings across the country from March 10 to May 29, to elaborate on their election manifesto and policies with their cadre and the broader population. PTB has prioritized the fight for fiscal justice, strengthening of purchasing power, formulation of social climate policy, and the fight against politicians’ privilege in their election manifesto.

California Must Triple Its Rate Of Carbon Emissions Reductions

March 17, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , , , ,
California is not on track to meet its greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal for 2030, new data released by nonprofit think tank Next 10 and prepared by consulting firm Beacon Economics reveals. To do so, the state must triple its annual emissions reductions, the 2023 California Green Innovation Index said. “The increase in emissions following the pandemic makes it all the more difficult for California to meet its climate goals on time,” said Next 10 Founder F. Noel Perry, as reported by ESG News. “In fact, we may be further behind than many people realize.

Arizona’s Health Department Adds Chief Heat Officer

March 10, 2024 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. , , ,
Following the hottest year on record, complete with a megadrought in Arizona that led to construction restrictions to reserve groundwater around Phoenix, Arizona has added a new chief heat officer to its Department of Health Services. The officer’s role is to help with extreme heat preparedness in the state. Dr. Eugene Livar, a physician who was formerly the assistant director for public health preparedness for the Department of Health Services, has been chosen for the role. Dr. Livar had helped in developing the Arizona heat preparedness plan in his former role, The Associated Press reported.

‘Fire Weather’: Big Oil’s Climate Conflagration

March 9, 2024 Chris Hedges, The Real News Network. , , , ,
Few places illustrate the destructive cycle of fossil fuel-driven climate change as well as Alberta, Canada. Home to the tar sands boom, the province’s remote north has also become a site of some of the worst climate disasters in recorded history—like the 2016 Fort McMurray Fire, which swallowed up 1.5 million acres and burned for three months. John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the Fort McMurray Fire, the tar sands industry responsible for the conditions that produced it, and the tinderbox world Big Oil has made in its all-consuming pursuit of profit.

Pipeline Fighters Block Mountain Valley Pipeline Construction

March 4, 2024 Appalachians Against Pipelines, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Roanoke County, VA — On Monday morning at 5 AM, two people locked themselves to a broken down vehicle on Honeysuckle Rd, blocking Mountain Valley Pipeline's access to the pipeline easement, a work yard, and 2 access roads. They held banners and signs reading, "OLDER THAN THE HILLS - WATER IS LIFE," "DEFEND THIS LAND," and "WATER IS PRECIOUS." Nearly 20 people gathered on site in support of these folks and to resist the Mountain Valley Pipeline. River, an 81-year-old lifelong environmentalist, and Andy, a 63-year-old grandfather and climate activist, prevented pipeline construction on Poor Mountain for 11 hours.

Climate Cases Against Big Oil Are Merging Into One Super Suit

February 21, 2024 Dana Drugmand, DeSmog. , , ,
Several California municipalities are merging their climate deception litigation with the state’s climate case, to jointly pursue a super-sized lawsuit against the fossil fuel industry, according to recent court filings. This development comes as Chicago joins the growing list of U.S. municipalities suing the fossil fuel industry. On February 5, Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Charles S. Treat approved California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s petition to link the state’s climate accountability case with lawsuits brought by the counties of Marin, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz, and the cities of Imperial Beach, Richmond, and Santa Cruz.

Greek Farmers Continue Their Protest

February 15, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
The protesting farmers in Greece decided to continue their agitations across the country with demands such as duty-free agricultural diesel, reduced electricity costs, and subsidies on supplies and animal feed, as negotiations with the government on February 13 yielded no results. A week-long protest, including rallies and blockades in major motorways across Greece, forced the New Democracy (ND) government to call the farmers’ groups for negotiations on Tuesday. The farmer’s unions rejected the meager concessions on electricity prices offered by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. They demanded effective measures for renegotiating the EU’s new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), full compensation for lost income during floods, and a cessation of labeling non-Greek produce as Greek.

Global Tapestry Of Alternatives: Weaving Transformative Connections

February 15, 2024 Ashish Kothari and Shrishtee Bajpai, Grassroots Economic Organizing. , , , ,
Proactive responses to the multiple crises the world faces—ecological, socio-cultural, political, economic, spiritual—are widespread and diverse. They range from movements of resistance to the dominant ecologically destructive and socially inequitable model of “development” that has been imposed across the world, to people’s initiatives at constructing or sustaining ways of life that meet human needs and aspirations without despoiling the earth and exacerbating inequalities. They are emerging from Indigenous Peoples and other rural communities, from urban neighborhoods, from both the Global South and Global North, from both marginalized sections and the privileged elite.1

Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks To Climate Action

February 14, 2024 Michaela Herrmann, DeSmog. , , ,
Professor Dana R. Fisher answers this critical question in her new book, Saving Ourselves: Climate Shocks to Climate Action. Building upon years of research on activism, democracy, and climate politics, Fisher explores the state of the climate movement today to understand how radical direct action is evolving as the climate crisis worsens. In an interview with DeSmog’s Michaela Herrmann, Fisher outlines why she thinks “severe, durable climate shocks” will be required to shake the world out of the fossil fuel status quo once and for all. She draws upon years of data gathered from climate protests as early as COP6 in 2000 and lessons from the world’s response to COVID-19 to understand how civil society has responded to 30 years of ineffectual international climate negotiations.

