This is an archived newsroll page on A Socialist In Canada, consisting of headlines and weblinks, with occasional news summary and brief analysis, for August 2019. See the current, ‘Ecology newsroll’ website page here.
Ecology newsroll headlines on A Socialist In Canada, August 2019
French city of Dunkirk tests out free transport, and it works, France 24, Sep 1, 2019
The vanishing Amazon rainforest, and not just in Brazil, by Simon Romero, New York Times, Aug 30, 2019 …Deforestation at breakneck rates is depleting vast expanses of Amazon forest contained in South American countries neighboring Brazil. Forest loss in those nations, which host roughly 40 per cent of the Amazon, underscores how the fires now ravaging parts of Brazil and provoking global alarm are just one piece of a broader regional crisis. The push by land speculators, ranchers and miners into forests around the Amazon basin also shows how advances in political stability and economic integration can drive deforestation, especially when safeguards remain weak…
Related:
* UN’s head of biodiversity Cristiana Pasca Palmer warns the burning of the Amazon could lead to ‘cascading collapse of natural systems’, Common Dreams, Aug 30, 2019
* Amazon versus Africa forest fires: Is the world really ablaze?, by Antonio Cascais, Deutsche Welle, Aug 30, 2019
Greta Thunberg arrives in New York for UN climate conference, calling for an end to the ‘war against nature’ and highlighting the global climate strikes to commence in September, Common Dreams, Aug 29, 2019
* ‘No time left for business as usual’: Climate activists plan day of mass civil disobedience to #shutdowndc, Common Dreams, Aug 28, 2019
* One month ahead of global climate strikes, thousands pledge support, press release by 350.org, Aug 20, 2019
Oceans are turning from friend to foe, warns forthcoming UN report on oceans and the cryosphere, original report by Agence France presse, in Press TV, Aug 29, 2019 and read: Leaked UN draft report warns rising, warming oceans ‘poised to unleash misery’ worldwide, Common Dreams, Aug 29, 2019
Previously reported:
* 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
* World oceans heating up at accelerating pace, Press TV, Jan 11, 2019 and read: Oceans are warming even faster than previously thought, reports new study, press release by University of California-Berkeley, published in EurekAlert! (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Jan 10, 2019 The new analysis, published on January 11 by Science Magazine, shows that trends in ocean heat content match those predicted by leading climate change models, and that overall ocean warming is accelerating. Lijing Cheng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the lead author on the paper.
Everything you need to know about the fires in the Amazon, by Justine Calma, The Verge, Aug 28, 2019 [See the ‘World news headlines’ page on A Socialist In Canada website for news and analysis of the fires burning in Amazonia in August-September 2019.]
What does ’12 years to act on climate change’ (now 11 years) actually mean?, by Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News, Aug 27, 2019 We’ve been hearing variations of the phrase “the world only has 12 years to deal with climate change” a lot lately. Senator Bernie Sanders put a version of it front and center of his presidential campaign last week, saying we now have “less than 11 years left to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, if we are going to leave this planet healthy and habitable.” But where does the idea of having 11 or 12 years come from, and what does it actually mean? …
Trump regime planning to gut industry restrictions on potent methane emissions, Common Dreams, Aug 28, 2019
Karachi’s livability is falling’, by Saba Imtiaz, New York Times, Aug 29, 2019 …Karachi produces about 12,000 tons of waste every day. The city’s resources and infrastructure have not kept up with the pressure of constant expansion, population growth and lifestyle changes among its 15-million-plus residents. And it is suffering from the same vulnerability to climate change issues that is hitting the rest of Pakistan so intensely…
Related: Pakistan test fires ‘Ghaznavi’ surface-to-air missile as it presses for control of Kashmir, Hindustan Times, Thursday Aug 29, 2019 Pakistan carried out a night training launch of surface-to-surface ballistic missile Ghaznavi early on Thursday, a move that coincides with its scaled-up effort to internationalise the Kashmir issue.
