Greenpeace claimed Mr Sunak will “go down in history” as failing on climate change, amid fresh concern about the Tory leader’s frequent use of high-polluting travel and approach to net zero.
Rish! ‘Biggles’ Sunak: The most effective use of your time is to make a phone call or a video conference call instead of destroying the planet like the uncaring, planet-trashing cnut we all know that you are.
The wildfires offer the latest evidence that President Joe Biden must declare a climate emergency, said one progressive economist.
With weather experts pointing to unusually dry conditions on the Hawaiian island of Maui that primed the area for the wildfires that have killed at least 36 people so far, climate advocates on Thursday said the devastation offers the latest evidence that U.S. President Joe Biden must declare a national climate emergency.
Major General Kenneth Hara, the top defense official in Hawaii, said early Thursday that the wildfires had been contained, but authorities are still assessing widespread damage, displacement, and loss of life following a disaster that sent residents frantically running into the ocean for safety.
The historic town of Lahaina, once the capital of Hawaii, was decimated by the fires on Wednesday, with its oldest building apparently burned to the ground.
Theo Morrison, the executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, told The New York Times that the town had “no preparation, no warning, nothing” as the flames—directly fueled by the 80 mile-per-hour winds of Hurricane Dora south of Hawaii and dry vegetation—spread to Lahaina and razed its historic town center in a matter of hours.
Kaniela Ing, a former Hawaii state representative and national director of the Green New Deal Network, expressed grief over the devastating fires and noted that while residents and local authorities were caught off-guard by the fast-moving blaze, U.S. officials have been warned for years that the continued extraction of fossil fuels is making parts of the country drier and hotter and creating conditions in which wildfires can become more damaging.
“My island is on fire. My heart is breaking at the utter devastation these wildfires are causing my friends, family, and community,” said Ing in a statement. “The extreme wildfires in Lahaina in this summer of climate disasters are yet more proof that we are in a climate emergency and this crisis is killing us. Our leaders in D.C. passed starting measures to tackle climate change—but we need legislation that is as bold and urgent as the scale of the wildfires choking Hawaii and Canada, the heatwaves suffocating Texas, and the extreme flooding drowning Europe.”
Ing suggested that Congress must pass legislation to expand investments in clean energy infrastructure and jobs, but also that Biden can and should act without Congress to significantly reduce the fossil fuel emissions which scientists have said are contributing to extreme heat and wildfires.
“How many more lives lost or families displaced in communities like mine is President Biden willing to tolerate before he declares a climate emergency and activates politicians to take further climate action?” said Ing.
The wildfires devastated Lahaina on the same day that Biden told a reporter on The Weather Channel that “practically speaking,” he has already declared a climate emergency by acting to protect some public land from certain types of mining and rejoining the Paris climate agreement.
The “apocalyptic scenes” in Hawaii, said economist Umair Haque, offer the latest proof that “practically” declaring a climate emergency is not enough.
It should go without saying seeing the apocalyptic scenes in Maui that Biden shouldn’t “practically declare” a climate emergency, he should actually declare a real one. It’s what we’re living in now.
Ing also condemned Republican politicians who continue to deny the existence of the climate crisis and that it’s being caused by the fossil fuel industry, including Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who dismissed the call for a climate emergency declaration in a Fox News interview.
“Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, oil companies, and anyone in power who denies climate change are the arsonists,” said Ing. “We are living the climate emergency.”
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than a third of Maui was experiencing at least a moderate drought as of August 1, and nearly 16% of the island was in a severe drought the day before the flames engulfed parts of the island.
Climate scientist Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania said the fires are a “‘compound’ climate catastrophe”—made worse by the hurricane’s rapid winds, which interacted with the “background state” of extreme drought.
