Daily Archives: 15 September 2023

‘End Fossil Fuels’ Protests Kick Off Worldwide Ahead of UN Climate Ambition Summit

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Original article by JESSICA CORBETT republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London.
Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London. (Photo: Handout/Chris J. Ratcliffe for Greenpeace via Getty Images)

“Climate catastrophe is already devastating the lives and livelihoods of people across the world and primarily those in the Global South, who are least responsible for causing it,” said one campaigner.

Hundreds of demonstrations around the world demanding “a rapid, just, and equitable phaseout from fossil fuels in favor of sustainable renewables” began Friday ahead of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ Climate Ambition Summit in New York City next week.

“From Pacific nations, heavily affected by sea-level rise and storms, through Mumbai to Manila, London to Nairobi, over 650 actions are planned in 60 countries, culminating in a march in New York City on September 17,” according to protest organizers.

The Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels “opposes the fossil fuel industry, which has made obscene profits at the expense of the world’s people, biodiversity, and a safe and livable climate,” added organizers, who expect millions to join the protests over the coming days. “It calls on governments and companies to immediately end fossil fuel expansion and subsidies.”

Demonstrators, journalists, and supporters shared footage from Friday’s actions on social media with the hashtag #EndFossilFuels.

The actions come amid the hottest summer on record and as experts continue to sound the alarm over unwavering environmental destruction, especially by the fossil fuel industry and its political and financial backers.

International scientists revealed this week that six of nine barriers that ensure Earth is a “safe operating space for humanity” have been breached, which followed recent findings that greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea level, and ocean heat content hit record highs last year.

Climate chaos—fueled by oil and gas giants that have spend decades lying about their planet-heating pollution along with rich governments and institutions that continue to break their promises and pump billions of dollars into the fossil fuel industry—is already killing people. The death toll from flooding in Libya this week has climbed to 11,300.

“The world is at a tipping point,” said Tyrone Scott of the War on Want and the Climate Justice Coalition in the United Kingdom ahead of protests this weekend. “Climate catastrophe is already devastating the lives and livelihoods of people across the world and primarily those in the Global South, who are least responsible for causing it.”

“We must uproot the systems of exploitation and oppression which keep the majority of the world’s population in poverty while lining the pockets of corporates and rich shareholders. This is a watershed moment. How we respond will determine how the world is shaped for generations,” Scott stressed. “We demand an end to fossil fuels. We demand a fast and fair transition. We demand climate justice.”

Tens of thousands of activists from across the United States are expected to join the March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City on Sunday. Marchers—backed by hundreds of organizations and scientists—have four key demands for President Joe Biden:

  • Stop federal approval for new fossil fuel projects and repeal permits for climate bombs like the Willow project and the Mountain Valley Pipeline;
  • Phase out fossil drilling on our public lands and waters;
  • Declare a climate emergency to halt fossil fuel exports and investments abroad, and turbocharge the buildout of more just, resilient distributed energy (like rooftop and community solar); and
  • Provide a just transition to a renewable energy future that generates millions of jobs while supporting workers’ and community rights, job security, and employment equity.

“Despite his numerous and explicit pledges to the contrary, President Biden has turned out to be a strong supporter of fossil fuels,” Food & Water Watch Northeast region director Alex Beauchamp, an organizer of the NYC march, said in a statement Friday.

“With each passing day, Biden’s failure to lead on clean energy drives the planet deeper into the abyss of irrevocable climate chaos,” he added. “We’re marching to send a message that true climate leadership means halting new oil and gas drilling and fracking, and rejecting new fossil fuel infrastructure like pipelines and export terminals—beginning now.”

Betamia Coronel, senior national organizer for climate justice at the Center for Popular Democracy, highlighted in a Friday opinion piece for Common Dreams that “BIPOC communities have always lived at the intersection of wealth disparity and the climate crisis,” and “it is Black, Indigenous, immigrant, working-class people of color who have been leading the efforts in the lead up to this historic march in NYC.”

Dozens of actors, activists, and climate leaders—including Bill McKibben, Blair Imani, Cornel West, Jameela Jamil, Jane Fonda, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Naomi Klein, Rosario Dawson, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Rebecca Solnit, and Vanessa Nakate—joined more than 700 groups on Friday in sending a pre-march letter to the U.S. president.

