This and that for your Thursday reading.- Naomi Klein writes about the racism and dehumanization behind climate change denialism and inaction. And George Monbiot reminds us of the dangers of overheating oceans, while Michael Wines interviews Todd Halih…
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Alberta Politics: OMG! Energy industry faces ‘existential threat’ from Hollywood, ‘ever-growing matrix of activists’
PHOTOS: Brad Wall, increasingly the Mr. Disagreeable of Confederation. Below: Calgary’s Glenmore Reservoir as dreamed of by supporters of the Saskatchewan Party of Alberta. Actual Calgary beaches may not appear exactly as illustrated, either with reg…
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Naomi Klein Wins 2016 Sydney Peace Prize
Canadian social activist, journalist and award-winning author of numerous bestsellers, Naomi Klein, is the the winner of the 2016 Sydney Peace Prize.
The post Naomi Klein Wins 2016 Sydney Peace Prize appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading.- David Akin reports that MPs from multiple parties are rightly challenging offshore tax evasion – though it remains to be seen how many will actually demand a change to the practice. And Tanya Tagala notes that it…
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Disobedience-The Rise Of Global Fossil Fuel Resistance
It has become crystal clear that our governments will only move as far and fast as they have to. The pressure from the corporate fossil fuel world, their bankers, and their obedient politicians Read more…
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Statement On The Passing Of The NDP Leap Resolution
Statement by the Leap Manifesto Organizing Team on the passing of the Leap Resolution by the New Democratic Party of Canada. The Leap is “a call for a Canada based on caring for the earth and one another.”
The post Statement On The Passing Of The NDP L…
Alberta Politics: If you were secretly relieved by yesterday’s NDP Alberta budget, you weren’t alone …
PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci addresses the media during a lockup early yesterday afternoon in Edmonton before reading the 2016 Budget Speech to the Legislature. Below: CFIB Alberta spokesperson Richard Truscott, Edmonton-Centre MLA David S…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The mystery of NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair’s long fall: Why didn’t he see it coming?
PHOTOS: NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair accepts his defeat at his party’s national convention in Edmonton yesterday. Below: Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman, Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan, former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis and Albert…
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Naomi Klein on Hillary Clinton: “I Don’t Trust Her on Climate at All” [VIDEO]
Prominent Canadian journalist Naomi Klein told Al Jazeera this week that she doesn’t trust US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on climate change.
The post Naomi Klein on Hillary Clinton: “I Don’t Trust Her on Climate at AllR…
Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Claire Provost writes that corporate trade agreements are designed to make it more difficult to pursue fair tax systems:Governments must be able to change their tax systems to ensure multinationals pay their…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Ben Oquist laments the fact that trickle-down economics and destructive austerity remain the norm in Australia no matter how thoroughly they’re proven to fail. Alvin Powell discusses the burgeoning inequality of oppo…
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Climate controls ‘slip slidin’ away’ following weak Paris agreement
“World agrees to historic climate accord” The Toronto Star. “Nearly 200 countries agree to historic pact in Paris to reduce emissions and fight climate change” The Vancouver Sun. “Climate deal: World praises France’s diplomacy, showing it’s still a master of the art”The Winnipeg Free Press. With these headlines appearing in
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Climate controls ‘slip slidin’ away’ following weak Paris agreement
to reduce emissions and fight climate change”
The Vancouver Sun.
The Winnipeg Free Press.
With these headlines appearing in newspapers across the country, Canadians must have been relieved that they don’t need to worry about climate change nearly as much now that everything has been worked out in Paris.
Unfortunately, this assumption couldn’t be further from the truth.
The politicians meeting in Paris, faced with the possibility of total failure, were extremely excited to reach any kind of an agreement. As politicians will do, they convinced themselves and the compliant mainstream media that the accord all 195 countries signed was an amazing break through document.
The agreement is jam-packed with lofty language and idealistic goals. However, it is totally lacking in legally binding mechanism that will hold governments to emission limits that will stop global warming from reaching devastatingly high levels.
May & Klein have strongly different opinions
Even so, there are strong differences of opinion among environmental leaders concerning the value of the pact.
Green Party leader Elizabeth May is not concerned that the temperature goals in the agreement are not binding.
“It’s an historic and potentially life-saving agreement,” May writes in her blog. . . . . “it may save the lives of millions. It may lead to the survival of many small nations close to sea level. It may give our grandchildren a far more stable climate and thus a more prosperous and healthy society.”
Two of the world’s leading climate activists disagree strongly with May.
Responding to the cheering going on in the meeting room when the deal was signed, Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org commented: “All the serious people in there in suits are playing fantasy games.”
Activist and author Naomi Klein said the agreed upon targets are far too weak. “They don’t lead us to 1.5 degrees Celsius or 2 degrees. They lead us to warming of 3 to 4 degrees Celsius, which is beyond catastrophic.”
