politics

Reform UK Party taken apart over inaccurate and bizarre climate science denial video

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“Man catastrophically fails GCSE biology”

The leader of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party has been rinsed over a video he posted on X in which he attempts to “challenge the climate change nonsense” by making a scientifically false claim which viewers have argued a primary school pupil could debunk.

In what has been described as a bizarre and “eye-watering stupid” 41 second climate denial rant, leader of the right-wing populist political party, Richard Tice, attempts to claim that C02 is “plant food” and therefore “not a problem”.

 “C02, people make out that it’s some sort of poison,” says Tice in the video. “It’s not. It’s plant food. It’s responsible for photosynthesis, without which we get no plants, no food, we all die. You’ve got to challenge the mainstream narrative on this.”

Scientists have proven how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increases by 50% due to human activities in less than 200 years, and that C02 in the atmosphere is responsible for warming the planet, therefore causing climate change.

Viewers were quick to add a bit of context in the community notes under the video on X, which read: “CO2 is not regarded as a toxic pollutant and this has never been a part of the scientific case for reducing our emissions. Although the proportion of atmospheric CO2 is small, its effect on climate is well understood and backed up by an overwhelming scientific consensus.”

Though Tice’s scientific illiteracy is also amusing, there is of course a huge danger in his spread of disinformation, as ‘Tice’s take’ on the climate attempts to legitimise further the continued drilling for new gas and oil.

This is particularly revealing when you look at the funders to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party, which received a total of £135,000 from climate science deniers and fossil fuel interests in 2023.

While all of Reform’s funders in 2023 were found to have oil and gas investments or ties to climate science denial, as revealed by the climate disinformation site DeSmog, helping to put Tice’s video into context.

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Continue ReadingReform UK Party taken apart over inaccurate and bizarre climate science denial video

Greens call for president of COP to go following oil and gas deal revelations

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Following revelations that the president of COP28, Dr Sultan al-Jaber – who is also CEO of the United Arab Emirates state oil company – was planning to be part of a UAE delegation seeking to use the climate talks as an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals with other countries, co leader of the Green Party Adrian Ramsay said: 

Green Party Adrian Ramsay October 2023.
Green Party Adrian Ramsay October 2023.

“It was always highly dubious appointing the CEO of a giant state oil company to be COP president. Dr Sultan al-Jaber has now been caught red handed trying to stitch up oil and gas deals when he should be trying to persuade countries to move away from fossil fuels. He is totally inappropriate and has demonstrated himself to be completely compromised. The Green Party calls on him to go and we expect the UK government to do the same – it’s a fair cop.” 

“One of the main reasons why the world is failing to deal with the climate crisis is because politicians in the UK and across the world are in the pockets of the oil and gas industry. Or in the case of Sultan al-Jaber, they are the oil and gas industry.  

“We need a new generation of political leaders who will end our dependence on fossil fuels and create a home grown, renewable energy transformation with all the benefits that will bring for lower bills, new jobs and a safe environment. And the UN now needs to quickly appoint someone as president of COP who has a clear track record on a commitment to climate action.” 

Continue ReadingGreens call for president of COP to go following oil and gas deal revelations

Australia’s largest-ever civil disobedience protest stops half a million tonnes of coal exports

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https://priceofoil.org/2023/11/27/australias-largest-ever-civil-disobedience-protest-stops-half-a-million-tonnes-of-coal-exports/

Image: Rising Tide

They are calling it the largest civil disobedience climate protest in the history of Australia.

This weekend, thousands of activists, young and old, from across the country descended on the world’s largest coal port at Muloobinba (Newcastle), on Awabakal and Worimi land and water.

The organizers labeled it a family-friendly event with live music and speeches. The plan also included blockading the plant by a sea blockage by kayak, boat, or even surfboard. It was the first time a blockage was planned overnight.

The protest was a huge success. In the end, some three thousand people prevented coal ships leaving for thirty-two hours and stopped half a million tonnes of coal from being exported.

Some tweets from the action:

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In total, one hundred people were arrested, including 97 year old Reverend Alan Stuart who said: “I am doing this for my grandchildren and future generations.” He became the oldest person ever to be arrested in Australia.

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https://priceofoil.org/2023/11/27/australias-largest-ever-civil-disobedience-protest-stops-half-a-million-tonnes-of-coal-exports/

Continue ReadingAustralia’s largest-ever civil disobedience protest stops half a million tonnes of coal exports

1,500 Block Manhattan Bridge Demanding Lasting Gaza Cease-Fire

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More than 1,000 protesters block the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge on Sunday, November 26, 2023, to demand a lasting cease-fire in Gaza.  (Photo: Jewish Voice for Peace/Twitter)

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

“We will make business as usual impossible until the U.S. stops funding and fueling a genocide,” Jewish Voice for Peace said.

In what organizers said was the largest action of civil disobedience in New York City since the Iraq War, more than 1,000 protesters blocked traffic on the Manhattan Bridge for hours Sunday to demand a permanent cease-fire in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

The action, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, began around 2 pm Eastern Time, and traffic began moving again around 5:30 pm, The New York Times reported. The group included 1,500 Jews, Palestinians, religious leaders, and elected officials, Jewish Voice for Peace said on social media.

