Over the years there has been some measure of mutual admiration between Elon Musk and Greta Thunberg. More recently, however, Musk’s shift to the right has put them at odds, clearly.
Also, Greta has not hesitated to criticize the “Techno King” when she thought he was off-base regarding the climate and his actions and statements regarding his support for an accelerated transition to sustainable energy.
After Greta Thunberg’s tweet (and a monumental follow up) became one of the most popular tweets in history (278M views and 3.8M likes, as of this writing), it seems that fame was just too strong of an aphrodisiac for Elon Musk to resist.
Hence the return to her bandwagon:
The sheer amount of brand awareness achieved by Greta within a few years is astounding. I think she’s cool tbh.
Though both are climate positive, there have been disagreements
Elon Musk and Greta Thunberg have had a number of interactions in the media over the past few years. These interactions have ranged from supportive tweets and praise to public disagreements and criticism.
The tweet heard round the globe:
yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com https://t.co/V8geeVvEvg
One of the first interactions between Musk and Thunberg occurred in 2019, when Musk tweeted his support for Thunberg’s efforts to raise awareness about climate change. In the tweet, Musk wrote: “Greta, you are a hero. Keep going. You are doing a great job.” Thunberg later responded to the tweet, thanking Musk for his support.
In 2020, Musk and Thunberg had a more public interaction when Thunberg criticized Musk’s plans to build a tunnel to alleviate traffic congestion in Los Angeles. Thunberg tweeted that the tunnel was “not the solution” to the problem of climate change and that “we must focus on the real solutions and not let ourselves be sidetracked by shiny distractions.”
Musk responded to the tweet, saying that the tunnel would “help with traffic & create jobs” and that “sustainability must be at the forefront of all decisions.”
Later that year, Thunberg criticized Musk again when he announced that Tesla would be selling carbon credits to other companies as a way to offset their carbon emissions. Thunberg tweeted that the sale of carbon credits was “not a solution” and that it was “a way for companies to avoid cutting their own emissions.”
Musk responded to the tweet, saying that the sale of carbon credits was “better than nothing” and that it was “a first step towards a greener future.”
In 2021, Musk and Thunberg had another public disagreement when Musk tweeted that “the last thing the world needs is a new type of gasoline” in response to Thunberg’s call for a ban on fossil fuels.
Thunberg responded to the tweet, saying that “the last thing the world needs is a Tesla owner who ignores the fact that burning fossil fuels is the main driver of the climate crisis and continues to spread misinformation about renewable energy.”
Despite these disagreements, Musk and Thunberg have also found common ground on some issues. For example, both have expressed support for renewable energy as a way to combat climate change. In 2019, Musk tweeted that “solar and storage are a critical part of the solution” to the climate crisis, and Thunberg has frequently called for a transition to renewable energy as a way to reduce carbon emissions.
Overall, the interactions between Musk and Thunberg in the media have been complex and varied. While they have had public disagreements on some issues, they have also found common ground on others and have expressed support for each other’s efforts to raise awareness about climate change.
According to Romanian newspaper Libertatea Andrew Tate has been arrested in Romania by anti-terrorism authorities. Tate was reportedly detained together with his brother, Tristan, on suspicion of forming an organized crime group that exploits girls for adult videos.
The report states that they are being taken to DIICOT (Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism) for questioning. Separately, DIICOT has confirmed the arrests in a statement which did not name any suspects. The Attorney for the brothers, according to Reuters, confirmed they had been detained.
This news is particularly bizarre coming on the heels of a twitter exchange that went viral between Tate and and Greta Thunberg:
yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com https://t.co/V8geeVvEvg
Stories that reported on the exchange have been searched over 2 million times according to trend.google.com, as of Thursday night in the Pacific time zone.
The Twitter feud between world renown activist Greta Thunberg and Tate began when he tagged her tweet with boasts about his 33 gas guzzling car collection, looking to brag about how little interest he has in anything other than his own infantile pleasures. Her comeback was monumental and caused a tsunami of praise and viral retweets.
Andrew Tate is a British kickboxer and entrepreneur. He is known for his successful career in kickboxing, as well as for his business ventures and media appearances.
Tate began kickboxing at a young age and quickly made a name for himself in the sport. He has won numerous titles and tournaments, including the WAKO World Championships and the ISKA World Championships.
In addition to his kickboxing career, Tate has also pursued a number of business ventures, including a fitness company and a property development company.
In recent years, Tate has gained additional notoriety for his media appearances, including on reality TV shows such as Celebrity Big Brother and Love Island. He is also known for his controversial social media presence and for making controversial statements on a variety of topics.
Despite his success in kickboxing and business, Tate has faced legal and personal issues, including allegations of domestic abuse and assault, which he has denied.
Around the world, many countries are becoming less democratic. This backsliding on democracy and “creeping authoritarianism,” as the U.S. State Department puts it, is often supported by the same industries that are escalating climate change.
It’s a dangerous shift, both for representative government and for the future climate.
Corporate capture of environmental politics
In democratic systems, elected leaders are expected to protect the public’s interests, including from exploitation by corporations. They do this primarily through policies designed to secure public goods, such as clean air and unpolluted water, or to protect human welfare, such as good working conditions and minimum wages. But in recent decades, this core democratic principle that prioritizes citizens over corporate profits has been aggressively undermined.
Today, it’s easy to find political leaders – on both the political right and left – working on behalf of corporations in energy, finance, agribusiness, technology, military and pharmaceutical sectors, and not always in the public interest. These multinational companies help fund their political careers and election campaigns to keep them in office.
When it comes to the political parties, it’s easy to find examples of campaign finance fueling political agendas.
In 1988, when NASA scientist James Hansen testified before a U.S. Senate committee about the greenhouse effect, both the Republican and Democratic parties took climate change seriously. But this attitude quickly diverged. Since the 1990s, the energy sector has heavily financed conservative candidates who have pushed its interests and helped to reduce regulations on the fossil fuel industry. This has enabled the expansion of fossil fuel production and escalated CO2 emissions to dangerous levels.
The industry’s power in shaping policy plays out in examples like the coalition of 19 Republican state attorneys general and coal companies suing to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
Corporate interests have also fueled a surge in well-financed antidemocratic leaders who are willing to stall and even dismantle existing climate policies and regulations. These political leaders’ tactics have escalated public health crises, and in some cases, human rights abuses.
Brazil, Australia and the US
Many deeply antidemocratic governments are tied to oil, gas and other extractive industries that are driving climate change, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and China.
In “Global Burning,” I explore how three leaders of traditionally democratic countries – Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Scott Morrison of Australia and Donald Trump in the U.S. – came to power on anti-environment and nationalist platforms appealing to an extreme-right populist base and extractive corporations that are driving climate change. While the political landscape of each country is different, the three leaders have important commonalities.
Bolsonaro, Morrison and Trump all depend on extractive corporations to fund electoral campaigns and keep them in office or, in the case of Trump, get reelected.
For instance, Bolsonaro’s power depends on support from a powerful right-wing association of landowners and farmers called the União Democrática Ruralista, or UDR. This association reflects the interests of foreign investors and specifically the multibillion-dollar mining and agribusiness sectors. Bolsonaro promised that if elected in 2019, he would dismantle environmental protections and open, in the name of economic progress, industrial-scale soybean production and cattle grazing in the Amazon rainforest. Both contribute to climate change and deforestation in a fragile region considered crucial for keeping carbon out of the atmosphere.
Bolsonaro, Morrison and Trump are all openly skeptical of climate science. Not surprisingly, all have ignored, weakened or dismantled environmental protection regulations. In Brazil, that led to accelerated deforestation and large swaths of Amazon rainforest burning.