What we're seeing in #Maui is a "compound" climate catastrophe, where an immediate factor (in this case, unusually strong winds from the outer bands of a passing hurricane) interact w/ background state (extreme drought that has been in place for a month):https://t.co/YF7HXpB4TC
Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, said an immediate issue the island is coping with is the displacement of several thousand people, and asked visitors to leave or cancel nonessential travel to Maui to ensure that hotel rooms and other accommodations are available for people in need of shelter.
In thirty years, maybe less, people will ask: why the hell didn’t we do anything to mitigate and prepare for climate breakdown in the 2020s? Scientific predictions about global heating have been surpassed, and temperature records are now broken with increasing rapidity. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for immediate, radical action on climate change, arguing that the Earth is entered an “era of global boiling”. News reports are filled with stories about people being evacuated to escape uncontainable wildfires in Europe. Globally, heat and floods are killing and displacing people.
Yet despite all this, our leading politicians are rowing back on net zero promises and policies, finding reasons not to act positively for a transition to a socially just and sustainable future. We need environmental policies like those in Labour’s 2019 manifesto and an unswerving commitment from politicians to carry them through. Instead, we have a Tory government that has granted licences for Rosebank, a new oilfield in the North Sea that alone would exceed the UK’s carbon budgets. But this is just the tip of a melting iceberg. The government is also backing airport expansion despite the uncertain and meagre economic benefits.
The government’s failure on climate progress has turned former Climate Change Committee (CCC) chair and Conservative Environment Minister, Lord Deben, into an eco-warrior! The CCC was set up by the Labour government in 2008 to monitor and report on the government’s progress in meeting environmental and climate targets. Their recent report is damning. It highlights a failure to invest in green technologies, to make progress on insulating homes or in rolling out heat pumps to replace gas boilers in homes – and so it goes on. Deben points out that “Defra (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs) is a department which has no full programme to reach net-zero, which is a scandal”, and he describes granting planning permission for a new Cumbrian coal mine, as “absolutely barmy”.
Though frequently referencing the climate crisis, mainstream politicians fail to make the connections between climate breakdown, social injustice and the growing risks and crises we face. For example, it’s estimated that environment breakdown will increase forced migration to 1.2 billion people by 2050 and 1.4 billion by 2060. Following that, the numbers will soar. Rather than addressing the urgent underlying factors behind migration, the political response is a poisonous campaign to “stop the boats”!
A major political forecasting website is currently predicting that the Green Party is on track to win two MPs. Electoral Calculus, which issues regular predictions based on the latest opinion polls, is currently projecting that the party’s co-leader Carla Denyer will be elected as an MP for the new Bristol Central constituency.
Presently, Electoral Calculus is predicting that the Green Party would take 46.3% of the vote in the seat which is among the top targets for the party. The same projection has Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire trailing behind on 39.4%. Electoral Calculus therefore gives the Greens a 69% chance of winning in the constituency.
Speaking to Bright Green about the prediction, Denyer said: “We will take nothing for granted, but this prediction that Bristol will have its first Green Party MP after the next general election mirrors what we are sensing on the ground.
“We know from talking to people on the doorstep that many in Bristol Central are uninspired by Labour and are turning to the Greens because they know we stand for real action on the climate crisis and have the policies to create a fairer, more equal society. They also know Green MPs will hold a future government to account.
Members of the public and campaigners from Hastings and St Leonards Clean Water Action, protest against raw sewage release incidents on the beach in St Leonards, Sussex, August 26, 2022
SIX private water companies across England are facing landmark legal action over allegations of under-reporting pollution incidents and overcharging customers.
Severn Trent Water, Thames Water, United Utilities, Anglian Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water could end up forking out more than £800 million in compensation to over 20 million customers if the cases are successful.
Environmental and water consultant Professor Carolyn Roberts, who is being represented by Leigh Day Solicitors, claimed that the firms have broken competition laws by misleading the Environment Agency and regulator Ofwat.
She alleges they have been under-reporting the number of sewage discharges, resulting in customers being “unfairly overcharged” for wastewater services, and that had sewage discharge reporting been accurate it would have lowered customer bills.
