The likely outcomes of the current climate crisis :: Revision 1
The likely outcomes of the current climate crisis
I am webmaster of https://onaquietday.org. Here I am speculating on the likely outcomes of the current climate crisis. Please regard this post as draft and subject to change, revision or elaboration.
Writing in June 2023, the current situation is that the climate crisis is generally accepted as real, there are very few climate sceptics and instead there are mostly right-wing politicians but also others that campaign to stifle or delay meaningful climate action, the fossil fuel industry who are largely responsible for the climate crisis continuing to destroy the planet and profiteer in the process, scientists and others pleading for climate action. Extreme weather events are experienced worldwide which are expected to continue increasing, the 1.5 degree C goal of the Paris Agreement is likely to be passed within a few years.
There is currently some hostility to climate activists like Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil. I attribute this to the influence of the right-wing corporate press – GB News, Rupert Murdoch and Viscount Rothermere amoung others. As the climate is further damaged – and there’s only one way it’s going – the influence of these cnuts is likely to diminish as people recognise the shite they spew as exactly that.
People will come to realise that politicians and the tiny ruling elite that they serve have failed them as they experience more and harsher climate impacts actually over the next few years. Who will they turn to then? It’s obvious, isn’t it? We’re either going to end up co-operating to address the climate crisis or with authoritarianism protecting a tiny elite denying it.
While authoritarian actions are the current response and authoritarian parties are progressing in Europe, I regard this as temporary. Climate destruction affects everyone and people will come to realise that they must unite to defeat the climate destroyers. The only issue is that the longer it takes, the more damage our World suffers.
The likely outcomes of the current climate crisis
I am dizzy deep (not my real name and I seem to have many names ;), webmaster of https://onaquietday.org. Here I am speculating on the likely outcomes of the current climate crisis. Please regard this post as draft and subject to change.
Writing in June 2023, the current situation is that the climate crisis is generally accepted as real, there are very few climate sceptics and instead there are mostly right-wing politicians but also others that campaign to stifle or delay meaningful climate action, the fossil fuel industry who are largely responsible for the climate crisis continuing to destroy the planet and profiteer in the process, scientists and others pleading for climate action. Extreme weather events are experienced worldwide which are expected to continue increasing, the 1.5 degree C goal of the Paris Agreement is likely to be passed within a few years.
There is currently some hostility to climate activists like Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil. I attribute this to the influence of the right-wing corporate press – GB News, Rupert Murdoch and Viscount Rothermere amoung others. As the climate is further damaged – and there’s only one way it’s going – the influence of these cnuts is likely to diminish as people recognise the shite they spew as exactly that.
People will come to realise that politicians and the ruling elite that they serve have failed them as they experience more and harsher climate impacts actually over the next few years. Who will they turn to then? It’s obvious, isn’t it? We’re either going to end up co-operating to address the climate crisis or authoritarianism denying it. Authoritarianism is unlikely since it affects so many people and there is not a scapegoat other than the rich. I regard this as inevitable, the only issue is that the longer it takes, the more damage is done to our World.
500+ Groups Say Biden Has ‘No Place’ at Climate Ambition Summit Until He Halts New Oil Projects
By JAKE JOHNSON Jun 15, 2023
Original article republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“Regardless of how the White House spins President Biden’s actions, he cannot be a climate leader while continuing to expand fossil fuels.”
More than 500 advocacy groups from six continents urged U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday to declare a climate emergency and halt the further expansion of fossil fuel production ahead of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ September 20 Climate Ambition Summit in New York City.
Such a step, the groups wrote in a letter to Biden and the heads of key U.S. federal agencies, would help make the nation “a first mover in ending the fossil fuel era to right a legacy of historic harms and prevent global climate catastrophe.”
“You cannot claim legitimacy as a domestic or global leader if you continue to speed the destruction of the planet,” reads the letter, which was signed by 350.org, Oil Change International, Climate Action Network Zimbabwe, Fridays For Future South Asia, and hundreds of other groups from more than 60 countries.
