February 2024— This is a newsroll page on A Socialist In Canada consisting of headlines with weblinks to published news articles and political analysis. Comments and information in square brackets [ ] are by the website editor. Read more about this news page here: Ecology news headline page on A Socialist In Canada. Past months are archived in the ‘News pages archives‘ categories listing on the website.
Ecology newsroll headlines on A Socialist In Canada, February 2024
A solar power revolution in farming is depleting the world’s groundwater (acquifers), by Fred Pearce, in Yale Environment 360, Feb 27, 2024 There is a solar-powered revolution going on in the fields of India. By 2026, more than three million farmers will be raising irrigation water from beneath their fields using solar-powered pumps. Their lives could be transformed, until the water runs out… Boreholes sunk into porous water-holding rocks now provide 43 percent of the world’s irrigation water, according to a study last year by the World Bank…
Wildfires in Texas Panhandle region grow into one of largest in Texas history, Associated Press, Feb 28, 2024 [The Texas Panhandle region is home to app. 500,000 people. It is a square-shaped region of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state; it borders the Oklahoma Panhandle region. Wildfire season is now 12 months long in Texas due to global warming. Texas is the largest crude oil-producing state in the U.S. with some 43 per cent of U.S. production.]
The United States prepares for a new war… to crush China’s electric vehicle manufacturers, guest essay in New York Times, Feb 27, 2024 (headlined ‘China’s electric vehicles are going to hit Detroit like a wrecking ball’) here in pdf format: The United States prepares to crush China’s electric vehicle manufacturers)
[The Western automobile/fossil fuel/military nexus risks being crushed by the innovation and foresight of electric vehicle manufacturers in China. There are striking similarities here to the military defeat that the U.S. and other NATO powers are suffering in Ukraine. The nexus’ answer to the rising ‘green capitalist’ challenge to its fossil fueled world order emanating from China is to go to war to stop the challengers. This is what the above New York Times‘ commentary ever-so-politely proposes. The tragedy in all this is that electric vehicles are a mirage; their spread is another indicator of how global capitalism is evading the imperative of degrowth, more specifically the imperative of degrowth communism. Instead, it is further dragging human society towards its own self-destruction, with the liberal environmental movement, devoid of any analysis of modern-day imperialism, loudly but ineffectively kicking and screaming along the way.]
Annual sled dog races in northern Maine canceled for the first time due to lack of snow, report by Maine Public, Feb 26, 2024
Liberal environmentalist Bill McKibben weighs in on NATO’s war in Ukraine war… on the side of NATO imperialism. Reference: ‘Breaking Putin’s petro-power grip: An urgent call to tighten sanctions and embrace renewable revolution [sic]’, jointly authored essay by Bill McKibben, published on Feb 24, 2024
Related: Absurd essay on Ukraine and ‘clean energy’ is making the rounds in absurd alternative media outlets in USA. Reference: ‘Ukraine’s commitment to clean energy is a beacon of resilience’, essay published in Common Dreams, Feb 21, 2024, in LA Progressive, Feb 26, 2024, by former Green Party leader Howie Hawkins on Twitter [Self-described ‘green socialist’ Howie Hawkins supports NATO’s war against Russia aimed at consolidating NATO and Western control over Ukraine. “Another concern of many Greens with both Cornel West and Jill Stein is foreign policy. Unlike Biden, both call for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to military aid to Israel until it ends its occupation and apartheid. But both also oppose arms to Ukraine for its self-defense, and they call for a ceasefire and negotiations as if Russia will cease its aggression if Ukraine is disarmed.”]
Head of Germany’s Siemens engineering giant wants restrictions on imports into Europe of China-manufactured wind turbines, report in South China Morning Post, Feb 21, 2024 Europe’s wind power industry will suffer the same fate as its devastated solar industry if authorities do not cut market access for “cheap” Chinese wind power equipment, according to the head of one of the continent’s top energy firms… There has been speculation in Brussels about a possible investigation into Chinese subsidies but the European Commission said it had not received a formal complaint and did not have the evidence to launch such an inquiry… (read the report here in pdf format: Germany’s Siemens firm wants restrictions on importing China-manufactured wind turbines)
[The declaration by Siemens underlines how the much-vaunted ‘green energy’ transition in the Western world has little or nothing to do with saving humanity from its existential crisis over global warming. For that, ‘degrowth communism‘ is needed. ‘Green energy’ is all about finding new ways to make money, nothing more.]
