… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: Climate Crisis

  • South Asia sizzles: Record heatwave and extreme weather blamed on climate crisis

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    https://globalvoices.org/2024/05/06/south-asia-sizzles-record-heatwave-and-extreme-weather-blamed-on-climate-crisis/#

    Screenshot from YouTube video by Abhi and Niyu via Zoom.Earth. April 7, 2024. Fair use.

    A scorching heatwave is ravaging South and Southeast Asia, impacting hundreds of millions with its intense heat. With April temperatures shattering previous records, the region is witnessing extreme weather patterns, wildfires, and tragic heat-related deaths. Schools have been forced to close, agricultural production and storage of perishable foods have been disrupted, and the risk of heatstroke and other health problems has risen significantly.

    Climate scientist Roxy Koll tweeted:

    The scientists attribute the heatwave to the diminishing influence of the 2023–2024 El Niño event, which started in July 2023.

    Forest fires and heatstroke deaths in Bangladesh

    Bangladesh has experienced increasingly extreme weather conditions in recent years, and April 2024 stands out as the hottest month since 1948, with average temperatures ranging from 40–42 degrees Celsius (104–107.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in over 80 percent of the country.

    Climate journalist Rafiqul Montu posted on X (formerly Twitter):

    Wildfires erupt amid extreme heat and dry conditions

    Typically in April, Bangladesh receives 130.2 millimetres of rain, however, this year, there was almost none. The government announced the closure of government schools affecting 33 million students nationwide, while private schools with better facilities transitioned to online education. In just one week of April, over 10 deaths across the country were attributed to heatstroke.

    However, the most notable impact was the wildfires in different parts of the Sundarbans Reserve Forest, the world’s largest mangrove forest. Sundarbans is a remote area, lacking adequate firefighting resources nearby. The Forest Department, along with fire service personnel, local villagers, and other volunteers, could only start firefighting efforts 17 hours after the first fire. As of the time of writing this report, a significant portion of the huge fire in the Amurbunia area of the Chandpai range is still burning, posing a threat to its rich biodiversity.

    …

    Article continues at https://globalvoices.org/2024/05/06/south-asia-sizzles-record-heatwave-and-extreme-weather-blamed-on-climate-crisis/#

  • Climate Justice Groups Confront Chevron on San Francisco Bay

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    https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06052024/san-francisco-bay-kayaktivists-confront-chevron/

    Grassroots “kayaktivists,” the Rich City Rays, challenged tankers that import crude oil for Chevron and ship its refinery products around the world.

    A generation of Richmond’s children, now grown, took to San Francisco Bay in nearly five dozen kayaks Sunday morning, in the shadow of Chevron’s massive refinery, headed for tankers controlled by the oil giant in an act of resistance, prayer and joy. 

    After singing a ceremonial song led by a local Indigenous leader, activists launched their kayaks around 9:30 a.m. from the shores of Point Molate, 20 miles north of San Francisco, to protest the environmental and health harms caused by Chevron’s Richmond Oil Refinery. 

    By noon, a core group of the Rich City Rays, a coalition of grassroots community groups based in Richmond, a San Francisco suburb where most residents are Asian, Black or Latino, had entered restricted waters alongside two giant tankers docked at the Chevron Long Wharf. Once activists in about 20 kayaks had jockeyed into position, side by side, they unfurled a banner with “Abolish Chevron” written in bright red letters, as the rest of the flotilla erupted in cheers.

    …

    Activists with Rich City Rays took to San Francisco Bay near Chevron’s Richmond Refinery to protest the oil giant’s impacts on communities of color around the world. Credit: Brooke Anderson

    https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06052024/san-francisco-bay-kayaktivists-confront-chevron/

  • Belgian Police Arrest 132 Climate Defenders Demanding End to Fossil Fuel Subsidies

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    Original article byBRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

    “The fact that national governments are subsidizing fossil fuels is akin to a crime against humanity,” said one Extinction Rebellion organizer.

    The climate action group Extinction Rebellion Belgium on Saturday decried what it called “disproportionate police violence” against nonviolent demonstrators who were arrested during a protest in Brussels demanding an end to fossil fuel subsidies.

    Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion-led climate defenders blocked Rue Belliard in the European Quarter, the de facto European Union capital, during EU Open Day, when agencies of the 27-nation bloc open their doors to the public. In what Extinction Rebellion called an “unprecedented police response,” officers allegedly struck protesters with batons and used chemical agents against demonstrators.

    Brussels police said 132 activists—some of whom glued themselves to the ground—were arrested.

