This is an archived ‘Ecology newsroll’ headline page on A Socialist In Canada, consisting of headlines and weblinks, with occasional news summary and brief analysis, for the months of May, June and July 2019. See the current, ‘Ecology newsroll’ website page here.
Ecology news headlines on A Socialist In Canada, July 2019
Brazil’s toxic pesticides ‘affecting people all over the world’ through agricultural exports, RT, July 30, 2019
Related:
* Hundreds of new pesticides approved in Brazil under Bolsonaro, The Guardian, June 12, 2019
* Brazil approves rules for pesticides easing toxicity criteria, Reuters, July 23, 2019
* U.S. uses 388 million pounds of potentially fatal pesticides annually tht are banned in the EU, China and Brazil, by Madison Dapcevich, Ecowatch, June 13, 2019
Losing Earth: A Recent History, book by Nathaniel Rich, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019, 206 pp ISBN: 978-0-374-19133-7 Book reviewed by John Lanchester, in New York Times, April 12, 2019. [This book details how the world lost the fight to prevent catastrophic global warming during the decade of the 1980s.] Background: [The New York Times Magazine devoted its entire issue of August 1, 2018 to a lengthy essay by author Nathaniel Rich titled ‘Losing Earth: The decade we almost stopped climate change’. In it, Rich argued that “human nature” is to blame for the worldwide failure to confront the global warming emergency. Rich infers a similar point in his 2019 book Losing Earth, writing in the concluding chapter: “Everything is changing about the natural world and everything must change about the way we conduct our lives.” Naomi Klein wrote an essay in The Intercept critiquing the original NYT Magazine esaay by Rich. Her essay is titled ‘Capitalism killed our climate momentum, not ‘human nature’. But the word ‘capitalism’ appears nowhere in Klein’s essay; its appearance in the headline of her essay was presumably decided by Intercept editors. A critique of Naomi Klein’s essay is here: Naomi Klein bares the limitations of her liberal environmentalism, by Roger Annis, published in A Socialist In Canada, Aug 4, 2018.]
The discovery and rediscovery of metabolic rift, video of talk delivered by Ian Angus to a socialist education conference in London, England on July 6, 2019. The video is broadcast on Climate and Capitalism on July 28, 2019 (39-minute presentation, followed by discussion. Ian Angus is the founding publisher of the website Climate and Capitalism, affiliated to Monthly Review. He is also the author of numerous books on the global warming emergency.) In this presentation, Ian Angus discusses the scientific developments that led Karl Marx to develop metabolic rift theory. He describes the path by which a new generation is rediscovering the theory and its relevance in our times.
Capsule summaries of the state of the world’s forests:
* Germany’s forests on the verge of collapse due to drought, winter storms and bark beetle infestations, Deutsche Welle, July 20, 2019
* Chinese companies cut down Siberia’s forests, provoking tensions with local Russian residents, by Andrew Kramer, New York Times, July 25, 2019 …Russia regularly leads the world in forest depletion — 16.3 million acres last year, compared to 9.1 million acres lost in the Amazon. But Russia’s boreal forest is allowed to grow back after logging and fires, making the process less damaging than clearing tropical rain forest for farming or ranching. So far, according to Peter Potapov, a professor at the University of Maryland who leads global forest monitoring projects, scientists have not been able to reach consensus on whether fires and logging release more carbon dioxide than is reabsorbed by areas growing back… [By comparison, forest companies in Canada ‘harvested’ 1.9 million acres of forest in the year 2016. source].