This year global warming, compared to the pre-industrial age temperature, is expected to reach 1 degree Celsius. Scientists say that warming must be kept to 1.5 degrees if hundreds of islands are to be saved. If countries do not improve on the promises they made in Paris global warming could reach 3.5 degrees by 2100 or earlier.
In Paris, rich countries, instead of stepping forward and coming up with firm commitments to fight warming, abdicated their responsibility to powerful multi-national corporations.
Corporations were involved in just about every aspect of COP21, including helping to pay for the summit. Meanwhile, a few select non-governmental organizations were permitted only to look over the draft of the agreement at the end of each day. Organizers kept thousands of protestors away from the delegates.
Most of the actions that can come out of the agreement are left to the marketplace, and activities many will be carried out by the same corporations that have polluted the planet.
Incidentally, it was no surprise that none of the words “fossil fuels”, “oil” or “coal” appear in the agreement.
Carbon trading, which allow companies to make huge profits but that are slow to reduce emissions, are looked upon favourably. Because no action was taken against fracking, the practice, which produces highly damaging methane gas, will increase.
Financial institutions are already making large profits from financing many activities related to global warming. The most common funding is for clean energy solutions, underwriting green bonds and structuring catastrophe-linked securities to help clients manage climate change risks.
It is a bitter irony that the banks financed corporations as they destroyed our climate, and now they’ll provide the financing for many of the same companies to try to clean it up.
Rich North betrays developing nations
The lack of substantial outcomes from Paris for countries with the least ability to defend themselves from global warming has caused rifts that may not be overcome for years.
Helen Szoke, of Oxfam Australia, denounced the agreement as “a frayed lifeline to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.”
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific Region contribute just 0.3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet residents of many islands have had to leave their homes, and dozens of islands will disappear under water if strong actions to slow emissions in the developed world are not taken.
There was a lot of fancy talk in Paris about transporting millions of tonnes of earth to restore the most threatened islands, but residents aren’t holding their breath.
The strongest condemnation of the Paris agreement came from Kumi Naidoo, the executive director of Greenpeace, one of the world’s most influential environmental groups.
It’s “climate apartheid,” says Naidoo.
“Most of the people in the countries that emitted the most carbon are white and most people in the countries who are paying first and the most are people of colour,” says Naidoo. “There is no doubt in my mind that subliminal racism is at play in these negotiations.”
Environmentalists must pick up the slack
So with governments failing to move ahead the cause of a cleaner environment in any meaningful way, what can be done to pick up the slack?
The world’s many climate change groups need to organize a huge lobby movement – one that can match the power of the fossil fuel industry. The tobacco industry was not brought under some control until it was banned from lobbying governments, and the same needs to happen with the fossil fuel industry.
Across the globe, NGOs, civil society and all kinds of organizations need to work together lobbying all levels of government. It seems they may be the only segments of society – for now at least – willing to fight for climate justice.
A Different Point of View....: Climate controls ‘slip slidin’ away’ following weak Paris agreement
“World agrees to historic climate accord” The Toronto Star.“Nearly 200 countries agree to historic pact in Paris to reduce emissions and fight climate change” The Vancouver Sun. “Climate deal: World praises France’s diplomacy,…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Paul Mason weighs in on how income and wealth inequality spill over into every corner of a person’s life:It is very possible to be poor in the 21st-century welfare state. One in five children lives in poverty, …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- David Olive talks to Robert Reich about his work fighting inequality:There are certain irrefutable facts besides water always running downhill. There is no arguing, for instance, that the U.S. era Reich describe…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Emily Dugan writes about the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s finding that young UK adults are facing the worst economic prospects of the last several generations. And Betty Ann Adam reports on Charles Plante’s work on the value of a living wage, both
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The fundamental issue
Naomi Klein and Maude Barlow weigh in on the need not to let sideshows distract us from what should be the most important issue of the federal election campaign. And as referred to here, the Pembina Institute reminds us where the major parties stand in advance of the Paris summit
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Naomi Klein on Neoliberalism, the Shock Doctrine and Disaster Capitalism
Normally I post only essays that I have written on my blog, but this deserves to be an exception to the rule. This is a true Must-Watch. Naomi Klein clarifies the history of neoliberalism and the current state of the world in a few short minutes. 100,000 protests a year
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: The Leap Manifesto: Naomi Klein, Communism, and The Hollywood Hippys
CBC says: “This is a document that was written collectively,” [author Naomi] Klein said, flanked by national indigenous Anglican bishop Mark MacDonald and environmentalist and broadcaster David Suzuki. Actor Tantoo Cardinal, author Joseph Boyden and newly crowned Mrs.Universe Ashley Callingbull were also at the press conference. …which is good to
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