“These kind of things where you stop traffic brings more attention to the issue,” 74-year-old participant Joan Glickman, who lives in Westchester, toldGothamist. “I do think there are many Americans who don’t really pay attention to how serious this is.”

The protest came on the third day of a negotiated four-day pause in hostilities between Israel and Hamas. On Sunday, Hamas released a third group of 17 hostages while Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners, The Associated Press reported. However, activists expressed concern about what would happen when the temporary truce ended.

“There are only two days left before the Israeli government resumes its genocidal onslaught against the people of Gaza—funded and fueled by the U.S. Netanyahu has said, ‘We will come back to annihilate them,'” Jewish Voice for Peace tweeted Sunday.

On October 7, Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking around 240 hostages. In the month and a half since, Israel has killed more than 14,800 Palestinians in Gaza, including 10,000 women and children. That figure is more than double the number of women and children confirmed killed in Ukraine in two years of war against Russia. More than 800 legal scholars have said Israel may be committing a genocide in Gaza, and one human rights lawyer and former United Nations official called Israel’s campaign in Gaza a “textbook case of genocide.”

The protesters Sunday blocked the Manhattan entrance to the bridge and sat down in the center of the entrance ramp, The New York Times reported. One person scaled the arch over the ramp to unfurl a Palestinian flag.

“We needed to continue to raise our voices and continue to speak out because there’s thousands of Palestinians that are under the rubble right now,” Jewish Voice for Peace member Jay Saper said at the protest, as the Times reported.

At one point, the protesters said they would refuse to leave until U.S. President Joe Biden called for a permanent cease-fire to the conflict, and they unfurled banners reading, “Lasting cease-fire,” and “The whole world is watching.”

“We will make business as usual impossible until the U.S. stops funding and fueling a genocide,” Jewish Voice for Peace tweeted.

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department told Gothamist that it made “multiple” arrests.

“I hope that this message is strong and they’re listening in the White House,” Palestinian American activist Linda Sarsour said during the protest, as Gothamist reported.

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

Continue Reading1,500 Block Manhattan Bridge Demanding Lasting Gaza Cease-Fire

XR Glues Shut Barclays Across UK for Financing ‘Climate Breakdown’

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

Climate activists glued shut doors at nearly 50 Barclays branches across the United Kingdom on November 27, 2023.  (Photo: Extinction Rebellion)

“The inconvenience we’ve caused this morning is small in comparison to the catastrophic events already happening due to Barclays’ financing of fossil fuels,” said one campaigner.

“We have closed this bank today.”

That’s the opening line on an explanatory poster, plastered on dozens of Barclays branches across the United Kingdom on Monday.

“Barclays has been on the wrong side of history for centuries,” the poster continues. “Financing the Atlantic slave trade, apartheid in South Africa, weapons, and fossil fuels. $190 billion in finance for fossil fuels since 2015. Time to change.”

“Barclays are choosing short-term profits over a livable future and a lot of us are sick of the measly progress they’re making.”

The posters were left overnight by activists with Extinction Rebellion (XR), sister organization Money Rebellion, and allied groups, who superglued the doors shut at nearly 50 branches—inspired by a 2020 Greenpeace action targeting the bank.

“We’re responding to public attitudes and targeting the perpetrators of climate breakdown, not ordinary people, and we apologize for any inconvenience caused to staff and customers,” said an XR campaigner in a statement. “The inconvenience we’ve caused this morning is small in comparison to the catastrophic events already happening due to Barclays’ financing of fossil fuels.”

The climate groups pointed to this year’s annual Banking on Climate Chaos report, which shows that Barclays has poured $190.58 billion into the fossil fuel industry since 2015, when world leaders finalized the Paris agreement. Parties to that deal aim to keep global temperature rise this century “well below” 2°C, with an ultimate goal of limiting it to 1.5°C.

Already, “human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1°C,” relative to preindustrial levels, according to a March Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

A United Nations analysis published last week ahead of the upcoming COP28 U.N. climate talks projects that currently implemented policies put the world on track for 3°C of warming by 2100.

Responding to the Monday action, a Barclays spokesperson toldITV that “aligned to our ambition to be a net-zero bank by 2050, we believe we can make the greatest difference by working with our clients as they transition to a low-carbon business model, reducing their carbon-intensive activity whilst scaling low-carbon technologies, infrastructure, and capacity.”

“We have set 2030 targets to reduce the emissions we finance in five high emitting sectors, including the energy sector, where we have achieved a 32% reduction since 2020,” the spokesperson added. “In addition, to scale the needed technologies and infrastructure, we have provided £99 billion of green finance since 2018, and have a target to facilitate $1 trillion in sustainable and transition financing between 2023 and 2030.”

Climate campaigners argue that such policies are far from enough, given that the bank continues to finance fossil fuel projects.

“Barclays are pumping billions into the fossil fuel industry, completely at odds with advice from the International Energy Agency, United Nations, and IPCC,” said a Money Rebellion activist who took part in the action. “Barclays are choosing short-term profits over a livable future and a lot of us are sick of the measly progress they’re making, as they hide behind their lies and greenwash.”

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

Continue ReadingXR Glues Shut Barclays Across UK for Financing ‘Climate Breakdown’