Tag Archives: Environmentalism

Climate Solutions, News, Observation, Politics

Drill, Baby, Drill: Capitalism’s Only Plan for Climate Is Collapse

Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash

If we continue not acting against the real cause of the climate crisis—the capitalist mode of production and the capitalist worldview—they will take it as a social license to carry on with collapse.

This past week’s flurry of announcements over “ambitious action” by governments during the COP26 in Glasgow has been justly received with scepticism by climate justice activists and the general public (and enthusiastic support by the media in general). During this same period important revelations of the massive gap in terms of necessary emission cuts and country’s plans emerged, as the broader rejection of greenwashing became pervasive. The narrative of false solutions and green capitalism doesn’t work. Yesterday, the revelation that over 800 oil & gas wells are being planned for drilling still this year and in 2022, in the report “Drill, Baby, Drill“, makes it clear that the proceedings of COP26 are mostly propaganda, as the only real, mandatory and contractualized plan global capitalism has for the climate crisis is collapse.

The reason why the climate crisis is not being solved is because it will lead to the biggest shift in power in the history of humanity, it will lead to the biggest transfer of wealth and loss of profit in history.

The scenario is the most dire ever. Not only the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is at its highest for millions of years, temperatures keep pushing closer to 1.5ºC and emissions are rising once again after the Covid hiatus. The IPCC scientists have leaked the second draft of Group II’s report, which states that “estimates of committed CO2 emissions from current fossil energy infrastructure are 658 GtCO2 […] nearly the double the remaining carbon budget,” revealing that “others [scientists] stress that climate change is caused by industrial development and more specifically the character of social and economic development produced by the nature of the capitalist society, which they therefore view as ultimately unsustainable.” In a few months, we will understand the level of political and business editing in the final report that finally comes out.

Yet, current infrastructure is not enough for global capitalism. In the “Drill, Baby, Drill” report, made public by the Glasgow Agreement at the COP26 Coalition’s People Summit, a still bigger measure of incoherence appears. There are 816 new oil & gas wells being planned and drilled until the end of the year and in 2022. These are located in 76 countries all around the world, countries whose governments are currently sitting in the halls of the COP26 in Glasgow, to “negotiate” a solution for the climate crisis.

The host UK appears close to the top of desired new wells, with 36, mostly offshore, in the basins of Central Graben, Moray Firth, the North Sea and Shetland. It is very likely that while Boris Johnson was doing his James Bond gag on stage, at least some four wells were being drilled to add to British fossil fuel reserves, making him a sort of meta-Bond villain. The top of the ranking for most wells planned goes to Australia and Russia, with 80 wells each, closely followed by Mexico with 78. Australia, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia, USA, Norway, UK, Brazil and Myanmar plan to drill over 500 oil & gas wells between now and the end of 2022. The report points out that this is very likely an underestimation. The companies most involved in drilling these wells are the gallery of the usual suspects: ENI, Petronas, Shell, Equinor, Total, Pemex, BP, Pertamina, Chevron and ExxonMobil. There are at least 67 wells planned above the Arctic Polar Circle. Total and ExxonMobil are in a contest to drill the deepest well ever in the ocean (Total is going for 3628m deep in Angola, and ExxonMobil is going for 3800m deep in Brazil). Many of these companies are spending millions every year on propaganda for carbon neutrality and other false solutions, blocking real action and expanding their operations.

The report also includes a sample of wells drilled in 2021 so far, with China on top, followed by Turkey, Russia, Norway, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Australia and Egypt, the host for the next COP.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. It is the way this system operates: just enough propaganda of “ambition” and technofixes to keep fossils flowing as ever, while the climate collapses. The information does provide us with a question: if the on climate change debate is framed by companies and governments around the terms of net-zero, carbon credits, carbon taxes and offsettings, rather than stopping emissions, when will it ever come to the real problem of the climate crisis? Well, never. And that is the purpose.

