14. Climate Memo Mondays

 

14.  Climate Memo Mondays  3-15-21

The next Protest to Celebrate the UN Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty and to Stop the University of Arkansas Nuclear Weapons Program is Tuesday, March 30th, at 12:30 P.M.  We will protest at the entrance to the U of A, at the intersection of M.L.K. Blvd & Razorback Rd  (1417 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Fayetteville).  Please JOIN US AND FORWARD THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.

 

The Pandemic: Half a million lives lost in U.S., more than the two World Wars and Vietnam War combined.  Mronline.org (2-27-21).

Posted Feb 26, 2021 by Eds.

Originally published: Countercurrents by Countercurrents Collective (February 23, 2021).   Empire , Health , Human Rights , Ideology  United States  Newswire  coronavirus , COVID-19 , Deaths , pandemic

Over half a million people have died of coronavirus in the U.S. Grasping the enormity–half a million people gone–is difficult to visualize.  | more…      Sentence after sentence of the dismal statistics, followed by a similar report on declining  US life-expectancy, ending with a chronology of the pandemic.  A handy short article, but darker than Pres. Biden reported yesterday 3-11 with vaccinations rapidly increasing.  --D

 

‘The U.S. has been obstructionist in chief in Global climate talks’.  Mronline.org (2-21-21).   CounterSpin interview with Basav Sen on rejoining the Paris accords.  | more…     Posted Feb 20, 2021 by Janine Jackson, who interviews Sen.  Originally published: FAIR (February 10, 2021) .  Basav Sen is director of the Climate Justice project at the Institute for Policy Studies. Climate Change , Imperialism  United States  Interview  Basav Sen , CounterSpin , Paris Climate Agreement.

“The United States has been obstructionist-in-chief in global climate talks—by, for instance, refusing to accept the principle that wealthy countries who have disproportionately benefited from industrialization driven by fossil fuels, and therefore are both much wealthier than much of the Global South—countries in Africa and Latin America and parts of Asia and the Pacific—but also are much more responsible for the cumulative greenhouse gas emissions for the last more than 100 years. . . .

And therefore, the wealthy countries which have been industrialized for a long time, and which have been responsible for a disproportionate share of those emissions, also share a disproportionate amount of the blame for climate change.

And for those two reasons, the fact that, No. 1, they are more responsible for the damage, and No. 2, they can afford to pay for the damage, means that they owe the Global South for the effects of climate change; they owe the Global South to be able to transition their economies away from fossil fuels, and to adapt to the effects of climate change that are already occurring. And the United States has been a roadblock against accepting this principle, and committing the level of funding that is needed for the Global South to address the climate crisis.
And the U.S. has also adamantly opposed a binding global agreement, which is one of the main reasons why we ended up with the toothless nonbinding Paris accord, in which countries make voluntary commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. And, obviously, we need a mandatory global agreement to deal with a crisis on this level.”

 

WHAT SHALL WE CALLTHEM, THOSE WHO OFFERED DOUBTS  ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING THAT ALLOWED THE FOSSIL FUELS INDUSTRY’S OFFICIALS AND INVESTORS TO COVER UP THE CATASTROPHIC TRUTH, AND ENABLED THE MAJORITY GENERAL PUBLIC TO  LOOK ASIDE?

By Dick Bennett

Dog, cur, viper, reptile, snake in the grass, rat?  I would not insult these creatures by the comparison.

Rapscallion, knave, caitiff, bounder, blighter, bastard, SOB?  They are accurate terms, current in Shakespeare’s time, old-fashioned and possibly weakened today.  We need current language commensurate with species extermination.  And remember the industry and their scientist supporters knew.

Deceitful, underhanded, misleading, false, liar, mendacious, untruthful, sly, cunning, scheming, guileful, sneaky, double-dealing, duplicitous, phony, cheating, betraying, double-crossing.  th

Villain, wretch, evildoer, miscreant, blackguard, rogue, rascal, cad, scalawag, malefactor, scoundrel?   Treacherous, perfidious, dishonest, unscrupulous, corrupt, crooked?   Some of these descriptors are getting close.  Evildoer, yes.  Villain.  Malefactor too.  Perfidy.

 

     We are dealing with crimes against humanity, mass criminality:   premeditated crimes that are hidden and have killed millions of humans and will kill billions, and have made already thousands of other species extinct with thousands more to come, unless we humans stop the warming.  The IPCC reports warn that our time for effective action has narrowed to a dozen years, but the greedy humans, stimulated by their self-regarding, capitalist economic system, continue to delay action.

     “…to knowingly alter [the special conditions of life our planet offers] in a manner that threatens humanity and other life forms, simply so a few very large corporations can continue to make record profits, is not just unacceptable, or unethical—it would be the most immoral act in the history of human civilization:  not just a crime against humanity, but a crime against our planet.  We cannot be passive bystanders. . . .” Michael Mann, The New Climate War  (7-8).

 

Suggested reading:

Carter and Woodworth.  Unprecedented Crime.

James Hoggan with Richard Littlemore.  Climate Cover-Up.

Michael Mann. The New Climate War (with excellent notes, and 2 other books: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars and with Tom Toles, The Madhouse Effect).

David Michaels.  Doubt Is Their Product.

Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway.  Merchants of Doubt.

 

TAKE ACTION

Contact Pres. Biden and his climate officials—John Kerry, et al.
What are the real prospects for the transformative policies actually needed to combat climate change in the years ahead? What will Biden’s much-touted green jobs initiative do in practice? And how has the fossil fuel industry responded to Biden’s early moves, and will it continue to dominate policy and global temperature will continue to rise?  Does Biden understand the urgency?