COP21

Newsletter: After Trump’s Climate Withdrawal

June 3, 2017 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Climate Change, Climate Justice, COP21, Donald Trump, New Economy

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement follows the path of previous presidents who have undermined international climate agreements. We disagree with Trump but it is important to understand his actions in the context of the history of the United States regarding previous climate agreements. Once again, the political problems in the US are bigger than Trump. His action brings greater clarity to the inability of the US government to confront the climate crisis and clarifies the tasks of people seeking smart climate policy.

White House Protest Rebukes Trump For Paris Climate Agreement Exit

June 2, 2017 John Zangas, www.dcmediagroup.us Resist! Climate Change, COP21, Donald Trump, Paris Agreement

By John Zangas for DC Media Group. Dozens of speakers, including leaders of think tanks, former government officials, and representatives from environmental groups converged on the White House Thursday afternoon to criticize President Donald Trump for his decision to back out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Trump’s decision to rescind the US endorsement of the Accord was seen as a set back to collective efforts to curb climate change. The Paris Climate Accord was signed in December, 2015 by 195 countries, and was heralded as a first step towards reducing climate change inducing gases. The US now joins a short list of two countries that did not endorse the accord, namely Syria and Nicaragua. The accord provides for five year incremental reviews and adjustments to keep up with sciencetific developmets as more is learned from the evolving climate situation. It also provides a means of gradually weening civilization off carbon based fuels. One by one speakers railed against Trump’s decision, calling it a “head in the sand” and “climate change denier’s” response on behalf of fossil fuel industry interests.

World Reacts To Trump’s Intent To Withdraw From Climate Treaty

June 1, 2017 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Climate Change, Climate Justice, COP21, Donald Trump, Paris Agreement

By Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. Washington, DC - President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement today, June 1. This prompted a strong response from people across the United States and around the world. Trump's views on the climate crisis are in the minority. US News & World Report wrote that there is broad public support for the Paris Agreement – even among Trump voters. By more than 5 to 1, voters say the U.S. should participate in the Paris climate agreement. A nationally representative survey conducted last November after the election found that seven in 10 registered voters say the U.S. should participate in the Paris climate agreement. Only 13 percent say the U.S. should not. Trump is in a tiny minority and does not represent the people of the United States.

Newsletter: Ending The Political Charade

April 23, 2016 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance Newsletter Baltimore, climate crisis, COP21, Democracy, Democracy Spring, Divestment, Environmental racism, Fracking, Freddie Gray, Freedom of the Press, Gas, Incinerators, killed by police, Noam Chomsky, Nonviolence, Nuclear Energy, Nuit Debout, Police violence, Racism, Solar Energy, TPP, wealth inequality, Wind

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. This week, on Earth Day, representatives from 130 countries gathered at the United Nations in New York City to sign the climate treaty agreed upon in Paris last December. As they smiled for the camera and promised to do their best to hold the temperature down, climate activists posted an open letter stating that it is too late, the climate emergency is already here. Leading up to the signing of the Paris Treaty this week were actions to stop the advance of fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Many events to mark the one year anniversary are taking place this week and the next in Baltimore to remember the uprising. Erica Chenoweth, the author of "How Civil Resistance Works", writes that elections both locally and globally are being shaped by nonviolent resistance. In the US, no matter who is elected president in the November election, it will be critical for those who have been activated to continue to organize and visibly protest.

Specter Of Geoengineering Haunts Paris Climate Agreement

February 22, 2016 Daniel Tanuro, www.climateandcapitalism.com Educate! Climate Change, COP21

By Daniel Tanuro for Climate and Capitalism - Although the Paris Climate Conference (COP21) Agreement was described by negotiators and the media as ambitious and historic,[1] the document is actually little more than a statement of intent that confirms the target set in Copenhagen in 2009: to keep the temperature rise this century to less than 2°C above the pre-industrial level. Under pressure from the most threatened countries, the Paris deal adds a hope to keep the increase under 1.5°C, a goal already envisaged in 2010, at the Cancun COP.

