A year of record global heat has pushed Earth closer to dangerous threshold
The Washington Post – June 5, 2024 – Scott Dance
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/06/05/global-temperatures-1-5-celsius-record-year/

The World Meteorological Organization said that it is highly likely that, for at least one calendar year in the next five, temperatures will exceed 1.5 degrees C above preindustrial levels once more. This unprecedented stretch of warmth, which has astonished scientists, prompted an urgent call by the United Nations to ban fossil fuel companies from advertising and encourage the public to stop using their products. “For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said in a special address in New York. “Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don’t seem to be listening.”… “We are playing Russian roulette with our planet,” Guterres said. “We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell.”

‘Godfathers of climate chaos’: UN chief urges global fossil-fuel advertising ban
The Guardian – June 5, 2024 – Oliver Milman
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/05/antonio-guterres-un-chief-fossil-fuels-advertising

Fossil-fuel companies are the “godfathers of climate chaos” and should be banned in every country from advertising akin to restrictions on big tobacco, the secretary general of the United Nations has said while delivering dire new scientific warnings of global heating. In a major speech in New York on Wednesday, António Guterres called on news and tech media to stop enabling “planetary destruction” by taking fossil-fuel advertising money while warning the world faces “climate crunch time” in its faltering attempts to stem the crisis. “Many governments restrict or prohibit advertising for products that harm human health, like tobacco,” he said. “I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil-fuel companies. And I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil-fuel advertising.”

Why this summer might bring the wildest weather yet
Grist – June 3, 2024 – Sachi Kitajima Mulkey
https://grist.org/extreme-weather/summer-hurricane-extreme-weather-2024/

“We’ve always had this pattern of El Niño, La Niña. Now it’s happening on top of a warmer world,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, an environmental data science nonprofit. “We need to be ready for the types of extremes that have not been tested in the past.”… “It’s important to think of climate change as making things worse,” said Andrew Dessler, climate scientist at Texas A&M University. Although human-caused warming won’t directly increase the frequency of hurricanes, he said, it can make them more destructive. “It’s a question of how much worse it’s going to get,” he said… “We are exiting the climate of the 20th century, and we’re entering a new climate of the 21st century,” Dessler said. Unfortunately, our cities were built for a range of temperatures and weather conditions that don’t exist anymore.

Nearly half of journalists covering climate crisis globally received threats for their work
The Guardian – June 5, 2024 – Nina Lakhani
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/05/climate-crisis-journalists

A global survey of more than 740 reporters and editors from 102 countries found that 39% of those threatened “sometimes” or “frequently” were targeted by people engaged in illegal activities such as logging and mining. Some 30%, meanwhile, were threatened with legal action – reflecting a growing trend towards corporations and governments deploying the judicial system to muzzle free speech. The global survey by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) and Deakin University is the first-of-its-kind scrutiny of the challenges faced by journalists covering arguably the most pressing – if not existential – issues of our time… It’s not just environmental journalists under threat. At least 1,910 land and environmental defenders around the world have been killed since 2012.

Why We Must Keep the 1.5°C Goal Alive
Common Dreams – June 9, 2024 – Joeri Rogelj
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/keep-1-5-alive

By now, it is clear to many governments that allowing global warming to exceed 1.5°C involves unacceptable societal risks, undermines development, and poses an existential threat to vulnerable communities and their cultures. Moreover, the line between “safe” and “dangerous” warming is becoming increasingly blurred. As the devastating effects of climate change worldwide show, even 1.5°C is dangerous and our societies are ill-equipped to handle it… Limiting global warming is thus a matter of social justice, human rights, and long-term development, and this imperative remains even if we cross the 1.5°C threshold. Moreover, while exceeding 1.5°C will have unpredictable political consequences as compensation claims for avoidable climate-related damage increase, the political implications of reducing GHG emissions remain consistent with what the Paris agreement already outlines… To halt global warming, the Paris agreement expects countries to implement emission-reduction plans that represent their “highest possible ambition.” While governments are failing to meet this goal, exceeding 1.5°C does not change their responsibilities; in fact, fulfilling these commitments will become more important as temperatures continue to rise.

