Archived page of Ecology news headlines on The Multiplural World, May 2024
Ecology newsroll headlines on The Multiplural World, May 2024
Planting millions more trees isn’t the climate fix New Zealand thought, report from Bloomberg News, May 28, 2024
India and capital city New Delhi suffer day of highest temperatures ever during record heat wave, ABC News, May 29, 2024
At least 24 dead from blistering heat wave in eastern India, Reuters, May 31, 2024 India has been experiencing a blisteringly hot summer. This past week, a part of the capital city New Delhi recorded the country’s highest ever temperature at 52.9 degrees Celsius (127.22°F), though that may be revised with the weather department checking the sensors of the weather station that registered the reading…
Related:
* Pakistan battles forest fires amidst crushing heat wave, Reuters, May 31, 2024 Parts of Pakistan have seen temperatures as high as 52.2 degrees centigrade (126 F) over the last week. South Asia is sweltering in a hotter summer this year, a trend which scientists say has been worsened by human-driven climate change.
Temperatures measured during summer 2023 ‘unparalleled’ in past 2,000 years, researchers say, ABC News, May 14, 2024 …Several reports have pointed to 2023 as being the warmest year on record on planet Earth. Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service, has named every month in 2024 so far as the warmest months in recorded history…
At plastics industry gathering, lawyers warn of ‘astronomical’ lawsuits over PFAS, New York Times, May 28, 2024 (here in pdf format: Warnings of ‘astronomical’ lawsuits against plastics industry over PFAS ‘forever’ chemicals)
Global warming caused 26 additional days of extreme heat in 2023, says new report by Climate Central, Phys.org, May 28, 2024 (find the full report, 14 pages, here)
At least 22 dead in storms in four states during Memorial Day weekend, Associated Press, May 28, 2024 The storms caused deaths in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky. Meanwhile, Florida and south Texas are suffering an oppressive, early season heat wave that is setting records.
A green investment plan by China and countries of the Global South, report in South China Morning Post, May 28, 2024 (here in pdf formt: A green investment plan by China and countries of the Global South
Related readings:
* Biden administration hikes tariffs on Chinese EVs, solar cells, steel, aluminum, report by Associated Press, May 14, 2024
* China’s ‘unfair overcapacity’, according to U.S. manufacturers, analyis by Michael Roberts (Marxist economist in Britain), published on his website blog, Apr 24, 2024
‘Counterfire leftist group in Britain slams degrowth communism, countering with phrases. Reference: Review of Kohei Saito’s 2023 book ‘Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism’, review published in Counterfire, May 23, 2024
Excerpts:
* Kohei Saito’s thesis that Marx was a ‘degrowth communist’ is mistaken on theoretical grounds and also offers nothing for political strategy in this ultimately unsatisfactory book.
* The foundational lens that Saito adopts is not one of class but the divide between the Global North and the Global South.
* The perennial questions about how to overcome the power of the capitalist ruling classes and who are the agents capable of doing so have long been answered in Marxist theory.