Cap And Clear-Cut

January 23, 2016 Will Parrish, www.eastbayexpress.com Educate! Climate Change, COP21, REDD

By Will Parrish for East Bay Express - Jerry Brown basked in adulation during his whirlwind trip to Paris, and the evening of December 8 figured to offer more of the same. Standing alongside governors of states and provinces from Brazil, Mexico, and Peru, California's governor planned to tout his state's leadership role on global climate policy. The event was one of 21 presentations that Brown delivered during a five-day swing through France during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 21).

How The Broad Climate Movement Has Failed Us

January 21, 2016 James Jordan, www.links.org.au Resist! Climate Change, COP21

By James Jordan for LINKS - January 13, 2016 - Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal - It has been a month since the UN climate summit in Paris, aka COP 21. One might expect the kind of ebb and flow we often see in popular movements. Interest in climate issues, the cause of the day during the summit, might be expected to wane and move to the back burner of public discourse until such time as another development pushes it forward again. However, climate change is fundamentally different. It is going to get worse — we will be getting slapped in the face with this one for a long, long time, even under the best scenarios.

Newsletter: Why Protests Will Continue To Grow

January 16, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter #BlackLivesMatter, #FightFor15, Black Lives Matter (BLM), China, Climate Change, COP21, Corporatism, Democracy, Economic inequality, Empire, Environment, FERC, Finance and the Economy, Guantanamo, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, Iraq, Jobs, militarism, Necessity defense, oligarchy, Poverty, Russia, Solar Energy, Stratfor, Syria, TPP, Trade, Wealth Ineqaulity

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. This week the reason that there are a growing protest movement and growing disenchantment with government was put on display. The divergence between government and reality was thrust in our faces. The entire government came together, Members of Congress, the Cabinet, military leaders, the Supreme Court, Vice President and President (minus the 'selected survivor' in case the Capitol was attacked, the head of Homeland Security) to hear the State of the Union. The choreographed self-praise of people who will spend $5 billion this year of mostly big business money to get re-elected was evident from the moment the door was opened. Hugs and kisses, backslapping all around, required applause as the President approached the podium, more staged applause when he was introduced and then, as if they were trained, dozens of standing ovations on cue – 89 times in a 58-minute speech the President was applauded.

Climate Insurgency After Paris

January 13, 2016 Jeremy Brecher, www.portside.org Resist! Climate Change, COP21

By Jeremy Brecher for Portside - In December of 2015 - the earth's hottest year since recordkeeping began -- 195 nations met in Paris to forge an agreement to combat global warming. The governments of the world acknowledged their individual and collective duty to protect the earth's climate -- and then willfully refused to perform that duty. What did they agree to, and how should the people they govern respond? The 195 nations meeting in Paris unanimously agreed to the goal of keeping global warming "well below 2 degrees Celsius" and to pursue efforts "to limit the increase in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius." Despite that goal, the Paris agreement also permits the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that cause global warming to continue rising.

Climate Movement Stuck In ‘Groundhog Day’

January 8, 2016 Cam Fenton, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Climate Change, Climate Justice, COP21

By Cam Fenton for Waging Nonviolence - Throughout 2015, I had a hard time explaining my feeling about the Paris climate talks. Friends and allies would excitedly ask me if I was going and I’d force a smile and explain that no, I had been to enough United Nations climate meetings. The truth was that after more than five years of attending and watching U.N. climate talks, the whole thing had started to feel like the climate movement had gotten itself stuck in a time-warp and we were living the same two weeks over and over again every year.

The Paris Climate Agreement: Hope Or Hype?