Solar water heaters, ignored for 100 years by governments beholden to the fossil fuel industry, poised for comeback. Report in Washington Post, Feb 13, 2024
Related: Solar water heaters are all-but unheard of in the United States, report in Ensia, October 28, 2020 (Ensia is published by the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota)
A ‘collapse’ is looming for Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, scientists say, report in Washington Post, Feb 15, 2024 Scientists say the overwhelming majority of the state’s wetlands — a natural buffer against hurricanes — are in a state of ‘drowning’ and could be gone by 2070 …The new research documents how a sudden burst of sea level rise over the past 13 years has left the overwhelming majority of the state’s coastal wetland sites in a state of current or expected “drowning” where the seas are rising faster than wetlands can grow. This type of surge was, until now, not expected until later this century. The news is dire for a state that has already lost over 2,000 square miles of wetland area since 1932, bringing the ocean ever closer to New Orleans and other population centers and leaving them more vulnerable to storms…
Rain comes to the Arctic, with a cascade of troubling changes, by Ed Struzik, in Yale Environment 360, Feb 20, 2024 Rain used to be rare in the Arctic, but as the region warms, so-called ‘rain-on-snow events’ are becoming more common. The rains accelerate ice loss, trigger flooding, landslides, and avalanches, and create problems for wildlife and the Indigenous people who depend on them.
Petrochemical companies have known for 40 years that plastics recycling wouldn’t work, by Joseph Winters, staff writer, Grist magazine, Feb 20, 2024 New documents show how the petrochemical industry promoted the myth of ‘plastic recycling’ regardless of the evidence showing it doesn’t work
The decline of the German economy and its dreams of a ‘green energy’ transition, feature essay in RT News, Feb 20, 2024 [This essay contains some valuable insight into the present state of politics and economics in Germany. But the essay is most noteworthy for what it tells the reader about the cuurent state of thinking of the editors of RT News concerning the global warming emergency. RT News is an eclectic journal when it comes to global warming. Sometimes, there are insightful news report on the subject in the publication. But most of its reporting on global warming fits into the camp of ‘denial’. Many of its reports mock those who warn of global warming and who advocate radical steps to ‘draw down’ all the excess and waste of the global capitalist order. The global warming emergency is an existential crisis for humanity, but the editors and writers at RT News are either blissfully ignorant of this or, like the capitalists who own and dominate the world, they do not care.]
Populations of nearly half of migratory species on the planet are declining, unsigned report in Climate and Capitalism journal, Feb 12, 2024
The east coast of the United States is sinking, interactive report in New York Times, Feb 13, 2023
Highlights:
* New satellite-based research reveals how land along the U.S. east coast is slumping into the ocean, compounding the danger from global sea level rise. An additional culprit in excessive pumping of groundwater.
* The most vulnerable areas of Boston have been sinking up to 3.8 centimeters per decade, while parts of New York City and Long Island are sinking over 3 centimeters per decade. Several hotspots in Maryland are sinking over 10 centimeters per decade, while other areas are rising. Adjacent land moving at different rates can put infrastructure at risk. Charleston, S.C., which is affected by groundwater pumping, is sinking up to 5.7 centimeters per decade. Parts of Miami are sinking up to 1.5 centimeters a decade, adding to flood hazards from frequent tropical storms.
* Nearly 40 percent of Americans live along coasts, where aging buildings, roads and rails face structural damage from floods. Researchers say a dominant cause for subsidence is groundwater depletion.