In Australia, Morrison’s government ignored widespread public and scientific opposition and opened the controversial Adani Carmichael mine, one of the largest coal mines in the world. The mine will impact public health and the climate and threatens the Great Barrier Reef as temperatures rise and ports are expanded along the coast.
Notably, all three leaders have worked, sometimes together, against international efforts to stop climate change. At the United Nations climate talks in Spain in 2019, Costa Rica’s minister for environment and energy at the time, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, blamed Brazil, Australia and the U.S. for blocking efforts to tackle climate injustice linked to global warming.
Brazil, Australia and the U.S. are not unique in these responses to climate change. Around the world, there have been similar convergences of antidemocratic leaders who are financed by extractive corporations and who implement anti-environment laws and policies that defend corporate profits. New to the current moment is that these leaders openly use state power against their own citizens to secure corporate land grabs to build dams, lay pipelines, dig mines and log forests.
Fortunately, there is a lot that people can do to protect democracy and the climate.
Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy and reducing the destruction of forests can cut greenhouse gas emissions. The biggest obstacles, a recent U.N. climate report noted, are national leaders who are unwilling to regulate fossil fuel corporations, reduce greenhouse gas emissions or plan for renewable energy production.
The path forward, as I see it, involves voters pushing back on the global trend toward authoritarianism, as Slovenia did in April 2022, and pushing forward on replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. People can reclaim their democratic rights and vote out anti-environment governments whose power depends on prioritizing extractive capitalism over the best interests of their citizens and our collective humanity.
“The U.S. is actually expanding fossil fuel infrastructure,” the 18-year-old Swedish climate activist said in a new interview.
In an interview published in TheWashington PostMagazine on Monday, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg said it is “strange” that some consider U.S. President Joe Biden a climate leader even as his administration fails to take the ambitious steps necessary to tackle the intensifying planetary crisis.
When asked whether she is “inspired” by Biden or other world leaders, Thunberg pointed out that “the U.S. is actually expanding fossil fuel infrastructure” under the current administration.
“I’ve met so many people who give me very much hope and just the possibility that we can actually change things.”
“Why is the U.S. doing that?” she asked. “It should not fall on us activists and teenagers who just want to go to school to raise this awareness and to inform people that we are actually facing an emergency.”
“People ask us, ‘What do you want?’ ‘What do you want politicians to do?'” added Thunberg, who helped spark a global, youth-led climate protest movement with a solo strike outside of the Swedish Parliament building in 2018. “And we say, first of all, we have to actually understand what is the emergency.”
“We are trying to find a solution of a crisis that we don’t understand,” she continued. “For example, in Sweden, we ignore—we don’t even count or include more than two-thirds of our actual emissions. How can we solve a crisis if we ignore more than two-thirds of it? So it’s all about the narrative.”
While Biden has touted his decision to bring the U.S. back into the Paris agreement, his pledge to cut the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, and other initiatives as a show of leadership in the face of an existential threat to humanity, his administration has also approved oil and gas drilling permits at a faster rate than former President Donald Trump’s did.
During Biden’s presidency, according to a report released earlier this month by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has approved an average of 333 oil and gas drilling permits per month this year alone—40% more than it did over the first three years of Trump’s White House tenure.
“When it comes to climate change policy, President Biden is saying the right things. But we need more than just promises,” Alan Zibel, the lead author of the report, said in a statement. “The reality is that in the battle between the oil industry and Biden, the industry is winning. Despite Biden’s campaign commitments to stop drilling on public lands and waters, the industry still has the upper hand. Without aggressive government action, the fossil fuel industry will continue creating enormous amounts of climate-destroying pollution exploiting lands owned by the public.”
Thunberg’s interview with the Post came at the end of a year that saw planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions quickly rebound to pre-pandemic levels as the U.S. and other major nations continued to burn fossil fuels at an alarming and unsustainable rate.
As Glen Peters of the Center for International Climate Research noted Tuesday, “2021 saw the second-biggest absolute increase in fossil CO2 emissions ever recorded.”
Despite the failure of world leaders to act with sufficient urgency as the climate crisis fuels devastating extreme weather events across the globe, Thunberg said she is “more hopeful now” than she was when she kicked off her lonely school strike in 2018.
“In one sense, we’re in a much worse place than we were then because the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are higher and the global emissions are still rising at almost record speed. And we have wasted several years of blah, blah, blah,” said Thunberg. “But then, on another note, we have seen what people can do when we actually come together.”
“I’ve met so many people who give me very much hope and just the possibility that we can actually change things,” she added. “That we can treat a crisis like a crisis.”
Originally published on Common Dreams by JAKE JOHNSON and republished under a Creative Commons license(CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“We can either intensify the crisis to the point of no return, or lay the foundations for a just world where everyone’s needs are met.”
As diplomats from wealthy countries continue to say “blah, blah, blah” at COP26, over 100,000 people growing increasingly impatient with empty promises and inaction marched through Glasgow on Saturday, with thousands more hitting the streets in cities around the world during roughly 300 simultaneous demonstrations on a Global Day of Action for Climate Justice.
“Many thousands of people took to the streets today on every continent demanding that governments move from climate inaction to climate justice,” Asad Rehman, a spokesperson for the COP26 Coalition, said in a statement. “We won’t tolerate warm words and long-term targets anymore, we want action now.”
Activists from all over the globe are mobilising to demand a future that works for all of us.
“Today, the people who have been locked out of this climate summit had their voices heard,” Rehman continued, “and those voices will be ringing in the ears of world leaders as we enter the second week of negotiations.”
Rehman added that “the climate crisis has resulted from our broken, unequal societies and economies. We must transform our global economies into ones that protect both people and our planet instead of profit for a few.”
Today, 100,000 activists marched to Glasgow Green to rally for #climatejustice and the system change necessary to achieve this.
The COP26 Coalition is a United Kingdom-based alliance of civil society groups and trade unions mobilizing around climate justice during the ongoing United Nations climate summit in Scotland. That’s where governments “will decide who is to be sacrificed, who will escape, and who will make a profit,” the coalition said. “We can either intensify the crisis to the point of no return, or lay the foundations for a just world where everyone’s needs are met.”
Saturday’s actions in every corner of the globe came one day before the start of the People’s Summit for Climate Justice, where ordinary individuals can “discuss, learn, and strategize for system change.” From Sunday through Wednesday, participants can attend workshops in Glasgow or join online events.
“Across the world, the poorest people and communities of color are too often those bearing the brunt of the climate crisis,” the coalition continued. “From coastal villages in Norfolk whose sea-defenses are eroding faster than ever, to people living by the Niger Delta rivers blackened by oil spillage.”
“Only we can imagine and build the future that works for all of us… through collective action, solidarity, and coordination.”
Global crises of economic exploitation, racial oppression, and environmental degradation “not only overlap,” the coalition added, “but share the same cause.”
“We got to this crisis point,” the coalition said, “because our political and economic system is built on inequality and injustice. For centuries, rich governments and corporations have been exploiting people and the planet for profit, no matter how much it harms the rest of us.”
The solution, said the coalition, is “system change that comes from the ground up.” Remedies that “not only reduce carbon emissions but create a fairer and more just world in the process… already exist and are being practiced, but our leaders lack the political will” to pursue “climate action based on justice, redistribution of resources, and decentralization of power.”
“Justice won’t be handed to us by world leaders or delivered by corporations,” the coalition added. “Only we can imagine and build the future that works for all of us… through collective action, solidarity, and coordination” in local communities and at the international level.
That message was echoed by COP26 Coalition member War on Want, a U.K.-based organization that fights the causes of poverty and defends human rights.
