Sharp cut in methane now could help avoid worst of climate crisis
The Guardian – May 23, 2022 – Fiona Harvey
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/23/sharp-cut-methane-climate-crisis-carbon-dioxide-global-heating
Cutting methane and other “short-lived climate pollutants” (SLCPs) such as soot would reduce the global heating effect in the near term, thus giving the world “a fighting chance” of staving off climate catastrophe, the scientists said. Methane warming effect is as much as 80 times that of C02, although it quickly degrades in the atmosphere. Prof Durwood Zaelke, the president of the Washington-based Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (IGSD), and co-author of the paper, said cutting methane offered a quick way to reduce global heating while the world pursued longer term cuts in CO2.
Australia’s “Greenslide” Shows the Political Dangers for Conservatives of Downplaying Climate Emergency
Informed Comment – May 22, 2022 – Juan Cole
https://www.juancole.com/2022/05/australias-conservatives-downplaying.html
The Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who had headed the conservative Liberal-National Coalition since 2018, has been turned out of office, and the climate emergency played a key role in his defeat… Not only did a big majority of the country think Morisson wasn’t doing nearly enough on climate, 70% believe that there are great economic benefits to be had by Australia if it goes green.
In the Philippines, a Landmark Finding Moves Fossil Fuel Companies’ Climate Liability into the Realm of Human Rights
Inside Climate News – May 15, 2022 – Nicholas Kusnetz
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15052022/philippines-fossil-fuels-climate-liability/
In a damning and lucidly-written report, the commission [Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights] found that the world’s largest fossil fuel companies had “engaged in willful obfuscation and obstruction to prevent meaningful climate action.” The companies continue to deny climate science and try to slow a transition away from fossil fuels, the report said, driven “not by ignorance, but by greed.” As the first national human rights body to weigh in on fossil fuel companies’ role in driving climate change, the commission determined that corporations have obligations under human rights law and can be held liable if they neglect them. While the commission has no power to compel companies or governments to act on its findings, legal experts said its report carries broad implications for other cases.
Rocky Mountain Teens Sue Over Fossil Fuel-Friendly Policies
High Country News – May 23, 2022 – Kylie Mohr
https://www.hcn.org/issues/54.6/north-justice-western-courts-grapple-with-climate-change
Held v. Montana marks the first time in U.S. history that a youth-led climate change lawsuit will go to trial, and Natalie R. v. State of Utah could follow suit. Both cases face a legal system that has for years stymied and punted on similar cases, including their best-known predecessor, the federal case Juliana v. United States, along with state litigation from Alaska to California. “I think that everyone just has to keep trying different approaches to see what ultimately will be the thing that courts can latch onto,” said Jennifer Rushlow, associate dean for environmental programs at Vermont Law School… The young plaintiffs in Natalie R. v. State of Utah argue that five Utah policies bolstering fossil fuels create conditions that violate their right to life, health and safety per the state constitution — and they’re leading the fight because younger generations will bear the brunt of climate impacts… “We know that Utah’s dangerous air quality is taking years off of the lives of its citizens, particularly children,” said Andrew Welle, a senior staff attorney on the case from Our Children’s Trust. “So we’ve drawn a direct line to say, ‘This is a pretty clear-cut violation of the right to life.’”… Federal litigation and nationwide climate action may stall, but state cases like these could bring piecemeal progress. And that adds up.
Warmer Climates Lead to Loss of Pollinator Diversity, Research Finds
EcoWatch – May 23, 2022 – Cristen Hemingway Jaynes
https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-crisis-pollinator-diversity.html
The importance of bees as pollinators of the world’s food crops is well-known, but wasps, flies, beetles and other insects are also vital pollen conveyors. Pollination by insects is necessary for the growth of about 75 percent of the world’s food and more than 80 percent of wild plants… Insect declines due to habitat lost to agriculture and urbanization have been well-studied, but another factor that has affected pollinator communities is global warming. A new study from the Julius-Maximilian University of Würzburg (JMU) looks at how, as climates become warmer and drier, the combination of shifting land uses with the warming climate can have a detrimental effect on insect diversity, and what can be done about it.