* Under Brazil’s far right president Bolsonaro, Amazon protections are slashed and forests fall, by Letícia Casado and Ernesto Londoño, New York Times, July 27, 2019 The destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has increased rapidly since the nation’s new far-right president took over (late 2018, Wikipedia) and his government scaled back efforts to fight illegal logging, ranching and mining…
* Forest cover and % of total land area of the ten leading countries:
1 Russia 8,149,300 sq km 49.4%
2 Canada 4,916,438 49.2%
3 Brazil 4,776,980 56.1%
4 U.S. 3,100,950 33.8%
5 China 2,083,210 21.8%
6 Australia 1,250,000 16.0%
7 Dem. Rep. of the Congo 1,172,704 50.0%
8 Argentina 945,336 34.0%
9 Indonesia 884,950 46.5%
10 India 802,088 24.7%
(source: Wikipedia)
Note: According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, the total area of the world devoted to forest plantations in the year 2000 was 1.9 million square kilometers. (source)
Record-smashing heat wave in Europe sparks demands to combat climate emergency, by Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, July 25, 2019
Related:
* Europe’s heatwave is about to melt the Arctic, by Andrew Freedman, The Washington Post, July 27, 2019
* Europe’s record heatwave threatens Greenland ice sheet, UN officials warn, Reuters, July 26, 2019
July 2019 is on track to become Earth’s hottest month on record, climate scientists say, NBC News, July 23, 2019 This follows on the heels of June 2019 being that month’s hottest-ever.
Massive turnout urged for global climate strikes on September 20 and 27, by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams, July 24, 2019
Central banks and the ‘macroprudential greening’ of capitalist finance, by Adam Tooze, published on his website blog, July 20, 2019 (Adam Tooze is the author of the 2018 book Crashed: How A Decade Of Financial Crises Changed The World (reviewed here) and a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.)
How the plastics industry is fighting to keep polluting the world, by Sharon Lerner, The Intercept, July 20 2019
Airplane contrails are helping make the planet warmer, while new engines designed to save fuel are worsening matters, by Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360, July 18, 2019 [The author ends on a limp note suggesting that the aircraft industry ‘do something’ about contrails, Heaven forbid any mention of ‘radically reducing air freight and passenger travel’.
The rich are committing crimes against nature, by Meagan Day, Jacobin, July 17, 2019 A new paper titled ‘Measuring the Ecological Impact of the Wealthy: Excessive Consumption, Ecological Disorganization, Green Crime, and Justice’ and published by researchers Michael J. Lynch, Michael A. Long, Paul B. Stretesky and Kimberly L. Barrett takes a long hard look at the role of the rich’s consumption habits in destabilizing the climate.
Related:
Database reveals how much pollution Big Oil’s top execs are responsible for each year, by Mat Hope, DeSmog Blog, July 21, 2019 …Dario Kenner, a Visiting Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University and author of the book, Carbon Inequality: The Role of the Richest in Climate Change, took data of fossil fuel companies’ annual emissions, and then worked out how much of each company the director owned — and therefore how much of its pollution they could be accountable for. Kenner found that directors of 19 of the world’s largest fossil fuel and mining companies are responsible for greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of the petrostate of Bahrain each year…
Only in the Philippines, you say? Cambodian gov’t condemns tons of plastic waste from U.S. and Canada that landed on its shores in shipping containers, Associated Press, July 17, 2019
The natural gas boom: Tracking global liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure, by Ted Nace, Lydia Plante and James Browning, published by Global Energy Monitor, July 1, 2019 (21-page pdf at weblink) [Liquefaction has made natural gas a global commodity that can be shipped anywhere. Producers as well as the capitalist governments that serve them are racing to extract, liquefy and sell as much of it as possible before their global warming, death cult ambitions come to pass.] Related:
* The big bet by the coal, oil and gas industries in the U.S. on selling fracked gas to China and the world, by Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog, July 19, 2019
* ‘Clean’ natural gas is actually the new coal, says report by Global Energy Monitor, news analysis on CBC.ca, July 2, 2019
Measles is killing more people than ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and faster, by Beth Mole, ArtsTechnica, July 15, 2019
Extinction Rebellion shuts down traffic in five UK cities in beginnning of summer campaign condemning global warming threat, by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, July 15, 2019
Exaggerating how much carbon dioxide can be absorbed by tree planting risks deterring crucial climate action, by Duncan McLaren, Lancaster University, The Conversation, July 12, 2019
Previously reported: A global effort to plant a trillion trees is ‘overwhelmingly’ among the most effective and cheapest solutions to climate emergency, according to a new study, by Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, July 5, 2019 and read: report in The Guardian, July 5, 2019
Billionaire philanthropists plan to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for Extinction Rebellion, student strikers and other activists opposing global warming who ‘don’t have time for gradualism’, by Julia Conley, Common Dreams, July 12, 2019
Thanks to capitalist-driven global warming, ticks are spreading and there is plenty more to worry about beyond Lyme disease, by Jerome Goddard, Mississippi State University, published in The Conversation, July 12, 2019
A ferocious heat in Delhi, by Nilanjana Roy, New York Review of Books daily blog, July 8, 2019 [The Indian sub-continent is facing a dire future due to global warming–searing temperatures, melting Himalayan glaciers causing rising ocean levels and decreasing fresh water supply, more frequent storms with higher intensity. But not to worry–the capitalist government and industry in India are steering a course to ‘bring it on’–the production of energy from the burning of coal is expected to double by 2040, while India has its very own space program to distract from it all.]