In a video arguing that the dominant political-economic order is not broken, but rather “rigged,” War on Want explains how the capitalist system “generates increasing wealth for the already rich and powerful at the expense of the majority of people on this Earth” and advocates for a Global Green New Deal to achieve climate justice.
“Billionaires, corporations, and oligarchs don’t measure failure in lives lost, houses flooded, communities destroyed, forests burned, or people locked into poverty,” the video continues. “They measure success by their bank balance, by share prices, and by holidays in space.”
“Where we see climate breakdown, poverty, and injustice, they see nothing but profit,” states the video. “The climate crisis is a crisis of justice.”
Echoing recent research highlighting the extent to which the Global North extracts resources from the Global South, War on Want notes that “from the shackles of slavery to the gunboats of colonialism, from imperialist interventions to the neoliberal rigging of the global economy,” wealthy countries, and especially the elites within them, have drained trillions of dollars from impoverished nations, and that is reflected in their disproportionate share of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The U.K., the United States, and the European Union, for instance, have been responsible for nearly half of the world’s carbon pollution, despite making up just 10% of its population.
“The multiple crises we face are not going to be solved with more exploitation of people and the planet, and cooking the books.”
Meanwhile, a new study shows that the world’s wealthiest countries and worst polluters are spending over twice as much on border militarization to exclude growing numbers of refugees as they are on decarbonization.
Despite repeated warnings that limiting global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels by the end of the century requires keeping fossil fuels in the ground and ramping up the worldwide production of clean energy, U.S. President Joe Biden has been approving extraction on public lands and waters at a dangerous clip, and he and the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell have both pushed for boosting the supply of oil.
Globally, fossil fuel use is projected to increase this decade even as annual reductions in coal, oil, and gas production are necessary to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis.
The planet is currently on pace for a “catastrophic” 2.7°C of heating this century if countries—starting with the rich polluters most responsible for exacerbating extreme weather—fail to rapidly and drastically slash greenhouse gas emissions, accelerate the transition to renewable energy, and enact transformative changes.
Like Bolivian President Luis Arce, the COP26 Coalition stressed that “the multiple crises we face are not going to be solved with more exploitation of people and the planet, and cooking the books.”
“Current government and corporation targets of ‘Net Zero’ do not mean zero emissions,” the coalition explained. “Instead, they want to continue polluting while covering it up with crafty ‘carbon offsets.’ We need commitments and action to achieve Real Zero. That also means no new fossil fuel investments and infrastructure at home or abroad, and saying no to carbon markets, and banking on risky unproven technologies that allow countries and corporations to continue polluting.”
In addition, the coalition said, “climate action must be based on who has historically profited and those who have suffered.”
The alliance continued:
Indigenous peoples have been at the frontline of the root causes of climate change for centuries. Indigenous peoples, frontline communities, and the Global South cannot continue to pay the price for the climate crisis while the Global North profits.
Each country’s carbon emission reduction must be proportional to their fair share: how much they have contributed to the climate crisis through past emissions. We must cancel debts of Global South by all creditors and the rich countries must provide adequate grant-based climate finance for those on the frontline of the climate crisis to survive. We must address the loss of lives, livelihoods, and ecosystems already occurring across the world, through a collective commitment to providing reparations for the loss and damage in the Global South.
In its video, War on Want stresses that “poverty, the climate crisis, inequality, and racism aren’t accidental. They’re political.”
“The answer is people power,” the group adds. “All across the world—from peasants sowing solidarity, workers fighting for a living wage, people resisting occupation, Indigenous communities defending communal lands, to climate activists taking to the streets—we are all coming together to challenge the system, uproot injustice, and fight for people and our planet.”
Speaking at Saturday’s rally in Glasgow, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, Marshall Islands Climate Envoy to the United Nations, said that “we need the biggest emitters to be held responsible. We need financing to implement the solutions we are currently developing ourselves through our national adaptation plan.”
“We contribute 0.00005% of the world’s global emissions,” Jetnil-Kijiner added. “We did nothing to contribute to this crisis, and we should not have to pay the consequences. We need to keep up the pressure [so] that COP26 doesn’t allow offsets or endanger human rights and the rights of Indigenous people.”
Originally published on Common Dreams by KENNY STANCIL and republished under Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
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)
In wake of what she calls “failed” Cop26 in Glasgow, a fitting gesture of truth
In the video above the real story of NetZero by 2050 is told, without window dressing and in total honesty. Frustration with government responses to global warming are on the rise, as well they should be. The video is a light hearted and yet deadly serious take on the situation and how it is going to affect all of us who live on this planet.
Though delivered in the trademark style of TheJuiceMedia the facts that are contained in the colorful and grimly entertaining clip are 100% accurate. And that is why it is so important to watch, like and retweet.
It has always been the case, sadly, that no Government will take action against the carbon emitting and producing infrastructure that they are beholden to, until that action is demanded by million upon millions of world citizens, in other words the people that are being affected most by the negative effects of climate change that are already surrounding us.
The underlying plea of both activists like Greta and TheJuiceMedia is that we all have to step up and get loud – now, as the plan for NetZero 2050 is more of the same blah blah blah that Governments have been spewing for more than 30 years.
Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Greta Thunberg / Instagram
Political failures and frustration rising
It all started in September 2021 when Greta went to the Youth for Climate Summit in Rome. Her now legendary “blah blah blah” speech spawned 1000’s Memes and remixes and began a new barrage of media savvy Guerrilla marketing for the planet…
Fortunately for the rest of us, Greta is back, Big Time. I seems as if she’s decided to vent in a Creative and, at times, incredibly hilarious way.
Next, footage of the 18 year old activist went viral, as she was shouting in a crowd, “shove your climate crisis up your arse” The climate activist joked that she would adopt a “net zero” approach to her cursing.
She posted a response to her five million followers on Twitter: “I am pleased to announce that I’ve decided to go net-zero on swear words and bad language.
In the event that I should say something inappropriate I pledge to compensate that by saying something nice” A follower asked Thunberg:
“would you commit to reaching net-zero bad language by 2050?”
She replied: “No, by 2052 with a 39.78% reduction by 2034”
A seasoned spokes-person with a challenge ahead
Greta was brilliantly skewering companies, individuals and those who claim they are being environmentally friendly, simply because they pay for carbon credits to offset the carbon they are emitting.
More recent quotes include: “It is not a secret that COP26 is a failure,” she told the thousands of people at the protest. “This is no longer a climate conference. This is now a global greenwashing festival.” It’s as if her frustration has reached a boiling point, along with many of us, and in her words; “Hope always comes from the people”
Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Original images Courtesy of COP26
Over two weeks in November, world leaders and national negotiators will meet in Scotland to discuss what to do about climate change. It’s a complex process that can be hard to make sense of from the outside, but it’s how international law and institutions help solve problems that no single country can fix on its own.
I worked for the United Nations for several years as a law and policy adviser and have been involved in international negotiations. Here’s what’s happening behind closed doors and why people are concerned that COP26 might not meet its goals.
That treaty has since been updated, including in 2015 when nations signed the Paris climate agreement. That agreement set the goal of limiting global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F), and preferably to 1.5 C (2.7 F), to avoid catastrophic climate change.
COP26 stands for the 26th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC. The “parties” are the 196 countries that ratified the treaty plus the European Union. The United Kingdom, partnering with Italy, is hosting COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, from Oct. 31 through Nov. 12, 2021, after a one-year postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why are world leaders so focused on climate change?
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, released in August 2021, warns in its strongest terms yet that human activities have unequivocally warmed the planet, and that climate change is now widespread, rapid and intensifying.
Enough greenhouse gas emissions are already in the atmosphere, and they stay there long enough, that even under the most ambitious scenario of countries quickly reducing their emissions, the world will experience rising temperatures through at least mid-century.
