Masthash

#ClimateEmergency

TobeB
3 hours ago

“The climate models that give us a remaining carbon budget for an orderly phase out of oil, coal and gas have assumed that nature will not surprise us. And now nature is surprising us so of course that makes us very worried.”

#climateChange #climateCatastrophe #climateEmergency #climateBreakdown #tippingPoint

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/11/fossil-fuel-phase-out-climate-breakdown-protect-natural-world-cop28

Beardy Star Stuff
7 hours ago

A fantastic podcast and this episode in particular is worth a listen.

"With so many moving pieces, how can we begin to create a coherent story of the world around us and - even more difficult - start preparing responses to coming challenges? What should individuals aware of these converging crises be thinking about in order to prepare themselves, their families, and their communities for a materially smaller future?

#ClimateEmergency

https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/100-nate-hagens

Stefano
9 hours ago

"The unsold stock...whether electric or thermal...estimated at 2.4 million vehicles, depends on the combined effect of rising prices and high interest rates"

-the #ClimateEmergency declares itself
-the declaration is final
-don't need our help

#climate

The Carbon Budget for 1.5 Degrees
The #carbon budget for 1.5℃ is dwindling — and #Alberta is using up a huge chunk of it. #abpoli #ClimateEmergency https://albertabeyondfossilfuels.ca/the-carbon-budget-for-1-5-degrees/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Kent Pitman
11 hours ago

Falling from its cliff,
Halfway down. We'll weather this.
Climate's bite draws near.

#haiku #senryu #climate #ClimateEmergency #ClimateCrisis #TippingPoint #COP28

RJD
13 hours ago

A handful of people dont want a solar farm near them. Total NIMBYism

Not sure what they think it will be doing to birds??

#NewZealand #climateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/504422/neighbours-oppose-solar-farm-on-blenheim-s-rural-floodplain

_noelamac_
16 hours ago

Monopoly - Oil and Gas Edition.

Maybe #COP28 handed some of these to the visitors and negotiators. It would make a most appropriate gift! 🎁 ☠️

Will it be part of the loss and damage fund?

Interesting but surreal read: https://www.ogv.energy/news-item/global-demand-for-limited-edition-oil-and-gas-monopoly-boards

#ClimateChange #Hasbro #climateemergency #ClimateCrisis

Monopoly game - Oil and Gas Edition
_noelamac_
16 hours ago

@Snoro The self-named „Chancellor for the climate“ , Olaf Scholz, is very interested in that shift to „cleaner sources of energy“.

#KlimaKatastrophe #Klimakrise #Klimakanzler #ClimateChange #climateemergency

https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-scholz-looking-to-nigeria-for-natural-gas-report/a-67248179

Since there is a western news blackout on the #Palestinian oil & gas fields:

Please share awareness about the #GazaGenocide and complete #Evacuation of the strip, as the key goal of #Israel

Israel wants unfettered access to #GazaMarine gas field (which was awarded to the Palestinian Authority in the #OsloAccord ) & total destruction of the Palestinian people.

Israel must be stopped & made to pay full damages & prosecute #Netanyahu
#ClimateEmergency

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/6/21/palestines-forgotten-oil-and-gas-resources

Mark@RCR 🌀
1 day ago

As climate negotiations at #COP28  begin to reach a critical point, let’s check in on what's happened so far and the climate action we need now. - Greenpeace #climatechange #climate #climatecrisis #climateemergency

https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/64298/check-from-cop28-where-go-from-here/

Mark@RCR 🌀
1 day ago

“Hardcore environmentalists have known that #COP28 is BS because it's been captured by #FossilFuel death-dealers.

@COP28_UAE's sole purpose now is to fuel propaganda used to pacify the public into inaction by reassuring them that "people are working on the #climateemergency".
- Extinction Rebellion #climatechange #climate #climatecrisis #environment

Portrait of Kurt Vonnegut superimposed with his quote, "We'll go down in history as the first society that wouldn't save itself because it wasn't cost-effective" with the words "Kurt Vonnegut, American writer and novelist, (1922 - 2007)" beneath it.
Illustration of the earth, anthropomorphized with a weary expression on its face, with a speech bubble stating, "Another climate change conference, where the disease looks for a cure".
Two frames of a person standing at a podium, speaking to an audience.
Top frame, speaker asks, "Who believes the media controls the people?"
Audience all has their hands raised.
Bottom frame, speaker asks, "Who believes THEY are being controlled?"
Audience all has their hands down.
Illustration of a jovial TV meteorologist standing in front of a US map with a speech bubble stating,
"Our extended forecast includes global warming & the catastrophic end of the human race. But for the weekend, it's looking like sunny skies, mild temperatures, & a general apathy toward environmental concerns. Back to you, Jim."
Signed & copyrighted by the artist Dan Piraro, 8.8.03, Bizarro.com, Dist. by King Features.
TobeB
1 day ago

Food production is highly vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis, with research suggesting that as much as a third of global food could be at risk from global heating.

Agriculture and livestock farming are also major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, contributing roughly a 10th of global carbon output directly.