Related: America is using up its groundwater like there is no tomorrow, New York Times, Aug 28, 2023 Overuse is draining and damaging aquifers nationwide, a New York Times data investigation has revealed
U.S. jury awards climate scientist Michael Mann $1 million in defamation lawsuit, Associated Press, Feb 8, 2024
[Michael Mann, professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is a leading, liberal environmental researcher and writer. He favors a rapid drawdown of fossil fuel extraction and consumption and its replacement by a corresponding expansion of production of so-called alternative energies. In 2021, a journalist at Vox.com cited Mann in an analysis headlined ‘The degrowth movement offers a romantic, utopian vision; it is not a policy agenda’. Mann told Vox, “If we are to avert catastrophic warming, we have to lower carbon emissions by a factor of two within the next ten years. I find it highly implausible that capitalism/market economics will be abandoned by the world on that time frame. That means we have to act on the climate crisis within the framework of the current system.” Mann’s polemical comment was a caricature. No advocate of degrowth believes that capitalism will be ‘abandoned’ anytime soon. But the world faces an existential choice over degrowth. The path to degrowth requires a lengthy period of mixed economy and multi-class alliances which will kickstart the necessary ‘drawdown’ of all the waste and excesses of the expansionist, capitalist order. The sooner this begins (it has decidedly not yet begun), the less will be the suffering from the global warming emergency, already alarmingly advanced. In the real world, there continues a frightening increase of fossil fuel extraction and consumption. The imperialist system of global dominance is launching new wars (Ukraine in 2022, Palestine in 2024) precisely to evade the imperative of degrowth. Solutions to the global warming emergency must place front and center opposition to the grim rise of imperialist militarism and war. Alas, too few environmentalists in today’s world, be they liberal or even left-wing, acknowledge this reality and act accordingly.]
Meaningless words have marked the UN-sponsored ‘COP’ conferences; a break is needed from these wasted exercises, commentary posted to Twitter/X by writer Stephen Barlow, Feb 7, 2024 (read the commentary here, slightly edited for ease of reading: Time for the environment movement to break from the ‘COP conferences’ waste of time)
As use of artificial intelligence soars, so do the quantities of energy and water this requires, by David Berreby, in Yale Environment 360, 2024 Generative artificial intelligence uses massive amounts of energy for computation and data storage and billions of gallons of water to cool the equipment at data centers. The damage is so evident that some legislators and regulators in the U.S. and the EU are beginning to demand ‘accountability’, whatever that is supposed to mean.
Semi solid-state battery powers Chinese-made electric vehicle over 650-mile, 14-hour drive, report in PC Mag, Dec 18, 2024
[Electric vehicles will worsen the global warming emergency, not lessen it. They are decidedly a part of the problem in global warming, not a solution, because they perpetuate the automobile/military/industrial complex which already covers the planet and determines how housing and transportation are organized. That said, what is interesting in the above report is how it aids in seeing how Western media propaganda works. Canada’s largest national newspaper published a report (paywalled) on February 3 that examines the research into solid-state batteries taking place at one of Canada’s universities. The reader might think that this lab is pioneering such research. The newspaper fails to mention that such batteries are already powering automobiles in China and will be soon be on sale. More broadly, research and practical applications in China of alternative energies are light years ahead of the West. Thus do we see the great advantages of China’s planned, social economy compared to the chaos and dog-eat-dog practices of the capitalist world economy, driven by its competition imperative.]
The monster measles outbreak in Europe is a warning, by David Wallace-Wells, in New York Times, Feb 1, 2024 (here in pdf format: The monster measles outbreak in Europe is a warning)
Ecology newsroll headlines on A Socialist In Canada, January 2024
Study in Scotland finds zero cases of cervical cancer among women vaccinated against NPV virus before age 14, report by STAT News (project of the Boston Globe), Jan 25, 2024 …Scotland introduced routine immunization against the HPV virus in schools in 2008. In the 2022-2023 school year, close to 90 per cent of students in their fourth year of secondary school (equivalent to 10th grade in the U.S.) had received at least one dose of the vaccine. In the U.S., HPV vaccines are not administered in schools and the vaccination rate among adolescents ages 13 to 17 is a little over 60 per cent…
Related: Anti-vaccination zealots in U.S. mobilize to block effective prevention for young people against cervical cancer caused by HPV vaccine, NBC News, July 24, 2019 The safe, heavily researched HPV vaccine remains tragically under-used in the backward-looking United States. The anti-vaccine movement could make this worse if we’re not careful.