December 31, 2015 Brian Tokar, www.PopularResistance.org Strategize! Climate Change, COP21

By Brian Tokar for Popular Resistance. Clearly, it will require more than statements of ambitious climate goals to corral the overarching capitalist imperative to grow and expand, or even to rein in political pressures to keep diverting public funds to support fossil fuel corporations. This, of course, is where the worldwide climate movement comes in. My earlier discussion highlighted the potential convergence of “Blockadia” and “Alternatiba” that public actions in the lead-up to Paris were designed to symbolize. Opposition to new fossil fuel infrastructure has spread throughout the world in recent years, as have an impressive array of practical, grassroots alternatives to business as usual. The 350.org network and its global allies are now planning a worldwide mobilization against the fossil fuel industry for May of 2016. It will be preceded by countless local and regional rallies, marches, and direct actions, culminating in a unified focus on the world’s most destructive sites of fossil fuel extraction. Perhaps if enough people are in the streets to say no to continued fossil fuel dependence and yes to community-centered alternatives, grassroots pressure can succeed where diplomacy continues to fall short.

Break Free In 2016, Our Corporate Constitution & Panoramic Awareness

December 31, 2015 Eleanor Goldfield, www.occupy.com Resistance Report Chamber of Commerce, COP21, Powell Memo

By ELeanor Goldfield of Act Out for Occupy.com. We're back in the swing of things just in time to send you off for 2015. After watching our Best of Paris coverage last week, get a little glimpse of what's to come for the global climate movement in 2016. Also, I promised a while back that we'd get back to the Chamber of Commerce, so let's dig through the history of this corporate low life scum. And finally, Agunda Okeyo talks art and activism from the global, black female perspective. But first, inspired by Paris, let us walk on silent ground. tags: spoken word, Occupy, Act Out, silent ground, climate talks, sacred ground, people power, UN climate talks, Paris climate summit, 350.org, Break Free 2016, fossil fuel divestment, ende galende, mass mobilization, civil disobedience, Chamber of Commerce, Lewis Powell, Powell Memo, Citizens United, money in politics, systemic corruption, Agunda Okeyo.

The Climate Movement Is Dead: A Report Back From COP21

December 25, 2015 Ducky Slowcode, www.medium.com Strategize! Climate Change, Climate Justice, COP21

By Ducky Slowcode for Medium. The climate talks, as to be expected, were a total failure. Negotiations were held up in large part by the United States and Saudi Arabia, both of which have a vested interest in the continuation of our global addiction to fossil fuels. Saudi Arabia in particular has a history of working to water down or entirely dissolve global climate talks in an attempt to maintain its standing as one of the top oil-producing countries in the world. Likewise, the USA, whose military is the single largest emissions producer in the world and an intimidating global presence, and whose rich history of human rights violations would entirely derail this article were I to get into them, stood to lose a lot in the negotiations, and fought to remove human rights provisions from the finalized agreements. The finished product has the member nations agreeing to hold global temperature increase to “2°C…and efforts to limit…to 1.5°C”, but provides no measures for accountability to this figure. Rather, the agreement holds member nations to a “facilitative, non-intrusive, non-punitive” framework. This is not the climate policy we need from global “leaders”, but I can’t say I’m surprised.

Newsletter: An Opening For People Power

December 20, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Climate Change, COP21, Fight for 15, Revolution, Trade, US Empire

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The reality that corporatism cannot deal with the urgent problems faced in the US and around the world is becoming more obvious. People power is growing as more see that the current system is unable to operate in a functional way. People power is having an impact, forcing the country to listen. How do we create the transformation we need? The UN climate talks, COP21, are now recognized widely as a failure, at best a framework to be filled at a later date. Why were countries unable to confront climate change? The dominant economic and political power in the world is the United States. We are ruled by corporate power which is corrupted by Big Energy and as a result the US ensured a bad agreement.

Anti-Nuclear Climbers Defy Paris Protest Ban, Four Arrested

December 16, 2015 Staff, www.nukeresister.org Resist! COP21, Paris, Protesters Arrested, Protests

By Staff of The Nuclear Resister - Four anti-nuclear activists defied the state of emergency ban on public protest in Paris on Wednesday, December 2, climbing up the steel cables beneath the modern Arche de la Defense to hang banners. French environmentalists joined German climbers from the action group Robin Wood in the ascent as the COP 21 climate talks were underway. They first deployed small banners reading “Don’t Nuke the Climate – Stop EPR” (referring to the latest French reactor design). Police were quickly on the scene, including 20 from a specially equipped mountain brigade in town for the event.

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