Indonesia to move capital from sinking Jakarta to Borneo, Associated Press, Aug 26, 2019
Background:
* Three things to consider before moving Indonesia’s capital from Jakarta, by Nirarta Samadhi, Arief Wijaya, Reidinar Juliane and Dean Yulindra Affandi, WRI Indonesia, Aug 7, 2019
* Jakarta is sinking so fast it could end up under water, by Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, Dec 21, 2017
Siberia just experienced wildfires on a staggering scale. Russia is rethinking how to fight them, by Sabra Ayres, Moscow correspondent, LA Times, Aug 21, 2019 …This year’s fires in Siberia have been especially brutal. According to Russian authorities, they have burned more than 11,500 square miles [three million hectares] of Siberian forest, including areas north of the Arctic Circle. Greenpeace disputes those figures, saying the burn area was nearly 21,000 square miles… [By way of comparison, the record wildfire year of 2018 in British Columbia, Canada burned 1.4 million hectares of land, surpassing the previously held historic record of 1.2 million hectares burned… in 2017 (!) . source. In California, .7 million hectares burned in 2018 and .5 million hectares in 2017. source] Related: Forest fires in Siberia are sending ash into the Arctic, by Andrej Flis, Severe Weather EU, Aug 22, 2019
Background: Capsule summaries of the state of the world’s forests:
* How French forests are being scarred as heatwaves bring bark beetle infestation, CBC News ‘The World this Weekend’, four-minute audio report, Sep 6, 2019
* Germany’s forests on the verge of collapse due to drought, winter storms and bark beetle infestations, Deutsche Welle, July 20, 2019
* Climate change to blame as bark beetles ravage central Europe’s forests, Reuters, April 26, 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% of territory)
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)
David Koch was the ultimate climate change denier, op-ed by Christopher Leonard, New York Times, Aug 23, 2019 David Koch was a playboy billionaire who built a political army to defend his fossil fuel empire. (Christopher Leonard is the author of Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America.)
Michael Moore’s and Jeff Gibbs’ new documentary film ‘Planet of the Humans’ challenges the ‘green energy’ claims of liberal environmentalists. Interviews with Michael Moore and director Jeff Gibbs, re-broadcast on Non-Fiction Film, Aug 11, 2019 The new documentary film directed by Jeff Gibbs and executive produced by Michael Moore argues that human society is on the precipice of a “human apocalypse” if we don’t immediately address over-consumption and over-population. Gibbs and producer Ozzie Zehner believe we’ve put false hope in magic solutions to controlling carbon emissions that have warmed the planet to an alarming degree. Green energy, touted by Al Gore, Bill McKibben and others as seemingly the way out of this dilemma, won’t get us there, Gibbs argues. The problem is larger than that, he maintains, and relates to an unsustainable pursuit of continuous growth.
The Amazon is burning at record rates—and deforestation is to blame, by Sarah Gibbens, National Geographic, Aug 21, 2019 The blazes are so huge that smoke can be seen from space. Experts say the fires could have major climate impacts.
Related:
* #PrayForAmazonia goes viral as Twitter users call attention to ‘international emergency’ of fires devastating Brazil’s rainforest, by Jake Johnson, staff writer, Common Dreams, Aug 20, 2019
* Brazil forest fires rage as farmers push into the Amazon, Deutsche Welle, Aug 21, 2019
Siberia just experienced wildfires on a staggering scale. Russia is rethinking how to fight them, by Sabra Ayres, Moscow correspondent, LA Times, Aug 23, 2019
Scientists have been underestimating the pace of climate change, by Naomi Oreskes, Michael Oppenheimer and Dale Jamieson, Scientific American, Aug 19, 2019 …Because the oceans cover three fifths of the globe, this correction implies that previous estimates of overall global warming have been too low. Moreover it was reported recently that in the one place where it was carefully measured, the underwater melting that is driving disintegration of ice sheets and glaciers is occurring far faster than predicted by theory—as much as two orders of magnitude faster—throwing current model projections of sea level rise further in doubt…
The Green New Deal battles business as usual. Both will doom us, by Andrew Nikiforuk, contributor, The Tyee, Aug 21, 2019 (Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning journalist and author who has been writing about the energy industry for two decades.)