#climateChange #climateCatastrophe #climateEmergency #climateBreakdown #tippingPoint

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/10/un-sets-out-roadmap-to-combat-global-hunger-amid-climate-crisis

TobeB
1 day ago

Total current technology-based CO2 removal removes just 0.01m tonnes of C02 a year, which is more than a million times smaller than current fossil fuel CO2 emissions.

Despite its small scale, voluminous carbon removal techniques are relied upon to avoid breaching 1.5C.

#climateChange #climateCatastrophe #climateEmergency #climateBreakdown #tippingPoint

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/10/climate-experts-warn-against-focus-technological-solutions-cop28

Alberta Beyond Fossil Fuels
1 day ago

Alberta and the Carbon Budget
Few people appreciate the impact Alberta fossil fuels have on the global carbon budget for 1.5℃. But the impact is huge — 8 to 12 per cent of the budget. #climateemergency #abpoli #cdnpoli https://albertabeyondfossilfuels.ca/alberta-and-the-carbon-budget/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Ian
1 day ago

> “Earth's climate system will be pushed well beyond the point of no return. The time to act is now. Australia and the world must cease with denial and delay. We must stop faffing around, urgently phase out fossil fuels and prepare for the consequences of climate collapse that is already locked in.”

#climateEmergency #Australia

https://www.lyrebirddreaming.com/post/on-climate-tipping-points-why-net-zero-by-2050-is-too-little-too-late

Ian
2 days ago

https://truthout.org/articles/will-cop28-end-up-as-the-greatest-flop-in-global-climate-diplomacy-thus-far/

“It is important to realize that the climate crisis is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon. We have already entered an era of crisis, and this will intensify in the years ahead. The real question is how bad it will get. And that depends on what we do today. There is never a point where all is lost, because it can always get worse. Nothing could be more irresponsible than to throw up our hands and say, “Game over.””

#climateEmergency

Stefano
2 days ago

"The fates of both the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets could also be sealed long before 2050. The estimated threshold temperature for the unstoppable collapse of these great ice masses is 1.5°C, but could be 1°C or even less, suggesting that it could already be too late to prevent wholesale melting and – as mentioned earlier – an ultimate sea-level rise of 10m-12m."

#climateaction #climateemergency

Martin Breen
2 days ago

“China and the US will massively promote renewable energy deployment and use it to gradually and orderly substitute oil, gas and coal power generation, so that we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions”

The Earth, said you have a deal and promised a gradual and orderly climate breakdown in return.

#ClimateEmergency

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/09/cop28-china-says-it-would-like-agreement-on-substituting-renewables-for-fossil-fuels

Srijit Kumar Bhadra
2 days ago

In How to run a business in a dangerous and disorderly world, the author claims that in a fractious world, businesses cannot hide from politics and geopolitics. The response from Alberto Alemanno is informative with interesting perspectives. Alberto Alemanno is Jean Monnet Professor in EU Law at HEC Paris.

"Historically, businesses have stayed away from the most contentious social issues in order to preserve their bottom line. Yet this has never prevented them from using their corporate political power, through lobbying and other subtler forms of influence, to bend the rules to serve their own self-interest."
"The misalignment between corporate lobbying and companies’ commitments to values is a big factor underpinning a lack of progress on numerous critical issues, ranging from the failure to act on the climate emergency to an unfair global tax regime."
"With investors, employees and customers increasingly scrutinising corporate conduct, there is a clear case for greater transparency and responsibility in the way companies exercise their political influence, especially through their unaccountable trade associations."
"Ultimately, no company can declare itself sustainable unless it fully internalises not only its environmental and social impact, but also its political footprint."
#GeoPolitics #Business #ClimateEmergency #Climate #SocialImpact #CorporateLobbying

cc:
@srijit

TobeB
2 days ago

Azerbaijan has been announced as the host of next year’s climate summit after fraught negotiations.

Oil and gas production accounted for nearly half of Azerbaijan’s GDP and more than 92.5% of its export revenue last year.

#climateChange #climateCatastrophe #climateEmergency #climateBreakdown #tippingPoint

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/09/azerbaijan-host-cop29-fraught-negotiations

Martin Breen
2 days ago

Fantastic, you’re not a laggard when everyone is off the pace and all are set to lose.

The headline should of course say that Ireland is not acting fast enough on climate action.

Ireland keeping pace on climate action, says Donnelly https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/1209/1421069-cop28-latest/

#ClimateEmergency

_noelamac_
2 days ago

Time to stop.

Phase OUT fossil fuels.

#COP28 #ClimateChange #ClimateEmergency

A poster on a wall showing a burning tree and behind it power plant stacks with exhaust gas coming out. The poster reads „Stop burning fossil fuels“, by YAZ
Alienated53
2 days ago

#ClimateEmergency Climate scientists need power to prescribe climate policies: report
Scientists from the IPCC expressed serious reservations about how climate policies are currently implemented
https://www.salon.com/2023/12/08/climate-scientists-need-power-to-prescribe-climate-policies-report/

Thomas Arend
2 days ago

#Klimawandelleugner stellen gerne die Messungen der Durchschnittstemperatur in vorindustrielle Zeit infrage. Sie hoffen, damit den #Klimawandel wegdiskutieren zu können.

