Polycrisis, Unraveling, Simplification, or Collapse?
Common Dreams – June 22, 2023 – Richard Heinberg
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/polycrisis-coming-to-a-planet-near-you
Our current set of crises can be described as a polycrisis because self-reinforcing feedbacks between ecological breakdown and social breakdown are strengthening and growing more numerous… Scholars who engage with the accumulating literature on societal collapse can hardly help noting the relevance for today’s world. We’ve built a global civilization of unparalleled complexity, wealth, and inequality, all based on depleting, polluting fossil fuels. What could go wrong?… However, if we work together now to build a truly sustainable way of life, maybe future generations will have at least some reasons to thank us.
The climate crisis is on track to push one-third of humanity out of its most livable environment
Grist – June 19, 2023 – Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica
https://grist.org/climate/the-climate-crisis-is-on-track-to-push-one-third-of-humanity-out-of-its-most-livable-environment/
Climate change is remapping where humans can exist on the planet. As optimum conditions shift away from the equator and toward the poles, more than 600 million people have already been stranded outside of a crucial environmental niche that scientists say best supports life. By late this century, according to a study published last month in the journal Nature Sustainability, 3 to 6 billion people, or between a third and a half of humanity, could be trapped outside of that zone, facing extreme heat, food scarcity and higher death rates, unless emissions are sharply curtailed or mass migration is accommodated. The research, which adds novel detail about who will be most affected and where, suggests that climate-driven migration could easily eclipse even the largest estimates as enormous segments of the earth’s population seek safe havens… The findings show that climate change will pummel poorer parts of the world disproportionately, effectively sentencing the people who live in developing nations and small island states to extreme temperatures, failing crops, conflict, water and food scarcity, and rising mortality. The final option for many people will be migration. The estimated size of the affected populations, whether they’re 2 billion or 6 billion, suggests an era of global upheaval.
Climate Tipping Points, Ecological Collapse Could Arrive Sooner Than Expected
Common Dreams – June 23, 2023 – Julia Conley
https://www.commondreams.org/news/tipping-points-sooner
A new study released Thursday warns that international experts may have been overly cautious in their warnings about widespread ecological collapse such as a catastrophic breakdown in the Amazon rainforest, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said last year could come by the year 2100… The IPCC, suggests the study, which was published in Nature Sustainability, has been issuing its warnings about a tipping point in the Amazon while focusing on just a single factor, such as deforestation or planetary heating. Both of those drivers could interact with other environmental changes and accelerate tipping points such as dieback—in which the rainforest ecosystem would be replaced by one resembling a dry savanna… our findings suggest that a breakdown may occur several decades earlier,” reads the report. “This would occur where local-scale failures in elements (such as species populations, fish stocks, crop yields, and water resources) combine with more extreme events (such as wildfires and droughts) to precondition the large-scale system, already vulnerable to the influence of other large-scale tipping elements, to collapse earlier—a meeting of top-down and bottom-up forces.”
Marching into Oblivion
Consortium News – June 20, 2023 – Caitlin Johnstone
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/06/20/caitlin-johnstone-marching-into-oblivion/
If the war machine is alone responsible for placing checks on its nuclear brinkmanship, then there are no real checks on the nuclear brinkmanship of the war machine… We are marching toward dystopia and oblivion, and we are doing it in ways that have no historical precedent. We’re in completely uncharted waters, and things are only getting crazier and crazier. What a wild world. What a time to be alive.
Community-Powered Solar in Puerto Rico
Yes! Magazine – June 13, 2023 – Katherine Rapin
https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2023/06/13/puerto-rico-solar-power
The microgrid project is the latest effort in a grassroots movement to build energy security in Puerto Rico in the form of solar power. Across the island, groups like Casa Pueblo, which first opened in Adjuntas more than 40 years ago, have relied on deep roots in the community to create local buy-in and make it an equitable transition. Microgrids power small networks of buildings with energy that’s generated close to where it’s used, often wind or solar. The systems are typically connected to a central grid, but in the case of an outage they can run on “island mode,” relying solely on locally generated power and battery storage capacity.