Breaching a carbon threshold that unleashes ‘runaway’ ocean acidification and threatens a new, mass extinction event, press release by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office, July 8, 2019 …Daniel Rothman, professor of geophysics and co-director of the Lorenz Center in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, has found that when the rate at which carbon dioxide enters the oceans pushes past a certain threshold — whether as the result of a sudden burst or a slow, steady influx — the Earth may respond with a runaway cascade of chemical feedbacks, leading to extreme ocean acidification that dramatically amplifies the effects of the original trigger… and read: Study warns that carbon-saturated oceans are headed toward a tipping point the could unleash a mass extinction event, by Julia Conley, Common Dreams, July 10, 2019
Background: Has the world entered a sixth, great extinction era? If not, could capitalism soon take us there?, by Roger Annis, published in A Socialist In Canada, Jan 24, 2018
Early warnings, book review by Michelle Nijhuis, published in New York Review of Books, June 27, 2019 Reviewing: Losing Earth: A Recent History, by Nathaniel Rich, published by MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019, 206 pp [On August 1, 2018, the New York Times Magazine published an essay by Nathaniel Rich titled ‘Losing Earth: The decade we almost stopped climate change’. Rich went on the publish an expanded version of his essay as a book by the same title, cited above. At the time, Naomi Klein published a critique of Rich’s NYT Magazine essay. An analysis of Klein’s critique is here: Naomi Klein bares the limitations of her liberal environmentalism, by Roger Annis, Aug 4, 2018.]
Western U.S. states buy time with a seven-year Colorado River plan dealing with ‘aridification’, by research scientists, published in The Conversation, July 10, 2019
Enormous Thwaites Glacier in Antarctic is on the brink of collapse, threatening a sea levels rise of half a metre scientists warn, by Harry Cockburn, The Independent, July 9, 2019 and read: report in The Guardian, July 9, 2019
British Columbia Civil Liberties Association releases heavily redacted ‘Protest Papers’ showing how Canada’s political police has spied on tar sands pipeline protesters, by Charlie Smith, The Georgia Straight, July 8, 2019 The B.C. Civil Liberties Association has unveiled 19 volumes of documents, indicating Canada’s spy service collected thousands of pages of files on groups engaged in peaceful advocacy and protest. These heavily redacted documents, dubbed the Protest Papers, are now available on the BCCLA website. The BCCLA obtained a court order forcing the Security Intelligence Review Committee to disclose these documents in connection with a complaint filed in 2014 against the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (Canada’s CIA) and the RCMP…
Related:
* ‘Protest Papers’ lay out CSIS ties to oil industry, but redactions fuel mistrust, by Melanie Green, Ainslie Cruickshank and Jeremy Nuttall, Toronto Star, July 8, 2019
* Trudeau government’s Bill 59, adopted in June 2019, gives dangerous new powers to Canada’s political police as ‘Protest Papers’ release reveals scope of police actions, by Richard Fidler, published on his website Life On The Left, July 9, 2019
Global warming-related crises are now happenning once every week, says Mami Mizutori, special representative to UN secretary-general on disaster risk reduction, Common Dreams, July 7, 2019
This past winter in U.S. saw the highest honeybee colony losses on record, by Laura Reily, Washington Post, July 4, 2019
Related: Record number of honeybee colonies died last winter, by Susie Neilson, National Public Radio (U.S.), June 19, 2019
Anchorage, Alaska records hottest-ever temperature at 90F (32C) on July 4, smashing previous high, by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, July 4, 2019
European Satellite Agency reports that June 2019 was hottest June ever recorded, The Independent, July 2, 2019
India is staring at a water apocalypse, by Saikat Datta, Asia Times, July 2, 2019 South Asia is rapidly losing water and faces a grim future
Related:
* Drought and water supply shortage afflicts manufacturing city of Chennai, India, Reuters, July 2, 2109 Chennai is the capital city of the state of Tamil Nadhu in southern India. The city’s population has grown from 4.6 million in 2011 to an expected 10.7 million by 2020.