“It’s time for the United States to answer the call to protect the future of the planet and use its unparalleled power to show what real climate leadership looks like,” the letter continues, specifically calling on the Biden administration to reject all federal permits for new fossil fuel projects, revoke any “illegally granted” permits for fossil fuel projects, use its authority to limit U.S. oil and gas exports, and declare a climate emergency.
The groups issued their demands shortly after climate campaigners, including signatories of the new letter, announced plans for a global mass mobilization ahead of Guterres’ summit and the subsequent COP28 conference in the United Arab Emirates.
Allie Rosenbluth, U.S. program co-manager at Oil Change International, said Thursday that Biden’s “approach to the climate crisis is nothing short of hypocritical,” noting that the U.S. under his leadership remains “the world’s top oil and gas producer and exporter and is planning the largest expansion in oil and gas production over the next decade.”
To the dismay of climate advocates and scientists, the Biden administration has worked to advance several major oil and gas initiatives in recent weeks, including the Willow Project in Alaska and the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia.
“Every new fossil fuel project is incompatible with a livable future,” said Rosenbluth. “As the world’s biggest historic polluter, the U.S. has a responsibility to lead a global and just transition away from fossil fuels. Voters are not going to ignore Biden’s disastrous climate record unless he starts keeping his climate promises and paves the way for a sustainable future to avert further climate disaster.”
“The world desperately needs Biden to start living up to his rhetoric and address the root cause of the climate crisis.”
The new letter takes key federal agencies to task for failing to act in line with the president’s climate rhetoric, which has deemed runaway planetary warming “an existential threat.”
“Your Department of the Interior should be overseeing a fast and justly managed decline of fossil fuel production. Yet, your administration is actively expanding fossil fuel infrastructure,” the letter states. “It is approving new drilling permits at a faster rate than the previous administration.”
“Your Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration should be rejecting deepwater port permits for mega-polluting crude oil export facilities,” the letter continues. “Your Department of Energy should be a firewall against a flurry of over 20 gas export terminals proposed by industry across the Gulf coast, which could lead to over 1.1 billion metric tons of new emissions. Agencies like your Army Corps of Engineers continue to approve key permits for fossil fuel mega-projects despite clear legal mandates to protect the public interest.”
When he announced the Climate Ambition Summit late last year, Guterres said there is a “non-negotiable” price of entry for world leaders that wish to attend: “credible, serious, and new climate action and nature-based solutions that will move the needle forward and respond to the urgency of the climate crisis must be presented.”
“It will be a no-nonsense summit. No exceptions. No compromises,” he added at the time. “There will be no room for back-sliders, greenwashers, blame-shifters, or repackaging of announcements of previous years.”
Nicole Ghio, senior fossil fuels program manager at Friends of the Earth, said Thursday that unless Biden quickly changes course, “there should be no place for him” at the summit.
“Regardless of how the White House spins President Biden’s actions, he cannot be a climate leader while continuing to expand fossil fuels,” said Nicole Ghio, senior fossil fuels program manager at Friends of the Earth. “The world desperately needs Biden to start living up to his rhetoric and address the root cause of the climate crisis.”
Original article republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
As World Leaders Dither, Climate Coalition Announces Global Mobilization to ‘End Fossil Fuels
By JAKE JOHNSON Jun 15, 2023
Original article republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“The climate crisis is escalating but so is the global movement for climate justice. We need all hands on deck to win this fight.”
As the United Nations climate talks in Bonn, Germany became the latest in a string of high-profile negotiations to end with little substantive progress, a coalition of environmental groups on Thursday announced plans for a global mobilization that organizers say will bring millions into the streets to demand an end to planet-wrecking fossil fuel production.
The worldwide protests are set to take place on September 15 and 17, days ahead of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ September 20 Climate Ambition Summit in New York City and weeks before the crucial COP28 talks in the United Arab Emirates, which will be overseen by the CEO of one of the world’s largest oil companies.