Massive expansion of renewable energies opens door to COP28 goal of tripling their production, media release by Int’l Energy Agency (IEA), Jan 11, 2024 (The full, annual IEA report is titled ‘Renewables 2023: Analysis and forecast to 2028’. It is 143 pages long and can be accessed at the weblink above.) …The amount of renewable energy capacity added to energy systems around the world grew by 50% in 2023, reaching almost 510 gigawatts (GW), with solar PV accounting for three-quarters of additions worldwide. The largest growth took place in China, which commissioned as much solar PV in 2023 as the entire world did in 2022. At the same time, China’s wind power additions rose by 66% year-on-year…
Related: China’s alternative energies boom ‘an example to the entire world’, says annual IEA report, report in South China Morning Post, Jan 28, 2023 (here in pdf format: China’s alternative energies boom)
[The annual IEA report vaunts the goal of tripling global ‘renewable energy’ capacity by 2030 set by world governments… one month ago at the COP28 climate change conference in UAE. Ah well, ‘better late than never’, one could say. However, the reality is that expansionist capitalism will destroy the planet if not stopped, whether its continued expansion is fueled by fossil fuels or by ‘renewable’ energies. And, there is no such thing as ‘renewable’ energies; all energy sources require polluting inputs and produce their own polluting outcomes, be they destroyed rivers, migratory birds killed by wind power turbines, or nuclear waste buried for future generations to deal with. The most polluting of all is the endless production, consumption and waste-dumping of ‘things’ propelled by commodity fetishism. This produces entirely false impressions of personal satisfaction and positive human development.]
Poisonous emissions from Alberta tar sands are up to six times higher than ‘officially’ reported… until now, by Ian Angus, editor, Climate and Capitalism, Jan 25, 2024 In addition to vast amounts of greenhouse gasses, Alberta’s tar sands mines spew organic gases, particles and aerosols that are known to harm human health. A study published today in the journal Science shows that the actual amounts of those poisons produced every day are from 1,900% up to 6,300% higher than official industry reports admit… and read: report in Common Dreams, Jan 26, 2024
Measles cases are soaring in Europe, World Health Organization calls for urgent vaccination measures, Agence France presse (AFP), Jan 24, 2024 Measles cases soared in Europe in 2023 to 42,200, a nearly 45-fold increase over the previous year, the UN’s WHO health agency reported on January 23. It is calling for urgent vaccination efforts to halt the spread. Some 41 countries out of 53 the World Health Organization includes in its Europe region reported the infectious disease, WHO said… Vaccination rates against the disease slipped during the Covid-19 pandemic and “urgent vaccination efforts are needed to halt transmission and prevent further spread”… Some 1.8 million infants in the WHO’s Europe region were not vaccinated against measles between 2020 and 2022…
Related:
* Europe faces a measles outbreak, New York Times, Jan. 24, 2024 When vaccinations begin to lag, as they did during the pandemic, measles is often the first disease to resurge. ‘It’s the canary in the coal mine,’ says one expert.
* Kazakhstan responds to rapid escalation of measles cases, report by World Health Organization, Jan 23, 2024
* How NATO’s war in Ukraine impacts immunizations Report published in The Lancet, Oct 17, 2023 …”Vaccination uptake for preventable diseases in Ukraine is low, and the main reason for this is the war with Russia,” explains Andrii Loboda at the Department of Paediatrics at Sumy State University. Measles is endemic in Ukraine and is an imminent threat given the low vaccine coverage rate, which stood at 69% in 2022… “The situation with measles is not good, we’re not far from an outbreak. A catch-up measles campaign from June to September was not successful and measles vaccine uptake among children in Ukraine at the moment is low,” Alla Volokha (Shupyk National Healthcare University of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine) told The Lancet Microbe.