However, there remains a narrow window of opportunity. If countries can cut global emissions to “net zero” by 2050, that could bring warming back to under 1.5 C in the second half of the 21st century. How to get closer to that course is what leaders and negotiators are discussing.
What happens at COP26?
During the first days of the conference, around 120 heads of state, like U.S. President Joe Biden, and their representatives will gather to demonstrate their political commitment to slowing climate change.
Once the heads of state depart, country delegations, often led by ministers of environment, engage in days of negotiations, events and exchanges to adopt their positions, make new pledges and join new initiatives. These interactions are based on months of prior discussions, policy papers and proposals prepared by groups of states, U.N. staff and other experts.
Nongovernmental organizations and business leaders also attend the conference, and COP26 has a public side with sessions focused on topics such as the impact of climate change on small island states, forests or agriculture, as well as exhibitions and other events.
Countries are required under the Paris Agreement to update their national climate action plans every five years, including at COP26. This year, they’re expected to have ambitious targets through 2030. These are known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs.
The Paris Agreement requires countries to report their NDCs, but it allows them leeway in determining how they reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The initial set of emission reduction targets in 2015 was far too weak to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
One key goal of COP26 is to ratchet up these targets to reach net zero carbon emissionsby the middle of the century.
Another aim of COP26 is to increase climate finance to help poorer countries transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change. This is an important issue of justice for many developing countries whose people bear the largest burden from climate change but have contributed least to it. Wealthy countries promised in 2009 to contribute $100 billion a yearby 2020 to help developing nations, a goal that has not been reached. The U.S., U.K. and EU, among the largest historic greenhouse emitters, are increasing their financial commitments, and banks, businesses, insurers and private investors are being asked to do more.
Other objectives include phasing out coal use and generating solutions that preserve, restore or regenerate natural carbon sinks, such as forests.
Are countries on track to meet the international climate goals?
The U.N. warned in September 2021 that countries’ revised targets were too weak and would leave the world on pace to warm 2.7 C (4.9 F) by the end of the century. However, governments are also facing another challenge this fall that could affect how they respond: Energy supply shortages have left Europe and China with price spikes for natural gas, coal and oil.
China – the world’s largest emitter – has not yet submitted its NDC. Major fossil fuel producers such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Australia seem unwilling to strengthen their commitments. India – a critical player as the second-largest consumer, producer and importer of coal globally – has also not yet committed.
Other developing nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa and Mexico are important. So is Brazil, which, under Javier Bolsonaro’s watch, has increased deforestation of the Amazon – the world’s largest rainforest and crucial for biodiversity and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
What happens if COP26 doesn’t meet its goals?
Many insiders believe that COP26 won’t reach its goal of having strong enough commitments from countries to cut global greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030. That means the world won’t be on a smooth course for reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and the goal of keeping warming under 1.5 C.
But organizers maintain that keeping warming under 1.5 C is still possible. Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been leading the U.S. negotiations, remains hopeful that enough countries will create momentum for others to strengthen their reduction targets by 2025.
That translates into many premature deaths, more mass migration, major economic losses, large swaths of unlivable land and violent conflict over resources and food – what the U.N. secretary-general has called “a hellish future.”
Originally published on The Conversation by Shelley Inglis and republished under a Creative Common License (CC BY-ND 4.0)
“Climate change is no longer a future problem. It is a now problem,” said the UNEP executive director. “The clock is ticking loudly.”
Countries’ current climate pledges put the world “on track for a catastrophic global temperature rise” of about 2.7°C, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned Tuesday, calling a new report released ahead of a key summit “another thundering wake-up call.”
“The era of half-measures and hollow promises must end.”
The Emissions Gap Report 2021, an annual assessment from the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), comes as world leaders prepare to meet in Glasgow, Scotland on Sunday for COP 26. They are set to discuss efforts to meet the Paris climate agreement, which aims to keep global temperature rise this century “well below” 2°C, preferably limiting it to 1.5°C.
However, countries’ latest Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), along with other commitments made for 2030, suggest the international community will blow past both of those targets without more ambitious action to slash emissions, according to the UNEP report.
🌡️ The Heat Is On. 🚨 The clock is ticking loudly. ⚠️ To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, we have just 8 years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions.
“The emissions gap is the result of a leadership gap,” Guterres declared in his Tuesday address, noting that the report “shows that countries are squandering a massive opportunity to invest Covid-19 fiscal and recovery resources in sustainable, cost-saving, planet-saving ways.”
“Scientists are clear on the facts. Now leaders need to be just as clear in their actions,” he said. “They need to come to Glasgow with bold, time-bound, front-loaded plans to reach net-zero.”
“To decarbonize every sector—from power, to transport, farming, and forestry. To phase out coal,” the U.N. chief continued. “To end subsidies for fossil fuels and polluting industries. To put a price on carbon, and to channel that back to creating green jobs. And obviously, to provide at least $100 billion each year to the developing world for climate finance.”
“Leaders can still make this a turning point to a greener future instead of a tipping point to climate catastrophe,” said Guterres. “The era of half-measures and hollow promises must end.”
Various assessments released before the summit in Scotland have underscored the necessity of bold and immediate action, including the latestfrom the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as the World Meteorological Organization’s announcement Monday that carbon dioxide concentrations in 2020 hit levels not seen for roughly three million years.
Reflecting “a world of climate promises not yet delivered,” the new UNEP report also serves as a call to action, particularly for rich nations most responsible for the climate emergency.
The report details how parties to the Paris agreement have put forth “insufficient” climate plans. The NDCs for 2030, if continued throughout this century, would still lead to a global temperature rise of 2.7°C beyond pre-industrial levels. Achieving nations’ net-zero pledges “would improve the situation, limiting warming to about 2.2°C” by 2100.
However, Group of 20 (G20) nations—the world’s top economies—”do not have policies in place to achieve even the NDCs,” the report says, and making changes to meet the 2030 commitments would not be enough to put countries on a “clear path towards net-zero.”
The latest @UNEP#EmissionsGap Report finds new and updated Nationally Determined Contributions only take 7.5% off predicted 2030 emissions compared to previous commitments. Reductions of 30% are needed to stay on the least-cost pathway for 2°C and 55% for 1.5°C. (3/n) pic.twitter.com/cO1GyWozku
Meanwhile, this year “thousands of people have been killed or displaced and economic losses are measured in the trillions,” the report highlights, pointing to “extreme weather events around the world—including flooding, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, and heatwaves.”
As Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, put it: “Climate change is no longer a future problem. It is a now problem.”
“To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, we have eight years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions: eight years to make the plans, put in place the policies, implement them and ultimately deliver the cuts,” Andersen said. “The clock is ticking loudly.”
“The world has to wake up to the imminent peril we face as a species,” she added, calling on countries to urgently implement policies to meet existing commitments. “It is also essential to deliver financial and technological support to developing nations—so that they can both adapt to the impacts of climate change already here and set out on a low-emissions growth path.”
The report factors in new or updated NDCs from 121 parties, responsible for just over half of planet-heating emissions, submitted by the end of September as well as pledges from China, Japan, and South Korea—though countries continue to put forward plans in the lead-up to the summit.
Alok Sharma, incoming COP 26 president, noted Tuesday that previous analyses projected “commitments made in Paris would have capped the rise in temperature to below 4°C.”
“So there has been progress, but not enough,” he said, referencing the new report. “That is why we especially need the biggest emitters, the G20 nations, to come forward with stronger commitments to 2030 if we are to keep 1.5°C in reach over this critical decade.”
Originally published on Common Dreams by JESSICA CORBETT and republished under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
“The climate crisis has not disappeared,” said Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. “It’s the opposite—it’s even more urgent now than it was before.”