“The launch of today’s escalation campaign to fight back against fossil fuels builds on the legacy of a diversity of resistance movements from across the world who have been leading the fight against the fossil industry and its pernicious influence,” said Tasneem Essop, executive director of the Climate Action Network. “We expect all governments to implement a rapid, just, and equitable phaseout of fossil fuels together with a scaled-up phase-in of renewables.”
“They have to signal that this is the end of the fossil fuel era,” Essop added. “COP28 is a good place to start.”
“We expect all governments to implement a rapid, just, and equitable phaseout of fossil fuels together with a scaled-up phase-in of renewables.”
The coalition behind the mass mobilization invited people around the world to register local events and issued a list of straightforward demands that they say political leaders must embrace if there’s to be any hope of curbing runaway warming.
“The climate crisis is escalating but so is the global movement for climate justice,” the coalition says on its website. “We need all hands on deck to win this fight.”
The six demands are as follows:
1. No new fossil fuels—no new finance public or private, no new approvals, licenses, permits, or extensions. The provision of sufficient, consensual climate funding to realize this commitment everywhere.
2. A rapid, just, and equitable phaseout of existing fossil fuel infrastructure in line with the 1.5°C temperature limit and a global plan, like a Fossil Fuel Treaty, to ensure that each country does its part.
3. New commitments for international cooperation to drastically scale up financial and technology transfers to ensure renewable energy access, economic diversification plans, and Just Transition processes so that every country and community can phase out fossil fuels.
4. Stop greenwashing and claiming that offsets, carbon capture and storage, or geoengineering are solutions to the climate crisis.
5. Hold polluters responsible for the damage they’ve caused and make sure it’s coal, oil, and gas corporations that pay reparations for climate loss and damage and for local rehabilitation, remediation, and transition.
6. End fossil fuel corporate capture. No to corporations writing the rules of climate action, bankrolling climate talks, or undermining the global response to climate change.
Brenna TwoBears, coordinator of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said in a statement Thursday that “the time is now to end fossil fuels.”
“This has been centuries in the making, when colonizers brought the first extractive systems to Turtle Island and commodified the land,” she added. “But shutting down fossil fuels is only one strand among many to weave a basket to hold up the next seven generations. We need a just and equitable transition, where Indigenous people are leading. We need a culture shift to live in balance with our sky and land relatives. We need real solutions that address the problem at its root, not after the fact. A fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty is that real solution.”
Plans for the global days of action come amid growing frustration and alarm among climate advocates and scientists over world leaders’ continued failure to deliver any meaningful action to phase out fossil fuel use and production—the central driver of the planetary emergency—even as carbon emissions keep rising at a record pace and extreme weather wreaks havoc across the globe.
COP27 in Egypt late last year did not yield any meaningful progress toward a global fossil fuel phaseout, and campaigners feel COP28 is also poised to fail given the still-pervasive influence of the oil and gas industry and rich nations’ refusal to act.
Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, COP28’s president-designate, is the CEO of the UAE’s state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
The Guardian reported last week that “Majid Al Suwaidi, director-general of the COP28 climate talks for its host nation… said governments were not in agreement over whether the phaseout of fossil fuels should be on the agenda for the conference, which begins in November.”
“Al Suwaidi said fossil fuels would form a key part of the discussions at COP28,” the newspaper added, “but whether a phaseout would be discussed as part of the official agenda of the talks was still up for grabs.”
Romain Ioualalen, the global policy lead for Oil Change International, emphasized Thursday that “there is no room for additional fossil fuel expansion while limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C” and implored world leaders to “urgently lay the path for the end of oil, gas, and coal” at COP28.
“People around the world have been fighting against the fossil fuel industry for years and will escalate this fight this September at the United Nations in New York and beyond to secure a full, fair, fast, and funded fossil fuel phaseout and massive expansion of renewable energy,” said Ioualalen.
Original article republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).