Deadly heat in the workplace is ‘new territory’ for Americans, report in New York Times, May 25, 2024 Deaths in workplaces and homes caused by extreme heat are rising sharply in the U.S. The Biden administration is trying to bring in measures to protect workers and communities, but it’s too little, too slow. Meanwhile, legislators in conservative states such as Texas and Florida are respoonding with ‘let them die’. (read the report here in pdf format: Deadly heat in the workplace is ‘new territory’ for Americans)
Classrooms across the United States are becoming too hot for learning, Washington Post, May 2, 2024 (with maps and charts at original weblink; read the text here in pdf format: Classrooms across the U.S. are becoming too hot for learning) …As the burning of fossil fuels heats the planet, hot weather is delivering higher average temperatures and longer-lasting and more dangerous heat waves across much of the United States. Northern school districts are experiencing hotter school year temperatures that overheat classrooms and force closures, especially in old buildings without the electrical capacity to run air conditioners. Southern districts with aging cooling systems are outmatched by abnormally hot weather. Global warming is arriving faster than most school districts can adapt, or are willling to do so. More than 13,700 public schools in the United States that did not need air conditioning in 1970 need it today. The estimated cost of this huge investment exceeds $40 billion…
The farce of Canada’s claimed concern over global warming:
* Five liquefied natural gas projects proceeding in British Columbia’s burgeoning and destructive natural gas fracking industry. Report by Matt Simmons, in The Narwhal, Mar 14, 2024
* People are walking across dried up Fraser River bed in some parts of British Columbia, report by CBC News, Mar 31, 2024 …Spring is when the city of Prince George in north-central British Columbia (pop. 80,000) typically braces for flooding as melting snowpacks send water levels surging along the Fraser and Nechacko Rivers, which meet in the ceter of the city. But this year, flooding is not a concern for residents. Hydrologist Jonathan Boyd with the River Forecast Centre of British Columbia explains, “The likelihood of any flooding this year in Prince George is very low, if not just almost zero, because of extremely low water levels.” Snowpack levels this spring are 44 per cent below normal in the Upper Fraser River Basin. The Nechacko River Reservoir, managed by the multinational mining firm Rio Tinto, is at an all-time low at 24 per cent of capacity…
[British Columbia’s topography is drying out and desertifying, and it continues to be poisoned with chemicals by the mining and pulp and paper industries. This is all due to more than a century of industrial pillaging–clearcutting of forests, pillaging of fisheries, and toxic mining of coal and minerals. The pillaging is massively subsidized by the federal and provincial governments. British Columbia is a modern-day Titanic sailing straight into iceberg alley at full steam ahead. A sign of the continued regression in Canada of concern over global warming is the very, above report published by The Narwhal. It presents a positive ‘spin’ on LNG development. The Narwhal was founded in 2018 as an ‘alternative media’ project. But beginning several years ago, it is partnering with leading corporate media in Canada, including the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail newspapers and the state-run CBC News. All of these new-found ‘media partners’ of The Narwhal vigorously back Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people as well as the U.S. and NATO proxy war in Ukraine against the people of that country and of Russia. They openly and unashamedly promote Canada’s continued trek down the doomsday path of global warming. ‘Alternative’ media, indeed.]
It’s so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from the trees, Associated Press, May 21, 2024 Around one third of Mexico suffered temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) and higher on May 21. An estimated 138 of the primates, which reach three feet in height and 30 pounds in adulthood, have died since May 5, hitting a peak in recent days.
China creates world’s first boring and blasting tunneller to rip through hard rock, report in South China Morning Post, May 23, 2024 The Boring and Blasting Machine is expected to boost efficiency in excavating extremely hard rock by more than 30 per cent. It will be used used in water conservancy and hydropower projects, mining, and the construction of highways and railways.
The drowning South: The toxic mix of fast-rising seas and septic sewage systems, feature report in the Washington Post, May 22, 2024 (With photos, charts and maps. Read the text here in pdf format: (The toxic mix of fast-rising seas and septic sewage systems in the U.S. south)
Previously reported: The drowning South: Seas are rising at alarming speed along U.S. coastlines, Washington Post, May 3, 2024 One of the most rapid sea level surges on Earth is besieging the American South, forcing a reckoning for coastal communities across eight U.S. states, a Washington Post analysis has found
China’s top Covid expert says more study needed on effects of global warming on the spread of bacterial, viral and fungal infections and the risk of another pandemic, report in South China Morning Post, May 21, 2024 As the planet heats up, bacterial, viral and fungal infections are expected to evolve and mutate – and spread to new habitats (here in pdf format: Global warming, the spread of infections, and the rising risk of another pandemic
Previously reported: Capitalism’s new age of plagues, part five: The pandemic machines, by Ian Angus, editor, Climate and Capitalism, May 16, 2024 (This is part five of an article series; find the previous four parts at the weblink.)