Zu wenig Stationen, wechselnde Stationen …

Schauen wir in die Daten, dann ist an den Einwänden nichts dran. Wird die Temperaturänderung anhand der Anomalie der Stationen bestimmt, spielt Anzahl und Verteilung der Stationen nur eine marginale Rolle.

#climateChange #climateCatastrophe #climateEmergency #climateBreakdown

Streudiagramm der aus den Stundenwerten von bis zu 71 Stationen errechneten jährlichen Temperaturanomalie und den Tageswerten von bis zu 340 Stationen. Größere Unterschiede stammen im Wesentlichen aus der Zeit vor 1950, in der die Anomalie der Tageswerte nur auf der Messstation Potsdam beruht. Nach 1950 ist der Unterschied im Wesentlichen im Bereich der Messgenauigkeit +/- 0,05° C.
Liniendiagramm der aus den Stundenwerten von bis zu 71 Stationen errechneten jährlichen Temperaturanomalie und den Tageswerten von bis zu 340 Stationen ab 1900.

Nach dem 2. Weltkrieg steigt die Zahl der Stationen, für die Stundenwerte vorliegen. Die Zahl der Stationen mit Tageswerten steigt ab 1936/37 und bricht 1945 kurz zusammen, um danach stark zuzunehmen.

Obwohl zeitweise fast 5 x mehr Stationen bei den Tageswerten berücksichtigt werden, als bei den Stundenwerten, liegen die Werte nur wenig auseinander.
Liniendiagramm der aus den Stundenwerten von bis zu 71 Stationen errechneten jährlichen Temperaturanomalie und den Tageswerten von bis zu 340 Stationen ab Beginn der Messungen im 18. Jahrhundert.

Nach dem 2. Weltkrieg steigt die Zahl der Stationen, für die Stundenwerte vorliegen. Die Zahl der Stationen mit Tageswerten steigt ab 1936/37 und bricht 1945 kurz zusammen, um danach stark zuzunehmen.

Obwohl zeitweise fast 5 x mehr Stationen bei den Tageswerten berücksichtigt werden, als bei den Stundenwerten, liegen die Werte nur wenig auseinander.

Der Verlauf der Smoothing Kurve hängt stark vom Anfangsjahr ab. Dies ist ein Problem beim Smoothing von Zeitreihen. Der Startzeitpunkt beeinflusst den Verlauf, wei eien vergleich mit dem Diagramm ab 1900 zeigt.
Dianora
2 days ago

I think buggy manufacturers fought the newfangled invention of horseless carriages as hard as o&g are fighting our transition away from fossil fuels.

#ClimateEmergency #ClimateChange

Juliet and Indiana Jones
2 days ago

We were arrested today doing climate civil disobedience in Melbourne with Dad, sit down protest in an intersection in front of Flinders St Station. After being arrested we were lead away, police asked to see and photograph Dad's ID, they didn't ask to see our pet registration tags!!! (yes we had them on) Then they let us go, as long as we promised not to go back to the intersection.

We were in good company, some 72 people arrested for blocking an intersection, highlighting the #climateEmergency and need for rapid #FossilFuelPhaseout

More Pics and a statement by Dad on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/johnenglart/posts/pfbid02KZrsay5WFhe7S4XHRErwKRK5mENSnoK7sLAR8LjnGHesnicKmmNzhDQPQPo5qtXTl

#ChihuahuasForClimateAction
#DogsOfMastodon
#ClimateAction #Civildisobedience #ExtinctionRebellion
#ClimateEmergency
#Chihuahuas

here we are with Dad and the Brompton bike in Treasury Gardens. Dad is holding an umbrella over our heads.
wet rainy day, an extinction rebellion banner partially seen, a person on a brompton folding bike with two chihuahuas in the front basket. The person holds an umbrella. Police in the background. The sign on the bike says Chihuahuas for Climate Action . New Coal and new gas is barking mad.
Two chihuahuas in a bike basket on the march through Melbourne next to the students holding School strike for Climate banner. We love the student climate strikers. Cool kids, and they usually say hello to us.
TobeB
2 days ago

Let’s face it: climate summits are broken. The delegates talk and talk, while Earth systems slide towards deadly tipping points. Since the climate negotiations began in 1992 more carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels has been released worldwide than in all preceding human history. This year is likely to set a new emissions record. They are talking us to oblivion.

#climateChange #climateCatastrophe #climateEmergency #climateBreakdown #tippingPoint

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/09/cop28-rigged-fail-save-planet-climate-summit-fossil-fuel

Hippy Steve
2 days ago

Dang #Australia getting all their #ClimateEmergency disasters at the same time.

Heatwave, fire, flood & cyclone: Sydney temperatures peak at 43C amid wild weather across Australia https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/09/heatwave-fire-flood-and-cyclone-sydney-temperatures-peak-at-43c-amid-wild-weather-across-australia

Temperatures in New South Wales soared >43C & bushfires burned across the state, as Cyclone Jasper loomed off the coast of Queensland.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for parts of the south coast & Snowy Mountains, with damaging wind gusts likely & large hail possible.