“The U.S. is the top global oil and gas producer and the largest historic greenhouse gas emitter. It is imperative that the U.S. change course and become a true global climate leader by ending the extraction and use of fossil fuels,” they wrote, urging Biden to commit to phasing out fossil fuels at the U.N. summit on September 20. “The world is watching.”

Biden has also faced mounting pressure to declare a climate emergency this year, as the United States has endured a record-setting number of billion-dollar disasters, from a deadly fire in Hawaii to Hurricane Idalia. Since last week, eight campaigners have been arrested outside the White House for a series of protests demanding a climate emergency declaration and other executive action to end the era of fossil fuels.

Organizers planned to continue the nonviolent civil disobedience campaign in Washington, D.C. on Friday, and warned that “each day Biden delays in taking this step is precious time lost to save lives and secure a livable future for humankind and countless other species.”

Original article by JESSICA CORBETT republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue Reading‘End Fossil Fuels’ Protests Kick Off Worldwide Ahead of UN Climate Ambition Summit

400+ Actions to End Fossil Fuels Planned Around the World for Sept. 15-17

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Scientists protest at UK Parliament 5 September 2023.
Scientists protest at UK Parliament 5 September 2023.

Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

“When we the people use our collective power we can win,” said one campaigner.

“September 15-17, 2023. Everywhere.”

Those are the dates and location of the international mobilization against fossil fuels set to take place this coming weekend, and the last word is hardly an exaggeration as organizers with the Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels report that more than 400 actions, marches, rallies, and other events have already been registered around the world.

More than 780 organizations have endorsed the day of action—up from 500 less than a week ago—and millions of participants are expected to rally from Cape Town, South Africa to Manila, Philippines and Lahore, Pakistan, as well as in dozens of cities and towns across the United States, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in history.

The protests are scheduled just before the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, taking place on September 20 in New York, where groups including the NAACP, Sierra Club, and Sunrise Movement are supporting the March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17.

More than 10,000 people are expected to march in New York to demand that U.S. President Joe Biden end federal approvals for new fossil fuel projects like the Willow drilling project in Alaska and phase out oil and gas drilling in federal lands and waters; declare a climate emergency to unlock resources to accelerate the transition to renewable energy; and provide a just transition that creates millions of green jobs while supporting people who have worked in the fossil fuel industry.

“President Biden is in an unparalleled position to lead the world toward cleaner, less polluting energy options and eliminate the dependence on dangerous fossil fuels,” said organizers of the New York march. “If he takes action, he will protect our health, boost our economy, and tackle the climate crisis head-on.”

The March to End Fossil Fuels is backed by advocates including author Naomi Klein, 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, actor and Third Act leader Jane Fonda, and lawmakers including U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).

On Monday, scientists including Lucky Tran of the March for Science and biologist Sandra Steingraber announced that 300 climate experts had signed their letter to Biden reminding him that “a broad scientific consensus exists” that fossil fuel extraction must be drawn down immediately to keep global heating below 1.5°C.

The scientists plan to release the letter with all signatures ahead of Sunday’s march.

The global mobilization—and the Climate Ambition Summit, where leaders of countries that emit the most heat-trapping gases will be expected to present updated plans to reduce their emissions and phase out fossil fuels—comes after a summer in the Northern Hemisphere in which numerous temperature records were broken.

As Common Dreams reported last week, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “climate breakdown has begun” when U.S. scientists found the summer was the hottest on record. Scientists have said that extreme weather events such as wildfires in Canada and heatwaves in the U.S. and Europe in recent months would not have happened without human-caused planetary heating.

Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network, emphasized that popular uprisings against the fossil fuel industry and the politicians that continue to support it have found success, such as the campaign that pushed Ecuadorians to vote against drilling in the Yasuní National Park in the Amazon last month.

“July 2023 was the hottest month in recorded climate history,” said Essop. “The unparalleled, deadly climate disasters sweeping the world seem to leave polluters unfazed. Historical emitters like Norway, the U.K., and the USA are announcing new fossil fuel projects even as floods, fires, and heatwaves take over our lives. We take inspiration from recent victories in the Yasuní region with the referendum to stop oil drilling.”

“When we the people use our collective power we can win,” Essop added. “Let our resistance against fossil fuels in September send a loud message to the fossil fuel industry and their supporters that their time is up.”

Outside of the U.S., more than 3,000 people are expected to join the Pakistan Climate March in the southern Sidh province; 100,000 are expected to join a march in Abuja, Nigeria; and 3,000 are expected to march near Malacañang Palace in Manila.

