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‘This Is Huge’: Judge Sides With Montana Youths in Historic Climate Ruling

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Youth climate activists attend the Minnesota March for Science held in St. Paul in April 2017. Lorie Shaull / Flickr

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

“As fires rage in the West, fueled by fossil fuel pollution, today’s ruling in Montana is a game-changer that marks a turning point in this generation’s efforts to save the planet,” said one attorney representing 16 young plaintiffs.

Climate advocates on Monday expressed hope that an unprecedented ruling by a state judge in Montana, siding with 16 young residents who argued the state violated their constitutional rights by promoting fossil fuel extraction, will mark a sea change in the outcomes of climate lawsuits.

In Held v. State of Montana, District Court Judge Kathy Seeley ruled that rights of the plaintiffs—who range in age from 5 to 22— have been violated by the Montana Environmental Policy Act because the law has prevented the state from assessing the climate impacts of mining projects.

Fossil fuel emissions including Montana’s “have been proven to be a substantial factor” in heating the planet and causing pollution, Seeley said in the nation’s first ruling on a constitutional, youth-led lawsuit regarding the climate.

Because the Montana Constitution guarantees residents a “clean and healthful environment,” the state’s environmental policy law violates the document, said Seeley.

“This is HUGE,” said meteorologist Eric Holthaus.

“This is a landmark decision establishing enforceable principles of intergenerational justice.”

Julia Olson, founder of Our Children’s Trust, the non-profit law firm that helped represent the plaintiffs, called the victory a “sweeping win” that could have reverberating effects on the hundreds of lawsuits that have been filed in the U.S. arguing against the continued extraction of fossil fuels.

“As fires rage in the West, fueled by fossil fuel pollution, today’s ruling in Montana is a game-changer that marks a turning point in this generation’s efforts to save the planet from the devastating effects of human-caused climate chaos,” said Olson in a statement.

In their defense, state attorneys argued that Montana’s fossil fuel emissions are insignificant compared to global emissions, but Seeley said in her ruling that the state’s per capita emissions are “disproportionately large” and rank in the top six per capita emissions in the United States.

The state also ultimately rested its case on the argument that the state legislature should take up the issue of the environmental law rather than the judiciary—an admission, said Michael Gerrard of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, that the climate science underpinning the plaintiffs’ case was indisputable.

“Everyone expected them to put on a more vigorous defense,” Gerrard told The Washington Post Monday. “And they may have concluded that the underlying science of climate change was so strong that they didn’t want to contest it.”

During the trial, the plaintiffs testified about their own suffering due to pollution and extreme weather, while climate experts explained the connection between the state’s fossil fuel activities and planetary heating, the wildfires and scorching heat that have overwhelmed parts of the West, and other extreme weather.

“Judge Seeley’s decision comes at a time when we’re seeing the impacts of climate change accelerate—from low streamflows and lake levels to unprecedented heat waves, floods, and wildfires,” said Melissa Hornbein, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center, which along with McGarvey Law also represented the plaintiffs. “These are the climate realities the youth plaintiffs and expert witnesses told us about on the stand, while the state disclaimed any responsibility and dismissed them.”

“We’re relieved that the court recognized that these youth plaintiffs are already feeling the impacts of the climate crisis, as well as the dangers threatening their future if the state doesn’t take meaningful action to address it,” Hornbein added. “We’re also delighted that Judge Seeley recognized Montana’s significant role as an emitter on the global stage, as well as its ability—constrained only by a resistant government—to rectify its disproportionate contribution to the climate crisis.”

The Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate action organization, said the ruling is “proof that our generation is unstoppable—we have the power to bring down the fossil fuel industry and win a Green New Deal.”

As Common Dreams reported last month, lawsuits around the world have emerged as a key driver of climate action as a wide range of plaintiffs—from children in the U.S. to senior citizens in Switzerland—have argued that their human rights have been violated by the companies and lawmakers that have promoted fossil fuel production despite scientific evidence of the danger it poses.