There were 85 grass & bushfires burning across the state, with total fire bans in place in many areas.

In South Australia, Adelaide was expecting close to 50mm of rain, with >100mm to parts of Eyre Peninsula.

BellingenNSW
2 days ago

Agribusiness lobby at COP 28
Lobbyists from industrial agriculture companies and trade groups have turned out in record numbers at Cop28.

Call on rich nations to cut meat consumption: "This follows the recommendation of the Eat-Lancet Commission, which suggests people consume no more than 15.7 kg a year. In 2020, the average American consumed 126kg of meat.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/09/big-meat-dairy-lobbyists-turn-out-record-numbers-cop28

"Meat consumption is highest across high-income countries (with the largest meat-eaters in Australia, consuming around 116 kilograms per person in 2013)."
https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production
#COP28 #BigMeat #pesticide #meat #consumption #lobby #food #LandClearing #ClimateEmergency #BiodiversityCrisis

Precooked cattle on tree-less padocks, Bellingen

I started #COP28 despondent. Today, after learning of just how SCARED the fossil fuel companies/OPEC are... I feel relief, and am energized! It's working!!!
Every time we say “END FOSSIL FUELS NOW" they HEAR us. They pretend they don’t. And they pretend that they have other "solutions", but they are actually terrified that it is happening. We are going to START ending fossil fuels.

#EndFossilFuels #ClimateEmergency #Canada #CdnPoli #OPEC #ClimateAction

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/08/opec-rails-against-fossil-fuel-phase-out-at-cop28-in-leaked-letters

RJD
3 days ago

If you want to know how the 100% pure thing is going, this is how..

“They said they wanted to focus on cleaning up freshwater, boosting biodiversity, delivering for the climate, celebrating oceans, reducing waste, fixing planning laws,” says Toki. “What they’ve done is they are promulgating policy that will essentially do the opposite of all of those things.”

#nzpol #NewZealand #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/09/new-zealands-environmental-credentials-on-the-line-as-coalition-takes-power

Bread and Circuses
3 days ago

Below are some excerpts from Part 2 of a carefully thought-out plan for our future from Steve Genco (@sjgenco). You can read my post about Part 1 here -- https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/111545392722768770
________________________

Currently, degrowth scholars are focusing on how policy decisions, if implemented soon enough and widely enough, might avoid a disastrous descent. As much as I respect and admire this impressive body of work, my argument is that this is unlikely to be successful, because resistance to change is still significantly greater than the pain the system is inflicting on its primary beneficiaries.

Until that equation changes (and it will change), I don’t believe the world is ready to accept the radical transformations that degrowth scholars have identified, even though these transformations are the only path by which we can realistically put our civilization on a more sustainable footing once we have lost the magical elixir of fossil fuels.

Given that degrowth is more likely to emerge *within* the climate crisis, rather than as a deliberate strategy to avoid the climate crisis, we can expect degrowth’s three primary goals to be achieved somewhat differently than much of the degrowth literature to date anticipates.

Those goals, introduced in Part 1 (https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-12-05/why-we-need-to-grow-an-ecosocialist-party-in-america-part-1/), are:

⒈ Abandon growth of gross domestic product (GDP) as a goal.
⒉ Scale back destructive and unnecessary forms of production to reduce energy and material use.
⒊ Focus economic activity around securing human needs and well-being.

If there is one unshakeable principle underlying our current devotion to capitalist growth, it is that size of financial return is the only valid criterion for making an investment decision. If that return comes at the cost of boiling the oceans or putting billions of people at risk of starvation, that is not the investor’s concern.

I believe the end of growth will finish off much of this opposition to degrowth policies, by virtue of deflating the political and economic power of those most responsible for the obstruction we see today. Only when climate change and resource depletion have rendered growth impossible will governments be ready to entertain new ways to protect the health and wellbeing of their citizens.

Today, the political stage in most western democracies is occupied by three main groups: (1) deregulation-obsessed billionaires, science deniers, and oil-industry boosters on the right, (2) a hodge-podge of “green growth” advocates in the middle who believe we can swap in renewables for fossil fuels and continue growing as in the past, and (3) a small coterie of progressives on the left who believe inequality also needs to be addressed as a contributing factor, but still embrace ongoing growth as an attainable goal.

Currently, there is no room on this stage for degrowth or post-growth advocates who see growth as the problem, not the cure, and identify over-consumption and carrying-capacity overshoot as equally important threats to human civilization. Accordingly, when degrowth ideas hit the mainstream in these countries, it’s much like a fly hitting an electric fly catcher. Pffft.