Young people by the hundreds of thousands took to the streets across the globe on Friday to deliver a resounding message to world leaders: The climate crisis is getting worse, and only radical action will be enough to avert catastrophe and secure a just, sustainable future for all.
“As emissions and inequalities increase, we rise up and demand climate justice.”
From Pakistan to Italy to Germany to the Philippines, the worldwide “Uproot the System” actions marked the largest climate demonstrations since the coronavirus pandemic forced campaigners to take their protests online last year. Climate activists in developing countries—where access to vaccines is limited due to artificial supply constraints and hoarding by rich nations—were still forced to limit the size of their demonstrations Friday as a public health precaution.
“Last time it was digital and nobody was paying attention to us,” Yusuf Baluch, a 17-year-old activist from the Pakistani province of Balochistan, toldReuters. “In the global north, people are getting vaccinated so they might be out in huge quantities. But in the global south, we are still limited.”
The Global Climate Strike continues! Balochistan is predominantly agriculture-based. They have been affected by drought due to climate change and the problems faced by people are increasing alarmingly.
Above: Photo Collage / Great Thunberg – via Instagram / Lynxotic
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, whose solitary sit-down strike outside her home country’s parliament in 2018 helped spark the global Fridays for Future movement, said that “it has been a very strange year and a half with this pandemic.”
“But of course, the climate crisis has not disappeared. It’s the opposite—it’s even more urgent now than it was before,” said Thunberg, who on Friday joined a large demonstration in Berlin, which was hammered by massive, climate-linked floods in July.
Watch Thunberg’s full speech in front of the Reichstag building:
Organizers said that more than 1400 climate strikes are set to take place in at least 70 countries Friday, with hundreds of thousands expected to attend demonstrations in Germany alone.
“As emissions and inequalities increase, we rise up and demand climate justice,” saidBerlin-based climate activist Luisa Neubauer.
The latest youth-led global action kicked off just weeks ahead of the pivotal COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, which many civil society organizations want to be postponed over fears that inequities in coronavirus vaccine access could prevent delegates from developing nations—those most vulnerable to the climate crisis—from attending.
Equalizing global vaccine distribution is one of the six demands that climate campaigners are aiming to put before world leaders during Friday’s mass demonstrations. The full list is as follows:
The Global North needs to cut emissions drastically by divesting from fossil fuels and ending its extraction, burning, and use. We need concrete plans and detailed annual carbon budgets with roadmaps and milestones to ensure we get to net-zero with justice and equity in the time needed to address climate change.
The colonizers of the north have a climate debt to pay for their disproportionate amount of historic emissions and that starts with the increase of climate finance to implement anti-racist climate reparations, the cancellation of debts especially for damage caused by extreme weather events, and providing adaptation funds that serve the communities.
Work towards a genuinely global recovery from Covid-19 by ensuring equitable vaccine distribution worldwide and suspending intellectual property restrictions on Covid-19 technologies. This is an essential step towards a global, green, and just recovery.
Recognize the tangibility of the climate crisis as a risk to human safety and secure the rights of climate refugees in international law.
Recognize the invaluable impact of biodiversity on indigenous communities’ lives and culture, and commit to make ecocide an international punishable crime.
Stop the violence and criminalization against indigenous peoples, small farmers, small fisherfolk, and other environmental and land defenders. Support the work they do. Respect and listen to our defenders.
The worldwide demonstrations came a week after the United Nations warned that even if the 191 parties to the Paris Agreement meet their current climate targets, global greenhouse gas emissions will still rise 16% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels. The U.N. also estimated that the planet is on track for 2.7°C of warming by the end of the century, a level of heating that experts say would be cataclysmic—particularly for developing nations.
At the U.N. General Assembly in New York this week, the leaders of vulnerable countries pushed wealthy nations—the largest contributors to the climate emergency—to stop shirking their responsibilities to confront the planetary crisis.
“We simply have no higher ground to cede,” Marshall Islands President David Kabua said Wednesday. “The world simply cannot delay climate ambition any further.”
Participants in Friday’s global action pointedly amplified that message. Valentina Ruas, a Brazilian activist, toldThe Guardian that “the global north should be developing climate policies that have at their core climate justice and accountability to the most affected people and areas.”
“Instead,” she added, “they continue to exploit vulnerable communities and recklessly extract fossil fuel, while bragging about their insignificant emission reduction plans.”
International survey reveals ‘shocking’ rise of eco-anxiety and hopelessness. “If this isn’t a wake up call for world leaders, what is?”
Amidst a sharp increase in deadly wildfires and flooding, increasingly violent storms, and extreme heat, new research published Tuesday found that refusal by governments to act on the climate emergency is causing a widespread sense of hopelessness and eco-anxiety in teenagers and young adults worldwide.
The global advocacy group Avaaz joined researchers at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom and five other universities to survey 10,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 25—the first large-scale eco-anxiety survey of its kind—and discovered that majorities of the respondents were fearful for the lives and livelihoods of their families and the future of the planet.
“If this isn’t a wake up call for world leaders, what is?” —AvaazAs Luisa Neubauer, a 25-year-old leader of the global Fridays for Future movement in Germany, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, while the climate extremes caused by the planetary emergency are frightening, inaction by world leaders “is too much to handle, too much to accept.””Government is pushing us in front of a bus,” Neubauer told the outlet.
The mental health professionals who conducted the study spoke with young people in 10 countries including Nigeria, the Philippines, India, the U.K., and the U.S., finding that respondents in both wealthy countries and the Global South are facing “feelings of anger, fear, and powerlessness” as the climate crisis directly causes at least one famine, deadly flash flooding, and wildfires in multiple regions.
Nearly half of respondents said their worries about the climate crisis negatively affect their daily life and their ability to function, and more than half told the experts they feel humanity is “doomed.”
Four in 10 said they would hesitate to have children in the future due to the state of the planet, while three-quarters of respondents described their futures as “frightening.”
Avaaz reported that one of the most “shocking” findings was how respondents described their feelings about government inaction, including more than half who said they feel policymakers “are betraying them.”
A shocking 58% of the children and young people surveyed say that governments are betraying them. If this isn’t a wake up call for world leaders, what is? #WeFeelThisToopic.twitter.com/D1EPwjaHEJ
Young people in the cyclone-ravages Philippines and Brazil, where deforestation—driven by President Jair Bolsonaro’s government—has become increasingly destructive in recent years, showed the most anxiety of the countries surveyed. More than nine in 10 respondents said they were frightened about the future.
Caroline Hickman, lead author of the study, which was published in The Lanceton Tuesday, cautioned adults against telling young people it is up to them to save the future of the planet.”Thinking the way to cure eco-anxiety is eco-action isn’t right,” Hickman toldThomson Reuters, adding that what will solve the climate crisis is decisive action by world governments.
The survey “shows eco-anxiety is not just for environmental destruction alone, but inextricably linked to government inaction on climate change. The young feel abandoned and betrayed by governments,” Hickman told the BBC. “Governments need to listen to the science and not pathologize young people who feel anxious.”
The survey results were released less than two months ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26), where policymakers will meet in Glasgow to discuss commitments to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, provide climate mitigation support for frontline communities across the globe, and rapidly transition to an emissions-free energy system.
Young people are “doing everything we can” to push for climate action, Neubauer told Thomson Reuters, “but that won’t be enough.”
“We won’t fix it” through the Fridays for Future movement, she added. “We need everyone there.”
The Caldor Fire had burned 204,390 acres and 20%-contained
The raging Caldor Fire that has already forced thousands of people to evacuate, is now becoming a critical threat to the popular tourist location, South Lake Tahoe. Reports of more than 34,000 structures are at risk.