Canada’s government and fossil fuel industries have doomed the country to a future of miserable wildfire, interview with author John Vaillant, in Toronto Star, May 17, 2024 (read the interview here in pdf format: Canada doomed to a future of miserable wildfire Last week, Vancouver writer John Vaillant was named a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. Hs nominated book, Fire Weather, chronicles ‘The Beast‘, a massive wildfire in 2016 that destroyed about 2,400 homes and forced more than 90,000 people to evacuate from Fort McMurray, Alberta, located in the heart of the tar sends industry in northern Alberta some 400 km north-west of Edmonton. This week, an out-of-control wildfire is again burning near Fort McMurray.
Related: ‘Fire Weather’ should make a chill run down your spine, review of Fire Weather by John Vaillant, published in Toronto Star, May 2023
Food is costing more due to global warming and the prices will keep rising, by Michael Le Page, writer, New Scientist magazine (UK weekly), print issue dated Mar 30, 2024 (here in pdf format: Food is costing more due to global warming)
Asia’s stressed rivers, by Mohammad Yunus, in South China Morning Post, May 18, 2024 Freshwater ecosystems are collapsing across Asia as overfishing, pollution and unchecked development push many endangered species to the brink
Related:
* The ten challenges of water management in Southeast Asia, published by ‘Idrica’ water engineering firm (Spain), Nov 22, 2023
* Vietnam shifts to protecting the Mekong River and its delta after decades of wreckage by capitalist ‘development’. Report in Yale E360, May 8, 2024
In Mexico City, one of the world’s largest cities, the struggle for water is constant, special report in New York Times, May 17, 2024 A collision of climate change, urban sprawl and poor infrastructure has pushed Mexico City to the brink of a profound water crisis. The groundwater is quickly vanishing and a key reservoir has become so low that it is no longer used to supply water. Last year was Mexico’s hottest and driest in at least 70 years.
Related: Mexico City, one of the world’s biggest cities, may be just months away from running out of water, CNN, Feb 25, 2024
Capitalism’s new age of plagues, part five: The pandemic machines, by Ian Angus, editor, Climate and Capitalism, May 16, 2024 (This is part five of an article series; find the previous four parts at the weblink.)
Florida governor signs law scrubbing all references to ‘climate change’ from state law, report by Axios, May 15, 2024 The bill will also boost the burning of fossil fuels. Its adoption coincides with an ‘elevated’ heat wave in the state.
Sixty banks worldwide ‘drive climate chaos’, pouring $6.9 trillion into fossil fuels since 2015, report by Canadian Press, published in The Energy Mix, May 14, 2024
Cleaner air in China causes ‘sudden warming’ in North America, study finds, South China Morning Post, May 15, 2024 Scientists say lower aerosol emissions in China have led to rising sea temperatures and extreme weather across the Pacific, from Alaska to California (here in pdf format: Cleaner air in China causes sudden warming in North America
Chinese EV battery manufacturers look to Hungary to locate production to sell in Europe, South China Morning Post, May 11, 2024 (here in pdf format: Chinese EV battery manufacturers lok to Hungary)
Atmospheric CO2 sets record for monthly rise in April 2024, Common Dreams, May 11, 2024 The average monthly concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere jumped by a record 4.7 parts per million between March 2023 and March 2024, according to new data from NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii…
How 20th century Marxist dogma is used and abused to dismiss the imperative of degrowth communism. Reference: ‘Kohei Saito’s start-from-scratch degrowth communism’, lengthy essay by Matt Huber and Leigh Phillips, published in Jacobin (social-democratic journal published in New York), March 9, 2024 Excerpt: …Classical Marxism [?] already offers a sufficient explanation of the relationship between capitalism and environmental problems. There is no need for any amendments to or reinterpretations of Marxism via a specious archeology of footnotes and notebooks…
Related: Degrowth is not the answer to climate change, interview with science writer Leigh Phillips, in Jacobin, Jan 8, 2023 [The reader of this interview with science writer Leigh Phillips will not find any mention of how the global warming emergency is caused by expansionist capitalism and how this destructive course threatening human survival may be mitigated and, over time, reversed. Instead, the writer leaves us with a comforting quotation from someone 100 years ago: ‘Socialism means plenty for all.’ Hurrah! The miracle of the writer’s ‘socialism’ – devoid of current trends in the global class struggle and devoid of the evolving science of global warming – will magically make all the world’s staggering ecological challenges go away! Doesn’t this amount to apology for the destructiveness of contemporary, expansionist capitalism? Yes it does, and it has nothing to do with genuine Marxism and socialism.]