Michael Mann Wins $1 Million Verdict In Defamation Trial

February 9, 2024 Diane Bernard and Adam M. Lowenstein, DeSmog. , , , , , ,
In a victory for climate scientists, jurors in Michael Mann’s defamation case against Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn awarded Mann $1 million in punitive damages for defamatory comments made in 2012. In a unanimous decision, jurors agreed that both Simberg and Steyn defamed Mann in blog posts that compared Mann to convicted sex offender Jerry Sandusky, former assistant football coach at Penn State University. They announced that Simberg will pay $1,000 in punitive damages and Steyn will pay the larger $1 million. Standing in front of the courthouse smiling with his legal team after the verdict was read, Mann told DeSmog that he trusted the jury to see through the “smoke and mirrors” that the defense used during the trial.

Climate Denial Network Behind ‘Classic Astroturf’ Farmers’ Campaign

February 8, 2024 Clare Carlile, Adam Barnett and Phoebe Cooke, DeSmog. , , , , ,
A network of climate science deniers has been accused of “hijacking” rural concerns over a new social media campaign “to save the farming industry”. ‘No Farmers, No Food’ has gained over 50,000 followers on X in the fortnight since its launch, which was framed as a response to the widespread farmers’ protests sweeping across Europe. The campaign, which started in the UK, has rapidly won support from a number of international pundits, from Canadian climate science denier Jordan Peterson, to Fox News contributor and host Tomi Lahren, who has called climate change a “hoax”. Populist politicians in the UK and elsewhere have also declared their support.

Are Europe’s Farmers Protesting Green Reforms? It’s Complicated

February 7, 2024 Rachel Sherrington, DeSmog. , , , , , , ,
Across France, Italy and Belgium last week thousands of farmers descended on capital cities to express their deep discontent with the European food system. The scenes were dramatic. Parked tractors brought traffic to a standstill in Paris, and on Thursday burning piles of hay and debris sent up huge, dark plumes of smoke in Brussels. The protests show no sign of slowing down and are expected this week across Italy, Slovenia and Spain. Farmers’ demonstrations have been portrayed as a revolt against net zero, by the media and far-right groups. This is the message received by governments – and they are acting on it. So far, the farmers have won key concessions.

Controversial Study Says 1.5°C Warming Target Already Breached

February 7, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , ,
A new study using marine sponges collected off the coast of Puerto Rico has found that the planet has already warmed more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Researchers analyzed ocean temperature records from sea sponges going back 300 years, a press release from The University of Western Australia (UWA) said. They concluded that global heating had actually increased by 0.5 degrees Celsius more than earlier estimates. “So rather than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimate of average global temperatures having increased by 1.2 degrees by 2020, temperatures were in fact already 1.7 degrees above pre-industrial levels,” said lead author of the study Malcolm McCulloch.

Actions Against Mountain Valley Pipeline During Days Of Solidarity

February 5, 2024 Appalachians Against Pipelines, Popular Resistance. , , , , ,
Beginning on January 29, people across Turtle Island rose up to oppose and fight back against the Mountain Valley Pipeline and its funders, investors, contractors, and collaborators. Folks around the country took autonomous action, organized in their communities, and showed solidarity with pipeline resistance, as well as with comrades facing state repression in Atlanta, and with the people of Palestine.  In the days that followed, organizers stood in solidarity with MVP resistance from hundreds of miles away, rallying outside of the offices of EQT and PNC bank in Pittsburgh, outside of Washington Gas (WGL) in D.C., and outside of Bank of America in Charlotte, and Wells Fargo in San Francisco, Blacksburg, Richmond, and other locations.

Don’t Be Fooled By Biden’s Gas U-Turn

February 3, 2024 Rachel Donald, Resilience. , , ,
Last week, the Biden administration announced it is pausing export approvals for Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). LNG, which has been branded a “transition fuel” by Western governments and fossil fuel companies, has an enormous impact on both local environments and global heating, with some researching suggesting its emissions are just as filthy as coal. The USA has, in the past 10 years, become the biggest producer and exporter of LNG; it was recently estimated we have 125 years left of LNG in our reserves. Biden’s Department of Energy framed the decision as the administration’s commitment to being “pro-climate”
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