Climate Scientist Susan Solomon: ‘Let’s Not Give Up Now – We’re Right on the Cusp of Success’
The Guardian – June 8, 2024 – Killian Fox
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/08/susan-solomon-solvable-how-we-healed-earth-climate-scientist

She is known for her work in the 1980s which established how the Earth’s protective ozone layer was being depleted by human-made chemicals. Her studies formed the basis of the 1989 Montreal protocol – an international agreement that helped eliminate 99% of these harmful solvents. Now a professor of environmental studies and chemistry at MIT, Solomon is the author of three books, the latest of which, “Solvable: How We Healed the Earth, and How We Can Do It Again,” applies lessons from past environmental successes to the climate crisis… The most impactful thing you can do is to band together with others to push for change. Yes, that is the biggest impact, for sure. It’s been the kickstarter in so many past environmental problems and it has already kickstarted us on this problem. For goodness sake, let’s not give up now, we’re right on the cusp of success. That’s the fundamental message of the book.

‘Horrific’: Israel’s War on Gaza Also Destroying the Climate
Common Dreams – June 5, 2024 – Edward Carver
https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-climate

“This report lays bare the hypocrisy of Western nations who moralize about the perils of climate breakdown… while funding, aiding, and enabling the Israeli regime’s catastrophic war,” one expert said…. “One of the serious consequences of the war in Gaza has been the massive violation of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment… which represent a serious risk to life and the enjoyment of all other rights,” Astrid Puentes, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, told The Guardian. “The region is already experiencing serious climate impacts that could get even worse.”

‘No way out without bloodshed’: the right believe the US is under threat and are mobilizing
The Guardian – June 2, 2024 – Rachel Leingang
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/02/far-right-mobilizing-biden-presidency

Calls for revenge, retribution and violence littered the rightwing internet as soon as Trump’s guilty verdict came down, all predicated on the idea that the trial had been a sham designed to interfere with the 2024 election. Some posted online explicitly saying it was time for hangings, executions and civil wars…. On the left, the mood was downright celebratory, a brief interlude of joy that Trump might finally be held accountable for his actions… On the right, in the alternate reality created by and for Trump and his supporters, the convictions are a sign of both doom and dogma – evidence that a corrupt faction runs the Joe Biden government, but that it can be driven out by the Trump faithful like themselves.

The Shadow of Tiananmen Falls on Hong Kong
The New Yorker – June 2, 2024 – Evan Osnos
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-shadow-of-tiananmen-falls-on-hong-kong

On June 4, 1989, the Communist Party turned its tanks and soldiers on the protesters, killing, in the least, hundreds of people (a precise number remains unknown) and deflecting the democratic wave that toppled the Soviet Union and its allies in the Eastern Bloc. As China approaches the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, the incident has been effaced from its official history… The reach of that philosophy—governance by repression—became manifest on Thursday, when a Hong Kong court, in a landmark trial, convicted fourteen democracy activists on charges of subversion… In the official description of the arrests, the police simply mentioned “an approaching sensitive date.” When reporters asked Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security, Chris Tang, whether the police were referring to June 4th, he replied, “The date itself is not important.” In truth, as a landmark in the history of authoritarian politics, June 4th has rarely been more important.

Respect the Equipment
Timothy Snyder’s blog – June 2, 2024
https://snyder.substack.com/p/respect-the-equipment

The kindergarten teacher was retiring after four decades. At the reception in her honor, the school played clips of her students, now in the upper grades of the elementary school. What had they learned from her? … My eye was drawn, as I watched the clips, to the signs on the mats in the gym: one read “lose without blaming,” and the other “respect the equipment.” … That’s what takes, I found myself thinking, to keep a democracy going. There is a magic in voting that we can take for granted. In each and every election someone is going to lose, and that someone is not going to hold office. Losing without blaming means that the country goes on. Our government continues. And society does not tear itself apart…. The equipment of peaceful daily life is the law. The Constitution governs how a president leaves office, so that we don’t have to improvise and fight about it each time… We won’t always like how elections or trials turn out. But it’s a mistake to break the equipment, especially when you are meant to be its custodian… Some people never learned the lessons they should have learned in kindergarten. Yet there are more of us, I think, who heed the signs. You can “respect the equipment” by using it the right way. And the rule “lose without blaming” does not mean “lose.” You can win while respecting the rules. And sometimes you must.

Why Is a Group of Billionaires Working to Re-Elect Trump?
The Guardian – June 3, 2024 – Robert Reich
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/03/billionaires-for-trump-presidential-election

Don’t assume that the increasing flow of billionaire money to Trump and his Republican party is motivated solely by tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks. The goal of these US oligarchs is to roll back democracy…. If America learned anything from the first Gilded Age and the fascism that grew like a cancer in the 1930s, it should have been that gross inequalities of income and wealth fuel gross inequalities of political power – as Musk, Thiel, Schwarzman, Murdoch and other billionaires are now putting on full display – which in turn generate strongmen who destroy both democracy and freedom. Under fascist strongmen, no one is safe – not even oligarchs. If we want to guard what’s left of our freedom, we must meet the anti-democracy movement with a bold pro-democracy movement that protects the institutions of self-government from oligarchs like Musk and Thiel and neo-fascists like Trump.

