The Science of Climate Change Explained: Facts, Evidence and Proof
The New York Times – April 20, 2021 – Julia Rosen
https://www.nytimes.com/article/climate-change-global-warming-faq.html
The science of climate change is more solid and widely agreed upon than you might think. But the scope of the topic, as well as rampant disinformation, can make it hard to separate fact from fiction. Here, we’ve done our best to present you with not only the most accurate scientific information, but also an explanation of how we know it.
Why We Must Do More to Tackle the Climate Crisis
Vogue – April 21, 2021 – Greta Thunberg
https://www.vogue.com/article/greta-thunberg-letter-climate-change-earth-day
On Earth Day 2021, April 22nd, at the Leaders’ Climate Summit led by United States president Joe Biden, countries will present their new climate commitments, including net-zero by 2050. They will call these hypothetical targets ambitious. However, when you compare the overall current best-available science to these insufficient, so-called “climate targets,” you can clearly see that there’s a gap—there are decades missing where drastic action must be taken… The point is that we can keep using creative carbon accounting and cheat in order to pretend that these targets are in line with what is needed. But we must not forget that while we can fool others and even ourselves, we cannot fool nature and physics. The emissions are still there, whether we choose to count them or not… If we want change then we must spread awareness and make the seemingly impossible become possible.
Wealthy nations ‘failing to help developing world tackle climate crisis’
The Guardian – April 24, 2021 – Fiona Harvey
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/24/wealthy-nations-failing-to-help-developing-world-tackle-climate-crisis
Warning comes after lack of new funding pledges at virtual summit attended by 40 world leaders and hosted by White House… Without climate finance, poor countries face a bleak future of extreme weather, water and food shortages, and climate-driven migration, which all threaten to reverse decades of progress in lifting people out of poverty. Many governments are also being wooed by fossil-fuel developers eager to exploit coal, oil or gasfields in exchange for cash. The problem is compounded by new waves of the Covid-19 pandemic, and poor countries are seeing debts soar and the cost of borrowing rise.
Recovery Wipes Out Most of 2020 Decline in Carbon Emissions
The New York Magazine – April 20, 2021 – Paola Rosa-Aquino
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/04/recovery-wipes-out-most-of-2020-decline-in-carbon-emissions.html
This is a dire warning that the economic recovery from the COVID crisis is currently anything but sustainable for our climate,” Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said in a statement. “Unless governments around the world move rapidly to start cutting emissions, we are likely to face an even worse situation in 2022… The IEA’s annual review analyzed the latest national data from around the world, economic growth trends, and new energy projects that are set to come online. It found that use of all fossil fuels will grow “significantly” in 2021 with both coal and gas likely to be in greater demand this year than they were in 2019. Overall energy demand is expected to rise by 4.6 percent in 2021, compared to a fall of 4 percent in 2020 as the pandemic idled large swaths of the global economy.
New York City Sues Oil Giants Exxon, BP and Shell Over Climate Change
The Hill – April 22, 2021 – Jenna Romaine
https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/climate-change/549814-new-york-city-sues-oil-giants-exxon-bp-and
The lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp, BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell and the industry group American Petroleum Institute states that the oil giants “have systematically and intentionally misled consumers” by misrepresenting their fuels as “cleaner” and “emissions-reducing” despite not disclosing the true environmental effects.
‘Ocean in crisis’: Global plan to protect world’s seas
Al Jazeera – April 21, 2021 – Kate Walton
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/21/new-global-initiative-to-protect-18-million-sq-km-of-ocean
The collaboration, known as Blue Nature Alliance, established on Wednesday is led by several philanthropic organisations and plans to work with national governments, local communities, Indigenous peoples, scientists, and academics. The Alliance’s initial protection work will cover 4.8 million sq km (1.9 million sq miles) across three marine locations: Fiji’s Lau Seascape, Antarctica’s Southern Ocean and the volcanic archipelago of Tristan da Cunha in the southern Atlantic Ocean. “The ocean is in crisis,” said Karen Sack, the president and CEO of Ocean Unite, one of the organisations joining the Blue Nature Alliance. “The threats it is facing are many.”
