Environment Archives - Page 21 of 28

3Jun

By SHOAHNo Comments

Environment, Human Rights

After Coronavirus Triggers 17% Emissions Drop, Experts Say Only 'Fundamental Structural Change' Can Save Humanity's Future

The research "underscores a simple truth," says climate scientist Michael Mann. "Individual behavior alone ...won't get us there." by: Jessica Corbett, Climate change activists from the group "No Going Back—another world is possible," took part in a social distancing protest on May, 4 2020 in St. Ives, Cornwall, United Kingdom. (Photo: Gav Goulder/In Pictures via Getty Images) After an analysis revealed Tuesday that lockdowns from the coronavirus pandemic caused planet-heating emissions to drop in early April by an unprecedented 17%, climate scientists and activists warned that progress will quickly be erased if the world returns to business as usual and called for systemic changes in the global energy, food, and transportation sectors. "The extent to which world lea...

Grizzly Bears are Dying and That’s a Fact

1Jun

By SHOAHNo Comments

Environment, Health

Grizzly Bears are Dying and That’s a Fact

by DAVID MATTSON Photo by Roger Hayden. More grizzly bears are dying, being seen, and in conflicts with humans in and around the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE). These are irrefutable facts. According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) these trends are a straight-forward consequence of more bears. As a corollary, environmental change doesn’t matter to bears in this population because, as omnivores, they can freely substitute one food for another. End of story. Unfortunately, simple explanations such as this one offered by FWP are little more than “just so” stories. Anyone who has studied wildlife populations and the environments they occupy knows that things are invariably more complicated. Data for estimating population size are always flawed and the ...

1Jun

By SHOAHNo Comments

Environment, Health, USA

The Gods of Small Things

by JOHN KENDALL HAWKINS Photograph Source: Michael Coghlan – CC BY 2.0 O brave new world that has such people in it!– William Shakespeare, The Tempest One of the great things about the Covid-19 silver lining playbook is the opportunity it affords to come out of the closet, like Bradley Copper, about my sapiensexuality. There, I’ve said it. I’m on the cyberprowl for minds who want to have a good old-fashioned LeftHandOfDarkness mind-fuck together. Makes no difference if you’re black or white, long as you know what I mean. Zoom-Zoom. See you in/out there in our new-fangled pop-up postmod Brady Bunch world. Being online, streaming and social mediating in my solitude, as Billie Holiday used to sing, you get to make the rounds of URLs where people appear and spea...

13May

By SHOAHNo Comments

Environment, Politics

‘Demoralizing’ New Michael Moore Film Attacks Climate Movement at a Time When Solutions Should be at the Forefront, Say Critics

"Throughout, the filmmakers twist basic facts, misleading the public about who is responsible for the climate crisis." byEoin Higgins, The new film from Michael Moore is coming under fire from climate activists. (Photo: POTH/publicity still) A new film produced by documentarian Michael Moore is angering environmental activists who say filmmaker Jeff Gibbs plays fast and loose with the facts, attacks the wrong targets, and even ends up arguing for ecofascist solutions to the climate crisis. "Throughout, the filmmakers twist basic facts, misleading the public about who is responsible for the climate crisis," wrote University of California Santa Barbara professor Leah Stokes of the film for Vox. "We are used to climate science misinformation campaigns ...

13May

By SHOAHNo Comments

Environment, Health, Human Rights, Politics, UN, World

Amid Dual Crises of Climate and Covid-19, World Leaders Told ‘Empty Words Will Not Help Us’

"Despite promising statements, the [Petersberg] dialogue did not result in firm commitments to a green and just recovery." by: Jessica Corbett, German Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze participates in the virtual Petersberg Climate Dialogue XI on April 24, 2020. (Photo: BMU/Christoph Wehrer) As the year's first major meeting of climate ministers—held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic—wrapped up Tuesday, climate campaigners welcomed world leaders' calls for a "green recovery" from the ongoing public health crisis but demanded that the lofty rhetoric be matched by ambitious, detailed plans and actions. "This pandemic has upended climate diplomacy and climate meetings until next year but countries, especially major emitters, must continue working t...