* As the Indian city of Chennai runs out of water, nine million people pray for rain, by Niha Masih and Joanna Slater, Washington Post, June 28, 2019 …India is the world’s largest user of groundwater — an underground resource that excludes lakes and reservoirs. Twelve major urban areas have been using groundwater at an unsustainable rate since at least 2013, according to data provided by the planning arm of the Indian government…
* 2019 heat wave in India and Pakistan, Wikipedia. Since the middle of May 2019, India and Pakistan have been facing a severe heat wave. It is one of the hottest and longest heat waves since the two countries began recording weather reports…
* How India is coping with heat wave, report on NPR, July 2, 2019
* Running dry: Competing for water on a thirsty planet, by Laurie Goering and Claudio Accheri, published by Thompson Reuters Foundation (no publicaton date provided) By 2030, half of India’s population – now about 1.4 billion people – may lack enough drinking water, a 2018 report by an Indian government think tank predicted. (Thsi report is part of an ongoing series titled ‘Running dry’.)
Previously reported:
* Declassified Cold War spy satellite images reveal substantial Himalayan glacier melt, by Chelsea Harvey, E&E News, on Scientific American, June 20, 2019
* Rising temperatures ravage the Himalayas, rapidly shrinking its glaciers, by Somini Sengupta, New York Times, June 19, 2019
Global boom in natural gas is undermining climate change action, says new report by Global Energy Monitor, by Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press, July 2, 2019 Just over one-third of projected natural gas extraction expansion is in Canada. Only the United States, at 39 per cent, has more new natural gas exports in the works.
Nuclear power, once seen as impervious to climate change, threatened by heat waves, by Alan Neuhauser, U.S. News, July 1, 2019
Analysis finds U.S. ecosystems are shifting hundreds of miles north, by Shawna Richter-Ryerson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, published in Phys.org, July 1, 2019
Ecology news headlines on A Socialist In Canada, June 2019
Air conditioning is the world’s next, big global warming threat, by Chris Bryant, Bloomberg News, June 28, 2019
New study details the mourning of Great Barrier Reef taking hold in Australia’s tourism industry, by Stuart Layt, Brisbane Times, June 25, 2019 and read: analysis by the authors of the study, here
Related: Climate change has caused an 89% decrease in new coral in the Great Barrier Reef, study finds, by Sophie Lewis, CBS News, Apr 3, 2019
As heat wave boils Europe, lackluster talks in Bonn, Germany marred by U.S. and Saudi-led obstruction of climate science, by Julia Conley, Common Dreams, June 27, 2019
Related:
* Trump says he won’t take climate action because it would lower corporate profits, by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, June 29, 2019
* Firefighters battle forest blazes in central and northeast (Catalonia) Spain, report in The Guardian, June 29, 2019
* France sets new temperature record of 45.9C while deadly heatwave roasts all of Europe, Agence France presse, June 28, 2019
* All-time hottest temperature recorded in France on June 28 at 44.3C, Agence France presse, June 28, 2019
* 40 C in June? Why Europe is roasting in another heat wave, CBC News, June 27, 2019
* ‘Out of control’ wildfire rages in Spain’s Catalonia region, France 24, June 27, 2019
Whatever happened to the energy transition?, by John Treat, published in The Bullet online journal (Canada), June 26, 2019 (John Treat writes for Trade Unions for Energy Democracy.) [This is an informative essay but it completely overlooks the issue of whether humanity can continue to produce and consume energy at the rate which consumerist, expansionist capitalism has imposed on a fragile planet with limited natural resources.]