Affordable lab-grown meat is coming closer to your plate
Times of Israel – May 9, 2022 – Amy Teibel
https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/affordable-lab-grown-meat-is-coming-closer-to-your-plate/
New food technology promises to end the slaughter and processing of billions of farm animals, and the havoc it wreaks on the environment. But cultivating meat in a lab from animal cells is an extremely expensive and time-consuming process. ProFuse, an Israeli startup, aims to cut the production price of lab-cultured protein. Using a novel medium supplement for the cells to grow, ProFuse promises to shorten the production cycle, achieve higher yields, and provide more protein for the final food.
Make Electric Vehicles Affordable for the Rest of Us
Next City – May 26, 2022 – Tamara Sheldon
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/make-electric-vehicles-affordable-for-the-rest-of-us
EV subsidies are poorly designed and mostly benefit the rich. Six things policymakers could do to make EV subsidies more effective and equitable… Place a price cap on eligible vehicles… Ramp up subsidies for lower-income households… Give the subsidies closer to the point of sale… Offer cheaper loans… Scale subsidies by mileage… Subsidize used EVs… EV subsidies have a huge potential to get more EVs on the road and improve equity without spending any more money. They are one of the few decarbonization policy tools that are both politically palatable and popular with consumers in many areas. But they need a radical overhaul to get gas-guzzlers off the road and meet climate targets.
The Ukraine War’s Collateral Damage
Tom Dispatch – May 22, 2022 – Michael Klare
https://tomdispatch.com/the-ukraine-wars-collateral-damage/
Fighting there has already resulted in widespread habitat and farmland destruction, while attacks on fuel-storage facilities (crucial targets for both sides) and the wartime consumption of fossil fuels have already released colossal amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. But however detrimental they may be, those should be thought of as relatively minor injuries when compared to the long-term catastrophic damage sure to be caused by the collapse of global efforts to slow the pace of global warming… Given the current state of great-power relations, the fallback limit of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is likely to be overtaken all too soon with calamitous results when it comes to increasing drought, desertification, intensifying storms, ever-more devastating fires, and other nightmarish outcomes… To have any chance of success in limiting global warming to tolerable levels, the climate-action movement will somehow have to overturn an elite consensus on the importance of geopolitical competition — or else. Or else, that is, we can kiss Planet Earth goodbye.
‘America could be truly free’: John Legend on his fight to overhaul the criminal justice system
The Guardian – May 22, 2022 – Sam Levin
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/22/john-legend-interview-us-criminal-justice-system
The Grammy, Oscar, Emmy and Tony winner has long been a vocal supporter of the movement to reduce mass incarceration in the US, and has backed several chief prosecutors and candidates who seek to right the wrongs of America’s racially biased criminal justice system… Legend – who has endorsed candidates in Tennessee, North Carolina, Oregon and California – spoke to the Guardian over Zoom last week about the importance of DA races, the “defund the police” movement, and his fears about the mounting opposition to reform… What I try to make clear is that, what is radical is how many people we’ve incarcerated in this country. Our status quo is radical. I don’t think what I’m proposing about how to reform our system is that radical.
Buffalo, the Tulsa Massacre, and Legacy of Anti-Black Violence
Slate – May 21, 2022 – Jason Johnson
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/05/tulsa-massacre-lawsuit-interview.html
Black communities have long been targets of white violence. The slaughter of 10 people in Buffalo, many of them elders, is just the latest example. A lone gunman is allegedly responsible for that shooting, , but for centuries, this kind of violence was deliberately overlooked or even orchestrated by local white leaders. Perhaps the most notorious example is the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. In the summer of that year the Greenwood community, known then as the Black Wall Street, was attacked by its white neighbors. Hundreds of people were brutally murdered, many more were injured, and a once thriving community was burned to the ground, its assets destroyed, and remaining wealth seized. While many white leaders long denied the slaughter, or mislabeled it as a race riot, there has been a steady fight to honor the victims and survivors of Tulsa, and to win some measure of justice for them and their descendants.
The Long Game of White-Power Activists Isn’t Just About Violence
The New York Times – May 17, 2022 – Kathleen Belew
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/opinion/buffalo-shooting-replacement-theory.html
It’s not immediately obvious how the “great replacement” theory, often framed as anti-immigrant doctrine meant to preserve predominantly white societies, is connected to the shooting of Black customers and employees at a grocery store in Buffalo… But the explanation for both the choice of targets and the brutality of an attack that killed 10 people can be found in the history of the theory. In the American context, it has in its cross-hairs a host of future targets, among them democracy itself… When gunmen write about “replacers,” they might just as easily mean any person of color, whether they have American roots or not. Replacement theory is about the violent defense of whiteness…
How Do We Stop White Supremacists From Killing People of Color?