Most Americans underestimate the popularity of policies to protect the climate
Yale Climate Connections – June 21, 2023 – YCC Team
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/06/most-americans-underestimate-the-popularity-of-policies-to-protect-the-climate/
“What we found is that the vast majority of Americans underestimate just how many of their fellow Americans support these transformative climate policies, like a carbon tax or a Green New Deal, or a 100% renewable energy mandate,” says Gregg Sparkman, an assistant professor in the department of psychology and neuroscience at Boston College… “While actual supporters of climate policies outnumber opponents two to one, we see that Americans think it’s the other way around,” Sparkman says. This misperception matters. When people feel alone in their views, they are less likely to take action. So he says it’s important to start conversations about climate change — “to voice your concerns about climate change to others, to talk about climate policies that you think are exciting: These kinds of conversations, when done en masse, will help correct this misperception.”
Meteorologist Who Was Threatened Over Climate Coverage to Leave Job
The New York Times – June 22, 2023 – Orlando Mayorquin
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/us/meteorologist-resigns-harrassment.html
“I’m not giving up,” Mr. Gloninger said in the interview. “I’m just shifting so I can do it full-time because I’m that passionate about it.” He said that harassment over his work relating to climate change “isn’t unique to me, it isn’t unique to our profession, and I think that it will continue if we continue to elevate voices that support hate.” Mr. Gloninger has continued to focus on climate change in his reports.
Senate Hearing Exposes ‘Insidious’ Dark Money Network Fueling Climate Crisis
Common Dreams – June 21, 2023 – Brett Wilkins
https://www.commondreams.org/news/senate-dark-money-climate
The fossil fuel industry’s disinformation campaign has penetrated right here into this committee room, via witnesses from organizations like the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which through 2021 have collectively received over half a billion dollars from fossil fuel-related interests. And that’s only the money that we know about. We are here today because fossil fuel-funded climate disinformation and obstruction is directly causing systemic financial risks to the economy and to the federal budget… “It has become abundantly clear that those who benefit most from a fossil fuel-dependent economy will stop at nothing to obscure science, confuse the public and policymakers, and block action to limit the worst effects of climate change,” Mulvey continued. “It is alarming to see elected officials parrot fossil fuel industry talking points and support the manipulation of public perception as the toll of the climate crisis mounts.”
Greta Thunberg Voices Support for Environmental Group Banned by France
Common Dreams – June 22, 2023 – Kenny Stancil
https://www.commondreams.org/news/greta-thunberg-france-environmental-group-banned-macron
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg wasted no time in throwing her support behind an environmental group shut down by French authorities. The French government on Wednesday issued a decree outlawing Les Soulèvements de la Terre (SLT, Uprisings of the Earth), accusing the group of “fomenting violence in a series of recent demonstrations,” In early April, several left-wing luminaries alarmed by France’s escalating repression of environmentalists and pension defenders signed a Progressive International petition expressing solidarity “with the French people in the face of violent crackdowns on popular protest and the criminalization of dissent by Emmanuel Macron’s government.”
How Daniel Ellsberg Opened the Door to One of the Most Consequential Climate Stories of Our Time
Inside Climate News – June 20, 2023 – David Sassoon
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20062023/daniel-ellsberg-inside-climate-news-exxon-knew/
In October 2014, Daniel Ellsberg opened the door to one of the most consequential climate stories of our time. I know because Inside Climate News was able to publish it a year later… We were tiny and no match for oil industry misinformation, I said. He listened to my lamentations with a kind and gentle demeanor, like a favorite uncle or guardian angel. Well then, he said, you should find out what the oil companies knew, and when they knew it. The look on my face asked how the hell are we going to do that, and he answered me. “You’ll find people of conscience in every corporation.” Like him at Rand. His words turned on a light inside my head, a sudden illumination. “We’re on it!” I said. He was pointing me to the most consequential climate story anyone could tell. “We’re on it,” I repeated. If our newsroom could locate the answers to the questions Ellsberg posed, the climate crisis would be on its way to being confronted… “Almost no single revelation will cause significant change by itself,” Ellsberg said in a recent Washington Post video, explaining how the truth needs allies in persistence. “But in combination with other information—other truth-telling—courage is contagious.”