12May

By SHOAHNo Comments

Campaigns, Environment, Politics

Two Truths from the Pandemic No One Is Mentioning

by KIRKPATRICK SALE Two truths at least are certain in this post-pandemic world: 1) Humans have so dominated the world, destroying much of non-human life and systems in the process, that the world has struck back in recoil and seeks to readjust the balance.2) Human sustenance systems are far too large and unwieldly to be effective and the smaller the system or operation the more efficient, useful, friendly, or supportive. The first truth is of course the one that the current organizers of the world, the ones who have brought this crisis upon us, do not want to believe. To believe that, they would have to acknowledge that the global-liberal-capitalist-guided environment they have worked centuries—or, to be more precise, 75 years—to create has so damaged the environment t...

13Apr

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Environment, Health, USA

Trump policies kill birds: Why it matters

By Tina Landis Geese flying. Photo: National Park Service. In a move that will increase corporate profits and further weaken regulatory powers, the Trump administration is relaxing criminal penalties under the migratory bird law for industry-related bird deaths. For the past 50 years, industries were fined for bird deaths caused by their operations such as oil pits, mining sites, telecommunication towers and other hazards. For instance, after a 2016 incident where thousands of snow geese perished in the acid-laden waters of the Berkeley Pit — a Butte, Mont. Superfund site — the mining company instituted a noisy arsenal of fireworks, drones and remote-controlled boats to scare birds away from the pit to avoid further fines. Recently, following assurances from Tr...

9Apr

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Brazil, Environment, USA

A Message For America from Brazil’s First Indigenous Congresswoman

by RUTH HOPKINS Photograph Source: The Institute for Inclusive Security – CC BY 2.0 Last year, we all watched in horror as the Amazon rainforest burned at an unprecedented rate. We cannot afford to lose it, especially amid a climate emergency. It’s vast greenery releases oxygen and stores carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that causes of global warming. The death of the Amazon would mean the end of life on Earth. Indigenous peoples of the Amazon have been on the frontlines of protecting the rainforest since colonization began. Joênia Wapixana, from the Indigenous nation of Wapichana, is the first Indigenous woman elected to the Chamber of Deputies in Brazil. She recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Congresswomen Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) and Rep. Ilhan Om...

7Apr

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Environment, Human Rights, USA

Living in climate crisis: the pandemic and the need for revolution

By Tina Landis Confirmed cases of coronavirus as of March 29. Darkest red signifies over 100,000 confirmed cases. Photo: Wikimedia Commons As I write this article, most of the nation is living under shelter-in-place orders with all non-essential services shut down — although the federal government’s determination of “non-essential” is questionable when weapons manufacturers continue to operate while the Environmental Protection Agency shutters its doors. Regardless, the pandemic has plunged the system into what many are calling a depression. Millions have become jobless overnight and face an uncertain future. A great leveling is occurring across borders, race and all income levels within the 99 percent as we are left to fend for ourselves while the billionaires at the to...

25Mar

By SHOAHNo Comments

Environment, UN

UN Chief Warns World ‘Way Off Track’ on Tackling Climate Crisis as New Report Underscores Need for Bold Global Action

"Let us have no illusions: the climate crisis is already causing calamity and more is to come," said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. "This is a battle we can—and must—win." by: Jessica Corbett, A fire rages in Bobin, Australia on Nov. 9, 2019, as firefighters try to contain dozens of out-of-control blazes across the state of New South Wales. (Photo: Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images) United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres issued a stark warning about the necessity of ambitious global climate action Tuesday with the release of an annual report detailing the latest science on rising greenhouse gas emissions that drive up air and ocean temperatures, leading to devastating sea level rise and more severe extreme weather. "Time is fast running out for us to a...