Governments and companies are actively engaged in not cutting emissions, but also in effectively increasing them. Each and every one of these wells is a public crime against Humanity and all species on this planet, advertised in advance. It is good that we know them, though, for it is better to know fossil capitalism’s plans to collapse us beforehand and in as much detail as possible. That is why the call on the report does not go out to governments and fossil companies to suddenly act after over three decades of expanding fossil use. The call goes out to the climate justice movement and civil society: spread this information far and wide, act on it, campaign on it, block, stop and detain all of these projects. Other millions of fossil and fossil-based projects compose the menu of collapse daily confirmed by governments and companies. They are the legally binding commitment for our collapse and need to be stopped.

The overwhelming agreement on the reason why the climate crisis is not being fixed is becoming as high as the overwhelming scientific agreement on the cause of the climate crisis. The reason why the climate crisis is not being solved is because it will lead to the biggest shift in power in the history of humanity, it will lead to the biggest transfer of wealth and loss of profit in history. That means very little to the majority of the human population, as we will be the beneficiaries of this shift, of this transfer, of this redistribution. If we solve this crisis, we will have the chance to heal our battered planet. That is why their plan means collapse: they refuse to abdicate an inch of their brutal privilege and power. If we continue not acting against the real cause of the climate crisis—the capitalist mode of production and the capitalist worldview—they will take it as a social license to carry on with collapse. Even without social license, their plan will always lead to collapse. It’s not circumstantial, it is the core of this system. We need to collapse them.

Originally published on Common Dreams by JOÃO CAMARGO and republished under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

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Climate Solutions

Greta Thunberg at World Economic Forum to Emphasize Urgency of Sustainable Energy Transition

Climate Agenda likely to Clash with Fossil Fuel Power Elite in Switzerland

At the end of January, world leaders from corporate, banking, and governmental institutions will gather in Davos, Switzerland for the 50th World Economic Forum. The business tycoons, global financers, and politicians will come together on the 21st-24th to discuss policy and business agendas to improve the state of the world from an economic viewpoint. Recently, however, the commercial and political magnates learned that the conference will also be hosting another guest—a far from conventional (but nevertheless influential) one having impact on the world of business.

The new guest is young Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, and she comes on behalf of the environment, urging leaders to abandon fossil fuels and prioritize the climate crisis from humanitarian and fiscal perspectives.

Thunberg announced her forthcoming attendance at Davos in an article for The Guardian on Friday, January 10th. In Thunberg’s signature biting rhetoric, her piece addresses the fact that fossil fuel companies are the leading cause of the climate catastrophe. She writes, “We call upon the world’s leaders to stop investing in the fossil fuel economy that is at the very heart of this planetary crisis. Instead, they should invest their money in existing sustainable technologies, research and in restoring nature. Short-term profit should not trump long-term stability of life.”

2020 Looks to be the Year that the Climate Reality comes Head to Head with Entrenched Interests

These stubborn, profit-driven corporations—many of which will be at the conference—are often the ones that lobby for policies that block environmental reformation towards renewable energy. This year’s conference theme, however, is “stakeholders for a cohesive and sustainable world”. Greta is attending to make sure that the conference lives up to its logline and that the participants do not shortchange the environment for financial benefit.

Greta has appeared at several global climate conferences and rallies over the past couple years. Ever since the seventeen-year-old girl dropped out of school in 2018 to become a climate activist, she has vehemently pressured leaders around the world to take action against global warming and prioritize the planet’s long-term wellbeing. At the end of 2019, she even held the stage at the UN Climate Conference in Madrid.

In Davos, however, she will be talking to a group of monetary-minded professionals. Due to the innate short-termism that often surrounds business self-interest, the discipline is at a crux with the climate crisis. Thus, the conference will provide a very difficult crowd for Thunberg to go up against and influence.

Nevertheless, as any environmentally aware person should know, the climate crisis is no longer a long-term issue. In the 2020s, it is already clear that we are facing contemporary and present cataclysms rather than some distant, hypothetical threat. Furthermore, regardless of temporal scales, when climate change reaches its worst, it will end up costing far more than any preemptive sustainable efforts might amount to if acted on immediately.

Turning the Corner from Recognition of a Crisis to the Search for Solutions

Many feel that 2019 was the year the it became impossible to deny that the climate is in crisis and that the cause is human activity releasing carbon gasses into the atmosphere. Starting in 2020, it now appears, the focus will be squarely on finding ways to stop the cause and, ultimately, to begin an extremely rapid and urgent transition to sustainable energy, which will, by definition, threaten the existing power structure based on fossil fuel business and wealth.