Out of approximately 2,200 worldwide climate cases, about three-quarters have been filed in the United States, according to the United Nations Environment Program and the Sabin Center, and the number of legal challenges has more than doubled since 2017.

The outcome of the Montana case could “open up the floodgates for more climate lawsuits,” said Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that the next plaintiff to file a case against the fossil fuel industry should be the federal government, to hold companies accountable “for their role in the climate crisis.”

“This is a landmark decision establishing enforceable principles of intergenerational justice,” said Roger Sullivan, an attorney at McGarvey Law. “Simply stated, the government elected by this generation must abide its obligation to pass on a stable climate system to future generations.”

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

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‘Terrifying’: Scientists Raise Alarm Over Unprecedented Global Ocean Heat

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Greenpeace image, sign reads CHOOSE OCEANS, NOT OIL
Greenpeace image, sign reads CHOOSE OCEANS, NOT OIL

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

The global average ocean surface temperature is expected to rise even further in the coming months as El Niño strengthens.

Climate scientists on Friday said the rapidly rising temperature of the planet’s oceans is cause for major concern, particularly as policymakers in the top fossil fuel emissions-producing countries show no sign of ending planet-heating oil and gas extraction.

The European Union’s climate agency, Copernicus Climate Change Service, reported this week that the average daily global ocean surface temperature across the planet reached 20.96°C (69.7°F), breaking the record of 20.95°C that was previously set in 2016.

The record set in 2016 was reported during an El Niño event, a naturally occurring phenomenon which causes warm water to rise to the surface off the western coast of South America. The weather pattern was at its strongest when the high ocean temperature was recorded that year.

El Niño is forming this year as well, but has not yet reached its strongest point—suggesting new records for ocean heat will be set in the coming months and potentially wreak havoc in the world’s marine ecosystems.

Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, told the BBC that March is typically when the oceans are at their hottest.

“The fact that we’ve seen the record now makes me nervous about how much warmer the ocean may get between now and next March,” she told the outlet.

The warming oceans are part of a feedback loop that’s developed as fossil fuel emissions have increasingly trapped heat in the atmosphere.

Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are warming the oceans, leaving them less able to absorb the emissions and contributing to intensifying weather patterns.

“Warmer sea surface temperatures lead to a warmer atmosphere and more evaporation, and both of these lead to more moisture in the atmosphere which can also lead to more intense rainfall events,” Burgess told “Today” on BBC Radio 4. “And warmer sea surface temperatures may also lead to more energy being available for hurricanes.”

The warming ocean could have cascading effects on the world’s ecosystems and economies, reducing fish stocks as marine species migrate to find cooler waters.

“We are seeing changes already in terms of species distributions, prevalence of harmful algae blooms popping up maybe where we would not necessarily expect them, and the species shifting from warmer southern locations up into the colder regions as well which is quite worrying,” Helen Findlay, a biological oceanographer at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the United Kingdom, toldThe Evening Standard.

“We are also seeing more species coming up from the south, things like European anchovy or recently examples of Mediterranean octopus coming up into our waters and that is having a knock-on impact for the fish that we catch, and consequences of economics,” she added.

Certain parts of the world’s oceans provoked particular alarm among scientists in recent days, with water off the coast of Florida hitting 38.44°C—over 101°F—last week.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told the BBC that ocean temperatures in that area typically hover between 23°C and 31°C at this time of year.

Since scientists first began measuring ocean temperatures using satellites and research buoys about four decades ago, the global average sea surface temperature has gone up by roughly 0.6°C.

On social media, climate scientists urged news outlets to explicitly connect the rising ocean temperatures to fossil fuel companies and the policymakers who are enabling them to continue fueling the climate emergency—such as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who announced more than 100 new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea this week.

The New York Times this week reported “terrifying Earth breakdown but barely [mentioned] the cause is the fossil fuel industry,” said National Aeronautics and Space Administration climate scientist Peter Kalmus.