    “This police behavior toward nonviolent protesters exercising their freedom of assembly is illegal and authoritarian,” Extinction Rebellion Belgium said in a statement Saturday.

    “We call on the police to exercise restraint and respect the right to demonstrate peacefully and without violence,” the group added.

    The activists are calling on European governments to stop subsidizing fossil fuels amid a worsening planetary crisis. They’re also demanding the declaration of a climate emergency.

    “National and European governments are spending at least €405 billion each year subsidizing major fossil fuel corporations,” protest spokesperson Bertina Maes toldThe Brussels Times. “That’s ten times more than what’s spent on climate policy.”

    Maes said the Belgian government alone spent as much as €20 billion ($21.5 billion) on fossil fuel subsidies in 2020, more than 2% of the country’s gross domestic product.

    “The fact that national governments are subsidizing fossil fuels is akin to a crime against humanity,” she asserted.

    This weekend’s demonstration and arrests come a month before E.U. parliamentary elections. According to an April Eurobarometer survey conducted by the European Parliament, climate action is the fifth-most important issue to voters, after poverty and social exclusion, health, jobs, and defense and security.

    Original article byBRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

  • London seeing more days above 30C, experts say

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    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx9wprd0kw9o

    The capital is seeing an increase in extreme heat events, a researcher said

    London is seeing an increase in the number of days where the temperature climbs above 30C (86F), new analysis shows.

    The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) analysis shows the capital has experienced 116 days higher than 30C in the past three decades – more than half of which occurred in the last 10 years.

    Really extreme temperatures have become more frequent too, with seven days above 35C in the past three decades, five of which occurred within the last five years, statistics from 1994-2023 show.

    A researcher behind the study said London must adapt to the “new reality”.

    The analysis found consecutive days above 30C were becoming more common – in the 1990s and 2000s there were two years in each decade with three or more days in a row where temperatures soared over 30C.

    But since 2017, every year except 2021 has seen the temperature climb above 30C in London for three or more consecutive days each summer.

    …

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx9wprd0kw9o

  • New report accuses fossil fuel companies of greenwashing, but profits are up

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    https://www.energymonitor.ai/features/new-report-accuses-fossil-fuel-companies-of-greenwashing-but-profits-are-up

    Aerial view of Shell Pernis in Rotterdam, Holland, taken 7 September 2023. Photo: Aerovista Luchtfotografie/Shutterstock.

    A new report by the Senate Committee on the Budget details how fossil fuel companies have avoided tackling the climate crisis.

    Last week, US Democrats released a report three years in the making detailing the ways that large fossil fuel producers including Shell, BP and Exxon have sought to avoid responsibility for the climate crisis.

    The 65 page-long report, jointly authored by the Democrats House Committee On Oversight And Accountability and the Senate Committee on the Budget, contains files subpoenaed from big oil companies that “demonstrate for the first time that fossil fuel companies internally do not dispute that they have understood since at least the 1960s that burning fossil fuels causes climate change and then worked for decades to undermine public understanding of this fact and to deny the underlying science”.

    Previous documentation has shown that companies including Exxon knew about human-made climate change since at least 1981, and files released earlier this year suggest it may have been known since the 1950s. The importance of this report lies in proving that fossil fuel companies not only knew, but privately believed the science despite public rejection.

    The files also show the tactics used by major fossil companies to discredit climate activism, the report says, among them “pivot[ing] from outright climate denial to a new strategy of deception. Instead of misrepresenting the science and the consequences of climate change, they pivoted to misrepresenting their business plans, their investments in low carbon technologies, the alleged safety of natural gas, and their support for various climate policies and emission reduction targets”.

    Net zero?

    Most major oil companies have made net zero pledges based on the Paris Agreement goal of net zero by 2050, but the report claims they are unlikely to be met. BP, for instance pledged to reach net zero on oil and gas by 2050, but is at the same time ramping up oil production.

    The New York Times reported earlier this year that BP’s interim CEO Murray Auchincloss was clear that it would pursue an increase in fossil fuel production to meet demand, and internal documents gathered by the committees show that it was unwilling to publicly state a commitment to net zero in 2019.

    In an internal email thread discussing a press request for comment, an official said “it goes a bit too far to state or imply support for net zero by 2050, because that would require policy likely to put some existing assets at risk, and we haven’t discussed that internally”.

    This lack of action is further highlighted in a report released by thinktank Carbon Tracker in March, which suggests that companies including Shell and BP are far from hitting Paris Agreement goals.

    …

    https://www.energymonitor.ai/features/new-report-accuses-fossil-fuel-companies-of-greenwashing-but-profits-are-up