Hundreds storm police lines to shut down massive, open-pit coal mine in Germany, by Jon Queally, Common Dreams, June 22, 2019
Related:
* Climate activists storm Garzweiler coal strip mine in Germany, Deutsche Welle, June 22, 2019
* Church near Hambach Forest prepared for demolition to make room for coal strip-mine expansion, by Benjamin Wehrmann, Clean Energy Wire, May 20, 2019
* A chart showing greenhouse gas emissions in Germany by sector is here on Clean Energy Wire. Germany will miss by some eight per cent its greenhouse gas reduction target set in 1990: 40 per cent reduction by 2020.
Declassified Cold War spy satellite images reveal substantial Himalayan glacier melt, by Chelsea Harvey, E&E News, on Scientific American, June 20, 2019
Related: Rising temperatures ravage the Himalayas, rapidly shrinking its glaciers, by Somini Sengupta, New York Times, June 19, 2019
What to know about the rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet, a significant contributor to rising sea levels, by Julia Jacobo, ABC News, June 20, 2019
With more storms and rising seas, which U.S. cities should be saved first?, report in New York Times, June 19, 2019 …By 2040, simply providing basic storm-surge protection in the form of sea walls for all coastal cities with more than 25,000 residents will require at least $42 billion, according to new estimates from the Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental advocacy group. Expanding the list to include communities smaller than 25,000 people would increase that cost to more than $400 billion… The research is limited in that it considers only sea walls and not other methods for minimizing flood risk that may be more practical in some places…
U.S. beekeepers lost over 40 per cent of colonies last year, highest winter losses ever recorded, press release by University of Maryland, published by EurekAlert!, June 19, 2019 (EurekAlert! is a nonprofit news-release distribution platform established in 1996 and operated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.) [Honey bees are not native to the Americas; they were brought by European settlers. In addition to managed honey bees, wild honey bees as well as native bumblebees are important pollinators and they, too, are declining due to habitat loss, rising temperatures and the torrents of toxic chemicals used by the agro-industrial conmplex.]
U.S. cities start to question an American ideal: A house with a yard on every lot, New York Times, June 18, 2019
Where does your plastic go? Global investigation by the Guardian newspaper reveals America’s dirty secret, first of a series, published in The Guardian, June 17, 2019
Globe and Mail daily features opinion column by global warming lukewarmer Bjorn Lomberg blaming third world countries for the plastic tsunami on land and in the oceans. Commentary by Bjorn Lomberg, published in Globe and Mail, June 17, 2019
Background: Bjorn Lomborg’s lukewarmer misinformation about climate change and poverty, by Bob Ward, published in blog of Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (London School of Economics), Aug 30, 2018
Rachel Carson’s forebodings, essay and book review by Meehan Crist, published in London Review of Books, June 6, 2019 (Meehan Crist is writer in residence in biological sciences at Columbia University.) Reviewing: Silent Spring’ and Other Writings on the Environment by Rachel Carson, edited by Sandra Steingraber, Library of America, March 2018, 546 pp, ISBN 978 1 59853 560 0
Why electric cars won’t save us: There are not enough resources to build them, by Lloyd Alter, published in Treehugger (Britain), June 10, 2019
Related: Peak copper is back, thanks to electric vehicles and smart tech, by Lloyd Alter, published in Treehugger, May 3, 2019
The northern hemisphere’s extreme heatwave in 2018 was ‘impossible’ without climate change, by Daisy Dunne, published in Carbon Brief, June 12, 2019 Referencing: ‘Concurrent 2018 hot extremes across Northern Hemisphere due to human-induced climate change’, 34-page scientific study authored by M. M. Vogel, J. Zscheischler, R. Wartenburger, D. Dee and S.I. Seneviratne, submitted to Earth’s Future, 2019 (American Geophysical Union)