“The more we burn fossil fuels, the more excess heat will be taken out by the oceans, which means the longer it will take to stabilize them and get them back to where they were,” Burgess told the BBC.

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

Continue Reading‘Terrifying’: Scientists Raise Alarm Over Unprecedented Global Ocean Heat

World’s 500 Richest People Added $852 Billion to Their Wealth in First Half of 2023

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

Image of mega-rich Elon Musk and Zuckenberg.
Image of mega-rich Elon Musk and Zuckenberg. Imge:James Duncan Davidson
Copyright: CC BY-NC 3.0

“They can afford to pay their fair share in taxes.”

The 500 richest people on the planet collectively added $852 billion to their fortunes in the first half of 2023 due in large part to a record-breaking rally in the U.S. stock market.

According to a Bloomberganalysis of its Billionaires Index, the world’s richest people added an average of $14 million per day to their wealth over the past six months, “the best half-year for billionaires since the back half of 2020, when the economy rebounded from a Covid-induced slump.”

Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk saw the largest net worth boost of any global billionaire, adding nearly $97 billion in the first half of the year. Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, saw his wealth grow by close to $59 billion, the second-largest gain of any billionaire.

“They can afford to pay their fair share in taxes,” Americans for Tax Fairness said Wednesday in response to the Bloomberg analysis.

In the U.S., capital gains are only taxed when they’ve been realized, such as when stock is sold. That’s how Musk and other mega-billionaires have massive fortunes but small tax bills, as ProPublica detailed last year in its reporting on a trove of IRS documents.

“With the exception of one year when he exercised more than a billion dollars in stock options, Musk’s tax bills in no way reflect the fortune he has at his disposal,” the investigative outlet noted. “In 2015, he paid $68,000 in federal income tax. In 2017, it was $65,000, and in 2018 he paid no federal income tax. Between 2014 and 2018, he had a true tax rate of 3.27%.”

In his budget proposal for fiscal year 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden called for a tax on the unrealized gains of the ultra-wealthy—an idea previously put forth by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). But the measure is unlikely to get through the Republican-controlled House, which is currently looking to slash taxes for the wealthiest Americans.

The already-slim prospects of getting a wealth tax approved in the near future could soon get even worse.

Late last month, the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up a case that “could preempt Congress and the Biden administration from instituting a federal wealth tax,” The Leverreported.

“The new case, Moore v. United States, is tailored to try to block Democrats’ promised agenda by defining what can—and cannot—count as taxable ‘income’ under the Constitution. It specifically challenges a one-time levy on some shareholders for their foreign corporate earnings that was included in the 2017 Republican tax law,” The Lever explained. “The real goal of the case is ‘to slam shut the door on a federal wealth tax,’ as the couple’s lawyers wrote in a 2021 column. The couple’s petition to the Supreme Court expressly decries previous wealth tax proposals from Democrats, including Biden, and urges the justices to ‘head off a major constitutional clash down the line.'”

Wyden, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, warned in a statement that “the petitioners in Moore are hoping the Supreme Court will toss out a Ninth Circuit ruling along with potentially decades of settled tax law and bipartisan agreement on congressional authority, all for the benefit of the ultra-wealthy.”

“If the Republicans on the Supreme Court take the petitioners’ side, they’d be handing a massive windfall to multinational corporations and could potentially lock in a right for billionaires to opt out of paying anything remotely close to a fair share in taxes,” the senator said. “I designed my approach to taxing billionaires, the centerpiece of which is an accounting method already used in our tax code, with the understanding that special interests would come at it with well-funded legal challenges. I’m totally confident that it’s constitutional.”

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

Continue ReadingWorld’s 500 Richest People Added $852 Billion to Their Wealth in First Half of 2023

‘A Death Sentence’: Green Groups Decry G7 Support for More Gas Investments

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

Activists with masks of Group of Seven leaders protest fossil fuels. (Photo: 350.org Japan/Friends of the Earth Japan/Oil Change International)

“Energy security can only be achieved by rapidly and equitably phasing out fossil fuels and transitioning to renewable energy, not locking in deadly fossil fuels and lining the pockets of oil and gas executives,” said one critic.

