… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: politics

  • Climate activists protest at Rome’s Trevi fountain

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    Activists from Italy’s Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) group turn Rome’s Trevi fountain black. Ultima Generazione is Italy’s group within the international Action Network. Italy has recently experienced extreme rain and flooding with at least 15 people killed.

    Italy’s deadly floods are yet another example of climate change extremes, experts say

    Floods that sent rivers of mud tearing through towns in Italy’s northeast are another drenching dose of climate change’s all-or-nothing weather extremes, scientists say. 

    It is something that has been happening around the globe.

    The coastal region of Emilia-Romagna was struck twice. First by heavy rain two weeks ago on the drought-parched ground that could not absorb it leading to overflowing riverbanks overnight. This was followed by the deluge that killed 13 and caused billions in damages this week. 

    More than 10,000 people fled their homes, some plucked from rooftops or balconies by rescue helicopters and others ferried out on dinghies. 

    …

  • Surfers Against Sewage protest actions Sat 20th May

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    April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
    April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)

    From Surfers Against Sewage’s website:

    Surfers Against Sewage are hosting a national day of action on Saturday the 20th May 2023. There will be 12 lead protests hosted nation wide on this date, each one protesting against each of the UK water companies, as well as a few smaller DIY protests.

    Check our map for your local protest location.

    …

    The UK sewage system is at breaking point. It’s under huge strain from a growing population and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events caused by climate change. Built on a Victorian system, our decaying sewage infrastructure is in desperate need of investment.

    But rather than spending money where it’s needed, water companies are stuffing their pockets with our money while failing environmental targets and pillaging our waterways. They continue to get away with regularly dumping untreated sewage into our blue spaces for millions of hours every year whilst regulators and The Government turn a blind eye. This needs to stop now.

    We REFUSE to spend another summer swimming in sh*t and we DEMAND that water companies stop making a profit from pollution and start investing in our future, for the sake of people and the planet.

  • Morning Star: Why the 70,000 voicing solidarity with Corbyn should matter to all of us

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    The crowd hold up banners at the Pyramid stage as they wait for Jeremy Corbyn to appear on stage at Glastonbury Festival, at Worthy Farm in Somerset, June 2017

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/why-70000-voicing-solidarity-corbyn-should-matter-all-us

    LABOUR’S answer to a petition to restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn reaching 70,000 signatures will echo that to his constituency party’s near-unanimous vote this week to give it the right to select its own parliamentary candidate — that it carries “no weight at all.”

    The leadership’s indifference to the views of the entire local party membership at least underlines one thing — the completely anti-democratic character of Keir Starmer’s party.

    There is no attempt to engage with, refute or even explain to curious journalists why Starmer’s excommunicated predecessor gets such a resounding vote of confidence from those who know him best. Simply a reassertion that their opinions don’t matter.

    Labour’s leadership has repeatedly demonstrated this view. Starmer’s adoption and later betrayal of 10 now infamous pledges to win the leadership shows that he is both aware of members’ opinions and determined to suppress them.

    It is precisely because the Labour machine already knows how members feel that it has used such dirty tricks to get its way — from Starmer’s refusal to restore the whip to Corbyn after his party membership was confirmed by the national executive in 2020, through trawling social media records to find years-old “offences” to expel people for, to the rigging of selection processes and suspension of entire constituency parties.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/why-70000-voicing-solidarity-corbyn-should-matter-all-us

  • Jeremy Corbyn – Water companies should ‘bog off’

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  • Climate experts call for urgent action as 1.5°C global rise predicted over the next five years

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    Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.
    Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/climate-experts-call-urgent-action-15c-global-rise-predicted-over-next-five-years-0

    ENVIRONMENT experts called for urgent action from Westminster today after scientists predicted a 66 per cent chance that a global average temperature of more than 1.5°C will be recorded over the next five years.

    The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) also said there is a 98 per cent chance of the hottest year on record being broken during that time.

    Report co-leader Dr Leon Hermanson said that the 1.5°C mark above pre-industrial levels has never been crossed before, with the current record being 1.28°C.

    He said that the record will likely come from a combination of greenhouse gases and a naturally occurring El Nino event, a heating of the eastern Pacific which affects rainfall and temperature globally.

    …

    Green Party co–leader Carla Denyer urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to “do the right thing” and end the plans to open the new coal mine in Cumbria and oil field in Rosebank as well as dropping “all new climate-wrecking oil and gas licences immediately.”

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/climate-experts-call-urgent-action-15c-global-rise-predicted-over-next-five-years-0