Russia aims to boost liquefied natural gas (LNG) output fivefold to supply Asia, by Yohei Ishikawa, Nikkei Asian Review, June 13, 2019
Previously reported: It’s time to stop calling natural gas a ‘bridge fuel’ to a safe climate, says new report by Oil Change International, by Justin Mikulka, Desmog Blog, June 3, 2019
In 2018, global emissions rose the most in seven years and it was the third year in a row of rising atmospheric CO2, by Jeremy Hodges, Bloomberg News, June 11, 2019
Atmospheric carbon dioxide level hits all-time high, report on Climate and Capitalism, June 11, 2019
World’s largest plant survey reveals alarming extinction rate, by Heidi Ledford, Nature Magazine, June 10, 2019
Scientist says increased wildfires in Alberta and British Columbia are examples of ‘climate change in action’, by Colette Derworiz, The Canadian Press, June 9, 2019
Americans’ extinction denial syndrome, by Dave Lindorff, This Can’t Be Happening, June 7, 2019
Tiny plastic debris is accumulating far beneath the ocean surface, by Maria Temming, Science Magazine, June 6, 2019
Related: The deep sea is full of plastic, by Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic (conservative monthly magazine), June 6, 2019
Previously reported:
* Plastic is just as destructive to the climate as oil and gas, by Sonali Kolhatkar, columnist, Truthdig, May 30, 2019
* Plastic and climate: The hidden costs of a plastic planet, report by Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), press release dated May 15, 2019 (see the full report and a four-page executive summary at the weblink)
Climate crisis [sic] could lead to civilizational collapse by 2050, warns report by Breakthrough Institute in Australia, by Eoin Higgins, Common Dreams, June 4, 2019
Ecology news headlines on A Socialist In Canada, May 2019
Geoengineer the planet? More scientists now say it must be an option, by Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360, May 29, 2019 [‘Geoengineering’ is the stuff of pro-capitalist ideologues who want to have their cake (affluent lifestyle thanks to plundering the planet) and eat it too (take comfort in the phony claim that ‘geoengineering’ can save the planet from runaway greenhouse gas emissions). This article takes a critical view of the issue.]
Net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050: What does it mean?, report in Deutsche Welle, May 31, 2019
Report debunks myth that natural gas can help fight climate crisis, by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, May 30, 2019
Scientific panel votes to recognize the new geological epoch ‘The Anthropocene’ and its destructive impact, by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, May 28, 2019
At this week’s ‘Clean Energy Ministerial’ global meeting in Vancouver, nuclear is making a big play, by Tanya Glafenhein and M.V. Ramana, The Tyee, May 27, 2019
The Nile, world’s longest river and lifeblood of Egypt, is running dry, feature essay by Ayah Aman, Al-Monitor, May 25, 2019
Worldwide student strikes condemning global warming are largest yet, drawing close to two million say organizers, by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams, May 24, 2019
Liberal environmentalists issue call for a day of global protest against global heating on Sept 20, open letter published in The Guardian, May 25, 2019 [The open letter proposes to “speedily replace fossil fuels with the power of sun and wind”. There is nary a mention of the bloated productivism, pillaging of natural resources and destructive militarism of capitalist imperialism. These are the causes of the global heating emergency. Their reach and energy consumption is massive, quite impossible to replace with sun, wind or other ‘renewable’ energies. Protest is the beginning of environmental wisdom; a political strategy is also needed–combining measures for ‘degrowth’ from capitalist excess with measures for social justice and ecological balance.]