Although massive conflict related to this issue is certain, facing this impasse, from a political, economic and human perspective is as unavoidable as it in imperative. It can only be hoped that a large enough consensus can be built and that the focus can quickly shift away from the conflict and toward a joint effort to find solutions.

As we kick off the new year and decade, it is fitting that the world’s most famous, advocate for sustainable energy, as a way to combat the climate crisis, Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, should be on hand at Davos to demand, for all of us, that a conscious shift away from Fossil Fuels must begin immediately.

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Business, Climate Solutions, Observation, Tech

Capitalists to the Rescue?: Automakers follow Tesla in Race for Electric Car Dominance

Tesla Model Y

The Tipping Point is Behind us Now, It’s only a question of When EV’s Market Share will Overtake ICE

The most talked about car in 2019 has been Tesla’s Model 3, an electric vehicle from Tesla that is sleek, modern looking, and highly desirable. In Tesla’s latest quarter alone, the company has sold nearly 80,000 Model 3s, sustaining it as the most popular EV on the market.

This is not Tesla’s only achievement for the year. The company’s Cybertruck and Semi have received copious attention; its Model X and Model S continue to be popular; and consumers are eagerly awaiting 2020’s releases of the Model Y and Roadster. It’s been a long time coming, but thanks to Tesla, EVs are growing market share at an extremely rapid pace.

Other car manufacturers, even ones that have been stubbornly committed to ICE vehicles, have had to accept that the tide is turning. Naturally, many of these companies do not want Tesla to have a monopoly on EVs, and they want to have their own stake in the market before it’s too late. For that reason they appear to have capitulated and there is now a large and public shift towards the EV market.

Car companies from General Motors to Ford to Mercedes to VolksWagen and more are now hopping aboard the EV train, announcing new full electric models aimed at competing with Tesla in the upcoming year.

In addition, longer term multi-billion dollar investments to fund an infrastucture and development shift toward sustainable and EV systems have been announced. There has been some scepticism that these are more of a PR effort, with possible changes at anytime, likely due to the extremely poor efforts of the last 25 years, and even the perception that they were trying to intentionally “fail” with EVs just to postpne any meaningful transition away from fossil fuel based transportation.

While the oncoming change in car-culture may be attributed more to Tesla’s sexy, ulta-modern designs than it is to environmentalism, the widespread transition towards electric vehicles is still an enormous win for the battle against climate change.

Transportation is the top CO2 buring category and automobiles are the largest contributors to carbon emission from transport across the globe. The systemic reliance on gasoline makes cars even more environmentally harmful, as their very fuel comes from big oil companies that drill the earth without much regard for balanced ecosystems.

Finally, there has been a Major Shift in Thinking in the Auto Industry

In just the past year, however, we have seen a noticeable increase in the number of charging stations for EVs, and certain governments have started cracking down on vehicle-related greenhouse gas emissions. These changes in infrastructure and politics reflect evolutions in consumer behavior—evolutions that bode well for our planet.

Between the VolksWagen ID.4, Ford Mustang EV, Mercedes ESQ, and all the upcoming Tesla models, there are about to be a whole lot more electric cars on the market, which will (hopefully) create healthy competition.

There remians skepticism in the automobile industry, implying that this could, indeed be some sort of elaborate head fake. In response to General Motor’s recent announcement to invest $2.3 billion in an EV battery factory, for example, Toyota Executive Bob Carter warned of an “electrified armageddon” for the industry. Indeed, despite EVs recent surge in popularity, gasoline-powered cars continue to dominate the streets. To invest so much in EVs at this point is a bold, somewhat presumptuous move for all of the companies, and they run the risk of overshooting consumer demand.

There is Still only one EV Company that Stands Above in Every Way

And the Toyota response while both tone deaf and likely misguided, is not wrong in the sense that a worldwide shift away from a fossil fuel based economic system will certainly lead to hardship and immense challenges and a long time. The problem with trying to wish away that fact is that, by extending the intentional sate of denial that has persisted for over a half century, things will only be worse when the inevitible and necessary changes finally come.