Yes! Magazine – May 18, 2022 – Sonali Kolhatkar
https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2022/05/18/buffalo-massacre-white-supremacy-terrorists
In the wake of the Buffalo massacre, scholar-activist Rosa Clemente worries that communities of color will be more heavily policed while White supremacists will continue to access guns freely… I think we have to take very seriously also the impact of the rest of the world that is moving towards the Right. I think it’s a sobering time, and we have to act that way, and we have to figure out how we make change outside of elected officials or parties at this point.
Trump isn’t out there with a gun, but he’s enabled this war against black people
The Guardian – May 21, 2022 – Cornel West
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/21/trump-black-white-supremacy-buffalo-joe-biden
The simple truth is that you cannot see this latest neofascist attack in isolation. Think of the attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, when a white supremacist terrorist killed nine African Americans during their Bible study in Think of the attack on the American Asian community in Atlanta last year, when four people were murdered amid assertions from prosecutors that the attack was fuelled by race and gender hatred. Or the attack on Chicanos in El Paso, Texas, in 2019, when 22 people were killed in an allegedly hate-motived shooting; and the murder of 11 Jewish Americans at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh the same year by a man who said Jews “were committing a genocide to his people”.White supremacy is as American as apple pie. It was constitutive of the founding of our nation, like a serpent wrapped around the legs of the table on which the Declaration of Independence and constitution were signed. What we saw in Buffalo at the weekend is another manifestation of it… Above all, remember Mamie Till, the mother of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black boy abducted and lynched by Mississippi racists in 1955. She said: “I don’t have a minute to hate, I’ll pursue justice for the rest of my life.”
America’s billionaire class is funding anti-democratic forces
The Guardian – May 23, 2022 – Robert Reich
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/23/americas-billionaire-class-is-funding-anti-democratic-forces
Today’s billionaire class is pushing a radically anti-democratic agenda for America – backing Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, calling for restrictions on voting and even questioning the value of democracy. Peter Thiel, the billionaire tech financier who is among those leading the charge, once wrote, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”… Thiel and his fellow billionaires in the anti-democracy movement don’t want to conserve much of anything – at least not anything that occurred after the 1920s, which includes Social Security, civil rights, and even women’s right to vote… If we want to guard what is left of our freedom, we will need to meet today’s anti-democracy movement with a bold pro-democracy movement that protects the institutions of self-government from authoritarian strongmen like Trump and his wannabes, and from big money like Peter Thiel’s.
Gun violence – 19 Murdered Children
The New York Times – May 25, 2022 – David Leonhardt
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/briefing/texas-elementary-school-shooting-uvalde.html
If American gun violence is no longer surprising, it still is shocking. On an average day in the U.S., more than 35 people are murdered with a gun. No other affluent country in the world has a gun homicide rate nearly as high… Why is the U.S. such an outlier? The main reasons, studies suggest, are the sheer number of guns in this country and the loose laws about obtaining and using them. No doubt, this latest tragedy will lead to more debate about whether those laws should meaningfully change. After other recent shootings, the country’s answer was no.
Guns Leading Cause of Death in Kids
Common Dreams – May 26 2022 – Andrea Germanos
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/26/we-continue-fail-protect-our-youngest-guns-leading-cause-death-kids
“This is a choice,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) tweeted Wednesday. “Every vote against gun reform is a choice.” “These massacres,” she added, “are preventable.” Pressley’s pointed remarks followed an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data published in the New England Journal of Medicine that found that from 2019 to 2020, firearm-related deaths among one- to 19-year-olds jumped by 29%—”more than twice as high as the relative increase in the general population.” Motor vehicle crashes were long the top cause of death for kids, but guns took over the top spot beginning in 2020.
AR-15s Were Made to Explode Human Bodies. In Uvalde, the Bodies Belonged to Children.