Coral bleaching event underway in French Polynesia despite no El Nino, by Jo Khan, ABC Science (Australia), May 20, 2019
Rainfalls intensify in Toronto, ‘a city built for a climate that no longer exists’, special report by Moira Welsh, investigative reporter, Toronto Star, May 21, 2019 (first of a series of special reports on global warming impacts in Canada) …In a new report, scientists with Environment Canada blame climate change “driven by human influence” for the warming climate [‘Canada’s Changing Climate Report’: [text here, executive summary here, news report here]. Canada’s mean annual temperatures are now double the global warming rate, increasing by 1.7 degrees between 1948 and 2016, with higher temperatures in the north than the south, particularly in the winter… Weather patterns will vary nationwide, but scientists agree that Canadians can expect more wildfires, droughts and, floods…
Global warming death cult wins re-election in May 18 national election in Australia, report on ABC.net.au (state-run broadcaster), May 19, 2019 and read: In coal we trust: Australian voters back PM Morrison’s faith in fossil fuels, Reuters, May 19, 2019
Related: Australia approves foreign grain imports for the first time in over a decade, ABC.net.au, May 14, 2019 Australia is suffering its worst drought conditions in 116 years.
Rainfall extremes in U.S. are intensifying as Earth warms, investigative report by Climate Central, May 15, 2019
Related: The fastest-warming cities and states in the U.S., by Climate Central, Apr 17th, 2019
New Zealanders dumping record amounts of waste, report on Radio New Zealand‘s ‘Checkpoint’, May 20, 2019
Related: The fraud of consumer recycling in Canada, report on CBC Radio One‘s ‘The Sunday Edition’, Apr 18, 2019 In Canada, only nine per cent of plastic waste is recycled, and part of that ends up in incinerators.
The two greens, by Joshua Clove, two-part essay published in Popula, February, 2019 * Part one, Feb 14, 2019 * Part two, Feb 20, 2019 ‘To achieve a transformation adequate to the scale of planetary catastrophe, we will need to stop having firms that are ruled by profit.’
Air pollution may be damaging ‘every organ in the body’, by Darien Carrington, environment editor, The Guardian, May 17, 2019 Comprehensive analysis finds harm from head to toe, including dementia, heart and lung disease, fertility problems and reduced intelligence
The plastics crisis isn’t just ugly, it’s fueling global warming, report by Charli Shield, Deutsche Welle, May 15, 2019 and read: Plastics industry on track to burn through 14 per cent of world’s remaining carbon budget, by Sharon Kelly, Desmog Blog, May 15, 2019
CO2 levels hit historic high at 415.26 parts per million, by Patrick Galey, Phys.org, May 13, 2019
Related: CO2 levels hit 415 PPM for the first time in three million years of human existence, by Jon Queally, Common Dreams, May 14, 2019 [Of note in this article in Common Dreams is the favorable citation of political commentator Juan Cole arguing the anti-science proposition that a rapid switch by the world from fossil fuel-powered vehicles and electricity production to electric vehicles and wind and solar electricity production will slow global warming and mitigate the societal disruptions and disasters that warming will cause.]
UK sets new record by going whole week without coal power [but it did so by burning natural gas], Sky News, May 8, 2019 and read: Climate activists have failed to make clear the problem with natural gas, by Bill McKibben, Yale Environment 360, Mar 13, 2018 The climate movement’s biggest failure has been its inability to successfully make the case that natural gas is not a clean replacement for other fossil fuels. As natural gas has boomed, U.S. emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, have increased dramatically.
[The New Democratic Party governments in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta along with their followers have long touted the myth of natural gas as a less-polluting fossil fuel. Both governments are fostering and financing the expansion of the natural gas fracking industries in their respective provinces, giving new life to the conservative and green capitalist Green Party.]
The reason renewables can’t power modern civilization is because they were never meant to, by Michael Shellenberger, Forbes Magazine, May 6, 2019 [This analysis written by Michael Shellenberger could serve as a a powerful argument in favour of retraction (‘degrowth’) from all the waste and excess endemic to expansionist capitalism. But the writer stops short of drawing any conclusions from his persuasive case that ‘renewable energies’ can never replace the juggernaut of energy production under capitalism (using fossil fuels, hydroelectricity and nuclear). Instead, the reader is left with a big, fat zero by way of what can be done.]
Grass lawns are the number one irrigated ‘crop’ in America. They need to die, by Eric Holthaus, Grist Magazine, May 2, 2019
Latest figures show fossil fuel subsidies worldwide were a staggering $5.2 trillion in 2017, 6.5 per cent of global GDP, report by Public Finance International, May 10, 2019 [The IMF ‘working paper’ was published on May 2, 2019. It is 39 pages, on sale here.]