This exposes the brilliance of Tesla’s approach of starting with high end luxury vehicles, spurring demand and desire and then building downmarket into more afforable vehicles as economies of scale begin to kick in. And, even more prescient is Tesla’s stated mission “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy” which removes any ambiguity or hesitation and signals a 100% clear commitment to the most important goal a transportation and energycompany can have.

Nevertheless, while this “plays” as an example of corporations displaying a logical reaction to the market for the benefit of the environment, it could, in actuality, more likely be an example of corporations playing the market to make money as per usual. The less cynical among us must hope, nevertheless that this is truly at least partially an ecological conscious choice that happens to transparently project an immediate economic benefit. If these companies are correct, and EVs do ultimately lead the car market, then it will not just satisfy the executive’s bottom line, but it will also help make the planet a cleaner and safer place.

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Climate Solutions, Politics

150 year Epic Floods in Venice Foreshadow what’s in store for Coastal Cities as Sea Levels Rise

Venice Gondolas / Affinity Photo Stock / Pixabay

Floods are Seasonal in Venice, But they’re Not Normally Devastating

Residents of the beautiful, canal-lined city of Venice, Italy usually take pride in their immediate access to the water. Even if every autumn the high tide comes in for flooding season, the wash-over is typically manageable enough for Venetians to cope with it and carry out their lives. 

This past week challenged the city’s relationship with water, though, as Venice experienced some of the harshest floods it has ever seen.

Between Wednesday and Friday, Venice became submerged in 6 feet and 2 inches of water. This is the second highest flood in the city’s history, just two inches away from the city’s highest flood on record, which took place in 1966.

Flood Exacts Ironic Revenge upon Far-Right Climate-Change-Deniers in Venice Regional Council Building

The salty water rode over the city’s aged barrier security system and ran through the streets. It destructively made its way into houses and stores and even did some damage to the famous St. Mark’s Square and its historic cathedral. Poignantly, the water also flooded the Venice Regional Council building—soaking the very chambers where members of Italy’s far-right League party turned down a number of propositions to combat climate change and protect the region’s environment.

Granted, Venice’s floods were not the direct cause of climate change. Their severity was more due to gravitational and astronomical idiosyncrasies that dramatically affected the tide. Nevertheless, global warming leading to rising sea levels may mean that floods like these could be happening more often. The fact that Venice saw these massive events in episodes over the course of just three days already shows that something is ecologically off. 

The vast majority of the world’s population lives by the coast, and most of the globe’s major cities are ports. Therefore, Venice could be a harrowing foreshadow of what is to come for many people once the effects of climate change come to fruition. Venice may be the first of many environmental disasters that bring glorified cities down to their knees.   

Floods and More Disaster likely as Governments Continue Passivity in the Face of Climate Crisis

There is a certain poetic justice to the fact that this happened so recently after Venice’s government decided to sideline environmental policies. The conservative council has avoided all efforts to make the region more eco-friendly, and now they are facing the tangible consequences. It is a microcosm of governments around the world denying or refusing to address climate change—their inaction will soon lead to demolition.

From Venice, we can also take away the fact that climate change is no longer a future issue. These disasters are happening right now and in real time. This changes the temporal frame of climate change, granting it immediacy and sounding the alarm for people in power to prioritize it before it’s too late.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro is currently witnessing firsthand how offsetting ecological issues helps no one in the long run. He has declared a state of emergency for the city and expects that repairing damages will exceed €1 billion. If we continue not to act on climate change, this number (like the tide) will only get higher and will submerge more cities around the world, drowning us perhaps to a point where no amount of money will be able to keep us afloat.

