OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #147, OCTOBER 2, 2023

 

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #147, OCTOBER 2, 2023

May 14, 2023 “Mothers on Six Continents Demand Action to Protect Children From Climate Crisis.” "If we don't act now, it will be too late," one mom warned. "I could not live with myself, as a mother, as a doctor, and as a human being, if we didn't do all we can to try and bring about the much-needed systemic change."

 

I continue to sift through boxes of books after a water pipe froze and broke last Dec.   Which of the books or folders are still worth reading?  The Climate Reality Project The Climate Reality Project is a non-profit organization involved in education and advocacy related to climate change. The Climate Reality Project came into being in July 2011 as the consolidation of two environmental groups, the Alliance for Climate Protection and The Climate Project, both of which were founded by Al Gore. Among its activities, The Climate Reality Project hosts an annual event called 24 Hours of Reality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Climate_Reality_Project Thomas Kostigen.  Extreme Weather Survival Guide: Understand, Prepare, Survive, Recover.  National Geographic.  2014.  Radical reform of neoliberal capitalism necessary and possible.      Upon seeing this title, I almost tossed it, until I began to scan the chapters, and discovered they applied also to the economic system of capitalism that rules today.  “With more extreme weather events occurring now than in the past, we have to brace for a new kind of survival.  Learning how to prepare, survive, and recover from extreme weather events is—like it or not—an integral part of life in the 21st century.”  The book surveys what we know is happening in and because of our capitalist system; and what reforms or adaptations must be accomplished in that system to prevent the worst, which we have known for at least two decades.         An entirely different approach sometimes labeled “ecosocialism,” makes the case that the capitalist system (growth, competition) cannot be reformed enough and fast enough to save us; rather it must be rejected entirely.   To know what this involves, we must read books that advocate deep structural change.  This book does not mention socialism in its index. Climate & Capitalism | An ecosocialist journal edited by Ian Angus.       https://climateandcapitalism.com   To stop climate change, we must understand how capitalism generates destructive processes. ‎About/Contact · ‎Ian's Notebook · ‎Marx and Engels and Russia’s... · ‎Book Reviews       END OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #147, OCTOBER 2, 2023               CONVERGENCE War and Climate Change Fossil Fuels BP’s Wars, Coups & Dictators.  Consortium News (7-21-23).  From Iran to Azerbaijan, Iraq to Nigeria, Russia to Venezuela, British foreign policy is largely captured by the global climate polluter, writes Mark Curtis. Read here... climaterealityproject.org https://www.climaterealityproject.org The Climate Reality Project WebJun 22, 2023 · Get the tools, training, and network to fight climate change and together build the world we want. People like you are using their voices and everyday choices to solve the climate crisis. Join the movement. ·        Our Climate Moment Fight climate change. Save money. That's the power of electrification. But taking … ·        Thanks for Joining Us In the coming days and weeks, we’ll keep you updated on ways you can help us … ·        Our Changing Reality Blog. Catch up on the latest climate and policy news. Articles. Go deeper on the … ·        Work With Us The Climate Reality Project, a nonprofit … Our Mission · Chapters See more     23 YEARS AGO AL GORE, CLIMATE TRUTHTELLER LA Times.  7-14-23 “We ignored Al Gore in 2000. We're paying the price of climate denial.” To the editor: Wildfires, flooding, hurricanes, abhorrent heat, ocean temperatures rising to unheard of amounts — this is not the "new abnormal," but most likely the "new normal." ("Fires, floods, heatwaves. Is the extreme weather from coast to coast ‘a new abnormal’?" July 12) Twenty-three years ago, Al Gore, then running for president, pointed to scientific reports that predicted all of this. Millions of us heard it but chose to disregard it or not believe it.  It's hard to believe that many in this country are still in climate-change denial or at least pretend to be. And why is that? Because as Gore said, it is an ‘inconvenient truth.’"  Linda Cooper, Studio City AND WHAT DID OUR SO-CALLED LEADERS DO?  WHAT DID WE DO? 13 YEARS AGO the same inconvenient truth Cleo Paskal.  Global Warring: How Environmental, Economic, and Political Crises Will Redraw the World Map.    2010. “The goal [of this book] is to find where environmental change (and in particular climate change) and major geopolitical vectors [US, China, etc.] intersect, in order to see likely outcomes.  Global Warring is divided into four parts, with each using as its starting point a different conservative and scientifically sound prediction [like Gore].  . . .It is now accepted that the change is causing, among other things:  rising sea levels, rising storm surges, melting glaciers, and changing [extreme] precipitation patterns.  Those four simple scientific elements are irrefutable.  They are already happening and show no signs of reversing.  This book offers an analysis of the potential repercussions for some of the major geopolitical powers" (US, Europe, China, Russia, India). OUR LEADERS FAILED US, WE FAILED OUSELVES, FOR STILL 2023 GLOBAL TEMPERATURE IS RISING. Now sociopathic individuals, politicians, and companies are “hushing” (silencing) even the small gains by ethical companies.  For example, Vanguard quit the National Zero Asset Managers Initiative as “conservative criticism mounted” (i.e. as advocates of profit over planet increased pressure).  Powerful adherents of US capitalism are fighting tenaciously to retain their profits until wars and temperature kill the last of us.   Maxine Joselow.  “Backlash prompts climate goal hush.”  Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Jul 14, 2023).    Com­pa­nies seek to dodge con­flict.    Read more...   “Profit-Driven Systems Are Driving Us To Our Doom.”  Caitlin Johnstone. Here is the conclusion to Johnstone; to read the entire essay go to:  https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/profit-driven-systems-are-driving-us-to-our-doom-fbcfed082592 “But we’re not getting solutions, we’re getting a world ruled by corporations whose leaders are required to place growth above all other concerns, even concerns about whether the future will contain an ecosystem which corporations can exist in or a human species for them to sell goods and services to. Corporations function as giant, world-eating sociopaths, because our current models let their leaders and lawyers wash their hands of all the consequences of the damage their monsters inflict in the name of growth and the duty to maximize shareholder profits.   People worry about the world getting destroyed by machines driven by a heartless artificial intelligence, but we might end up destroying it with a kind of artificial mind we invented long before microchips: the corporation. So much of humanity’s dysfunction can be explained by the fact that corporations (A) pretty much run the world and (B) are required to act like sociopaths by placing profit above all other concerns.   As long as human behavior remains driven by profit, ecocide will continue, because ecocide is profitable.   As long as human behavior remains driven by profit, wars will continue, because war is profitable.   As long as human behavior remains driven by profit, exploitation will continue, because exploitation is profitable.   As long as human behavior remains driven by profit, corruption will continue, because corruption is profitable.   There is no “good” model in which human behavior can remain driven by profit without these destructive behaviors continuing, because so many kinds of destructive behavior will always necessarily be profitable. No proponents of any iteration of capitalism have ever been able to provide any satisfactory answers to this.   The call then is to move from competition-based, profit-driven systems to systems which are based on collaboration toward the common good of all. We’re a long way off from that, but a long way can be cleared in a short time under the right conditions. Our species is at adapt-or-die time, and the adaptation that must be made is clear.”   DEFORESTATION = DOMESTIC TERRORISM Name and jail the forest terrorists: Pentagon   Send names of others to Dick If we had spent the money and energy to protecting and restoring our forests that we spent on the War on/OF Terror, we could have prevented the worst from happening.          May 13, 2023 Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon Fell 68% in April Compared With Last Year "Still a lot more to do but this is the impact of electing an environmentalist like Lula over a right-wing populist like Bolsonaro," said one observer.