Related: U.S. fossil fuel subsidies exceed Pentagon spending, by Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, May 8, 2019
A Green New Deal must prioritize regenerative agriculture, by Curt Ries, Truthout.org, May 9, 2019
[The text of the ‘Green New Deal’ resolution proposed to the U.S. Congress by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other sponsors is here. The section on agriculture reads as follows:
…It is the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal by…(G) working collaboratively with farmers and ranchers in the United States to remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector as much as is technologically feasible, including—
(i) by supporting family farming;
(ii) by investing in sustainable farming and land use practices that increase soil health; and
(iii) by building a more sustainable food system that ensures universal access to healthy food;]
Restoration of damaged wetlands in Delaware may also provide lessons on restoring the 85 per cent of the world’s wetlands lost since 1700, by Jim Morrison, published in Yale Environment 360, May 9, 2019
Drought conditions are killing Canada’s forests and now they emit more carebon than they sequester, by Sarah Lawrynuik, The Narwhal, May 7, 2019
Selling extinction: The capitalist notion of a ‘green new deal’, video presentation by Prolekult Films, broadcast on its YouTube channel, Apr 26, 2019 (24-minute video) [The video provides very informed analysis of the limits of an environmental strategy consisting of ‘protest’ against the world’s descent into the global warming emergency in the hope that ‘someone’ in power is listening. But it falls short by not sketching why an anti-capitalist, ‘degrowth’ political strategy is needed and how this may come about.]
Shocking new report on loss of nature paints a terrifying picture for the future of humanity, by John Vidal, Huff Post, May 6, 2019
Related:
* ‘Ominous’ UN report warns human activity has pushed one million plant and animal species to brink of extinction, by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, May 6, 2019
* First global biodiversity assessment since 2005: Introduction to forthcoming report by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), April 2019
* The rapid decline of the natural world is a crisis even bigger than climate change, by John Vidal, Huffington Post, Mar 16, 2019A three-year UN-backed study from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform On Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services has grim implications for the future of humanity.
U.S. is hotbed of climate change denial, major global survey finds, report in The Guardian, May 7, 2019
U.S. sinks Arctic Council accord due to differences on global warming, Canada and Russia team up to soften final declaration, Reuters, May 7, 2019
Related:
* Greenhouse gases causing Canadian Arctic seas to acidify quicker and threatening survival of marine life, CBC News, May 8, 2019
* Inuit leaders condemn Arctic Council’s lack of consensus on climate change, by Jane George, Nunatsiaq News (northern Quebec), May 8, 2019
* The day one million species are announced to be on brink of extinction, U.S. says melting Arctic ice creates ‘new opportunities for trade’, by Rik Noack, The Washington Post, May 8, 2019
The Green New Deal isn’t big enough, by Ben Adler, Washington Post, May 2, 2019 It caps American emissions, but it won’t persuade developing nations to do the same
Weekly ‘Fridays For Future’ student strikes demanding action on global warming are gaining momentum, by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams, May 3, 2019
Related: Millions of students will walk out of class today to protest climate change, interview with student strike activist in Canada, CBC News, May 3, 2019
Scientists see fingerprint of warming climate on droughts going back to 1900, report published in Phys.org, May 1, 2019 (Reporting on a study by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, published in Nature Journal of International Science.) and read: Human impact on climate is 100 years old, new study on tree rings shows, by Tim Radford, Climate News Network, May 2, 2019
Rate of ice loss from Greenland has grown by a factor of six since the 1980s, scientists find, by Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis, Washington Post, Apr 22, 2019
Is ‘green growth’ possible?, by Jason Hickel and Giorgos Kallis, published in the journal New Political Economy, April 17, 2019 (19 pages). Read the essay as a pdf, available here on Academia.edu.
Degrowth is utopian. That’s a good thing… and it’s scientific, too: A response to Socialist Forum on degrowth, by Giorgos Kallis, published in Uneven Earth, April 26, 2019
