Construction cranes at the Golden Pass LNG Terminal in Sabine Pass, Texas, on April 14, 2022. The Washington Post / Getty Images
The year 2023 is already expected to be the hottest on record, following a record-hot summer. But despite this, the U.S. is expected to reach record numbers in fossil fuel production for the year.
Liquified natural gas exports from North America are expected to double through 2027, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently reported. Most of the liquified natural gas projects under construction in North America are in the U.S., particularly concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico, where a major oil spill with over 1 million barrels of crude oil was recently discovered.
The latest short-term energy outlook from EIA forecasted that for 2023, crude oil production in the U.S. will reach 12.9 million barrels per day, up from 11.27 million barrels per day in 2021 and 11.91 million barrels per day in 2022. Further, the administration estimated that in 2024, U.S. crude oil production will reach 13.15 million barrels daily.
Overall, U.S. officials predict that oil and gas production will likely continue reaching near-record levels year after year to 2050, The Guardian reported.
“It’s particularly alarming to see the projections of record U.S. oil and gas production year after year until 2050,” Michael Lazarus, a senior scientist at Stockholm Environment Institute, told The Guardian. “The U.S. is locking in production for years that makes it hard to meet climate goals. It’s out of sync and it needs reckoning.”
There was no regime so obnoxious, no tyrant too murderous, for Henry Kissinger’s blessings to be withheld, provided only it upheld US strategic interests
Celebrated for his diplomacy, especially over China, his true face was that of a callous murderer with the blood of millions on his hands, writes ANDREW MURRAY
HENRY KISSINGER, the US diplomat associated with some of the worst crimes of the cold war, has died at the age of 100.
He packed his worst offences against humanity into just six of those hundred years, when he served as national security adviser or secretary of state, and sometimes both, to presidents Nixon and Ford from 1969 to 1975.
A Metternich of the 20th century, Kissinger was a practitioner of cynical realpolitik in the service of the interests of US imperialism.
Even after leaving office, he retained considerable influence for decades, advising successive US administrations and various private clients on world affairs.
He is above all associated with the murderous bombing of Cambodia and the first outreach of Washington to socialist China, as well as support for the fascist coup in Chile in 1973, the pursuit of detente-through-strength with the USSR and peripatetic “shuttle diplomacy” during the Yom Kippur war between Israel and Arab states.
Police officers work to separate protesters who locked themselves together during a November 16, 2023 demonstration for a cease-fire in Gaza, on the Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco. (Photo: Arab Resource and Organizing Center)
“We refuse to stand by as our elected officials pay for and cheer on the genocide of Palestinians,” said one protester. “Biden must call for a cease-fire now.”
Dozens of demonstrators demanding a cease-fire in Israel’s war on Gaza were arrested Thursday after protesters blocked San Francisco-bound traffic on the Bay Bridge during morning rush hour and the ongoing Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.
Members of activist groups including Palestinian Youth Movement, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Bay Area, and others blocked westbound lanes of the bridge with their vehicles before getting out of their cars and unfurling banners reading “Stop the Genocide” and “No U.S. Military Aid to Israel.”
“We are beyond grief watching thousands of our loved ones murdered by the Israeli military. There is a genocide happening in Gaza, and President [Joe] Biden is hosting cocktail parties in San Francisco right now,” Palestinian Youth Movement’s Aisha Nizar said in a statement.
“We refuse to stand by as our elected officials pay for and cheer on the genocide of Palestinians. Biden must call for a cease-fire now,” Nizar added.
Many protesters held signs or wore banners reading “The People Demand a Cease-Fire.” Some staged a “die-in” on the roadway, while others locked themselves together and through open vehicle windows in what’s known as a “sleeping dragon” maneuver as traffic on Interstate 80 and other area freeways stayed snarled for hours.
JVP said “at least” 50 people were arrested, a number corroborated by the California Highway Patrol.
“The Bay Area will not stop shutting things down until there is an immediate END to the bombing in Gaza,” JVP Bay Area said on social media.