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Entertainment, Movies

5 New Movie Releases this Weekend: Check out the future fare from Lionsgate, Focus Features and More

Video
https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/lionsgate/knives-out/knives-out-trailer-2_h1080p.mov
New Official Trailer for “Knives Out”

This weekend has a number of new movie releases to look out for so we decided to choose five to showcase and feature in this post.

https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/lionsgate/knives-out/knives-out-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Original Official TraileR for “Knives Out”
https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/focus_features/dark-waters/dark-waters-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Official Trailer for “Dark Waters”
https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/universal/last-christmas/last-christmas-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Official Trailer for “Last Christmas”
https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/paramount/playing-with-fire/playing-with-fire-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Official Trailer for “Playing With Fire”

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Breaking News, Climate Solutions, News

October 2019 is the Hottest Month on Record, continuing the Year’s Trend Towards a Climate Emergency

Looking for tangible evidence of global warming? According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which studies temperature data from around the globe over time, this past month has been the hottest October on record, palpably indicating the world’s changing climate.

The EUCCCS’s records go back to 1979, and in their forty years of data, they have never had an October as hot as this year’s. 2019’s October was 0.69 degrees Celsius (1.24 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the average for the EUCCCS’s data. It was .01 degrees Celsius (0.018 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the previous warmest October, which took place in 2015.

Alongside October, 2019 also saw the hottest July on record, surpassing its 2016 predecessor. It was overall a record hot year. Each month in 2019 ranked among the top four hottest for the respective month. The past twelve years in total averaged 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.16 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial temperatures. This is particularly eerie considering that the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change recently released a warning about the catastrophic effects of temperatures rising 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels. 

It is also worth noting that all of the EUCCCS’s data is based on global averages. Thus, some areas of the world may have experienced a colder 2019 than average, but these are the outliers to the worldwide trend. 

Of course, a 1.2 degrees temperature increase may not sound that alarming on the surface. However, this yearlong heat spike will actually have immense effects on climate change. The arctic ice will melt faster; wildfires will spread quicker; and biodiversity will diminish at accelerated rates. That is just to name a few of the ways such a small temperature boost might severely impact the planet if gone unchecked. 

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Entertainment, Movies

Mark Ruffalo as Defense Attorney who takes on DuPont Chemical in ‘Dark Waters’

Video
https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/focus_features/dark-waters/dark-waters-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Official Trailer for “Dark Waters”

An Eco-thriller told through the Eyes of a True American Underdog

In the latest upcoming movie from Focus Features and “Carol” director Todd Haynes, Mark Ruffalo plays corporate attorney Rob Bilott, a corporate defendant who represented DuPont for the better part of his career. When a small West Virginia town shows Bilott the chemicals that DuPont is dumping in their water, though, he changes allegiances, embarking on a harrowing true story that becomes the central narrative for “Dark Waters.”

“Dark Waters” is an eco-cinematic adventure disguised as an intense, informant style crime movie. While most “environmental films” center on either the vast wonders of the natural world or post-apocalyptic nightmares, “Dark Waters” takes the sub-genre in a more grounded and familiar direction.

There is nothing sublime about “Dark Waters”—except perhaps the performances and the cinematic art. The film’s setting switches off between a corporate office and a lowly West Virginia town. There are no beautiful mountaintops or thrilling action fights; just a daringly authentic image of America meddling in corruption. It may be slow moving, but that measured pace creates suspense and an uncommonly candid depiction of what it takes to fight people in power for the sake of eco-friendly reformation—something we’ve come all too familiar with in the modern fight against the climate crisis.

An Honest Look at Real life Environmental Heroism

As Ruffalo’s character turns his back on DuPont and starts to file cases against the company he once worked for, he uncovers more and more disturbing details about the conglomerate’s lack of environmental consideration. In the small West Virginia town, he learns that cows are dying in fields, that the streams are running with chemicals, and eventually, that this contaminated substance may be in the community’s drinking water. All throughout the investigation, though, DuPont grows more suspicious and Bilott more paranoid, believing that the company may stop at nothing to hide their wrongdoings.

The movie has echoes of “All The President’s Men” and “The Post,” but with a plot placed on a much smaller scale. Bilott is not a celebrated hero that earned national praise for his bravery. He is an unsung hero who did the right thing, and challenged the almighty masses for the sake of a few defenseless people. 

Rob Bilott is a real person. He is still alive today. Sadly, you probably won’t find his name in the history books. On the other hand, DuPont remains a multi-billion dollar company and a household name in America. In today’s movie market filled with superheroes and warriors, “Dark Waters” gives us an honest illustration of what heroism really looks like, and the thanklessness that can often come with making the right decision.

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