The Climate Apocalypse Ahead: An Exchange with Bill McGuire
OpEdNews – August 23, 2022 – John Hawkins
https://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Climate-Apocalypse-Ahe-Apocalypse-Apocalyptic-End-Of-The-World_Billionaires_Climate-Change-Deniers_Climate-Crisis-220810-195.html
[My book] “Hothouse Earth,” however, is very different. Global heating and climate breakdown are with us now, rather than a vague ten thousand years down the line. As we confront the greatest threat in human history, there is absolutely no room for whimsy, so the book’s subtitle – an ‘inhabitant’s guide’ – signals that I am seeking, in all sincerity, to paint a picture – however grim – of what our future world is set to be like… Hothouse Earth is therefore a call to arms for us to act now to stop dangerous climate breakdown metamorphosing into a climate cataclysm. The near certainty of us shattering the 1.5°C guardrail also means that as well as doing everything we can to bring emissions down as fast as possible, we are also now going to have to work to adapt our infrastructure, lives and livelihoods to a world that is slated to be unrecognisable to the one our grandparents were born into.
New book makes argument for addressing climate migration
ABC News – August 26, 2022
https://abcnews.go.com/International/book-makes-argument-addressing-climate-migration/story?id=88895091
As the climate crisis worsens, a massive amount of people may be forced to move from their homes. The international think-tank Institute for Economics & Peace estimates that 1.2 billion people could be displaced globally by 2050. Gaia Vince, a science journalist and author of the recent book “Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World,” spoke with ABC News Prime about the argument she makes in her books that nations have to start planning now for future climate refugees, and that there may be silver linings in that process.
Without Significant Greenhouse Gas Reductions, Countries in the Tropics and Subtropics Could Face ‘Extreme’ Heat Danger by 2100
Inside Climate News – August 25, 2022 – Victoria St. Martin
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25082022/extreme-heat-tropics/
If the effects of climate change go unchecked through the end of the century, some parts of the world will likely experience roughly two weeks each year when temperatures are so high that it would be too dangerous for anyone to venture outdoors, according to a new study released Thursday. The study, published in the open-access journal Communications Earth & Environment, found that by 2100 there are likely to be 15 days a year in which some countries near the equator experience heat indexes exceeding 124 degrees Fahrenheit, or 51 degrees Celsius. The heat index is derived from measurements of air temperature and relative humidity. The National Weather Service identifies a heat index above 124 degrees as a condition of “extreme danger” in which heat stroke is “highly likely” and it is unsafe for people to be outside… “There’s a great quote that I can’t take credit for, but there was someone in the scientific community who said, ‘Don’t think of it as the hottest year in history; think of it as the coldest year for the next hundred years,’” Zeppetello said, “And I think there’s value in that. Just seeing that we are tipping the scales pretty quickly toward really unprecedented forms of weather in the global north.”
We Now Have a Universal Right to a Healthy and Sustainable Environment
Yes! Magazine – August 22, 2022 – Joel E. Correia
https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2022/08/22/un-universal-human-right-healthy-sustainable-environment
The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on July 28, 2022, to declare the ability to live in “a clean, healthy and sustainable environment” a universal human right. It also called on countries, companies, and international organizations to scale up efforts to turn that into reality. The declaration is not legally binding—countries can vote to support a declaration of rights while not actually supporting those rights in practice. The language is also vague, leaving to interpretation just what a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is.Still, it’s more than moral posturing. Resolutions like this have a history of laying the foundation for effective treaties and national laws.
The Idea of 100 Percent Renewable Energy Is Once Again Having a Moment
Inside Climate News – August 25, 2022 – Dan Gearino
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25082022/inside-clean-energy-renewables/
Wind, solar and other renewable sources could supply all of the world’s energy, according to a growing body of research…. “It’s become increasingly obvious over the past few decades that all-renewable electricity can work well pretty much anywhere,” Lovins said. “Denial is increasingly confined to the uninformed.” One of the key factors is cost. Wind and solar power are now much less expensive than the other leading sources of electricity, with solar now the least expensive option in much of the world… Considering that some utilities used to say that even 10 percent renewable energy wasn’t workable, it’s not surprising that the idea of 100 percent renewable energy has faced steady criticism. The paper says “a consensus is starting to emerge that many of those early criticisms do not hold when examined in detail.”