The Intercept – May 26, 2022 – Murtaza Hussain
https://theintercept.com/2022/05/26/ar-15-uvalde-school-shooting-vietnam-war/
Much has been made of how easily the killer, Salvador Ramos, strode into a store and bought two AR-15s the week before the attack, an apparent birthday gift to himself. Anyone paying attention gets that the ease of purchase for such weapons — which are frequently used in mass killings — is an indication of how deep the gun problem in America runs. It cannot be emphasized enough, however, exactly what the AR-15 is: It is a weapon of war. It was made to blow humans apart. It is successful in doing just that. The requests for DNA tests in Uvalde stand as a testament to the gun’s success, but the conclusion that the weapon excelled at blowing people apart was well documented by the U.S. military itself during early field tests… Though it has become available domestically in the years since, the weapon was made for war — no matter what the National Rifle Association says — and was noted even at the time as being a significant escalation in the lethality of rifles… The horrifying reality, which we all know, is that there will be another Uvalde sooner or later. The AR-15 is a demon that was unleashed on foreigners during wartime and has now returned as a demon to victimize innocent Americans, including the most innocent among us. A machine designed for the mass killing and maiming of other people — a design that had nothing to do with hunting or sportsmanship — should not be on American streets. At the minimum, no one in public life should be allowed to deny what it really does.
The Right-Wing Lie That’s Killing Our Children
Rolling Stone – May 24, 2022 – Jay Michaelson
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/the-right-wing-lie-thats-killing-our-children-1358161/
I think of that headline after every mass shooting, including today’s horrifying one at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Every country has murderous lunatics, yet only ours has so many mass shootings. Why? Obviously, because of our insane gun culture, propped up by a preposterous misreading of the Second Amendment, funded largely by gun manufacturers, and now, like so much else, yet another identity-marker of the populist Right… The lie at the heart of all of this insanity is the Right’s ludicrous perversion of the Second Amendment. Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, until 2008, no federal court had held that the Second Amendment conveyed a right to own a gun. On the contrary, the Supreme Court clearly said that it didn’t. Why? Because of the obvious language of the amendment, which reads, in full, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”… For nearly two hundred years, there was widespread agreement that the Second Amendment meant what it said: that the right “of the people” meant the right to bear arms in well-regulated militias, which was how the nation protected itself prior to standing armed forces and police, and which slave-owners maintained to protect against possible uprisings… Our collective refusal to do anything about these horrifying mass shootings is not the Second Amendment’s fault. It’s white supremacy’s fault. It’s Republicans’ fault. It is that simple.
Shootings aren’t a sign America is ‘broken’. It’s working exactly as intended
The Guardian – May 25, 2022 – Ryan Busse
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/25/shootings-arent-a-sign-america-is-broken-its-working-exactly-as-intended
I was a firearms exec for years. The industry used to adhere to self-imposed rules and norms – until gun makers and lobby groups like the NRA realized fear and extremism sold more guns… There is a reason why troubled 18-year-olds can buy assault rifles, body armor and high-capacity magazines. There is a reason why racism, conspiracies and increasingly dangerous idolatry infect parts of our country, and federal gun legislation has stalled time and time again. It’s the gun lobby – the NRA, the NSSF [National Shooting Sports Foundation] and the politicians who are frightened of them. The horrific murders of second- and third-graders are part of that system. It’s time to rebuild it. We can all be safer from gun violence if we’re willing to stand up to the gun lobby and the politicians who champion their dangerous extremism in pursuit of profits.
How Gun Control Works in America, Compared With Four Other Rich Countries
Reader Supported News – May 25, 2022 – German Lopez
https://www.rsn.org/001/how-gun-control-works-in-america-compared-with-four-other-rich-countries.html
I found the US really does have the most relaxed gun control measures in comparison with other developed nations. Based on the research, that’s a significant reason the US leads its developed peers in gun violence. A 2016 review of 130 studies in 10 countries, published in Epidemiologic Reviews, found that new legal restrictions on owning and purchasing guns tended to be ollowed by a drop in gun violence. That’s a strong indicator that restricting access to guns can save lives. Here’s a guide to the gun control laws of some of the countries I looked at: the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, and Japan — a mix of wealthy nations with similar and varying cultural backgrounds.
What We Know Is Not Nearly Enough
Reader Supported News – Garrison Keillor’s Website – May 27, 2022 – Garrison Keillor
https://www.rsn.org/001/what-we-know-is-not-nearly-enough.html
Apparently we are two countries, and in one, it’s considered normal to go around armed with a gun, and in the other it’s considered weird. I happen to be fond of Texas but I live in New York because if someone steps onto a New York subway train carrying an AR-15, it’s considered terrifying; it’s not a Swiss army knife. So I live here, not there.