Related:
* The realism and unrealism of the Green New Deals, by Pete Dolack, published on his website Systemic Disorder, Aug 21, 2019
* Senator Bernie Sanders unveils ten-year environmental plan, Common Dreams, Aug 22, 2019 and read report by Reuters, Aug 22, 2019
One month ahead of global climate strike, thousands pledge to attend rallies across planet to ‘turn up the political heat’ and demand action, by Julia Conley, staff writer, Common Dreams, Aug 20, 2019 ‘Time is running out. This decade is our last chance to stop the destruction of our people and our planet… This is why we strike.’
Microplastics discovered in ‘extreme’ concentrations in the North Atlantic, CNN, Aug 20, 2019
British Columbia’s dirty natural gas fracking secret, by Peter McCartney, National Observer, Aug 13, 2019 ‘Flying over northest British Columbia is the only way to fully grasp the scale. Fracking infrastructure blankets the region from the Alberta border to the Rocky Mountains. Gas plants, compressor stations, well pads, flare stacks, pipelines, wastewater ponds — it just goes on and on and on. I was horrified at just how much farmland and wilderness have been lost to fracking infrastructure… And all of this is about to get worse. Three lliquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Squamish [Vancouver region] and Kitimat [north coastal BC] would require over 13,000 new fracking wells over the next 30 years between them…’
Trump’s rollback of tighter auto emissions standards shows signs of disarray, New York Times, Aug 19, 2019
Global climate report for July 2019, by the National Centers for Environmental Information (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administraton (NOAA), August 2019
Previously reported:
* July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, Deutsche Welle, Aug 5, 2019 June 2019 was the hottest month of June ever recorded
* July 2019 matched and maybe broke the record for the hottest month since analysis began, by World Meteorological Organization, Aug 1, 2019
Update on global energy subsidies (largely fossil fuels), by the International Monetary Fund, May 2, 2019 …Globally, subsidies remained large at $4.7 trillion (6.3 percent of global GDP) in 2015 and are projected at $5.2 trillion (6.5 percent of GDP) in 2017. The largest subsidizers in 2015 were China ($1.4 trillion), United States ($649 billion), Russia ($551 billion), European Union ($289 billion), and India ($209 billion)…
Massive reductions (‘degrowth’) needed in the production and consumption of all the wasteful and harmful commodities by expansionist capitalism, but few governments and not even left-wing environmentalists are voicing this burning need
In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported to the world that human society must reduce greenhouse gas emmissions by half by the year 2030 in order to have a reasonable chance of keeping global temperature increases below 1.5 degrees Celsius (baseline year of 1850). As the accompanying chart shows, the world will easily soar way beyond that limit–it is being dragged in an entirely opposite direction. The global warming death cult which governs the world’s leading countries (aka expansionist capitalism) has no intention of respecting the warnings of scientists. The 25 or so imperialist countries (North America, western Europe, Japan, Australia/New Zealand) are particularly guilty of the monstrous crime against humanity that has brought the world to the edge of the precipice. They are the primary source of the triple threat facing humanity–rising war and militarism (including a new, nuclear arms race), global warming and rising social and political inequities.