Sea Change
George Monbiot’s Website – April 9, 2021
https://www.monbiot.com/2021/04/09/sea-change/
One of our bubbles of ignorance has just been burst. On a small budget, with the first film they’ve ever made, Ali Tabrizi and Lucy Tabrizi have achieved what media giants have repeatedly failed to do: directly confronted power. Their film Seaspiracy has become a number 1 on Netflix in several nations, including the UK. (Disclosure: I’m a contributor). At last people have started to wake up to the astonishing fact that when you drag vast nets over the sea bed, or set lines of hooks 45 kilometres long, or relentlessly pursue declining species, you might just, well, you know, have some effect on ocean life… It’s time to see the oceans in a new light: to treat fish not as seafood but as wildlife; to see their societies not as stocks but as populations; and marine food webs not as fisheries but as ecosystems. It’s time we saw their existence as a wonder of nature, rather than an opportunity for exploitation. It’s time to redefine our relationship with the blue planet.
A lucrative border-industrial complex keeps the US border in constant ‘crisis’
The Guardian – April 19, 2021 – Todd Miller
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/19/a-lucrative-border-industrial-complex-keeps-the-us-border-in-constant-crisis
The border by its very design creates crisis. This design has been developed and fortified over the span of many administrations from both political parties in the United States, and now involves the significant participation of private industry. The border-industrial complex and its consequences is one of the reasons that I argue in my new book Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders that if people honestly want a humane response to border and immigration issues we have to confront something much bigger than the Trump legacy, and begin to imagine and work towards something new… The border is designed to be in a perpetual crisis, but we can stop this by shifting to something new. Abolition is not about destruction, but about restoring who we can be. It’s time to build bridges, not walls.
We Don’t Need Prisons to Make Us Safer
Yes! Magazine – April 19, 2021 – Victoria Law
https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2021/04/19/prisons-dont-make-us-safe
Imprisonment not only disrupts the individual person’s life but also pulls them out of their roles in their family and community. Children lose a parent; families lose a member who had helped with the bills, caregiving, and general support of the household. Those relationships tend to fray over time, particularly with lengthy incarcerations, making it less likely that the person will be able to pick up the pieces of their life upon release. In addition, a prison record can impede people from finding a job, securing housing, or being accepted to college. In contrast, reducing prison populations seems to be correlated with a reduction in crime. While the nation’s prison population ballooned again and again throughout the 1990s until 2015, some states started reducing their prison populations during that period. Contrary to fear-based myths, these states have not seen an increase in crime. In fact, they’ve seen the opposite.
Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century
The New Yorker – March 29, 2021 – Jane Mayer
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/inside-the-koch-backed-effort-to-block-the-largest-election-reform-bill-in-half-a-century
They admit the lesser-known provisions in the bill that limit secret campaign spending are overwhelmingly popular across the political spectrum. In private, they concede their own polling shows that no message they can devise effectively counters the argument that billionaires should be prevented from buying elections… So what are the Kochs so upset about? Well, here’s a quick look at what the For the People Act does:… Sometimes it feels daunting to stand up to the right wing’s seemingly endless money and power. But we always find comfort, strength and that last little bit of determination in remembering that while they may have the endless wallets on their side, we have the people on ours.
The Fight for Health Care for All Is Opening Up in the States
Jacobin – April 19, 2021 – Julia Rock
https://jacobinmag.com/2021/04/public-option-health-care-biden-washington-colorado
There’s no substitute for a national Medicare for All program. But with federal action shelved for now, states like Colorado and Washington are grappling with creating public health insurance alternatives in the face of industry opposition… While such state-level public option programs are no replacement for a national Medicare for All program, many see them as tangible and constructive health care reform for budget-strapped states barred from deficit spending.
Missiles and warheads in holes in the ground are no way to deter nuclear war now
The Los Angeles Times – April 19, 2021 – Richard A. Clarke and Steve Andreasen
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-04-19/nuclear-arsenal-icbm-triad-joe-biden-ground-based-missiles
The latest studies about how nuclear war could alter world climate suggest that even what’s considered a small war — involving several hundred weapons — could produce “nuclear winter,” shattering the planet’s food supply and setting off an unprecedented famine with devastating global repercussions. The economic, social and governmental collapse would mean the end of civilization as we know it, suicide for humanity.