Since Group of Seven leaders on Saturday put out a wide-ranging communiqué from a Japan-hosted summit in Hiroshima, climate action advocates from G7 countries and beyond have blasted the statement’s support for future investments in planet-heating gas.

The statement comes after G7 climate, energy, and environment ministers were criticized for their communiqué from a meeting in Sapporo last month as well as protests around the world this week pressuring the summit’s attendees to ditch fossil fuels and “deliver a clear and just renewable energy agenda for a peaceful world.”

To meet the 1.5°C goal of the Paris climate agreement, the new statement commits to “accelerate the phaseout of unabated fossil fuels so as to achieve net-zero in energy systems by 2050 at the latest” along with “the elimination of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 or sooner.”

“The G7 must stop using fossil fuels immediately—the planet is on fire.”

The statement also highlights that last year, G7 nations—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—pledged to end “new direct public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector, except in limited circumstances,” though as recent analysis shows, some are breaking that promise.

The communiqué then endorses liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a solution to “the global impact of Russia’s war on energy supplies, gas prices and inflation, and people’s lives,” referencing the invasion of Ukraine:

In this context, we stress the important role that increased deliveries of LNG can play, and acknowledge that investment in the sector can be appropriate in response to the current crisis and to address potential gas market shortfalls provoked by the crisis. In the exceptional circumstance of accelerating the phaseout of our dependency on Russian energy, publicly supported investment in the gas sector can be appropriate as a temporary response, subject to clearly defined national circumstances, if implemented in a manner consistent with our climate objectives without creating lock-in effects, for example by ensuring that projects are integrated into national strategies for the development of low-carbon and renewable hydrogen.

“The G7 energy outcome correctly diagnoses a short-term need for energy security, then promotes a dangerous and inappropriate lock-in of fossil gas that would do nothing to address this need,” responded Collin Rees, United States program manager at Oil Change International (OCI). “Energy security can only be achieved by rapidly and equitably phasing out fossil fuels and transitioning to renewable energy, not locking in deadly fossil fuels and lining the pockets of oil and gas executives.”

After accusing the summit’s attendees of “using the war as an excuse,” deflecting blame for current conditions, and neglecting Global South countries disproportionately suffering from the climate crisis, Max Lawson, head of inequality policy at Oxfam, declared that “the G7 must stop using fossil fuels immediately—the planet is on fire.”

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Greenpeace International global climate politics expert Tracy Carty also demanded a swift end to fossil fuels, charging that “G7 leaders’ endorsement of new fossil gas is a blunt denial of the climate emergency” which dooms “current and future generations.”

Gerry Arances, executive director of the Philippine Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development, similarly argued that “the endorsement of increased LNG deliveries and investment in gas in the G7 communiqué is no mere backsliding—it is a death sentence being dealt by the G7 to the 1.5°C limit and, in consequence, to the climate survival of vulnerable peoples in the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and across the world.”

“Unless they genuinely put forward the phaseout of all fossil fuels, Japan and all G7 nations spout nothing but lies when they say they have aligned to 1.5°C,” he continued. “They cannot claim to be promoting development while subjecting our people to decades more of pollution and soaring energy prices. We reject this notion of a development powered by fossil fuels.”

Looking to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) planned for later this year, Arances added that “Japan and G7 leaders should already be warned that civic movements will not tire in pushing back against fossil fuels and false solutions and in demanding a renewable energy transition.”

“Civic movements will not tire in pushing back against fossil fuels and false solutions and in demanding a renewable energy transition.”

Other campaigners also specifically called out the Hiroshima summit’s host—including Ayumi Fukakusa, deputy executive director at Friends of the Earth Japan, who asserted that the country “has used the G7 presidency to derail the global energy transition.”