[This report in The Lancet on low vaccination rates in Ukraine is a whitewash because the author claims that the “main reason” for low vaccination rates in Ukraine is its war against Russia. But the very same report states that the vaccination rates in Ukraine for measles in 2022 (that is, the year of the war’s commencement) were already extraordinarily low, at 69% of children. A vaccination rate of 95% is required to keep measles from spreading infectiously. Furthermore, the following report explains that measles was already running rampant in Ukraine way back in 2019.]
* Measles cases have tripled in Europe, fueled by Ukrainian outbreak, Science magazine, Feb 12, 2019 … Measles cases more than tripled across Europe in 2018, and one country drove much of the surge: Ukraine. Nearly 83,000 cases of measles were reported in the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) European Region in 2018, compared with some 25,500 in 2017, WHO, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, announced last week. Ukraine had more than 54,000 cases in 2018, its government says. Last year, 16 Ukrainians died of the extremely contagious viral disease, which is easily prevented with a vaccine…
China Merchants firm to build wind powered, emission-cutting propulsion system for shipping, in partnership with UK-based BAR Tech, South China Morning Post, Jan 24, 2024 (here in pdf format: Chinese firm to build wind-powered propulsion system for cargo ships)
The agriculture industry abducted the Merced River in California in 2022… and nobody stopped it, New York Times, Jan 21, 2024 (here in pdf format: Ag industry in California abducts the Merced River) …California’s water board doesn’t have the staff it would need to monitor river levels statewide, leading observers to believe that the Merced River is not the only one to hae been deliberately drained dry by industry during the 2022 drought…
Forget the ‘green capitalism’ con, only a planned economy and degrowth principles can save the planet, essay by Kohei Saito, A Socialist In Canada, Jan 19, 2024 (with related readings) This essay by the Japanese scholar, researcher and author Kohei Saito was first published in the eclectic Unherd on January 9, 2024. Saito has just published a new book: Slow Down: The degrowth manifesto (W&N, Orion Publishing Group).)
U.S. and Chinese researchers develop pioneering, $2 device for delivering clean water anywhere, South China Morning Post, Jan 20, 2024 Scientists will work with governments and organisations in developing countries to distribute device for free (read the news report here in pdf format: Simple device invented for delivering clean water anywhere)
Indonesia is clearing vast peatlands to grow food and the climate costs are dire, Washington Post, Jan 19, 2024 Peatlands form in areas that are too wet for dead plants and animals to fully decompose. While peatlands make up just three percent of the Earth’s land, they store twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests combined, according to the United Nations. (read the report here in pdf format: Dire climate costs as Indonesia clears vast peatlands to grow food)
Hungary is attracting Chinese investment to become a center of electric vehicle manufacture, South China Morning Post, Jan 19, 2024 (here in pdf format: Hungary is attracting Chinese investment to become a center of electric vehicle manufacture)
On YouTube, a shift from denying science to dismissing solutions, analysis by E360 Digest, in Yale Environment 360 (E360), Jan 17, 2024
Falling off the cliff of snow loss and what it means for the future, Washington Post, Jan 10, 2024 (here in pdf format: Falling off the cliff of snow loss) Crossing a key temperature threshold could put more than two million people at risk of losing snowfall tht is crucial for water supply
China’s high-speed CR450 train to enter service by 2025 with record 450 km/hr speed, South China Morning Post, Jan 11, 2024 (here in pdf format: China’s newest high-speed train to enter service with record speed) …Research by Chinese scientists concludes the carbon footprint of high-speed rail is 6 per cent that of air travel and 11 per cent that of a car. China plans to boost its railway network to 165,000km (102,500 miles) by 2025, including 50,000km of high-speed rail…
Top five countries with high-speed rail (250 km/hr or higher, in kilometers): China 40,474; Spain 3,661; Japan 3,081; France 2,735; Germany 1,571 (data published in Sept 2023, here)