Caribou and other Arctic mammal species threatened by extinction, but Canada planning billion dollar road to Arctic coast to open ever more territory to mining and shipping. Report by Bob Weber, Canadian Press, Aug 15, 2019
Previously reported:
* Across Canada, caribou are on course for extinction, a prominent expert warns, by Ivan Semeniuk, science reporter, Globe and Mail, Oct 29, 2018 (with chart and map) At a conference in Ottawa this week, Justina Ray will lay out grim predictions for animals First Nations have depended on for generations. She is a conservation biologist and Canadian president of the Wildlife Conservation Society and has co-led the work on behalf of the independent body that advises the Canadian government on the status of endangered wildlife. … scientists are recommending that the barren-ground caribou in northern Canada be listed as threatened, while the eastern migratory caribou – whose numbers have plummeted from more than one million to about 225,000 animals – qualify as endangered, the highest level of threat. … the Natural Resources Defense Council, based in Washington, is calling on Ottawa to employ a “safety net order” that would supersede provincial authority to protect boreal caribou habitat. … The caribou are among the most visible of the approximately 16,700 species that have suffered an average 60-per-cent decline since 1970, according to a new World Wildlife Fund report released on October 29…
* Finding a lifeline for Canada’s threatened Arctic caribou, by Carol Linnitt, The Narwhal, Jan 19, 2017 (with map)
Australia rejects calls by Pacific Island countries hard hit by global warming to ditch coal production and energy reliance, Bloomberg News, Aug 13, 2019
Related:
* New Zealand PM says Australia ‘has to answer’ to Pacific island countries but won’t criticize its stance on coal, report in The Guardian, Aug 14, 2019
* New Zealand’s deputy PM Winston Peters defends Australia amid Pacific nations’ attack over climate policies, ABC.net.au.net, Aug 14, 2019
Trump weakens endangered species protections, making it harder to consider effects of climate change, by Sabrina Shankman, Inside Climate News, Aug 12, 2019 and read: Trump administration announces weakening of the Endangered Species Act, Yale Environment 360, Aug 12, 2019
Global warming is changing the winds off Antarctica, driving ice melt, by Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News, Aug 12, 2019
Measles cases triple globally in first seven months of 2019 over 2018, reports the World Health Organization, Deutsche Welle, Aug 13, 2019 The 2019 figures are the highest [registered] since 2006
‘Climate Change and Land’: New IPCC report says land being exhausted by human consumption and global warming, report by Deutsche Welle, Aug 8, 2019 The stark connection between how land is used and its effect on climate change is the focus of the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), titled ‘Climate Change and Land’ (43 pages) and published on August 8. At the center of the report is how, in a sort of vicious circle, unhealthy soils and forests exacerbate climate change, while climate change, in turn, negatively impacts the forests and soils’ health…
Related:
* Climate change threatens the world’s food supply, United Nations warns, by Christopher Flavelle, New York Times, Aug 8, 2019 The world’s land and water resources are being exploited at “unprecedented rates” a new United Nations report warns, which combined with climate change is putting dire pressure on the ability of humanity to feed itself. The report, prepared by more than 100 experts from 52 countries and released in summary form in Geneva on August 8, finds that the window to address the threat is closing rapidly. A half-billion people already live in places turning into desert, and soil is being lost between 10 and 100 times faster than it is forming, according to the report… The IPCC is writing a series of climate reports, including one last year on the disastrous consequences if the planet’s temperature rises just 1.5 degrees Celsius above its preindustrial levels as well as an upcoming report on the state of the world’s oceans…
* Land is a critical resource, says report by the UN’s IPCC presented to meeting of the world’s governments in Geneva, news report by IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Aug 8, 2019
* Examining the IPCC’s special report on climate change and land, by Carbon Brief, Friday, Aug 9, 2019 This morning in Geneva, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its special report on climate change and land. The land provides the “food, feed, fibre, fuel and freshwater” without which human society and its economy “could not exist”, the report says. This provision is under threat from rising global temperatures and “unprecedented” rates of land and freshwater exploitation in recent decades, the report warns…
Beekeeping is booming in Berlin, but the threats to pollinating insects can’t be solved by hobbying, report in New York Times, Aug 11, 2019
New Michael Moore-backed documentary tackles false promises of alternative energies, by Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press, Aug 8, 2019
Architects and engineers call for a ban on glass skyscrapers to save energy in climate crisis, The Guardian, July 28, 2019 …The International Energy Agency estimates that about 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions come from constructing, heating, cooling and demolishing buildings. Air conditioning is a growing proportion of this: energy used on cooling has doubled since 2000 and accounts for about 14% of all energy use now…
How much will the U.S. Way of Life© have to change?, by Max Ajl, published by Uneven Earth, June 10, 2019 On the future of farming, socialist science, and utopia
Redwashing capital, by Rob Wallace, published by Uneven Earth, July 11, 2019 Left-wing tech bros are honing Marx into a capitalist tool
Amazon deforestation rises rapidly under the new, right-wing president Bolsonaro, report by Deutsche Welle, Aug 7, 2019 Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has surged to record levels according to new, official data released on August 6. Figures by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) show Brazilian authorities removed 2,254 square kilometers of rainforest in July 2019, a 278 per cent increase over July 2018.