Over time, this will change. As the world gets hotter and more ecologically damaged, demand for better solutions will increase and radical change will become more acceptable to a struggling populace. When that day arrives, and previous occupants of the world’s political stage have scattered in disarray, the Ecosocialist Party must be ready to step up and provide the answers humanity needs.
________________________

My main concern with Steve's thesis is that by the time the climate crisis gets bad enough for the world to consider this proposed new direction, it might already be too late for any sort of complex society to survive. I hope I'm wrong about that. But in any case, I'm extremely grateful to Steve for providing us with all this valuable food for thought.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-12-05/why-we-need-to-grow-an-ecosocialist-party-in-america-part-2/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Degrowth

View of Earth from space, centered on Africa.
David on Formosa
3 days ago

Four articles in a row on the front page of ABC News about multiple extreme weather events currently affecting Australia highlight that were are in the midst of a climate emergency

#Australia #ClimateEmergency #ClimateCrisis #ExtremeWeather

A screenshot of the ABC News website with four articles about climate and weather events including a cyclone, heatwave and bushfires
Stingray's Badger Friend
3 days ago

My local news is pitting a woman with 3 kids versus an elderly couple over who should have train seats.

Firstly, I suspect there were other, less vulnerable people who could have given up their seats

Secondly, and most importantly, we need adequate public transport, frequent and with more than enough seats supplied, so it's not a dog eat dog fight to get the train, but a comfortable experience.

#PublicTransport
#TrainTravel
#DisabilityJustice
#pollution
#ClimateEmergency
#SocialJustice

TobeB
3 days ago

More than 100 countries support a phase out of fossil fuels, but they face stiff opposition from some countries, including Saudi Arabia, China and India.

#climateChange #climateCatastrophe #climateEmergency #climateBreakdown #tippingPoint #COP28

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/08/talks-at-cop28-set-to-intensify-in-bid-to-break-impasse-over-fossil-fuels

skry
3 days ago

“Trees planted in urban areas can provide shade and contribute to a lower air temperature. For these services to be optimal, it is important to let asphalt give way to trees, according to research from the University of Gothenburg.”

https://phys.org/news/2023-12-asphalt-stronger-trees-urban-areas.html

#ClimateEmergency

@jazzy_bellx7@mastodon.social
3 days ago

#climatechange #climatecrisis #climateemergency
This era has always fascinated me because of everything we can learn from it. We should and need to learn from it.

The Climate Canvasses of the Little Ice Age - JSTOR Daily
https://daily.jstor.org/climate-canvasses-of-the-little-ice-age/?utm_term=Read%20More&utm_campaign=jstordaily_12072023&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email

Cool story about bears eating a grey whale turns into an interesting article about climate change, grey whales, and Arctic sea ice.

https://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2023-12-05/bears-sighted-feasting-whale-carcass-hesquiaht
#ClimateChange #WestCoast #FirstNations #BC #GreyWhales #Herring #Arctic #ArcticSeaIce #ClimateEmergency #COP28

Bread and Circuses
4 days ago

Alan Urban asks, "Why Aren’t More People Collapse-Aware?"
_____________________________

In the 1990s most people expected a bright future. Global hunger was going down, standards of living were going up, and technology was rapidly advancing. It was easy to assume that scientific breakthroughs would solve any problems that came along.

But today, the collapse is so obvious, it boggles my mind how many people are still unaware. As I explained in a previous article (https://www.collapsemusings.com/the-world-has-already-ended/), pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss are worse than ever, and all signs indicate that they’ll keep getting worse at an accelerating rate. And yet, people are still out there saying, “But things are better than ever!”

Berating these people won’t help. In fact, the more you tell them about the collapse, the more they’ll dig in their heels. They may even associate the collapse with you and start avoiding or attacking you. Don’t take it personally.

You don’t have to maintain relationships with people who mistreat you, but try to be patient with those who simply don’t like talking about collapse. Instead, talk to them about other things like emergency preparedness and maintaining mental health. It’s a way to talk to them about collapse without talking about collapse, and they’ll usually be a lot more receptive.

To sum up, the three biggest reasons many people still aren’t collapse-aware despite signs of collapse all around us are: they’re brainwashed by the media; they’re distracted by work, family, and entertainment; or they’re simply afraid to face the truth.

In other words, they’re human beings. Rather than being angry with them, we should have compassion for them.
_____________________________

FULL ESSAY -- https://www.collapsemusings.com/why-arent-more-people-collapse-aware/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Bread and Circuses
4 days ago

William E. Rees is professor emeritus of human ecology and ecological economics at the University of British Columbia. He is a founding member and past-President of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics. Rees is also a Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, a co-investigator in the "Global Integrity Project" aimed at defining the ecological and political requirements for biodiversity preservation, a founding director of the One Earth Initiative, and a Director of the Real Green New Deal project.

So when William Rees says, "Our ruling elites’ inaction and lies on climate change will lead to climate turmoil, mass starvation, and general societal collapse in this century," then we had better pay attention.

In a long, detailed, and all too convincing article, Rees lays out the evidence to justify these shocking and perhaps unthinkable claims. Don't read it if you're looking for hope rather than honesty.
________________________

One thing the climate crisis underscores is that Homo sapiens are not primarily a rational species. When forced to make important decisions, particularly decisions affecting our economic security or socio-political status, primitive instinct and raw emotion tend to take the upper hand.

This is not a good thing if the fate of society is at stake. Take “hope” for example. For evolutionary reasons, humans naturally tend to be hopeful in times of stress. So gently comforting is this word, that some even endow their daughters with its name. But hope can be enervating, flat out debilitating, when it merges with mere wishful thinking — when we hope, for example, that technology alone can save us from climate change.