Seeing America, Again, in the Uvalde Elementary-School Shooting
The New Yorker – May 25, 2022 – Jessica Winter
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/seeing-america-again-in-the-texas-elementary-school-shooting
If America were not afraid to know itself, we could more readily accept that gun-rights advocates are enthralled with violent sorrow. This is the America they envisaged. It is what they worked so hard for. Their thoughts and prayers have been answered.
America’s unique, enduring gun problem, explained
Vox – May 26, 2022 – By Nicole Narea, Li Zhou, and Ian Millhiser
https://www.vox.com/23142734/uvalde-mass-shooting-gun-violence-control
Every country has people suffering from mental health issues and extremists like the Buffalo shooter; those problems aren’t unique. What is unique is the US’s expansive view of civilian gun ownership, ingrained in politics, in culture, and in the law since the nation’s founding, and a national political process that has so far proved incapable of changing that norm. “America is unique in that guns have always been present, there is wide civilian ownership, and the government hasn’t claimed more of a monopoly on them,” said David Yamane, a professor at Wake Forest University who studies American gun culture. That’s left many wondering how many more people — including children — need to die before the US takes federal action.
Arsenal of Autocracy? The Major Weapons Makers Cash in Worldwide, Not Just in Ukraine
Informed Comment – May 25, 2022 – William D. Hartung
https://www.juancole.com/2022/05/arsenal-autocracy-worldwide.html
If they were truly to become part of an “arsenal of democracy,” those militarized mega-firms would have to trim their client lists considerably. I suspect, in fact, that if we were looking at their global sales in a more clear-eyed way, we would have to come up with a more apt term for them entirely. My own suggestion when it comes to Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and similar firms would be “arsenal of autocracy.” Let me explain why I think that term would be all too apt… Nowhere is the “arsenal of autocracy” moniker more apt than in the case of the war in Yemen, where the United States has sold tens of billions of dollars of weaponry to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for their grim intervention there. The results have been horrific — thousands of civilians killed by indiscriminate air strikes (using weaponry from those very companies) and millions on the brink of famine due to a Saudi-led air and sea blockade that has dramatically reduced Yemeni imports of fuel and other essential commodities… This country has long been working to create and support global arsenals of autocracy… All you need to know about their true intentions [is that this is] for them a genuine gold-rush moment.
In Politics, Money Will Always Talk. Unless…
Portside – May 28, 2022 – Sam Pizzigati
https://www.portside.org/2022-05-28/politics-money-will-always-talk-unless
Money, of course, has always impacted our democracy big-time. Only two things matter in American politics, as GOP political strategist Mark Hanna famously quipped amid our nation’s initial Gilded Age: “The first is money, and I can’t remember what the other one is.”… We all lose when politically active billionaires throw their millions around. The millions that billionaires funnel into electoral politics — millions unlimited ever since the 2010 Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision ended limits on how much the rich can spend “independently” — fundamentally distort our national political behavior… In an unequal society, a society dominated by concentrated wealth, democracy will always be “damnably difficult.” And we will make no progress toward overcoming these difficulties, the British political scientist Harold Laski argued years ago, until we recognize that the primary problem in a deeply unequal democracy will never be the influence we allow the wealthy to bring to bear on our politics. The primary problem remains concentrated wealth itself, the huge gap between the wealthy and everyone else.
The “Best Evidence” Contradicting the Official Position on 9/11
Global Research – May 26, 2022 – Elizabeth Woodworth and David Ray Griffin
https://www.globalresearch.ca/best-evidence-contradicting-official-position-911-excerpts-from-911-unmasked-international-review-panel-investigation/5781557
The 9/11 attacks of 2001 have had powerfully destructive global effects. Given these disastrous effects, and the many people who have raised questions about the attacks, one would suppose that the press would have thoroughly explored the question of how they were carried out and who organized them. But this did not happen. Rather, the press for the most part simply repeated the official account and attacked those who questioned it. But deep and pervasive contradictions in the official reports made questioning necessary… As researchers outside the mainstream press began studying the evidence, they discovered more and more facts that seemed to conflict with the official account.