Ariel Koren, a leader of the #NoTechForApartheid movement, posted that “Biden will not get away with genocide, Biden will not get away with staying in San Francisco without EVERYONE knowing he is supporting the slaughter in Gaza.”
There are OVER A HUNDRED riot police here clearing us out, arresting dozens demanding an immediate ceasefire
How many tens of thousands have to come out to the streets, shut down roads & bridges, get arrested, until @JoeBiden starts taking us seriously.
Several protests against Israel’s war on Gaza have taken place in the Bay Area in recent weeks, including marches and a Jewish-led takeover of a federal building in Oakland on Monday.
Multiple people detained by police said they had nothing to do with the demonstration. Among those claiming wrongful arrests were Stanford University physics professor Lauren Tompkins and Masoud Barukzai, a worker at San Francisco International Airport.
“As a citizen, this is absolutely disgusting, to be stripped of my rights,” Barukzai—who says he believes he was arrested due to his appearance—told The San Francisco Chronicle.
Arrests currently happening on the bay bridge. It’s important to remember that every time police show up to arrest anti-war/pro-Palestinian protestors, American police are acting in solidarity with their training partners in the IDF. #FreePalestinepic.twitter.com/KQ0esYvcUxhttps://t.co/wbbyUFDb67
Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza has killed, maimed, or displaced nearly 40,000 Palestinians, with over 2,700 others missing—many of them presumed dead under the rubble. Half the homes in the besieged strip have been damaged or destroyed, while as many as 1.7 million people—around 70% of Gaza’s population—have been forcibly displaced.
Biden—who spoke at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leader’s Meeting in San Francisco Thursday morning—has rejected calls for a cease-fire while requesting $14.3 billion in additional military aid for Israel, atop the nearly $4 billion it already gets each year.
Biden—who has proclaimed his “unwavering” support for Israel—has also been accused of genocide denial for casting aspersions on Palestinian officials’ Gaza casualty reports, even though his own administration has cited figures from the same agencies in recent reports.
A similar protest took place Thursday morning in Massachusetts, where the Jewish-led group IfNotNow Boston spearheaded a rush-hour blockage of Boston University Bridge.
“Every day brings more death, more starvation, more children losing limbs, more babies becoming orphans,” the group said in an open letter demanding a Gaza cease-fire. “It is unbearable, our souls cry out against it.”
FOX News and other outlets, following massive pro-Palestine demonstrations across the US, claim demonstrators are driven by foreign funds not “organic rage”
On November 4, 300,000 people took to the streets in Washington DC to protest US funding of Israel and to call for a ceasefire (Photo: Sofia Perez)
As pro-Palestine demonstrations grow in size and stakes in cities across the United States, the mainstream media machine is working overtime to claim that demonstrators are being manipulated by wealthy donors abroad. Stemming from a Free Pressarticle written on November 14, right-wing outlets have alleged that the People’s Forum, a socialist community space in New York, is bankrolling the Palestine solidarity movement, claiming that the organization has ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
On November 4, more than 300,000 people took to the streets in Washington DC to protest US funding of Israel and to call for a ceasefire. A week later, a much smaller number, between 5,000 and 20,000 descended upon Washington to “march for Israel,” although mainstream outlets such as the New York Post claimed to see a crowd of 300,000 as well.
The huge disparity in turnout for both DC events and the massive movement for Palestine cannot be due to “organic rage,” claims the mainstream media. In a November 15 segment, FOX News anchors express disbelief at the sheer scale of support for Palestine across the US, and try desperately to pin the success of the movement on outside forces.
Socialists once again accused of foreign influence
FOX News is referencing the article written in The Free Press, a media company founded by notorious Zionist Bari Weiss, which claims that two of the People’s Forum’s donors, Jodie Evans and Neville Roy Singham, are “Chinese propagandists.” The article implies, much like a long New York Times so-called investigation from August, that because Evans and Singham fund projects that do not parrot State Department talking points on China, they are being somehow influenced by the Chinese Communist Party.