Keep in mind that scientists are reluctant, for professional reasons, to go far beyond the immediate data in formal publication. Moreover, organizations like the United Nations, including even its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, are so dominated by economists’ concerns and bent by political considerations that extraneous noise obscures the scientific signal.

Prominent climate scientist Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director emeritus of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, argues that, in these circumstances “a trend towards erring on the side of least drama has emerged” and “when the issue is the survival of civilization is at stake, conventional means of analysis may become useless.”

It seems that in mainstream scientific publications and official reports, the truth about climate change and the fate of civilization may be buried deeply between the lines.
________________________

FULL ARTICLE -- https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/09/18/Climate-Crisis-Wipe-Out/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Collapse

Bread and Circuses
4 days ago

From Tom Engelhardt, we get this disturbing (but apt) comparison of the Gaza crisis to our planetary climate/ecology crisis...
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Humanity in its time on Earth has already come up with two distinct ways of destroying this planet and everything on it. The first is, of course, nuclear weapons, which once again surfaced in the ongoing nightmare in the Middle East. (An Israeli minister recently threatened to nuke Gaza.) The second is what we’ve come to call “climate change” or “global warming” — the burning, that is, of fossil fuels to desperately overheat our already flaming world. In its own fashion, that could be considered a slow-motion version of the nuking of the planet.

Put another way, in some grim sense, all of us now live in Gaza. Most of us just don’t know it yet.

If you actually do live in Gaza, your life is now officially hell on Earth. Your home has been destroyed, your family members wounded or killed, the hospital you fled to decimated. And that story, sadly enough, has been leading the news day after day for weeks now. But in the process, in some sense even more sadly, the deepest hell of our time has largely disappeared from sight.

I’m thinking about the urge to turn our whole planet into a long-term, slow-motion version of Gaza, to almost literally set it ablaze and destroy it as a habitable place for humanity and so many other species.

In the midst of the ongoing Middle Eastern catastrophe, the latest study by James Hanson, the scientist who first sounded the climate alarm to Congress back in the 1980s, appeared. The study suggested that our planet is heating even more rapidly than expected. The key temperature danger mark, set only eight years ago at the Paris climate agreement, 1.5 degrees Centigrade above the pre-industrial level, could easily be reached not in 2050 or 2040, but by 2030.

Meanwhile, another recent study suggests that humanity’s “carbon budget” — that is, the amount of carbon we can put into the atmosphere while keeping global temperature rise at or under that 1.5-degree mark — is now officially going to hell in a handbasket.
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FULL ESSAY -- https://tomdispatch.com/a-slow-motion-gaza/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Nighttime scene of trees and buildings burning in a southern California wildfire from 2022.
Bread and Circuses
4 days ago

Australian Geographic recently published “Antarctica: a continent in crisis” — a special report on how Antarctica is already responding to a warming world.

This is a heartbreakingly sad yet beautifully presented summary of the ongoing and deepening crisis at the bottom of the world.

A short excerpt is below, and I encourage you to read the whole thing.
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A document signed by hundreds of scientists from 20 different countries calls for urgent and immediate action to stem what is occurring at Earth’s remote, most southerly region:

“Antarctica is currently experiencing dramatic changes at unprecedented rates, marked by repeated extreme events. These include heatwaves with temperatures soaring up to 40ºC above the average. Both last summer and this winter, sea-ice extent has reached record lows. These changes have happened even faster than scientists predicted.

“This is a critical moment, impacting our well-being, future generations and ecosystems globally. Confronted by this evidence, we urgently call on nations to intensify and exceed their current commitments to greenhouse gas emissions reductions.”
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2023/12/antarctica-a-continent-in-crisis/

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Several dozen Adélie penguins gather on rocks on an island near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
TobeB
4 days ago

Diverting the trillions of dollars by which the world subsidises fossil fuel production each year, and putting an implicit price on carbon emissions, would generate the vast amounts of cash needed to tackle the climate crisis, the head of the International Monetary Fund has said.

#climateChange #climateCatastrophe #climateEmergency #climateBreakdown #tippingPoint

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/07/carbon-pricing-would-raise-trillions-needed-to-tackle-climate-crisis-says-imf

Ian
4 days ago

What are YOUR feelings on the role of civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action in provoking actual change with respect to the climate emergency?

….and if you do approve of these actions, how disobedient and how nonviolent and what strategies do you believe are needed?

(please boost if you would like to promote conversation on this topic)

#climateChange #climateEmergency @breadandcircuses

Bread and Circuses
4 days ago

In my previous post (https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/111535481575261618) we looked at a report suggesting reforms in global climate governance, and I said it did not go quite far enough.

So, what would I really like to see?

Here's part of an opinion piece from Emilia Reyes at openDemocracy that begins to answer the question...
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"Solving the climate crisis means ending our addiction to economic growth"

With the Global North responsible for 92% of the world’s excess carbon dioxide emissions and 74% of excess material use (half of which is extracted from the Global South), it’s clear the current ecological crisis is the responsibility of the industrialised economies.