“Japan has been driving the push to increase gas investments and has been promoting its so-called ‘green transformation’ strategy,” Fukakusa said of a “greenwashing scheme” featuring hydrogen, ammonia, nuclear, and carbon capture and storage technologies.

OCI Asia program manager Susanne Wong agreed that given the nation’s promotion of gas expansion and technologies to prolong the use of coal, “this year’s G7 is revealing Japan’s failure of climate leadership at a global level.”

“Activists mobilized 50 actions across 22 countries this week to demand that Japan end its fossil fuel finance and stop driving the expansion of gas and other fossil-based technologies,” Wong added. “Japan will continue to face intense international scrutiny until it stops fueling the climate crisis.”

Groups from other G7 countries also called out their political leaders. Petter Lydén, head of international climate policy at Germanwatch, said, “Most likely, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has been a driving force behind the weak language on gas, which is a serious blow to Germany’s international credibility on climate.”

Citing sources familiar with summit negotiations, The New York Timesreported Saturday that “Britain and France fought the German effort” while U.S. President Joe Biden was caught between defending his climate agenda and “aiding other United States allies intent on increasing their access to fossil fuels.”

OCI’s Rees said the that “this betrayal continues a disturbing turn by President Biden and Chancellor Scholz from rhetorically committing to climate leadership to openly boosting fossil fuel expansion. History will not look kindly on world leaders who accelerate the pace of fossil fuel buildout in the face of worsening climate crisis.”

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

Continue Reading‘A Death Sentence’: Green Groups Decry G7 Support for More Gas Investments

With Climate Indicators ‘Off the Charts,’ UN Chief Calls Policies of Rich Nations a ‘Death Sentence’

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By KENNY STANCIL Apr 21, 2023

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

“We have the tools, the knowledge, and the solutions,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. “But we must pick up the pace.”

The World Meteorological Organization warned Friday that climate change indicators are “off the charts,” one day after United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told officials from wealthy countries that their refusal to halt fossil fuel expansion amounts to a civilizational “death sentence” and pleaded with them to urgently decarbonize the global economy.

The WMO’s State of the Global Climate 2022 report details how record-high greenhouse gas levels are causing “planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean, and in the atmosphere.”

Measured concentrations of the three main heat-trapping gases—carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—have never been higher, and emissions continued to increase in 2022, the WMO points out. Last year’s mean global temperature was 1.15°C above preindustrial levels, and the eight years since 2015 have been the eight hottest on record despite the cooling effects of a rare “triple-dip” La Niña event over the past three years. The return of El Niño conditions in 2023 is expected to exacerbate heating.

Ocean heat content continued to soar in 2022, reaching a new record high. “Around 90% of the energy trapped in the climate system by greenhouse gases goes into the ocean, somewhat ameliorating even higher temperature increases but posing risks to marine ecosystems,” including through ocean acidification, the WMO notes. “Ocean warming rates have been particularly high in the past two decades.”

“Today’s policies would make our world 2.8°C hotter by the end of the century… This is a death sentence.”

Global mean sea level also continued to climb and hit a new record high in 2022. According to the WMO, “The rate of global mean sea level rise has doubled between the first decade of the satellite record (1993-2002, 2.27 mm/yr) and the last (2013-2022, 4.62 mm/yr).” In addition to ocean warming, a major contributor to rising sea levels is land ice loss from Earth’s glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The rapid melting of glaciers and sea level rise will persist for “thousands of years,” says the WMO, underscoring the importance of slashing planet-heating pollution to protect the billions of people living near coastlines.

In 2022, Antarctic sea ice dropped to its lowest extent on record, the Greenland Ice Sheet ended with a negative total mass balance for the 26th consecutive year, and the average thickness of reference glaciers for which scientists have long-term observation data decreased by more than 1 meter (bringing the total cumulative loss since 1970 to nearly 30 meters), the WMO notes. The European Alps shattered records for glacial melt last year, with significant losses also seen in High Mountain Asia, western North America, South America, and parts of the Arctic.