Global renewable investment sets new record at $226B in H1 despite supply chain constraints
Utility Dive – August 3, 2022 – Robert Walton
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/renewable-investment-BNEF/628738/
Global investment in renewable energy spiked 11% in the first half of this year, relative to the same period in 2021, rising to $226 billion and setting a new record according to data from BloombergNEF. It was the “best-ever first half for renewables investment,” the firm said in a research note published Tuesday. The bulk of that spending went to finance solar and wind projects, analysts said. “Despite the headwinds presented by ongoing cost inflation and supply chain challenges, demand for clean energy sources has never been higher, and we expect that the global energy crisis will continue to act as an accelerant for the clean energy transition,” BNEF Head of Global Analysis Albert Cheung said in a statement.
The Inflation Reduction Act’s Incentives are a Start to a Green Energy Revolution, but Now comes the Hard Work
Informed Comment – August 25, 2022 – Daniel Cohan
https://www.juancole.com/2022/08/reduction-incentives-revolution.html
Wind and solar farms won’t be built without enough power lines to connect their electricity to customers. Captured carbon and clean hydrogen won’t get far without pipelines. Too few contractors are trained to install heat pumps. And EV buyers will think twice if there aren’t enough charging stations. In my new book about climate solutions, I discuss these and other obstacles standing in the way of a clean energy transition. Surmounting them is the next step as the country figures out how to turn the goals of the most ambitious climate legislation Congress has ever passed into reality. Two outcomes matter: how deeply U.S. actions slash emissions domestically, and how effectively they cut the costs of clean technologies so that other countries can slash their emissions too.
How Americans’ love of beef is helping destroy the Amazon rainforest
The Washington Post – April 29, 2022 – Terrence McCoy and Júlia Ledur
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/amazon-beef-deforestation-brazil/
The biggest problem in Brazil’s cattle industry today, and a key reason deforestation in the Amazon has reached a 15-year high, isn’t the direct supplier. That hasn’t been the case in years. The biggest problem is the indirect suppliers — ranchers who know how to work the system, shuffling cattle from ranch to ranch to conceal their illegal origins and sell them off… How cattle, the most common of animals, became central to the decimation of the world’s most valuable forest is a story of intention, not coincidence. It begins in the mid-1960s, when Brazil was ruled by a military dictatorship. Worried that vast stretches of uncontrolled territory in the Amazon would invite foreign invasions, generals set out to conquer what had until then been unconquerable. The mission: “Operation Amazon.” The rallying call: “A land without men for men without land.” The tool of conquest: cattle… environmentalists see the contours of what has become a political Rubik’s Cube. Bolsonaro, under international pressure to save the Amazon, has committed to ending illegal deforestation by 2030 and making Brazil carbon-neutral by 2050. But few think those goals can be reached without curbing rapacious cattle ranching. And even fewer think Bolsonaro, who sees those who practice it as a crucial base of support, will do it.
Desalination Can Make Saltwater Drinkable — but It Won’t Solve the US Water Crisis
The Washington Post – September 28, 2021 – Michael Birnbaum
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/09/28/desalination-saltwater-drought-water-crisis/
“Desalination can be a sustainable way to replenish our water cycle,” wrote the authors of a European Commission-backed study last year that argued for wider use of desalination around the world, in partnership with efforts to minimize its environmental impact. But the process is energy-intensive, costly and complicated to manage in an Earth-friendly way. Here’s what you need to know… Cleaning up the water isn’t challenge-free. Salt isn’t the only thing that hangs out in seawater: There’s also often a lot of boron, which isn’t good for crops and in large concentrations might be unhealthy for humans. And it isn’t always easy to clean saltwater. Other contaminants can also get in.
You probably have “forever chemicals” in your body. Here’s what that means.
Vox – August 25, 2022 – Benji Jones
https://www.vox.com/2022/8/25/23318667/pfas-forever-chemicals-safety-drinking-water
Right now, you likely have something unnatural lurking inside your body. It was made by a large corporation and could potentially harm you. That something is called PFAS. Known colloquially as “forever chemicals,” PFAS — short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are a large group of chemicals that make certain products nonstick or stain resistant. Research indicates that these chemicals can be dangerous. Exposure to PFAS is linked to cancers, weakened immune systems among children, weight gain, and a wide range of other health problems. PFAS are a public health concern, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet companies are still producing them. What’s especially alarming is that nearly all Americans have some amount of PFAS in their blood, no matter how healthy they might be. “We’re really seeing PFAS absolutely everywhere,” said Elsie M. Sunderland, an environmental chemist at Harvard who’s been studying PFAS for roughly a decade.