The source of the problem lies in the very economic system that prioritises economic growth, profit, and wealth accumulation over the wellbeing of people and the planet. The blind pursuit of exponential economic growth has propelled economic decision making. But exponential economic growth brings about exponential extraction and exponential deepening of inequalities.

Governments of industrialised economies have presented ‘green new deals’ (GNDs) as the solution. But their aims and measures are reinforcing the economic structures that rely on colonial extraction in the Global South. Building the entire infrastructure of the so-called energy transition proposed by GNDs will require a new wave of extraction of rare and critical minerals. This level of extraction will devastate entire ecosystems, primarily in the Global South, and alter the ecological balance globally. It will also create racist sacrifice zones everywhere.

Global North countries instead need to transition into a post-growth economy. The way to achieve this is through a conscientious and planned process of degrowth. Degrowth questions the premise that profits matter more than people and ecological balance.

In practice, this means investing in processes of production and consumption that are geared towards the needs of a diverse world, moving away from our current system of wastefulness and scarcity — where we make decisions about what and where to extract, how to produce, and for whom, based on what is really needed to deliver the wellbeing of people and the planet.
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FULL ESSAY -- https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/cop28-global-north-global-south-economic-growth-decolonise/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Degrowth

Nine "Principles of Degrowth" are described, with cartoon symbols for each of them. The principles are sustainability, circularity, cooperation, useful production, sharing, local production, work-life balance, relational goods, and joie de vivre.
Bread and Circuses
5 days ago

An international group of experts, the Climate Governance Commission, has issued a 120-page report titled "Governing Our Planetary Emergency."

Although their proposals don't quite go far enough in my view, at least it would be a start — and a HELL of a lot better than what we’re doing right now.

This is from the Executive Summary...
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The world faces a deepening planetary emergency — and is on a reckless path toward runaway, catastrophic climate change — having already overshot six of nine scientifically identified Planetary Boundaries.

This human interference in the life-supporting functions of our planet have already caused intense suffering and heightened inequality through extreme heat, desertification, frequent and fierce flooding and storm surges, among other factors.

At this unique juncture in human history, we likely have at best only six to seven years to execute the far-reaching actions needed to avert the worst of this unprecedented emergency. The world has an extremely limited global carbon budget and a rapidly diminishing time-frame to attempt to stabilize global temperatures as near to 1.5°C as possible.

In fact, even in the absolute best case scenario over the next decades, if the world takes bold and decisive climate action, we will still likely break through the 1.5°C temperature limitation by about 2035, the consequences of which are anticipated to take decades to correct, with uncertain outcomes dependent on various unknowns.
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We have a very long way to go if we're actually hoping to turn things around. And as I say, this may not be all I would like, but it's a good start.

FULL REPORT [PDF] -- https://www.stimson.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Governing-Our-Planetary-Emergency-Report_WEB-1.pdf

SEE ALSO -- https://www.democracywithoutborders.org/30476/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Front cover of the report.
Simon Brooke
5 days ago

Of course you all already knew that all this shit about #CarbonTrading and #CarbonOffsetting was never about anything but fraud and greed. Of course you were angry about Brewdog et al's theft of land in Scotland, and #ScotGov's complicity in it. But have you thought about the consequences of that for the #GlobalSouth?

Listen to this and RAGE!

#ClimateEmergency

https://anchor.fm/s/549ede24/podcast/play/79592902/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-11-5%2Ffce76746-be57-9c05-4464-333aa7e9d863.mp3

Groschenromanautorin
5 days ago

@Sheril

It seems to be more and more a #Greenwashing annual fair for rich kids toys, too, regarding there had been a panel named "responsible yachting"🤡

No, the #cop28 is obviously not the place, where the real problems of the ones with less money and most affected from #ClimateEmergency are taken serious.

#EatTheRich

BellingenNSW
5 days ago

Earth on verge of five catastrophic climate tipping points, scientists warn

“Tipping points in the Earth system pose threats of a magnitude never faced by humanity,”
Tim Lenton, from the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute.

"They can trigger devastating domino effects, including the loss of whole ecosystems and capacity to grow staple crops, with societal impacts including mass displacement, political instability and financial collapse. The tipping points at risk include the collapse of big ice sheets in Greenland and the West Antarctic, the widespread thawing of permafrost, the death of coral reefs in warm waters, and the collapse of atmospheric circulation in the North Atlantic."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/06/earth-on-verge-of-five-catastrophic-tipping-points-scientists-warn
#ClimateEmergency #OutOfControl #FossilFuels #pollution #BusinessAsUsual #MassDisplacement #DominoEffects

Beardy Star Stuff
6 days ago

I woke this morning with a question in my mind about my great grand parents or even my grand parents. Or perhaps other ancestors who are now gone from this world. What would they have to say about the state of things today? In particular, what would they say about the climate emergency?

It’s increasingly clear that we have remain on the wrong course for too long and that we will continue along this path even longer. The most optimistic projections...