This is the most dangerous moment to be unvaccinated
The Washington Post – April 19, 2021 – Robert M. Wachter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/19/this-is-most-dangerous-moment-be-unvaccinated/
The solutions to the problem of heightened risk among unvaccinated people range from very difficult to extremely easy. Very difficult: Convince unvaccinated people that — notwithstanding the general optimism — they may, in fact, be at higher risk than before. Particularly if they’re planning to be vaccinated, now is the worst possible time to let down their guard. They should continue to wear their masks, keep their distance and avoid risky situations — even as they see their vaccinated brethren enjoying their newfound freedom. Equally challenging: Require proof of vaccination (so-called immunity passports) to access places that don’t require masks and social distancing. Easy: Everyone gets vaccinated when their number comes up. Problem solved.
There Shouldn’t Be Vaccine Patents in a Health Crisis. Most Americans Agree: Waive Them.
The Intercept – April 15, 2021 – Natasha Lennard
https://theintercept.com/2021/04/15/covid-vaccine-patent-ip-poll/
The extremity of Covid-19 vaccine apartheid cannot be overstated. As of mid-February, the United States had acquired enough vaccines for three times its total population, while in 130 countries, not a single vaccine shot had been administered. This is no accident, but the direct and long-predicted result of a vaccine production and access model tied to privatized intellectual property and entrenched medicine monopolies… There are no legitimate grounds for maintaining patent barriers in this health crisis unless you’re a pharmaceutical giant making billions or, of course, a Western power invested in maintaining global power through neoliberalization, market monopolies, and racialized capitalism.
First Amendment Groups Press Supreme Court for Access to Surveillance Court Opinions
NPR- April 19, 2021 – Nina Totenberg
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/19/988795126/first-amendment-groups-press-supreme-court-for-access-to-surveillance-court-opin
The positions taken by these intelligence courts “have just gone too far,” Olson, who is on the board of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in an interview with NPR. They “can’t create a constitutional court and then insulate that court from any public access … creating blanket immunity from public review of its opinions.” Olson, who is counsel of record in the case, argues that the public is entitled to have access to opinions that include “significant interpretations” of federal law and constitutional provisions, opinions that “sometimes authorize broad surveillance regimes, with far-reaching implications for U.S. citizens.”
Tell Congress: Federal Money Shouldn’t Be Spent On Breaking Encryption
The Electronic Frontier Foundation – April 22,2021 – Joe Mullin
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/04/tell-congress-federal-money-shouldnt-be-spent-breaking-encryption
Secure and private communications are the backbone of democracy and free speech around the world. If U.S. law enforcement is able to compel private companies to break encryption, criminals and authoritarian governments will be eager to use the same loopholes. There are no magic bullets, and no backdoors that will only get opened by the “good guys.”
Rashida Tlaib on Defunding the Police: “Property Should Not Have More Value than Human Life”
In These Times – April 20, 2021 – Rashida Tlaib
https://inthesetimes.com/article/rashida-tlaib-defund-police-george-floyd-derek-chauvin-daunte-wright-black-lives-matter
Tlaib has explained that her comments referred to the ongoing lack of accountability for police departments that engage in abuse and the lopsided budgets for policing versus social programs, adding in an email to supporters: ?“I have never shied away from speaking truth to power.”… The way we’re approaching public safety is just not working. And so we continue to see death after death in the hands of police officers with no meaningful accountability for the officers or departments—or really the system—that is involved… Property should not have more value than human life. I want to reiterate that. As a society we have decided that the way we handle issues is to send police and throw people in jail. Mental health, poverty, you name it?—?we are policing and over criminalizing. It’s not making us safer.
We Must End ‘Qualified Immunity’ for Police. It Might Save the Next George Floyd
Portside – The Guardian – April 23, 2021 – Killer Mike
https://www.portside.org/2021-04-23/we-must-end-qualified-immunity-police-it-might-save-next-george-floyd
There will be no fixing public trust – or the law enforcement system – without ending the legal doctrine known as qualified immunity that protects government employees from being taken to task for assaults on your constitutional rights…. We have to be honest with ourselves about how law enforcement has taken hold in American society. What began as a slave-catcher’s role eventually evolved into, after the 13th amendment technically abolished chattel slavery, an agent of legally imposed Jim Crow oppression on Black Americans. As the decades went on and various important civil rights victories were achieved, police departments got more creative. They began the practice we see today of hiring people who look like oppressed groups, but are still forced to do the bidding of a prison-industrial system that perpetuates those groups’ oppression each and every day… Policing in America today is born out of the nucleus of authoritarianism, the mindset of: “I can kill you, no matter the reason, and nothing will happen to me.” As organizers and activists, we have got to go further than simply seeking punishment for individual officers after they have ended a life. We have to change the culture of policing itself, to save the next life. We have to end qualified immunity.