There are approximately 4,000 firefighters and 1,000 California National Guard members that are helping to fight off the growing fires.
A spokesperson for California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services told CNN that over 53,000 people have been placed under evacuation orders.
The fire has already burned more than 300 square miles and destroyed hundred of residential structures. The city is facing wind gusts blowing at 35 miles per hour and stronger which continues to help the fire spread further down into the Tahoe basin.
Devastating Wildfires – continued reminders of the Climate Crisis
Greta Thunberg, the vocal climate crisis activist retweeted the below the video of the fires in California. There is so much confusion over the question of exactly which of the many, many “extreme weather events” as they are now called, are directly attributable to climate change, global warming and Co2 in the atmosphere.
This is, for Greta Thunberg and anyone reading this with an ounce of sense, a moot point. The larger overarching point is that the threat of total world destruction as a result of buying fossil fuel and other human impacts on the environment has been long settled as a very dangerous and rapidly worsening reality.
Splitting hairs by constantly questioning alternative origins for extreme events, that clearly are increasing in their number and severity, is a kind of “climate denial-lite” that is as ridiculous as it is dangerous. Ultimately it is the perspective of those like Greta, that must be adopted and understood by the millions (billions), before it is too late. Only then, when the threat is faced head on, is there a chance we might prevent a rapid slide into oblivion.
Thunberg tweeted this week “Wildfires, floods, droughts, heatwaves and other (un)natural disasters rage all over the world. Many now ask “What will it take for people in power to act?”. Well, it will many things, but above all it will take: massive pressure from media and massive pressure from the public.”
With the patience of a much more mature individual (not unusual for this prodigy) a perfect retort nearly a year later
Using the exact text of a facetious and immature tweet, typical for Trump, Greta has the last word with an entirely appropriate, if sarcastic, tweet of her own.
We must all hope, that with Trump’s Twitter account finally silenced for good, we will see and hear more from Greta and the extremely important movements that she led. Instead of making snide comments about her and her cause, as Trump so often did, we can expect that the Biden administration will do its best to face the, very real, challenges of climate change head on and bring together many from around the world to find solutions. Or at least begin the process of admitting the scope of the dangers and begin to address them.
An intimate look inside the life and rise of the remarkable Ms. Thunberg
At the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit, a young girl made headlines as she condemned world leaders on destroying the climate and leaving the younger generation to deal with the environmental repercussions. Her heartfelt speech received much attention from fellow activists, celebrities and leaders. During the UN Climate Action Summit, she said “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic grow – How Dare You!”
The, then 16 year old, soon became the inspired voice for the youth, a next generation’s leader, as she has continued her mission in raising awareness of the global climate emergency. Last year, Time Magazine named her ‘Person of the Year’ and she has also been nominated two years in a row for a Nobel Peace Prize. Her name, if you already didn’t know, is Greta Thunberg.
The upcoming “I am Greta” documentary which will stream on the Hulu platform November 13 follows the teenage climate activist during her rise to prominence and how she sparked a global impact with her school strikes and protests. The doc gives viewers a deeper look and will include never-before-seen-footage, capturing meetings with government leaders, public appearances and global protests.
The film will also show the young lady behind the scenes and how she lives her daily life, including scenes of being with her family, her process of writing speeches, how she deals with the stress of nonstop travel and her Asperger’s syndrome. The doc also features footage of Greta having to deal with the public scrutiny, from climate-deniers to hangers-on and the toll taken from being the “face of climate change”.
The documentary culminates with Greta’s extraordinary two-week journey on a wind-powered sailboat. Her voyage across the Atlantic Ocean starts as she leaves the UK in order to reach the UN Climate Action Summit in New York City. Thunberg took to the sea as she no longer flies to any events due to the high carbon emissions caused by air travel.
Nathan Grossman, a Swedish director, told press when asked what he hopes viewers will take away from the film, “Greta and other young people demand a safe future and that leaders listen to the science – instead they are met with empty words from politicians, and ridicule or even death threats from individuals. This is the source of so much of her frustration and I hope viewers will leave with a lot of that frustration as well.”
The groundbreaking speeches of Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist who has become the voice of a generation, including her historic address to the United Nations
In August 2018 a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, decided not to go to school one day in order to protest the climate crisis. Her actions sparked a global movement, inspiring millions of students to go on strike for our planet, forcing governments to listen, and earning her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.
No One Is Too Small to Make A Difference brings you Greta in her own words, for the first time. Collecting her speeches that have made history across the globe, from the United Nations to Capitol Hill and mass street protests, her book is a rallying cry for why we must all wake up and fight to protect the living planet, no matter how powerless we feel. Our future depends upon it.
Immediately vows to donate all through her foundation to organizations and projects “on the front lines” of Climate Crisis
Greta Thunberg, Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2019 has acquired another prize for her humanitarian efforts. The global pandemic has, to some degree, taken attention away from the climate crisis and, by extension, it’s most famous spokesperson. There have also been signs of a backlash, potentially due to overexposure, but more likely stemming from various actors, backed by the fossil fuel industry and its proponents, trying to drum up support for a dying business model.
For example, a brief attempt to champion an “anti-Greta” figure, Naomi Seibt, a 19-year-old from Münster, Germany, who gained some media attention in February of this year for her “climate skeptic” stance. Reports surfaced that she was being paid by a group associated with the Tump administration and was being put forward as an unofficial spokesperson for Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank.
The massive crash in the price of oil in April and the aforementioned pandemic seems to have derailed her budding career as a solution for the fossil fuel industry to the “Greta problem”.
In the video (above) released via twitter, Greta pledged to give away all the funds “as quickly as possible”. Her first recipient was named, along with the amount to be given; 100,000 Euros to the SOS Amazonia Campaign known via @FridaysForFutureBrasil. A second award, also in the amount of 100,000 Euros, will go to the Stop Ecocide Foundation
Further grants will be awarded to those fighting for climate crisis solutions and for “a sustainable world”.
”Also, to help organizations and projects who are fighting for a sustainable world and who are fighting to defend nature and the natural world.”
The Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity
Based on twitter reactions, the prize is not well known in the US. Based in Portugal, The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has established an international jury to choose the prize recipient. The Prize is awarded annually for “contributions to mitigation and adaptation to climate change”.
“The Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, awarded annually, in the amount of 1 million euros, aims to recognise people, groups of people and/or organisations from all over the world whose contributions to mitigation and adaptation to climate change stand out for its novelty, innovation and impact.”
The Foundation’s goals, which the prize seeks to highlight, are an acceleration to a carbon neutral society and to mitigate negative effects of climate change on people, the environment and the economy.
Though fewer headlines have been seen relating to current events surrounding the climate crisis, they are sure to return as the problem is far from over. Temperatures worldwide continue to shock and break records. Greta Thunberg putting her fame and award proceeds to good use is a bright spot on the horizon during an admittedly difficult year for our planet and species. Below are the original tweets
I’m extremely honoured to receive the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity. We’re in a climate emergency, and my foundation will as quickly as possible donate all the prize money of 1 million Euros to support … -> 1/3 pic.twitter.com/Eti6AJXSvj
Starting with giving €100.000 to the SOS Amazonia Campaign led by Fridays For Future Brazil to tackle Covid-19 in the Amazon, and €100.000 to the Stop Ecocide Foundation to support their work to make ecocide an international crime. @fcgulbenkian 3/3
“OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE” COURTESY OF FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE / FF LOS ANGELES
Celebrating Earth Day’s 50th must mark a New Beginning for the Next 50
April 22nd, 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the original Earth Day. While Earth Day is not technically a national holiday, many people in power recognize the occasion, and its momentum over the past half-century has evoked real environmental change.