#ClimateEmergency

https://beardystarstuff.net/2023/12/05/i-woke-this.html

Bread and Circuses
6 days ago

The super-rich are killing us. Not just figuratively, but literally.
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Climate change is overwhelmingly a problem of wealthy people. The wealthiest 1% of humanity produce over 1,000 times the emissions of the poorest 1%. In fact, these 77 million people are responsible for more climate-changing emissions than the poorest 66% (5 billion people) of humanity.

Since 1990, the personal emissions of the world’s wealthiest have exploded. They are now 77 times larger than the level that would be compatible with a 1.5°C warming limit.

Who are these super-polluters? The richest 1% are billionaires, millionaires and people earning over US$140,000 (£110,000). The threshold to join the rarefied club of the top 10% is US$41,000 (£32,000), including most of the middle class in wealthier countries.

But the super-rich are responsible for climate change well beyond consumption-based emissions. The super-rich, by and large, run major companies, direct investments and shape national and international laws. They have an oversized and controlling impact on our media and public opinion, including through advertising and ownership of media outlets. And they directly shape policy through lobbying and paid-for influence.

While their money and power make them overwhelmingly responsible for climate change, they are also insulated from the worst impacts. They are less affected by increased food prices and climate disasters, can afford insurance and to move from one place to another, and have greater resources to draw on in times of crisis.

It is the poorest – those least responsible for climate changing emissions – who suffer the most. They suffer higher losses, live in the most impacted regions, and have little to no access to savings, public support or welfare when crisis strikes. They are also least able to exercise their rights as they are the least powerful and less well represented politically.

It would take approximately 1,500 years for someone in the bottom 99% to produce as much carbon as a single billionaire does in a year.
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The choice is very simple. Either we can have a livable biosphere or we can have billionaires. But we can't have both.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://theconversation.com/emissions-inequality-is-getting-worse-heres-how-to-end-the-reign-of-the-ultra-polluters-218308

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism

Simon Brooke
6 days ago

"This includes serial anti-environment whinger Fergus Ewing spouting anti-heat pump lines that sound like major housebuilders’ rhetoric"

#WeNeedToTalkAboutFergus
#ScotPol
#ClimateEmergency

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/heat-pumps-are-new-battleground-for-those-opposed-to-climate-change-action-dr-richard-dixon-4432822

TobeB
6 days ago

The world is on track to have burned more coal, oil and gas in 2023 than it did in 2022, according to a report by the Global Carbon Project, pumping 1.1% more planet-heating carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a time when emissions must plummet to stop extreme weather from growing more violent.

#climateChange #climateCatastrophe #climateEmergency #climateBreakdown #tippingPoint

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/global-carbon-emissions-fossil-fuels-record

Beardy Star Stuff
6 days ago

"Carbon emissions may continue to rise, the polar ice caps may continue to melt, crop yields may continue to decline, the world’s forests may continue to burn, coastal cities may continue to sink under rising seas and droughts may continue to wipe out fertile farmlands, but the messiahs of hope assure us that all will be right in the end. Only it won’t.” — Chris Hedges

#ClimateEmergency
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/09/18/Climate-Crisis-Wipe-Out/

BellingenNSW
6 days ago
BellingenNSW
6 days ago

Logging and koalas do not mix
Spoiler: End native forest logging altogether, seek World Heritage protection for these forests.

"Koalas cannot read maps, and do not understand human zoning. If their habitat in plantations is cleared, they die – just as we’ve seen in Victoria, where deaths of koalas in blue gum plantations have made national news."

"For a koala-protecting National Park to actually protect koalas, it must be based on the identification and reservation of high value habitat – such as hardwood plantations. If we leave all plantations out, some of the best habitat in the park will continue to be logged. Without plantations, the park will be filled with holes, severing critical corridors and hampering the movement of koalas."

What should we do?
"We have to restore the areas lost to logging and the Black Summer bushfires and flag more forested areas for inclusion – especially unburnt habitat. And the government has to end logging within the proposed park area. If we want a viable alternative, the government should begin new plantations outside the park area and buy out existing logging contracts inside the park. Logging and koalas do not mix."

"We should give up on the idea of protecting koala “hubs”. Instead, we should prioritise the protection of koala populations unaffected by fire and in untouched forest areas wherever they are, whether inside or outside of these hubs.
Every bit of habitat on public land should be ruled in, as this is what counts, not zoning. Local communities – not just the forest industry and environment groups – need to be included in negotiations. The government should also consider community efforts to seek World Heritage protection for these forests."
Tim Cadman, Danielle Clode
>>
https://theconversation.com/a-home-among-the-gum-trees-will-the-great-koala-national-park-actually-save-koalas-217276
#conservation #logging #Koalas #LoggingIndustry #NSWForestry #extinction #SaveTuckersNob ##restoration WorldHeritage #Biodiversity #ClimateEmergency #EndNativeForestLogging

Simon Brooke
1 week ago

@drivingforce Look, he isn't talking about cancelling the nuclear submarines, so don't talk bollocks.

#ClimateEmergency definitely kills us all; it is the number one security priority of any sane politician. Noclear war is unlikely to happen, and if we don't have nuclear weapons we're unlikely to be a target.