“We demand a phaseout of fossil fuels now,” said Farooq Tariq, secretary-general of Kissan Rabita Committee in Pakistan. “The fossil fuel industry and its supporters bear responsibility for the climate crisis and perpetuate a predatory and destructive economic system that harms both people and the planet.”

Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue Reading400+ Actions to End Fossil Fuels Planned Around the World for Sept. 15-17

‘Time to Make Them Pay’: Internal Docs Further Expose Exxon Efforts to Spread Climate Lies

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

“Climate change isn’t just a tragedy, it’s a crime,” said one climate campaigner in response to documents reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Previously unreported documents published on the front page of The Wall Street Journal Thursday show that ExxonMobil continued to work behind closed doors to cast doubt on climate science, even after the company publicly acknowledged the link between fossil fuel-driven greenhouse gas emissions and climate change in 2006.

The documents—which detail email exchanges between executives, board meeting conversations, and other company proceedings—reveal that during his tenure as CEO, Rex Tillerson joined other Exxon leaders in questioning “the severity of climate change’s impacts,” the Journal reported.

The company’s scientists, meanwhile, “supported research that questioned the findings of mainstream climate science” despite Exxon’s pledge to stop bankrolling think tanks and other groups peddling climate denial.

After scientists with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sounded the alarm in 2011 about the potentially devastating global impacts of runaway warming, Tillerson told a leading Exxon researcher that the IPCC’s warning was “not credible” and complained about the media’s coverage of the potentially dire scenario, according to documents reviewed by the Journal.

“Tillerson wanted to engage with IPCC ‘to influence [the group], in addition to gathering info,'” the newspaper reported.

Tillerson also dismissed the Paris Climate Agreement’s 2°C warming target as “something magical” shortly before Exxon endorsed the accord.

“As communities pay an ever-greater price for our worsening climate crisis, it’s more clear than ever that Exxon must be held accountable to pay for the harm it has caused.”

Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement that “this damning new evidence of Exxon’s climate lies shows that for decades it has been official company policy for executives to undermine climate science, minimize the dangers of their oil and gas business, and protect company profits at all costs—with no concern for the catastrophic impact their actions would have on humanity.”

Wiles argued that the documents reported by the Journal provide more evidence for the dozens of states, cities, and counties that are currently suing Exxon and other fossil fuel giants over their decades-long effort to deceive the public about climate change.

“As communities pay an ever-greater price for our worsening climate crisis,” said Wiles, “it’s more clear than ever that Exxon must be held accountable to pay for the harm it has caused.”

The new reporting could also heighten pressure on the Biden Justice Department to join the legal fight against Big Oil.

In late July, a group of progressive U.S. senators led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) urged the DOJ to sue fossil fuel giants for violating “federal racketeering laws, truth in advertising laws, consumer protection laws, and potentially other laws.”

It has long been public knowledge that Exxon, the largest oil and gas company in the United States, was aware of the climate impacts of its business model well before it admitted the link between fossil fuels and climate change.

A peer-reviewed study published earlier this year in the journal Science shows that Exxon’s own internal data between 1977 and 2003 contradicted the company’s public statements downplaying and questioning the veracity of climate science.

The Journal‘s reporting confirms that Exxon did not stop working to sow doubt about climate change after it conceded for the first time in 2006 that “the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere poses risks that may prove significant for society and ecosystems.”

“In 2008, Exxon announced it would stop funding think tanks and other groups that questioned climate science, saying their positions ‘could divert attention from the important discussion on how the world will secure the energy required for economic growth in an environmentally responsible manner,'” the Journal noted.

But internal company documents show that “Exxon researchers continued to support scientific research that cast doubt on climate science and its impacts,” the newspaper reported.

The same year the company vowed to stop funding climate-denial organizations, Exxon’s manager of global regulatory affairs said that “Exxon should direct a scientist to help the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s influential lobbying group, write a paper about climate science uncertainty.”

Jamie Henn, the director of Fossil Free Media, called the Journal‘s reporting “another massive exposé of Exxon’s strategy to attack climate science and block action.”

“Climate change isn’t just a tragedy,” Henn added, “it’s a crime.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue Reading‘Time to Make Them Pay’: Internal Docs Further Expose Exxon Efforts to Spread Climate Lies