Forever Chemicals No More? PFAS Are Destroyed With New Technique
The New York Times – August 18, 2022 – Carl Zimmer
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/science/pfas-forever-chemicals.html
A team of scientists has found a cheap, effective way to destroy so-called forever chemicals, a group of compounds that pose a global threat to human health. The chemicals — known as PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are found in a spectrum of products and contaminate water and soil around the world. Left on their own, they are remarkably durable, remaining dangerous for generations. Scientists have been searching for ways to destroy them for years. In a study, published Thursday in the journal Science, a team of researchers rendered PFAS molecules harmless by mixing them with two inexpensive compounds at a low boil. In a matter of hours, the PFAS molecules fell apart… Even low chronic levels of PFAS exposure have been linked to an increased risk of cancer, liver damage, low birth weight and reduced immunity. “Nearly every American has them in their bodies,” said Tasha Stoiber, a senior scientist at Environmental Working Group, an environmental advocacy group that conducts research on PFAS chemicals… PFAS chemicals have accumulated in water and soil across the planet. Earlier this month, a team of scientists reported that they could even find PFAS in raindrops falling on Tibet and Antarctica.
Winter Is Coming
Reader Supported News – August 22, 2022 – Garry Kasparov
https://www.rsn.org/001/winter-is-coming.html
Below is an excerpt from Russian World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov’s book, Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped. It is very important to remind yourself as you read Kasparov’s prophetic masterpiece that he was writing about and reacting to events unfolding in 2014 not 2022.. Kasparov gives us a vivid portrait of the anti-Putin, pro-democracy movement in Russia and the problems Putin is having containing it. The book was published in 2015. With a slight tweak to the title it could easily be current events, Winter Has Come.
50+ Israeli Organizations Blast ‘Baseless’ Attacks on Palestinian NGOs
Common Dreams – August 22, 2022 – Kenny Stancil
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/08/22/50-israeli-organizations-blast-baseless-attacks-palestinian-ngos
More than 50 Israel-based civil society organizations on Monday expressed solidarity with the Palestinian nonprofits that have been subjected to an ongoing legal and physical assault from the Israeli apartheid regime…. “Documentation, advocacy, and legal aid are the core of human rights work around the world,” says the statement. “Criminalizing such activity is a deplorable act characteristic of repressive regimes.”
How Coverage of Palestinians and Israel in NYT and Western Press Obscures the Occupation
Informed Comment – August 26, 2022 – Ramzy Baroud
https://www.juancole.com/2022/08/coverage-palestinians-occupation.html
Since many newspapers and online platforms utilise western news agencies, they, often inadvertently, adopt the same language used in western news sources, thus depicting Palestinian resisters or fighters, as ‘militants’, the Israeli occupation army as “Israeli Defence Forces” and Israeli war on Gaza as ‘flare ups’ of violence. In its totality, this language misinterprets the Palestinian struggle for freedom as random acts of violence within a protracted ‘conflict’ where innocent civilians, like Layan, are ‘caught in the crossfire.’
Blowing the “Anti-Woke” Dog Whistle
Steady – August 23, 2022 – Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner
https://steady.substack.com/p/blowing-the-anti-woke-dog-whistle
Let’s get something straight. The weaponization of the term “woke” by the political right is not a joke. Far from it. It provides a window into the low regard (to say the least) these people have for human rights, empathy, and the truth… Returning to the dictionary, it defines “woke” as “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).” So, in other words, a positive. But the dictionary also mentions that while the term came to prominence in 2014 with the Black Lives Matter movement, “By the end of that same decade it was also being applied by some as a general pejorative for anyone who is or appears to be politically left-leaning.”… On the one hand, we have a way of thinking, an approach to gaining a better understanding, a grappling with “important facts.” To be “woke” is to be aware. On the other hand, to be “woke” is to be a type of person, one to be shunned, stigmatized, and vilified… Attacking the “other” can be a path to power. But maybe they also need a refresher course. Time and time again, demagogues have risen up in American history. And time and time again, they have been defeated because America “woke” up.