Previously reported:
* Head of Brazil’s deforestation monitor is forced out by Bolsonaro after agency reports sharp rise in logging, Associated Press, Aug 2, 2019
* 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…
An ‘insect ‘apocalypse’ in the United States, being driven by 50-fold increase in toxic pesticide use by agro-industry, by Stephen Leahy, National Geographic, Aug 6, 2019 America’s agricultural landscape is now 48 times more toxic to honeybees, and likely other insects, than it was 25 years ago, almost entirely due to widespread use of so-called neonicotinoid pesticides, according to a new study published today in the journal PLOS One…
Nearly one quarter of the world’s population is facing a crisis of water supply, by Carla Casssella, Science Alert, Aug 7, 2019
Dengue epidemic declared in Philippines, Asia Times, Aug 6, 2019 From January to July 20 this year, the health department of the Phillippines has recorded some 146,000 dengue cases across the country, double the same period in 2018. The outbreak has caused 622 deaths. And read: report in The Straits Times, Aug 6, 2019
The terrible truth of climate change, by Joëlle Gergis, Common Dreams, Aug 5, 2019 We still have time to try and avert the scale of the disaster, but we must respond as we would in an emergency. (Joëlle Gergis is an award-winning climate scientist and writer based at the Australian National University. She is the author of Sunburnt Country: The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia.)
Walloped by heat wave, Greenland sees massive ice melt, Associated Press, Aug 2, 2019
Related:
* Historic Greenland melt is a ‘glimpse of the future’ say climate scientists, by Chelsea Harvey, E&E News (Scientific American), Aug 2, 2019 A major heat wave pushed melting into areas of the ice sheet that normally stay frozen year-round
* Heat waves are changing the landscape of Greenland, by Sabrina Shankman, Inside Climate News, Aug 1, 2019 The Greenland ice sheet is in the midst of one of its most extreme melts on record, with worrying consequences for Greenland’s people and the planet.
Arctic fires threaten more dark days in the North, by Carie Tait, Globe and Mail, Aug 1, 2019 Unusually aggressive wildfires in the Arctic are releasing waves of greenhouse gases, lasting longer, reaching deeper and burning at higher latitudes than in previous years, and experts say this is fuelled by climate change… The global land temperature in June was the highest in at least 140 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Nine of the Earth’s warmest Junes have occurred since 2010, the U.S. agency said in its monthly report…
Environmentalists are risking their lives to save the planet, opinion column by Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan, published on Democracy Now!, Aug 1, 2019
Ancient Earth reveals terrifying consequences of future global warming, by Graham Lawton, New Scientist, July 1, 2019 (subscriber only, read the article here in pdf format: Ancient Earth reveals terrifying consequences of runaway global warming Lessons from the deep past reveal that human-induced warming could create more extreme conditions than Earth has ever experienced