A trash heap 62 meters high shows the scale of India’s climate challenge, CNN, Dec 11, 2023 …India wants to lower its methane output, but it hasn’t joined the 130 countries who have signed up to the Global Methane Pledge, a pact to collectively cut global methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030… Since its opening in 1982, the dump in the small city of Bhalswa, one of many in the state of Delhi alone, has grown nearly as tall as the historic Taj Mahal, becoming a landmark in its own right and an eyesore that towers over surrounding homes, affecting the health of people who live there… The Bhalswa dump site exhausted its capacity in 2002, but without government standardization in recycling systems and greater industry efforts to reduce plastic consumption and production, tonnes of garbage continue to arrive at the site daily… Across India, there are more than 3,100 landfills…
Related:
* India has a mounting garbage problem and waste-to-energy projects are not an easy fix, Bloomberg News, Dec. 5, 2023
* India’s plastic problem: No easy fix for trash mountains that provide profit and pain, CBC News, Mar 22, 2023 India’s government has promised to eliminate its more than 3,000 waste mountains but experts are skeptical
Four years of sorting leaves China’s waste incinerators short of fuel, report in China Dialogue, Sep 4, 2023 …According to MoHURD figures, 210 million tonnes of domestic waste were incinerated in China’s cities and county towns in 2021, with 73% of domestic waste from cities burned. This rapid increase in incineration, both in percentage and absolute terms, has helped reverse the sprawl of landfill sites encircling Chinese cities. However, it has also worsened economic, health and environmental risks… (Chineses gov’t data shows that the city with the highest, per capita daily waste is Hong Kong, at 1.53 kg per resident. SCMP)
The world’s stock of electric vehicles:
Canada’s logging industry devours forests crucial to fighting climate change, New york Times, Jan 4, 2024 A study finds that logging has inflicted severe damage to the vast boreal forests in Ontario and Quebec, two of the country’s main commercial logging regions (read the report here as pdf:
Reference: Assessing the cumulative impacts of forest management on forest age structure development and woodland caribou habitat in boreal landscapes: A case study from two Canadian provinces, 17-page research report by multiple authors, published in LAND journal, December 2023 (full report here as pdf: Forest management in Canada, Dec 2023, LAND journal)
Waiting for snow in the Netherlands, guest essay by Benjamin Moser, in New York Times, Jan 3, 2024 (here in pdf format: Waiting for snow in the Netherlands)
Related: Snow shortages are plaguing the mountains of western North America, New York Times, Dec 28, 2023 (paywalled) …The snow that blankets mountain ranges during winters in the western U.S. serves as a vital reservoir that is released as temperatures rise each summer. The snowmelt cools rivers enough to sustain salmon runs, propels hydropower systems that provide the region’s electricity, and feeds irrigation channels needed to grow the country’s apples, blueberries and almonds…
China’s BYD overtakes Tesla as world’s largest maker of pure-electric vehicles, South China Morning Post, Jan 3, 2024 (here in pdf format: China’s BYD overtakes Tesla in vehicle sales) [The rise in production and use of electric vehicles in China is stunning. The country already has 60 per cent of global sales. But the stubborn fact remains that electric vehicles are a green capitalist illusion that is deepening the world’s rush towards an insoluble and life-threatening global warming emergency.
How the anti-science movement and the Alberta government have become intertwined, by Gillian Steward, columnist, Toronto Star, Jan 2, 2024 (here in pdf format: The anti-science movement’s close ties with the Alberta government)
Anti-science views are literally killing us, warns Dr. Peter Hotez, book review by Will Bostwick, published in Texas Monthly, Sept 19, 2023 (Dr. Peter Hotez is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, at Texas Medical Center.)
Related:
* Covid-19 was just the warm-up act, commentary by Dr. Peter J. Hotez, published in Houston Chronicle, May 27, 2023 …SARS, SARS-2, MERS and other coronavirus infections came from wild bat populations before they jumped to humans, either directly or through other animal species. This happened because of accelerated human and animal migrations due to climate change, deforestation and urbanization. New coronaviruses are currently jumping from bats to people hundreds or even thousands of times daily… We are entering a reality in which catastrophic pandemics could become our new normal…
* Dr. Peter Hotez speaks on the anti-science movement, interview with Dr. Hotez, broadcast on ‘AMA Update’ (American Medical Association podcast), July 3, 2023 (24 minutes, with transcript)