The Most Ridiculous, Right-Wing Supreme Court That Dark Money Could Buy
Rolling Stone – June 3, 2024 – Andrew Perez
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/supreme-court-ridiculous-right-wing-dark-money-1235030841/

Over the past two decades, the Supreme Court has been captured by dark-money interests, and justices are reshaping our laws and society according to their reactionary, far-right vision. It’s a problem that would only be compounded with a second Donald Trump administration pursuing an extreme, right-wing policy agenda. Trump’s judicial adviser, Leonard Leo, who helped select three Supreme Court justices, can take pride in his work. His network, which recently received a historic $1.6 billion infusion, spent millions to confirm those justices, and works to influence both the justices’ caseload and their decisions… Yes, the deck is stacked. Right-wing extremists can impose their ideological and religious views on the rest of us — at will… Imagine what the justices could accomplish in partnership with Trump and his MAGA devotees, who are obsessed with rolling back reproductive rights, civil rights, and environmental regulations — and, above all, punishing their enemies.

What Europe Fears
The Atlantic – June 3, 2024 – McKay Coppins
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/06/nato-trump-europe-allies/678533/

The undercurrent of dread at Truman Hall was not unique. I encountered it in nearly every conversation I had while traveling through Europe this spring. In capitals across the continent—from Brussels to Berlin, Warsaw to Tallinn—leaders and diplomats expressed a sense of alarm bordering on panic at the prospect of Donald Trump’s reelection…. Whether Trump wins or not, there’s a growing consensus in Europe that the strain of American politics he represents—a throwback to the hard-edged isolationism of the 1920s and ’30s—isn’t going away. It’s become common in the past year for politicians to talk about the need for European “defense autonomy.”

How We’ve Failed the Promise of Making “Genocide” a Crime
Mother Jones – June 3, 2024 – Noah Lanard
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/06/israel-palestine-gaza-genocide-war-crimes-icj-south-africa-raphael-lemkin/

The word “genocide” was coined in 1941 by Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish lawyer from a Polish family, who combined the Greek word for a people (genos) and the Latin translation for killing (cide). At its most basic, genocide meant systematically destroying another group…. “The term does not necessarily signify mass killings although it may mean that,” Lemkin explained in a 1945 article. “More often it refers to a coordinated plan aimed at destruction of the essential foundations”—cultural institutions, physical structures, the economy—“of the life of national groups… In May, Aryeh Neier, a co-founder of Human Rights Watch, concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza have crossed the line. Neier wrote in the New York Review of Books that he initially refrained from using the term but that the obstruction of aid into Gaza had convinced him: “Israel is engaged in genocide.” The situation is so grave that, even under the current constrained definition, the judges of the International Court of Justice may eventually agree.

Biden Suggests Netanyahu May Be Dragging Out War for Political Gain
Mother Jones – June 4, 2024 – Julianne McShane
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/06/biden-suggests-netanyahu-may-be-dragging-out-war-for-political-gain/

“There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion,” Biden told Time in a new wide-ranging interview published Wednesday… when the Time reporter asked if Biden believed that Israel was intentionally starving civilians, allegations that are included in the I.C.C. applications for arrest warrants, he said: “No, I don’t think that. I think they’ve engaged in activity that is inappropriate.” He continued, saying that he advised Israeli officials not to “make the same mistake we did going after [Osama] bin Laden…it led to endless wars.” “Don’t make the mistakes we made,” Biden said. “And they’re making that mistake, I think.”

US Officials Are Fighting Against International Human Rights Law—Again
Mother Jones – June 7, 2024 – Sophie Hurwitz
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/06/us-officials-are-fighting-against-international-human-rights-law-again/

The House voted to sanction the ICC in response to the court’s prosecutor seeking arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. It continues a long history of the US trying to buck international bodies it helped create… The relationship between the ICC and the US has long been complicated. The US was one of seven countries that participated in negotiations leading to the creation of the court. But it also has opted out of the ICC’s judgments. The rulings, which are meant to determine when countries have committed war crimes such as genocide, don’t apply to the US.