How to Raise Trillions Without Hiking Taxes on Working Americans
CNN Business Perspectives – April 21, 2021 – Bernie Sanders
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/21/perspectives/bernie-sanders-tax-raises/index.html
The good news is that we are living in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. By demanding that the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in this country begin to pay their fair share of taxes, we can raise more than enough revenue to create a society that works for all of us. Here are just a few ideas that can raise trillions in new revenue and save the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars, without asking the middle class or working families to pay a nickel more in federal taxes: End offshore tax havens… Raise taxes on inherited wealth… Establish a tax on financial transactions… End fossil fuel subsidies…
Asking Wealthiest Households to Pay Fairer Amount in Tax Would Help Fund a More Equitable Recovery
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – April 22, 2021 – Chuck Marr, Samantha Jacoby, Sam Washington and George Fenton
https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/asking-wealthiest-households-to-pay-fairer-amount-in-tax-would-help-fund-a
Now, we have a historic opportunity to build on those temporary measures and help drive an equitable recovery in which all children can reach their full potential, workers in low-paid jobs and those with fewer job prospects have the supports to help them meet their needs and get ahead, and everyone has access to affordable health coverage. Achieving these goals requires attacking the nation’s long-standing economic and racial disparities, deeply rooted in racism and discrimination, that have led to starkly unequal opportunities and outcomes in education, employment, health, and housing.
My military ambivalence
The Rag Blog – April 22, 2021 – Lamar W. Hankins
http://www.theragblog.com/lamar-w-hankins-war-my-military-ambivalence/#more-37599
The military is used to promote both chaos and U.S. control around the world for the benefit of our government and the needs and concerns of giant corporations. The United States has active duty military troops stationed in nearly 150 countries. But there are better ways to interact with the world. We now have one of those ways as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic will never end until its spread is stopped in every country of the world… If we have excess vaccine, we should give it to those people who have missed out on the opportunity to avoid serious illness or death from this virus… We need, as well, to seek other opportunities to engage in peaceful pursuits around the globe. We should have learned by now that war is not the solution to our foreign policy needs… The Marshall Plan, which helped restore a devastated Europe after WWII, has proven to be a better approach to foreign policy than has endless war and policies based in rank militarism. Trying “to graft a Western political culture,” to use a phrase written by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, onto any place with a culture substantially different from our own is a fool’s errand. We should help end suffering in the world, but our efforts to do so should not create more of it.
Worried About the Autonomous Weapons of the Future? Look at What’s Already Gone Wrong
Global Research – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – April 21, 2021 – Dr. Ingvild Bode and Dr. Tom Watts
https://www.globalresearch.ca/worried-about-autonomous-weapons-future-look-what-already-gone-wrong/5743263
In our assessment, the decades long process of integrating automated and autonomous features into the critical functions of air defense systems has contributed toward an emerging norm governing the use of air defense systems. The norm is that humans have a reduced role in use of force decisions. Unfortunately, much of the international debate on autonomous weapons systems has yet to acknowledge or scrutinize this norm, which likely will apply to future systems, too… Policymakers should analyze the precedents that the use of highly automated air defense systems and other existing weapons systems with automated or autonomous features in their targeting functions (such as active protection systems, counter-drone systems, and loitering munitions) have set and the ways in which these weapons are altering the relationship between humans and technology. Too often, incrementally integrating more and more autonomous features into weapons systems is presented as either an inevitable trajectory of technological progress or as a reaction to what adversaries are doing. The current crop of more-or-less autonomous weapons has created norms for human control over lethal force, and policymakers need to understand how these may undermine any (potential) international efforts to regulate autonomous weapons systems.
The Invention of Whiteness: the long history of a dangerous idea
Portside – The Guardian – April 24, 2021 – Robert P Baird
https://www.portside.org/2021-04-24/invention-whiteness-long-history-dangerous-idea
A little more than a century ago, in his essay The Souls of White Folk, the sociologist and social critic WEB Du Bois proposed what still ranks as one of the most penetrating and durable insights about the racial identity we call white: “The discovery of personal whiteness among the world’s peoples is a very modern thing – a nineteenth and twentieth century matter, indeed.”… Historians such as Oscar and Mary Handlin, Edmund Morgan and Edward Rugemer have largely confirmed Du Bois’s suspicion that while xenophobia appears to be fairly universal among human groupings, the invention of a white racial identity was motivated from the start by a need to justify the enslavement of Africans. In the words of Eric Williams, a historian who later became the first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, “slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence of slavery”.