Daniel Ellsberg Wanted Americans to See the Truth About War
The Intercept – June 16, 2023 – Norman Solomon
https://theintercept.com/2023/06/16/daniel-ellsberg-pentagon-papers-dead/
After his disclosure in early March that he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, media coverage of him and his life was extensive. Yet the public discourse scarcely touched on core aspects of the ongoing “war on terror” that he explored when we spoke for an interview that appears in my new book, “War Made Invisible.”
Daniel Ellsberg’s message to us, and to future generations
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – June 16, 2023 – Martin E. Hellman
https://thebulletin.org/2023/06/daniel-ellsbergs-message-to-us-and-to-future-generations/
Let’s come back to what you would like to say to future generations—or people right now even… We are living, as John F. Kennedy put it, “under a sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads.” And that thread has not been strengthened in the slightest over the years. What is happening now in the new Cold War is that the chance of reducing that risk is vanishing, the door is in the process of closing. Is it already too late? We don’t know. But I choose to act, and I urge others to act as if it’s not too late. And I can be very specific on what that would mean. We need coordination of action that also applies to climate change. It is hard to imagine a way of reducing the global emissions of CO2 that does not involve coordinated action between the major emitters like the US, China, India, Russia, and Europe… Does any nation have the right to threaten to kill billions of people? I would say they don’t, and they cannot possibly justify it by a need to deter nuclear attack on themselves, since much smaller arsenals would serve that purpose… You somehow have to coax them away from this insane path that they’re on. How do you persuade them away from a plan that is batshit crazy?
Europe Ignoring Israeli War Crimes under Guise of Combating anti-Semitism
Informed Comment – June 19, 2023 – Middle East Monitor
https://www.juancole.com/2023/06/shielding-combating-semitism.html
The chilling repercussions of the highly controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism have been revealed in a recent report by the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC). Titled “Suppressing Palestinian Rights Advocacy through the IHRA Working Definition of Anti-Semitism”, the report by the independent Dutch-based organisation uncovered shocking examples of the IHRA’s weaponisation against critics of Israel and the suppression of free speech under the guise of combatting anti-Semitism… Despite promoting the IHRA as “non-legally binding”, most of the EU Member States have endorsed the IHRA as the authoritative instrument for addressing anti-Semitism which, according to the ELSC, has given the definition centered on shielding Israel and Zionism “soft law power”. EU statements and policies through which the IHRA is being applied, is said to show that it has gained law like force and impact.
Don’t Compare Donald Trump to Reality Winner. He’s No Whistleblower
The Intercept – June 19, 2023 – James Risen
https://theintercept.com/2023/06/19/trump-indictment-whistleblowers-classified-documents/
Don’t confuse Trump’s actions in his classified documents case with what they did. He’s accused of stealing classified information and lying about it, apparently for his own selfish reasons. Public service was never on his mind when he ordered that boxes filled with classified documents be moved around Mar-a-Lago to hide them from the FBI. After Trump was indicted last week, there were plenty of facile comparisons in the media between his case and those of others like Winner who have been targeted in leak prosecutions. But Winner, Albury, and Edwards were whistleblowers, not narcissists who wanted to hoard government secrets as if they were rare gold coins.