Hundreds of Doctors Demand Biden End Solitary Confinement in Immigration Prisons
Truthout – June 4, 2024 – Mike Ludwig
https://truthout.org/articles/hundreds-of-doctors-demand-biden-end-solitary-confinement-in-immigration-prisons/

The letter to Biden was organized by Physicians for Social Responsibility, which worked with researchers at Harvard to produce “Endless Nightmare,” a comprehensive report on solitary confinement in ICE facilities. Released in February, before Daniel’s death, the report found that ICE oversaw more than 14,000 solitary confinement orders between 2018 and 2023… Even brief stints in solitary increase the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), self-harm and suicide, while prolonged confinement can lead to lasting brain damage, hallucinations and reduced cognitive function… “Our letter [to Biden] shows that medical professionals across the country will not stand for the U.S. government subjecting immigrants to extremely punitive and dangerous conditions,” said Katherine Peeler, a coauthor of the report and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, in a statement.

Enabling Dictatorship and Destroying Democracy
Portside – June 1, 2024 – Muhammad Hidayat Greenfield
https://portside.org/2024-06-01/enabling-dictatorship-and-destroying-democracy

Legitimacy is the key to understanding the role of establishment enablers. In the process of taking power, dictators have not yet established legal, institutional, and ideological control. Even if they are riding a wave of populist support, they are vulnerable to popular challenge. Their legitimacy at this juncture is drawn from the establishment that enables them. Later, when dictators turn against the establishment (as they always do), they are already capable of manufacturing legitimacy from within their authoritarian regime and no longer need their enablers… We are not yet halfway through the greatest year of elections in history. But we are already seeing the devastating consequences of the “establishment enablers” in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. Several more countries will see the return of military-backed political parties, the rise of the extreme right, or a resurgent fascism. Collaboration, power-sharing, and compromise got us here. Maybe only the resumption of the fight for self-determination, the struggle to realize the sovereignty of the people (all the people) – and hope – can get us out.

New York City Audubon changes name to distance itself from racist namesake
The Guardian – June 6, 2024 – Aliya Uteuova
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/06/new-york-city-audubon-changes-name-nyc-bird-alliance

New York City Audubon announced on Thursday that it would become the NYC Bird Alliance in an effort to “broaden our reach and deepen our impact across the diverse communities of New York City” after an “overwhelming majority” of members voted in favor of the change. For 45 years, NYC Audubon, one of the largest chapters of the National Audubon Society, bore the name of the ornithologist and illustrator John James Audubon. In recent years his legacy has come under scrutiny for his involvement in the slave trade and his racist writings.

How to restore abortion rights in every state in America
The Hill – June 6, 2024 – Bernie Sanders and Patty Murray
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/4705145-how-to-restore-abortion-rights-in-every-state-in-america/

Right now in America, women’s health care and right to control their own bodies are under attack as Republican politicians across the country are trying everything they can to ban abortion and stamp out basic reproductive freedoms.,,, Let’s be clear: Abortion is health care, it is a common and safe medical procedure, and it is a fundamental human right. There are millions of women across 21 states who are being forced to live under Republican laws that allow politicians to make the deeply personal decisions women should be making for themselves with their doctors… That means passing the Women’s Health Protection Act to ensure every woman in America has the right to access the reproductive health care, including abortion care, that she may need.

Psst: Don’t Fall for a Third Party (Pass It On)
Robert Reich’s blog – June 6, 2024
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-unvarnished-truth-about-no-labels

Today, the 80th anniversary of D-Day, seems an appropriate occasion to reaffirm our commitment to democracy and against fascism — which means doing whatever we can to ensure that Joe Biden wins the 2024 presidential election. One big threat to a Biden victory comes from third-party candidates Cornel West, Jill Stein, and Robert F. Kennedy Junior… The upcoming election isn’t an ordinary one. We’ve already witnessed what Trump has tried to do to remain in power. He’s an unhinged authoritarian. If he’s reelected, 2024 could mark the last democratic (small “d”) election in America… they tell me they’re tired of voting for the “lesser of two evils.” I tell them that in the upcoming election, the larger of two evils is truly evil.