Earth Day was first conceptualized in late 1969, when U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson hired Harvard grad student Denis Hayes to organize the inaugural event for the following spring. At first, the senator and student imagined the day as a nationwide teach-in to celebrate the natural world, educate about the environment, and push for activism.
According to Hayes in a recent New York Times article reflecting on the 1970 event, the first Earth Day “was not an anti-litter campaign… it was talking about fundamental changes in the nature of the American economy.” The occasion drew over 20 million people to rally in city streets across the country.
The event was a serious push for dire political and economic transformation that eventually proved immensely effective. In the months following Earth Day, President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and progressive amendments were added to the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. It also launched America’s environmental movement into full throttle.
Taking Action and Raising Awareness is Still the Most important Focus for Earth Day
Earth Day’s original incarnation occurred during a far from tranquil period in American history. The Vietnam War was at a tumultuous height, civilian protests were ubiquitous, the Civil Rights movement was ongoing, and the Cold War was far from over. Still, with passion and perseverance, the event turned out being a success and managed to evoke positive change in an unlikely time.
Now, fifty years later, America is on the brink of multiple crisis points at once. Politicians and constituents are ideologically polarized, the 2020 presidential election is starting to boil, and most pressingly, the entire world is working to combat and understand COVID-19.
Just like the first Earth Day, ED-2020 comes at a deeply turbulent time.
Climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss as a result of human activity will not stop in the face of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Neither will the political responses to it—Trump, for example, cut fuel efficiency standards right around the same time that the stateside coronavirus shutdowns began.
Simultaneously, Earth Day 2020 has the potential for inspiring a path toward great opportunities.The recent oil crash signifies the possible end for the hegemonic, dangerous and corrupt fossil fuel industry. Meanwhile, a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency suggests that investing in green energy right now might be the economy’s best chance at recovery from the COVID-19 stock plummets.
The issues may have changed over the past fifty years. The world certainly has. Nevertheless, Earth Day still fights for the same overall goals that it did back in 1970: an environmentally sound and equitable planet for everyone sharing it.
Although social distancing orders may be hindering Earth Day’s regular festivities this year, its supporters still celebrate with virtual activities accessible from home.
As virtually everyone is aware by now the second biggest story of the week (third?) has been the literal deluge of shopping crowds converging on grocery and big-box stores buying large quantities of water, paper products, disinfectants and, more recently, food staples and whatever else is not nailed down.
Interviews with company presidents that manufacture paper products have shown that this is truly panic buying as the apparent shortages are based not on a lack of supply or the ability to produce more, but on the logistical difficulty in getting the shelves stocked fast enough.
“There is not some big underground warehouse like in ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ where there is all this toilet paper sitting around in case it is needed”
Dan Clarahan, president of United Converting,quoted in the NY Times
Instead people are literally filling their closets with excess paper, more than they can use in a year, all due to psychological reactions to the uncertainty of the overall situation. We as humans are notoriously bad at calculating needs and usage of supplies and making time based buying decisions.
Paper aisle of a discount store today in Los Angeles. Photo / Lynxotic
Case in point: the box of tin-foil above, which is admittedly a 500 ft roll meant for restaurant use (bought at Costco) is, for all intents and purposes, an antique. I bought it for around $15 in 2012. It’s not gone yet.
I am not, as you can see, an industrial grade user of tin-foil. However, this box has been used several times a week for various household refrigerator storage tasks for 8 Years!
Without getting into the fine mathematics of how long, per person, a roll of toilet paper should last (including all the minutia such as the length of the roll and how many “layers of comfort” are included) grabbing shopping carts full is likely not a necessity, even if practicing social distancing for a month or two.
“Empty” shelves at Los Angeles discount store – Photo / Lynxotic
And then what about food? This photo is of “shockingly empty” shelves in the meat section of a discount store in Los Angeles, today. What’s the first thing you see? What I see is just how many great things to eat are readily available, still, on these empty shelves.
So, all in all, I guess its called “panic” for a reason. Because it’s not about “reason” but rather that lack thereof. Just as with paper products food supplies are not in any huge danger of total collapse. You just might have to choose a different entrée for a time or two. Shelves are being restocked as fast as the stores can muster, but the speed, and in particular the amount per person, of the buying is making it impossible to physically get the goods into place soon enough.
Teleconferencing, Cloud apps, Work-from-home and the carbon conundrum
And, while on the subject of what’s not-as-bad as it seems, interestingly many common behaviors that were considered necessary, up until the coronavirus became a danger when combined with those practices, such as the 4oz limit on liquids taken on to an aircraft are being phased out. When people were allowed, starting recently, to take 12oz bottles of hand sanitizer onto flights, literally nothing bad happened.
And what about working from home, as has been almost universally adopted by major tech companies such as Amazon, Twitter, Apple, etc. Many are saying this could, and should, be a permanent change and that the don’t think that the practice of commuting to work will ever be the norm again.
Wait… what? So, along with having oil shoved down our throats (or at lest into our gas tanks) by the fossil fuel industry for half a century longer than technologically necessary, we have been commuting and destroying the planet for no reason at all?
Surprisingly positive and even optimistic signs are already appearing like this everywhere – green shoots of the new season of change. Ands change, radical change, is the common denominator.
Electric cars were driving around London as early as 1884, but it took Elon Musk and Tesla to finally take the idea of owning one to the mainstream. A car with an internal combustion engine created in 1934 got over 30 MPG, could reach speeds upwards of 90 mph and could seat 11. It’s no accident that these technologies were stifled for all these years. Ask Putin and MBS.
Living in a Box might help us to think Outside the Box
So, without putting too fine a point on it, a lot of good things are already potentially coming out of the massive changes underfoot – not just our fight to escape the worst of the coronaviruses potential, but the economic fallout, which is only partially related, and the coming shift in thinking about, well, everything.
The reality is, from Climate Change and carbon overload to corruption in government and big business, the biggest changes needed are possible if the old ways just disappear, or are swept away, in order for existing technological potential to be realized. And what better time for that to happen than now?
Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given to you
We are all so often lost. Feeling lost and wondering what to do. We run to the stores and try to race against one another for the chance to hoard things we don’t really need. But, perhaps, just as toilet paper won’t protect you from the novel coronavirus, even bigger issues such as climate change can only begin to be solved once we find a way to live in a totally different way.
”Well…You know, so much of the time we’re just lost. We say, “Please, God, tell us what is right. Tell us what is true.”
I mean there is no justice. The rich win; the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time we become dead, a little dead.
“The Verdict”
What way? That is unknown. Big changes are coming, like it or not. But changes don’t always mean worsening circumstances. We might have the solutions right under our noses. That tin-foil might last longer than we expected. Accepting, even embracing change might reveal a chance for better things to come. Learning not to burn fossilized plant matter to go to an office to work on a computer that you also have at home. Believing in our ability as humans to find solutions, and for those solutions to be brought into the light of day, without being obstructed or suppressed for greedy, stupid reasons.
…But today you are the law. You are the law, not some book, not the lawyers, not a marble statue, or the trappings of the court. See, those are just symbols of our desire to be just. They are, in fact, a prayer, I mean a fervent and a frightened prayer.
The next big challenge, which we as a planet are clearly not yet prepared to face, is climate change and the environmental damage wrought by “man”. What if interconnected human communications, enhanced by software and the internet, can play a roll in changing the way we live – and by doing that changing the equation that has been a negative one for over a century? That could be a building block toward not just survival but to a new way to prevail and prosper.
In my religion, they say, “Act as if you had faith; faith will be given to you.”