This Times investigation provided the cover necessary for the Indian government to continue its attacks on left-wing media outlet Newsclick, which was accused in the Times article of “[sprinkling] its coverage with Chinese government talking points.” On October 3, Indian authorities raided the homes and offices of over 100 journalists, contractors, and former employees associated with the progressive news outlets Newsclick and Peoples Dispatch, as well as Tricontinental Research Services. Newsclick editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha and administrator Amit Chakraborty continue to languish in prison on draconian anti-terrorism charges. Prior to the raid, an Indian official had directly cited the New York Times article.
“The Chinese Communist Party uses tools like Confucius Institutes on college campuses, TikTok’s addictive algorithm, and organizations like those that Mr. Singham funds to divide and weaken America,” US Representative Mike Gallagher, the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told The Free Press. Gallagher is rapidly anti-China, even for a US congress member, not only openly admitting that there is a “New Cold War” against China, but that the United States must win it.
Palestine solidarity movement accused of “dividing America”
FOX News anchors used these baseless accusations of Chinese funding and influence to attack the popular, dynamic, and youthful Palestine solidarity movement in the United States. As Israel continues it’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, its policies of raiding and bombing hospitals, schools, and mosques are becoming unpopular worldwide. But it is not the genocide that makes Zionism unpopular, claim the anchors, it’s Chinese foreign influence.
“You look at this, and you think, these kids are being used as pawns,” said FOX Business anchor Jackie DeAngelis about recent protests, which have been majority youth.
“It’s so obvious that there’s an element of just wanting to create chaos, taking over streets, dividing America. It’s very consistent I think with what the Chinese Communist Party would like to see in America, a divided America. A ruined America,” added FOX Business anchor Brian Brenberg.
Brenberg claimed that a high school demonstration he witnessed for Palestine “was being controlled by somebody else, who was very much not a high school audience.”
“It sounds like it might be this group behind it,” he said, referring to the People’s Forum specifically.
Protestors as “outside agitators”
There is a long history of mass protest movements receiving these sorts of allegations. Claims that popular discontent is influenced by nefarious outside agents is a way to delegitimize those movements. Socialists in the 20th century were driven out of the public sphere due to accusations that they were “Russian agents” in the McCarthy era. Just a few years ago, the George Floyd uprisings were plagued by accusations of “outside agitators” coming to cities and stirring up riots, rather than what demonstrators were expressing, that millions of people hit the streets because they were tired of police brutality.
In a clip from a May 2020 demonstration Minneapolis, BreakThrough News anchor Eugene Puryear asks a protester, “What do you say to the governor who’s saying, it’s people coming from outside [that are driving the protests?]” The woman, a mother of three sons, responds, “No. It’s tired people.”
“We’ve been quiet for too long,” she said. “I mean this from my heart. Tear it down!”
Organizations plan mass day of action
The People’s Forum issued a response to the right-wing media accusations. “We affirm our right to gather, rally, and protest to defend Palestine. This is as much a moral right as it is a legal one. Efforts to smear and defame supporters of Palestinian liberation will enter the ledgers of history as shameful,” read their statement.
Alongside Palestinian groups, the People’s Forum is continuing to lead and organize protests. “History has shown us that those who stand on the sidelines and remain silent in the face of injustice are often judged harshly,” stated the organization.
On November 17, the People’s Forum alongside the Palestinian Youth Movement, the ANSWER Coalition, and several other organizations are calling for another international shut down of “business as usual” to protest Israel’s genocide. There is a planned mass rally on the steps of the New York Public Library, planned closings by small business owners, student walkouts, and mass actions around the world.
Firefighters tackle forest fires near Porto Jofre, Mato Grosso State, Brazil, on November 13, 2023. (Photo: Rogerio Florentino/AFP via Getty Images)
The United Nations assessment coincided with the release of “the world’s most comprehensive roadmap of how to close the global gap in climate action across sectors.”
That’s how United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres began his Tuesday remarks about a new U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) report on nationally determined contributions (NDCs), or countries’ plans to meet the goals of the Paris agreement, including its 1.5°C temperature target.