The Re-emergence of Sectoral Bargaining in the US, Britain, Australia and Canada
Portside – OnLabor – April 23, 2021 – David Madland
https://www.portside.org/2021-04-23/re-emergence-sectoral-bargaining-us-britain-australia-and-canada
Sectoral bargaining — which seeks to cover all workers in an industry or region with a collective bargaining agreement and ensure that similar work receives similar pay — has re-emerged as a political issue in the US as well as Britain, Australia, and Canada. As I highlight in my new book, “Re-Union: How Bold Labor Reforms Can Repair, Revitalize, and Reunite the United States,” countries with worksite-based bargaining systems are seeking to reform their labor laws to address declining bargaining coverage and the accompanying decline in prosperity for the working class… A growing number of unions, academics and politicians in the US and countries most similar to it think increasing sectoral bargaining is a critical step to improve conditions for workers.
Black Worker Centers: Building Workplace Power in the Communities
Portside – The American Prospect – April 20, 2021 – Matthew Cunnington-Cook
https://www.portside.org/2021-04-20/black-worker-centers-building-workplace-power-communities
Worker centers in general serve as a clearinghouse for workers’ needs when forming a union is all but impossible. Even in anti-union terrains, the centers have found ways to change public and corporate policies… Bill Fletcher Jr., a former education director of the AFL-CIO who works with Black worker centers, sees those centers playing a strategic role in bringing together union and community campaigns. “A broad community justice component is absolutely essential,” he said. “That means engaging community-based organizations and strategizing with them. Black worker centers can play a role in this. Black worker centers can be one of the means to bring together unions and community-based groups with a focus on the Black worker.”
What Solar Energy Policies Can Do for Low-Income Households
Yes! Magazine – April 23, 2021 – Philip Warburg
https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2021/04/23/solar-energy-policies-low-income-residents
America’s rooftops are a renewable energy gold mine, potentially supplying as much as 39% of our power needs nationwide. They also offer an energy justice opportunity that shouldn’t be squandered… Instead of serving a single building, a community solar array may be sited on a commercial rooftop, a closed landfill or another solar-friendly property. Multiple households can subscribe, earning a share of the facility’s energy output.
Replacing Fossil Fuels with Community-Led Clean Energy
Yes! Magazine – April 20, 2021 – Leanna First-Arai
https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2021/04/20/climate-change-fossil-fuel-phaseout
“Inequities in our dated energy system are rooted in the continued investments in fossil fuels at the expense of the health of our most vulnerable communities,” Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of UPROSE, a multiracial Brooklyn-based community development organization focused on bringing about a just transition for residents, says… One thousand power plants known as “peaker plants” are still operational across the U.S. Their name derives from the function they serve, shifting from idle to burning gas or oil in infrequent moments when energy demand peaks beyond average—typically when heating and cooling needs are the greatest. In addition to being eyesores and taking up large swaths of space that might better serve the needs of crowded communities, the plants are often located alongside waste treatment facilities and other undesirable infrastructure in low-income areas and communities of color… An informal network of scientists, activists, and lawmakers in at least nine states have identified the plants as a first-line target to be replaced with wind, solar, and distributed battery storage, and say doing so would save money and lives.
Agriculture’s Greatest Myth
Global Research – Independent Science News – April 22, 2021 – Dr. Jonathan Latham
https://www.globalresearch.ca/agriculture-greatest-myth/5743258
Sustainable, local, organic food grown on small farms has a tremendous amount to offer. Unlike chemical-intensive industrial-scale agriculture, it regenerates rural communities; it doesn’t pollute rivers and groundwater or create dead zones; it can save coral reefs; it doesn’t encroach on rainforests; it preserves soil and it can restore the climate (IAASTD, 2009). Why do all governments not promote it? For policymakers, the big obstacle to global promotion and restoration of small-scale farming (leaving aside the lobbying power of agribusiness) is allegedly that, “it can’t feed the world”. If that claim were true, local food systems would be bound to leave people hungry and so promoting them becomes selfish, short-termist, and unethical. Nevertheless, this purported flaw in sustainable and local agriculture represents a curious charge because, no matter where one looks in global agriculture, food prices are low because products are in surplus.