Florida Has An Outrageous New Law Targeting Teachers. Here’s Why I’ll Be Breaking It.
Huffpost – August 14, 2022 – Beth L. Matterson
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/florida-stop-woke-act-teacher_n_62ebd29ce4b0da5ec0f252ec
In a couple of weeks, I’ll walk back into my college classroom and continue my second decade of teaching at one of Florida’s universities. Despite the recently passed HB 7 Amendment (Stop WOKE Act), I won’t be adjusting my syllabi to remove readings or discussions that make students “uncomfortable,” and I won’t pretend that systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia and other forms of oppression do not exist. I will not “whitewash” our country’s history or minimize the challenges and oppression that so many still experience, especially those who are women and/or members of the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities. Instead, I will do what I have always done. I will select the creative work of writers who belong to all sorts of communities, and I will require students to read their stories and discuss the work and their themes. Some of those themes are difficult and may make many of us uncomfortable, no matter how we identify or what community we’re in… This is not indoctrination. It’s education. As long as I’m allowed in a classroom, I’ll do my job. I wish Gov. DeSantis would do the same.
The 6 Secrets to Becoming a Fabulously Rich Con Artist
Robert Reich’s Blog – August 22, 2022
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-6-secrets-to-becoming-a-fabulously
As the saying goes, in America everyone is entitled to a second chance — especially con artists. Herewith the 6 rules for getting a second (or third or fourth) chance to sell a giant con: … Market a mundane idea as “disruptive.” Adam Neumann, the founder of WeWork, hyped his office-sharing startup as the first “physical social network.” In reality it was nothing more than what you’d find in any coffee shop with customers at their laptops, but Neumann made it sound so revolutionary — “disruptive,” to use the high falutin con word — that JPMorgan, SoftBank, and other investors sank hundreds of millions into his company. At its height it was valued at some $47 billion…. Pocket the money… Make sure your investors have their own investors… Do the same thing again… Never admit fault or defeat. Adam Neumann’s con is small change compared to Donald Trump’s — who has also managed to fail upward but far more spectacularly. The master con artist has defrauded customers, renters, students, hoteliers, contractors, and, finally, American voters. He never admits defeat. Trump has leveraged every fraud into an even bigger fraud. As he infamously claimed, he could shoot someone in the center of Fifth Avenue and get away with it. Trump “disrupted” American democracy with his Big Lie and attempted coup. Now, it seems, he’s about to seek a second chance at the presidency… Don’t be poor or Black or brown. If you’re not poor or a person of color, you can get away with the giant cons Adam Neumann and Donald Trump have gotten away with. Just follow the steps enumerated above. Hell, you might even become President.
Altercation: Can CNN Actually Get Worse? Apparently, It Can.
The American Prospect – August 26, 2022 – Eric Alterman
https://prospect.org/politics/altercation-can-cnn-actually-get-worse-apparently-it-can/
A right-wing billionaire is asserting his right-wing control.
Can Unions Still Transform the Workplace?
Yes! Magazine – August 16, 2022 – Sonali Kolhatkar
https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/work/2022/08/16/unions-still-transform-workplace
Young workers, women, and people of color are combining digital innovation with old-school face-to-face organizing to build a new labor movement… “It’s possible that this new generation of female-heavy, people-of-color-heavy trade unionists will succeed where we have been failing for a couple of generations,” says labor expert and author Jane McAlevey. While noting that victory isn’t inevitable, she recognizes that the people driving this movement “are fighting to form unions so that there is radical change and transformational change in their life.”