The UNFCCC analysis “provides yet more evidence that the world remains massively off track to limiting global warming to 1.5°C and avoiding the worst of climate catastrophe,” said Guterres. “As the report shows, global ambition stagnated over the past year and national climate plans are strikingly misaligned with the science.”
“COP28 must be the place to urgently close the climate ambition gap.”
Under current NDCs from the 195 Paris agreement parties, global greenhouse gas emissions are set to rise by nearly 9% by 2030, compared with 2010 levels, according to the analysis. While that’s a slight improvement on the 10.6% increase from last year’s assessment, it’s still nowhere near the cuts that experts say are needed.
The analysis of NDCs comes as scientists project that 2023 will be the hottest year in 125,000 years and just over two weeks before the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, a summit controversially led by Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
“As the reality of climate chaos pounds communities around the world—with ever fiercer floods, fires, and droughts—the chasm between need and action is more menacing than ever,” Guterres declared. “COP28 must be the place to urgently close the climate ambition gap.”
📢 Current national climate action plans remain insufficient to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.
Much more action and ambition is needed. #COP28 must be the turning point where governments get on track.
U.N. Climate Change Executive-Secretary Simon Stiell echoed Guterres’ call to action, stressing in a statement that the new assessment makes clear governments are merely “taking baby steps to avert the climate crisis.”
“It shows why governments must make bold strides forward at COP28 in Dubai, to get on track,” Stiell said. “This means COP28 must be a clear turning point. Governments must not only agree what stronger climate actions will be taken but also start showing exactly how to deliver them.”
The UNFCCC document was released on the same day as State of Climate Action 2023, which its crafters called “the world’s most comprehensive roadmap of how to close the global gap in climate action across sectors.”
Published under Systems Change Lab, the latter report highlights that only one of the dozens of indicators assessed, the share of electric vehicles in passenger car sales, is on track to meet its 2030 target.
As the publication details:
Recent rates of change for 41 of the 42 indicators across power, buildings, industry transport, forests and land, food and agriculture, technological carbon removal, and climate finance are not on track to reach their 1.5°C-aligned targets for 2030. Worryingly, 24 of those indicators are well off track, such that at least a twofold acceleration in recent rates of change will be required to achieve their 2030 targets. Another six indicators are heading in the wrong direction entirely. Within this subset of lagging indicators, the most recent year of data represents a concerning worsening relative to recent trends for three indicators, with significant setbacks in efforts to eliminate public financing for fossil fuels, dramatically reduce deforestation, and expand carbon pricing systems.
To get back on track, the international community must “dramatically increase growth in solar and wind power” while also phasing out “coal in electricity generation seven times faster—which is equivalent to retiring roughly 240 average-sized coal-fired power plants each year through 2030,” the report warns.
The publication also emphasizes the need for shifting to healthier, more sustainable diets eight times faster, increasing the coverage of rapid transit six times faster, reducing the annual rate of deforestation four times faster, and scaling up global climate finance by nearly $500 billion annually until 2030.
How can we close the gap in climate action to limit global warming to 1.5°C?
“Despite decades of dire warnings and wake-up calls, our leaders have largely failed to mobilize climate action anywhere near the pace and scale needed,” declared the report’s lead author, Sophie Boehm of the World Resources Institute (WRI). “Such delays leave us with very few routes to secure a livable future for all. There’s no time left to tinker at the edges. Instead, we need immediate, transformational changes across every single sector this decade.”
Every world leader is under pressure to ramp up efforts to cut emissions, including U.S. President Joe Biden, who on Tuesday received a letter from hundreds of scientists urging him to “increase the ambition of domestic climate action—including through accelerating a just and equitable clean energy transition, rejecting the expansion of new long-lived fossil fuel infrastructure, investing in climate resilience, and ramping up climate finance—while working toward the strongest possible agreement at COP28.”
The United States now ranks behind China as the top emitting country but still leads the world in cumulative planet-heating emissions. According to a U.S. government assessment released Tuesday, the nation is “warming faster than the global average,” and “the effects of human-caused climate change are already far-reaching and worsening across every region.”