As the report makes clear, these dangerous meteorological trends have harmed biodiverse ecosystems and unleashed devastating socioeconomic consequences around the globe, felt most acutely by those rendered vulnerable due to preexisting patterns of inequality.

“While greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and the climate continues to change, populations worldwide continue to be gravely impacted by extreme weather and climate events,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. “For example, in 2022, continuous drought in East Africa, record-breaking rainfall in Pakistan, and record-breaking heatwaves in China and Europe affected tens of millions, drove food insecurity, boosted mass migration, and cost billions of dollars in loss and damage.”

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Prior to the release of the WMO’s annual report, Guterres on Thursday challenged the leaders of high-income countries to immediately strengthen lifesaving climate action rather than continue to prolong the life of the climate-wrecking fossil fuel industry.

Addressing the fourth meeting of the Major Economies Forum, convened by U.S. President Joe Biden, Guterres told “the major emitters” in a recorded video message that “today’s policies would make our world 2.8°C hotter by the end of the century.”

“This is a death sentence,” said Guterres.

Echoing what he said last month when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its latest comprehensive assessment, the U.N. chief stressed that “it is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. But only if the world takes a quantum leap in climate action. And that depends on you.”

“The science is clear: new fossil fuel projects are entirely incompatible with 1.5°C,” the warming cap agreed to in the 2015 Paris accord, Guterres continued. “Yet many countries are expanding capacity.”

Though the U.N. chief declined to single anyone out by name, Biden has faced mounting criticism for rubber-stamping more permits for fossil fuel extraction on public lands and waters than his White House predecessor, including the recent approval of ConocoPhillips’ massive Willow oil drilling project in the Alaskan Arctic. The Biden administration has also moved to expand fracked gas export capacity, especially in the U.S. Gulf South, since Russia invaded Ukraine last February.

Jean Su, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Energy Justice program, did call out Biden in a statement issued Thursday.

“Behind the green screen of Biden’s climate promises, he continues to greenlight destructive fossil fuel expansion in project after project,” said Su. “We need a real reduction in the oil and gas burning up our future, starting with reversing the Willow approval and an end to all new fossil fuel project permits.”

Guterres, for his part, urged the summit participants “to change course.” He elaborated:

Phase out coal by 2030 in OECD countries and 2040 in all others. End all licensing or funding—both public and private—of new fossil fuel projects. Make sure generation of electricity is net-zero by 2035 in developed countries, and 2040 elsewhere. Decarbonize major sectors faster—from shipping, aviation, and steel, to cement, aluminum, and agriculture—in close cooperation with the private sector. Put a price on carbon. And shift fossil fuel subsidies to finance a just transition to renewables. The International Energy Agency estimated that these subsidies came to $1 trillion in 2022—which is insanity.

In addition to bolstering mitigation efforts by winding down fossil fuel production and expediting a just transition to clean energy, rich nations must also deliver on their unfulfilled climate finance promises, Guterres continued.

Biden opened Thursday’s summit by announcing $1 billion for the Green Climate Fund—a small fraction of the $886 billion military budget he requested last month and a far cry from what experts say is needed.

“We must accelerate climate justice by reforming the international financial system,” said Guterres. “As major shareholders of the Multilateral Development Banks, I urge you to push them to coordinate their operations better, and to overhaul their business models and approaches to risk, in order to turbocharge climate action and sustainable development.”

“You have the power to ensure that they leverage their funds to mobilize much more private finance at reasonable cost to developing countries, and that they end all support for fossil fuels,” he added. “You can pressure them to urgently transition and scale-up their funding to renewables, adaptation, and loss and damage.”

Responding to the WMO’s report, published ahead of Earth Day, the U.N. chief emphasized that “we have the tools, the knowledge, and the solutions. But we must pick up the pace.”

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

Continue ReadingWith Climate Indicators ‘Off the Charts,’ UN Chief Calls Policies of Rich Nations a ‘Death Sentence’