“I’s Free, I’s Free”: Let The Story Be Told
Common Dreams – June 20, 2023 – Abby Zimet
https://www.commondreams.org/further/i-s-free-i-s-free-let-the-story-be-told
Today, black Americans beset by newly bold white supremacy, from the erasure of their history to the erosion of their voting rights, fight back with rage, truth, art, protest, but are still moved to ask: “How long must we sing this song?”… “While the Confederacy may be long dead, Confederate ideology is alive and well…Especially when the GOP, a neo-Confederate party in all but name, is hoping to unfree so many of us.” Cue book bans, white threats, states’ “rights,” racist fearmongering, airbrushing slavery – see 560 proposed laws against “critical race theory” or the Alabama mother arguing there’s “too much Black history” taught…
Over-the-Counter Birth Control Would Be a Game Changer
Otherwords – May 17, 2023 – Sonali Kolhatkar
https://otherwords.org/over-the-counter-birth-control-would-be-a-game-changer/
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research reviewed the available evidence and found that prescription birth control pills have helped women stay out of poverty, attend college and graduate in higher numbers, and earn more at work. It’s no wonder that a massive majority of women surveyed were in favor of an over-the-counter pill being available in the U.S. — 77 percent of women aged 18 to 49 said as much in a Kaiser Family Foundation survey last fall. Legalizing an over-the-counter contraceptive pill won’t undo the ongoing GOP assault on reproductive freedom, of course. But it could be a vital lifeline with that assault accelerating as Republicans court the support of fanatical anti-abortion groups. How fanatical are they? One organization peddling flat-out lies in order to pave the way for ending access to contraception is Pulse Life Advocates. The group’s website makes claims that are so preposterous, they veer on comical — such as “contraception increases likelihood of divorce” and “contraception kills babies.”… But of course, the ultimate agenda — usually couched in faux concern for women’s health — is to control women.
Who’s Unhoused in California? Largest Study in Decades Upends Myths
The Guardian – June 20, 2023 – Sam Levin
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/20/california-affordable-housing-crisis-homelessness-study-myths-older-black-residents
“People are homeless because their rent is too high. And their options are too few. And they have no cushion,” Dr Margot Kushel, initiative director and lead investigator, told the Associated Press. “And it really makes you wonder how different things would look if we could solve that underlying problem.”… The researchers recommended that the state increase access to housing that is affordable to extremely low-income people, including by expanding rental subsidies; expand homelessness prevention through financial support and legal assistance, including for people leaving jails, prisons and drug treatment; expand eviction protections; increase access to treatment; and increase outreach and services for people living on the streets… Claudine Sipili, a member of the research project’s lived expertise board, said in a statement that she hopes the research will help the state develop effective strategies that allow people to transition out of homelessness and into stable housing circumstances.
Why Are So Many Cities’ Homeless Policies Punitive?
Next City – June 22, 2023 – Roshan Abraham
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/why-are-so-many-cities-homeless-policies-punitive
There is a strong body of evidence on what works when it comes to resolving homelessness – housing – and what does not work – punitive policies like criminalization and homeless sweeps that move people around while discarding their belongings. So why do so many American cities seem vexed when it comes to this issue, constantly framing people who are unhoused as threats to public safety while simultaneously promising a compassionate approach? A big reason for this is that complaint-driven policies of homelessness prevail in many cities despite being antithetical to resolving homelessness. .“The police are key players in homelessness policy-making. They influence policy choices and house city staff dedicated to homelessness outreach,” the report states. “This heavy policy involvement means that even those policies whose aims are supportive of unhoused people may in practice be highly punitive.” … The only way to address homelessness is to work together with unhoused people, honor their self-determination and make clearly-defined commitments with housing at the end. That may take more time, but so does any relationship built on trust.