If we are to have faith in justice we need only to believe in ourselves and act with justice. See, I believe there is justice in our hearts.”
Words by David Mamet – Performed by Paul Newman in Sidney Lumet’s, ‘The Verdict
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.
Click to Buy “Dark Towers” and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores. Also Available on Amazon .
Based on its title, David Enrich’s new book “Dark Towers” might sound like an appendix to the nine part horror-fantasy series that Stephen King wrote between 1982 and 2012. In reality, though, Enrich’s book is a true story of financial corruption, with the full title “Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump and an Epic Trail of Destruction.”
Nevertheless, the tale is just as riveting as any novel, and is perhaps even darker than any work of fiction.
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.
Greta Thunberg, the hugely influential sixteen-year-old climate activist from Sweden, was recently named Time magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year. Just a teenager, Thunberg holds the honor of being the youngest recipient of the title in history. But Greta wasn’t the only climate awareness activist that was making waves and getting attention in 2019.
Jane Fonda, at the other end of the age spectrum from Greta (she turned 82 on December 21st), was arrested numerous times in civi disobedience demonstrations. Her vocal criticisms and concise quotes related to the press coverage of her activism sum up the reason this is not just any other protest movement:
“I have gotten a lot of publicity because I’m a celebrity, you know. That’s why I’m doing it. If you’re a celebrity, you have a responsibility to use that celebrity. Especially when the future of mankind is at stake.”
– Jane Fonda
Of course, there has been a lot of the usual talk about how celebrities should stay out of politics and that discussion is far from over, with many other celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio, who’s been an envronmental activist for many years, continuing to speak out. In the end, this is the fight that, eventually, one way or another, everyone will join, as the very existence of the Earth hangs in the balance.
Honors pale compared to the task that lies ahead, but the Accolades are well Deserved
Greta Thunberg, the hugely influential sixteen-year-old climate activist from Sweden, was recently named Time magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year. Just a teenager, Thunberg holds the honor of being the youngest recipient of the title in history.
The Time magazine Person of the Year is a tradition that dates all the way back to 1927, when Charles Lindberg earned the prestigious title for being the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic. Over the past ninety-two years, the honor has been given to influential people such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. On a more controversial side of history, the award has also gone to infamous people such as Hitler in 1938, Stalin in 1939 and 1942, and Donald Trump in 2016.
Thunberg, however, is given the honor for her work in influencing others to take on earth’s greatest challenge. Ever since dropping out of school in 2018, she has traveled the world, spreading messages of action and determination regarding climate change. Her dedication to making the world a sustainable place is unparalleled and she has inspired many people with her unapologetic and honest way of addressing the issue head on.
Greta’s accomplishments are all the more impressive given her age, gender, and conditions. A teenaged girl with Aspergers Syndrome, anautism spectrum disorder is not typically the kind of person that Time magazine selects for Person of the Year. Before Thunberg, the youngest Person of the Year was twenty-five years old, and before the turn of the millennium, only four women had ever received the honor. Nevertheless, Greta earned the title on merit, and her recognition is further inspiration for more young women to stand up against tyranny and aspire to great things.
Coinciding with COP 25 Greta Continued on only paused Briefly to Acknowledge the Award
In typical Greta Thunberg fashion, though, she did not gloat or really even celebrate the honor. Steadfast on overlooking symbolic recognition and focusing on tangible change, Thunberg spent the week addressing the UN Climate Conference in Madrid.
As Greta does when meeting with world leaders, she spoke to the UN with the uncompromising sincerity, calling out politicians for considering money over the environment and creating egregious loopholes in order to surpass climate accountability. She called the current pledges in place “misleading,” and deemed that good intentions are not enough; it takes long-term and persistent commitment to save the planet.
Coincidentally, shortly after Thunberg finished her moving speech, over two-hundred activists were removed from the conference. Loudly chanting their beliefs and frustrations for several minutes, the protestors were eventually forced out of the building by security.
I hear many say “2019 was the year when the public woke up to the climate crisis”. This is a misconception. A small but rapidly growing number of people have started to wake up to the climate crisis. This has only just begun. We’re still only scratching the surface.
Many of the protestors came from the organization Greenpeace, which Thunberg has worked with in the past. Among those removed from the building was Greenpeace leader Jennifer Morgan, who commented on the stark divide between what is going on inside the conference and what is going on outside, implying that the politician’s have a severe detachment from the citizens’ world.
Morgan’s insight is not a good sign, especially considering that the UN Climate Conference is dependent on unity and understanding across borders. However, if there is already a border separating the conference from the rest of the world, then it puts the entire meeting in jeopardy.
Spending the final weeks of a tumultuous year at home in Sweden, there is no doubt that in 2020 she will once again be in the headlines continuing her quest to raise awareness and help us all to face our greatest challenge head on, with open eyes and, hopefully, open minds.
While leaders from around the globe are coming together to seek climate consensus at the UN Climate Conference in Madrid, the European Union is making its own efforts in Belgium. On Tuesday, December 11th, the EU met in Brussels and introduced what it is calling the “Green Deal,” an outline of policies for the bloc to implement in the fight against climate change.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the Green Deal at the EU meeting. It is her first major proposal (and a bold one at that) since she first took office on December 1st. The plan is part of an overarching ambition for the EU to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
The Green Deal aims to achieve this ambition through fifty policy measures. Among them are a $110-Billion fund to help transition away from coal, updated production standards to eliminate waste, and a carbon border tax for imports. There would also be more money set aside to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decrease the level of trade dependency on air travel.
When von der Leyen introduced the Deal, she called it “Europe’s ‘man on the moon’ moment,” likely alluding to United States President John F. Kennedy’s famous “We Choose To Go To The Moon Speech” that kicked off the Space Race in 1962. Like Kennedy’s declaration to put a man on the moon, the Green Deal is unprecedentedly daring. It consciously sets out to challenge the nations involved and bring out the best in their politicians and citizens alike. If all goes well, then the end result could be beyond anything mankind has achieved in the past.
Potential Huge Impact of New Front in Trade Wars?
The irony in von der Leyen referencing JFK in her remarks, however, is that part of the Green Deal states that the EU will no longer engage in trade agreements with nations not participating in the Paris Climate Accords—that means to United States. Thanks to President Trump’s recent withdrawal from the global agreements set upon during the Obama Administration, the Green Deal could leave the U.S. without a few vital trading partners in Europe.
With any luck, maybe this economic incentive will convince the United States to hop back on board the Paris Accord. After all, one of the Green Deal’s primary aims is to inspire other places around the world to politically prioritize the climate crisis and lower carbon emissions. While certain governments have already made progress in these areas, the Green Deal marks the first time that a multi-nation bloc this big is directly attacking the issue on such a wide, in depth scale.
That being said, not everyone is a fan of the Deal. Although it won the support of the conservative European People’s Party (the most prevalent party in Parliament), the Green Deal has its cynics on both sides of the political spectrum. The far-right wingers fear the Deal’s potential effect on extractive industries and the economy. Meanwhile, far-left parties like the Green Party and the European United Left, are weary that the plan is not enough and that it needs to offer more solutions to additional issues.
Still, all but three of the 28 countries in the EU have agreed to the Green Deal’s 2050 carbon neutral goal. The outliers are Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, three Eastern European nations that rely heavily on coal and other fossil fuels.
Understandably, the Green Deal will not get adopted and accepted overnight. There are a lot of countries that have a say in its guidelines and not all of them see eye-to-eye. Nevertheless, the fact that an entity as large and influential as the EU is proposing such a plan—and that it is getting received relatively well—is a big step for environmental progress. Soon enough, maybe the rest of the world will fall in line too, realize the dangers at hand, and compromise for the betterment of the entire planet.