‘Climate, energy and natural resources’: Speech to conference in Cuba by degrowth advocate Jason Hickel, published in The Multiplural World, May 7, 2024 (with an introduction by the editors of The Multiplural World, and with a related essay by Jason Hickel)
Can capitalism solve the ecological crisis?, essay by Ian Angus, publisher, Climate And Capitalism, May 7, 2024 Two new books argue that green capitalism will save us; neither is convincing
Rise in battery storage of electricity in the United States, New York Times, May 7, 2024 [The Int’l Energy Agency of the United States projects the following for battery energy stoarage by the year 2026: Europe 38.6 GWh; China 34.1 GWh; USA 23.0 GWh.]
Growing fears of an alarming shift in Antarctic sea ice, report in New Scientist (UK weekly), print issue of Mar 23, 2024 Antarctic sea ice cover remains far below average levels for the third year in a row, but researchers are uncertain whether this is a permanent shift driven by climate change or part of natural fluctuations (here in pdf format: Growing fears of an alarming shift in Antarctic sea ice)
Extreme heat could trigger the worst global financial crisis ever seen, report in New Scientist (UK weekly), print issue of Mar 23, 2024 Thanks to globalisation, severe heatwaves in one part of the world can cause financial losses in another. Annual losses could reach as much as $25 trillion by 2060 if we don’t curb emissions, dwarfing any previous financial crisis (here in pdf format: Extreme heat and global financial crisis)
Will the newly elected president of Indonesia end the progress in saving Indonesia’s forests?, analysis by Fred Pearce, The Multiplural World, May 3, 2024 During the last decade, Indonesia has made significant headway in halting the loss of its forests. But the election of career military officer Prabowo Subianto, a right-wing nationalist, as president on February 14, 2024 and the boom in the mining of nickel caused by nickel’s widespread use in electric vehicle (EV) batteries could lead to a new wave of deforestation in the country. The country is already in the midst of a mining boom. It produces half the world’s nickel, a metal vital for the batteries used in electric vehicles.
The drowning South: Seas are rising at alarming speed along U.S. coastlines, Washington Post, May 3, 2024 One of the most rapid sea level surges on Earth is besieging the American South, forcing a reckoning for coastal communities across eight U.S. states, a Washington Post analysis has found
Oil companies expand offshore drilling. Report in New York Times, May 3, 2024 …Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico fell for several years after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. But the Gulf’s oil output has been rising over the last decade…
[Last year, Western media and the Biden administration in Washington were claiming that drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico was to be reduced. Ha, ha, good joke. Oh wait, they weren’t intending to joke.]
Beijing calls for greater disaster preparedness in southern China after severe rainfall causes dozens of deaths, including 48 deaths and 30 injured from highway collapse in Guangdong province on May 1, South China Morning Post, May 2, 2024 (read the report here in pdf format: Beijing calls for greater disaster preparedness amidst historic rainfalls in Guandong province
Related: Guangdong flooding and the role of climate change, ‘China Briefing’ report by Carbon Brief (UK), May 2, 2024 (with extensive citations from Chinese media) (read an excerpt here in pdf format: Flooding in Guangdong and the role of climate change