Migrants often can’t access US health care until they are critically ill – here are some of the barriers they face
The Conversation – June 23, 2023 – Anthony Jimenez
https://theconversation.com/migrants-often-cant-access-us-health-care-until-they-are-critically-ill-here-are-some-of-the-barriers-they-face-204350
As a medical sociologist and expert in health care disparities between noncitizens and citizens, my research explores the many ways that health care and immigration collide. Though most migrants have some form of legal documents like passports, visas and identity cards, I use the term “undocumented” in this article to refer to those whose documents are expired, invalid or otherwise missing. I feel the term is useful because it captures a heightened sense of insecurity and instability that many migrants face in their daily lives. According to Migration Policy Institute estimates, more than 11 million undocumented migrants are living in the United States, and many of them are ineligible for health coverage. Though some states are working to challenge this, undocumented migrants remain one of the largest uninsured populations in the country… hospitals – recognizing that it is cheaper to transfer low-income undocumented migrants to another country than to continue caring for them in their own facilities – sign off on medical deportations to save money. This happens to hundreds, if not thousands, of migrants, according to sociologist Lisa Sun-Hee Park of the University of California, Santa Barbara.This is what immigrant health care looks like today.
A world without hegemons
Responsible Statecraft – June 23, 2023 – William Minter
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/06/23/a-world-without-hegemons/
In the United States, Madeleine Albright’s assertion 25 years ago that the United States is the “indispensable nation” is still widely shared. Broad recognition of the decline of American hegemony is not likely to gain much traction here anytime soon. In practice, however, it is likely that U.S. policymakers will have to accept reality. Most developing countries, including emerging powers in the Global South, are no longer willing to make zero-sum choices between the United States and its geopolitical rivals.
A Tale of Two Disasters
The American Prospect – June 23, 2023 – Francois Furstenberg
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-06-23-tale-of-two-disasters/
The Titan submersible tragedy has overshadowed the sinking of a boat carrying hundreds of impoverished migrants… The wealthy victims of the Titan tragedy have well-reported identities. Readers and viewers were invited to empathize. The identity of the migrants, by contrast, remains mostly unknown—even those who survived. As for the ones who perished, we are unlikely to ever know who or even how many disappeared… It’s worth asking, too, to what extent the extreme inequalities of wealth within developed nations fuel anti-migrant sentiment and right-wing backlash, which generates perilous obstacles for refugees, forcing them into ever-greater risks in their quest for a better life for themselves and their children.
MAGA Authoritarian Rule or Third Reconstruction?
Portside – June 23, 2023 – Max Elbaum
https://portside.org/2023-06-23/maga-authoritarian-rule-or-third-reconstruction
The savviest operators among those who are now threatening to impose white Christian Nationalist rule on the US learned that history decades ago. They used it to craft a take-and-permanently-hold power strategy adapted to the specifics of the US constitutional system—and their persistent, think-long-term effort has paid off. The authoritarian bloc, now operating under the banner of MAGA, has captured the Republican Party and the Supreme Court, and holds trifectas in 22 states, And they are steadily moving ahead with plans to corner complete federal power in 2024… In the 20th century, it took a decade of civil rights organizing and militant action combined with electoral repudiation of Barry “desegregation-is-a-states’-rights-issue” Goldwater in 1964 to produce a Second Reconstruction ending Jim Crow. Will the next chapter of US history be a reprise of the Confederacy and Jim Crow? Or will we be able to achieve a Third Reconstruction?
Reversing the Damage of Cannabis Criminalization
Yes! Magazine – June 20, 2023 – Peter Grinspoon
https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2023/06/20/cannabis-criminalization
he criminalization of cannabis users over the last half-century has caused staggering damage and includes more than 20 million arrests in this country over the last 50 years. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simple possession of marijuana. This has led to lifelong criminal records and, in many cases, ongoing imprisonment. It has also resulted in vast amounts of collateral damage… By ending cannabis arrests, pardoning past crimes, expunging records, and redistributing profits and business opportunities to the communities most harmed by the war on marijuana, we can begin to heal the massive harms incurred with prohibition and ensure a fairer future.
Realizing Reparations
Yes! Magazine – June 19, 2023 – Sunnivie Brydum and Sonali Kolhatkar
https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2023/06/19/realizing-reparations
Reparations are about more than just a check or financial restitution. At their root, reparations are about repair—recognizing the historic and ongoing harm caused by the trans-Atlantic slave trade and all that followed, including Jim Crow segregation, voter suppression, continued police violence, and ongoing systemic racism in housing, employment, education, and more.