The Origin of Student Debt: Reagan Adviser Warned Free College Would Create a Dangerous “Educated Proletariat”
The Intercept – August 25, 2022 – Jon Schwarz
https://theintercept.com/2022/08/25/student-loans-debt-reagan/
With the vociferous debate over President Joe Biden’s announcement that the federal government will cancel a portion of outstanding student debt, it’s important to understand how Americans came to owe the current cumulative total of more than $1.6 trillion for higher education. In 1970, Ronald Reagan was running for reelection as governor of California. In May 1970, Reagan had shut down all 28 UC and Cal State campuses in the midst of student protests against the Vietnam War and the U.S. bombing of Cambodia. On October 29, less than a week before the election, his education adviser Roger A. Freeman spoke at a press conference to defend him… Freeman’s remarks were reported the next day in the San Francisco Chronicle under the headline “Professor Sees Peril in Education.” According to the Chronicle article, Freeman said, “We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat… If we want to take another path, the U.S. will have to recover a vision of a well-educated populace not as a terrible threat, but as a positive force that makes the nation better for everyone — and so should largely be paid for by all of us.
Biden’s Cancellation of Billions in Debt Won’t Solve the Larger Problem
The Atlantic Magazine – August 24, 2022 – Adam Harris
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/08/student-debt-relief-biden-loan-forgiveness/671223/
Equally as important as addressing the damage that student loans have caused is ensuring that Americans aren’t saddled with overwhelming debt again. And the underlying issue of college affordability can be addressed only if America once again views higher education as a public good. Belatedly canceling some student debt is what a country does when it refuses to support students up front… But in the past half century, radical investments in higher-education access have dried up. Now a political divide has opened up: Conservative lawmakers—whose voters are more likely not to have attended college—have grown not only suspicious of but in some cases openly hostile toward the enterprise… Biden’s plan will give graduates—and those who have taken out loans but not finished school—some relief, but the need to overhaul a system reliant on debt remains as urgent as ever.
William F. Buckley Jr. vs. James Baldwin: A racial showdown on the American dream
The Washington Post – September 15, 2019 – Gillian Brockell
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/15/william-f-buckley-jr-vs-james-baldwin-racial-showdown-american-dream/
The fascinating, compelling 1965 video and Washington Post 2019 article below are both about the debate that took place in 1965 between James Baldwin and William Buckley at Cambridge University in Britain. The focus of the debate was: “The American Dream at The Expense of the American Negro?” ‘Baldwin spoke for 24 minutes. He wasn’t interrupted by a student’s question a single time; to do so “would have been profane,” Buccola said. When he finished, the crowd applauded politely before bursting into an extended standing ovation’
Maintaining Class Inequality at Any Cost Is GOP’s Guiding Mission
Truthout – August 27, 2022 – C.J. Polychroniou interviews Noam Chomsky
https://truthout.org/articles/chomsky-maintaining-class-inequality-at-any-cost-is-gops-guiding-mission/
In the interview that follows, world-renowned scholar and public intellectual Noam Chomsky offers a tour-de-force analysis of the evolution of the U.S. political setting and the vital role that class warfare and repression have played in making corporate culture the dominant force, turning American society into a neoliberal dystopia. Chomsky also sheds light on why today’s GOP has turned U.S. politics into a culture war battle while pursuing policies that suppress social rights and strangle intellectual freedom, with Viktor Orbán’s “racist Christian nationalist proto-fascist government … hailed as the ideal for the future.” In addition, he assesses the political situation in connection with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act… What is unfolding before our eyes is a kind of classical tragedy, the grim conclusion foreordained, the march toward it seemingly inexorable. The origins are deep in the history of a society that has been free and bountiful for the privileged, awful for those who were in the way or cast aside.
Howard Zinn at 100: The Enduring Legacy of the People’s Historian
Democracy Now! – August 25, 2022 – Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan
https://www.democracynow.org/2022/8/25/howard_zinn_at_100_the_enduring
August 24th, marked the centennial of the late historian Howard Zinn’s birth. Zinn was an author, professor, and anti-war activist. His seminal book, A People’s History of the United States, revealed a different, dissident perspective on the historical arc of the Western hemisphere, from Christopher Columbus’ arrival in 1492 to the so-called “War on Terror.” First published in 1980, A People’s History has become a standard text, with over 2 million copies in print. Howard Zinn died in 2010, at the age of 87. His words, more than a decade after his death, are still worth hearing in a world wracked by war, racism and inequality. “War poisons everybody who engages in it,” Howard Zinn said in a 2006 address in Madison, Wisconsin. The United States was waging two major wars at the time, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and supporting ongoing conflicts elsewhere. Howard Zinn continued, “We’ve had a history of war after war after war after war. What have they solved? What have they done?”