The Sunrise Movement’s Critics Really Don’t Get Climate Activism
Portside – June 7, 2024 – Kate Aronoff
https://portside.org/2024-06-07/sunrise-movements-critics-really-dont-get-climate-activism

Axios dropped a “SCOOP” late Tuesday: The Sunrise Movement is withholding its endorsement of Joe Biden… Left out of Axios’s story was the fact that Sunrise will once again be working to mobilize young voters against Trump in November. “Do we want to be fighting for a Green New Deal under a Trump presidency or a Biden presidency? To me, the answer is pretty clear,” O’Hanlon told me earlier today. “Donald Trump winning a second term is an existential threat to our climate and our democracy and will set back the fight for a Green New Deal.”

‘Greed’: John Deere rolls out hundreds of US layoffs and sends work to Mexico
The Guardian – June 7, 2024 – Michael Sainato
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/jun/07/john-deere-layoffs-work-moving-mexico

“A multinational corporation like Deere sees Mexico as pretty attractive for a cheap labor source: they can import steel cheaper there and bring it across the border and sell it to the majority of their market in the US. It’s a sign of the times, perpetuating what’s been going on with the loss of manufacturing here in America, good union jobs and otherwise.”

New York Spends $225 Million on Its Own “Cop City”
The Intercept – June 5, 2024 – Natasha Lennard
https://theintercept.com/2024/06/05/nyc-eric-adams-cop-city-police-training/

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced last Friday that the city would spend at least $225 million on a new police training facility in the borough of Queens. The mayor’s decision to pour further public funding into policing comes as he slashed services to the city’s most vulnerable, including cutting library budgets by $58.3 million. The priorities could not be clearer. Like many politicians across the country, the mayor wants to disinvest from public services and privatize them, while instead increasing mass policing and carceral enforcement as a response to social problems… The fight against a “cop city” in New York cannot focus solely on a Queens police training campus. The mayor’s plan, after all, is a grim reminder that, four years after the George Floyd uprisings, Cop City is everywhere.

How Black Parents Got Cops Out of Oakland Schools
Yes! Magazine – June 6, 2024 – Malaika Parker
https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2024/06/06/black-police-schools-parents-oakland

Four years ago, as a result of more than a decade of organizing led by the Black Organizing Project (BOP), a group of students, parents, teachers, and allies united to achieve a historic win in Oakland, California, resulting in the removal of police officers from the Oakland Unified School District. The campaign succeeded after years of Black students being treated unjustly. It was a community-driven solution to redefine school safety—and today we’re starting to see signs of real progress… The report also found that “with no police presence on campuses teachers, admin, and students have been able to exercise healthy alternatives to de-escalate situations with the use of the police-free guidance, problem solve conflict, and start to build meaningful relationships with each other.” The GFR also led to School Safety Officers being renamed “Culture Keepers” and “Culture and Climate Ambassadors.” As per the OUSD board report, “These positions no longer carry handcuffs or wear police symbolism or logos and instead are tasked with “promoting school site safety through relationship building, de-escalation techniques, and the use of trauma-informed restorative practices.” … Our progress in Oakland has shown us what works to transform local systems that punish Black youth and communities of color: Put young people, parents, and community members at the center of the work.

Migrating Workers Provide Wealth for the World
Portside – June 8, 2024 – Vijay Prashad
https://portside.org/2024-06-08/migrating-workers-provide-wealth-world

Each year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) releases its World Migration Report…. The IOM finds that the rise in migration can be attributed to three factors: war, economic precarity, and climate change… The IOM’s new report points out that these migrants—many of whom lead extremely precarious lives—send home larger and larger amounts of money to help their increasingly desperate families… The treatment of these migrants, who are crucial for poverty reduction and for building wealth in society, is outrageous. They are treated as criminals, abandoned by their own countries who would rather spend vulgar amounts of money to attract much less impactful investment through multinational corporations.

To Abolish War, We Must Transcend Exploitative Interests
Common Dreams – June 9, 2024 – Robert C. Koehler
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/abolish-war

Waging war requires the ever-presence in our national minds of… yeah, an enemy. War simplifies conflict, which is always inevitable and could be constructive, and turns it into “us vs. them.” And since nations spend so much money and effort preparing for war, they are always predisposed to turn conflict into the wrong kind of opportunity: an opportunity to define and kill an enemy. And step one is always this: dehumanize the enemy. That makes the killing of the bad guy (and all the collateral civilians who are in the way) totally fine, totally necessary…. And when we grow accustomed to the dehumanization of others—the refusal to listen, to acknowledge they have a point of view, let alone a soul—we simplify and diminish ourselves, essentially turning ourselves into our imagined enemy. And thus we’re always living in fear because war always comes home: Enemies always retaliate. Or their children grow up and retaliate.