CLIMATE CHANGE

 

THE ABSURD TIMES

 

 

 

 

 

I;;ustration: has nothing to do with the article. It is here just for the hell of it.

Climate, Money, and Politics

By

Honest Charlie

 

I really no longer care much about the climate, climate change, or what it really is, Global Warming. This is because I am now too old to suffer the effects of it as much as most of you will some 30 years down the road. Bernard Shaw once made this point in a play, BACK TO METHUSILA, where he pointed out that businessmen and politicians simply do not live long enough to suffer the consequences of their actions.

 

At one point, the Ozone layer was in danger of being depleted though human actions and Ozone is depleted through a chain reaction as Ozone is O3, Oxygen is O2 (its stable state), and Carbon Monoxide is simply an O1. Once an O1 gets loose, it will stick to an O3 and then they will split into two O2s. Freon and some other things wind up in this and there starts the chain reaction. Issac Asimov wrote a good essay on it back in the 70s.

 

Of all people, Richard Nixon got the message and he established the EPA. That is hard to believe today what with our current level of ignorance – RICHARD NIXON, a Republican, a low-life, actually figured something out! I doubt our current Republican menagerie will support much action against climate change. Even a so-called Democrat is holding up a bill because he has large coal interests of his own and coal is the most potent air polluter.

 

 

As President Biden addressed the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow on Monday, warning that “climate change is already ravaging the world,” back home his climate agenda was dealt a major setback when Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia criticized the slimmed-down $1.85 trillion Build Back Plan. “The air went out of this conference” when Biden showed up with no major climate legislation passed, says Bill McKibben of 350.org in Glasgow. “It makes it extremely difficult to proceed when the world’s carbon champion — the country that’s poured more carbon into the atmosphere by far than any other — won’t provide leadership.”

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Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Glasgow at the United Nations climate summit. At the opening ceremony on Monday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged world leaders to do more to address the climate emergency.

SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES: The six years since the Paris Climate Agreement have been the six hottest years on record. Our addiction to fossil fuels is pushing humanity to the brink. We face a stark choice: Either we stop it, or it stops us. And it’s time to say, “Enough.” Enough of brutalizing biodiversity. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet. Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves.

AMY GOODMAN: Over 120 world leaders are attending a two-day World Leaders Summit as part of the climate summit. This is Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

PRIME MINISTER MIA MOTTLEY: Failure to provide the critical finance and that of loss and damage is measured, my friends, in lives and livelihoods in our communities. This is immoral, and it is unjust. If Glasgow is to deliver on the promises of Paris, it must close these three gaps. So I ask to you: What must we say to our people living on the frontline in the Caribbean, in Africa, in Latin America, in the Pacific, when both ambition and, regrettably, some of the needed faces at Glasgow are not present? What excuse should we give for the failure? In the words of that Caribbean icon Eddy Grant, “will they mourn us on the frontline?” When will we, as world leaders across the world, address the pressing issues that are truly causing our people angst and worry, whether it is climate or whether it is vaccines?

AMY GOODMAN: A number of countries have made new pledges to address the climate crisis. India has vowed to reduce its carbon emissions to net zero by 2070. Over a hundred leaders have agreed to end deforestation by 2030. And the United States is announcing a new plan today to reduce methane emissions. On Monday, President Biden addressed the U.N. climate summit.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Climate change is already ravaging the world. We’ve heard from many speakers. It’s not hypothetical. It’s not a hypothetical threat. It’s destroying people’s lives and livelihoods, and doing it every single day. It’s costing our nations trillions of dollars. Record heat and drought are fueling more widespread and more intense wildfires in some places and crop failures in others. Record flooding and what used to be a once-in-a-century storms are now happening every few years. In the past few months, the United States has experienced all of this, and every region in the world can tell similar stories. And in an age where this pandemic has made so painfully clear that no nation can wall itself off from borderless threats, we know that none of us can escape the worse that’s yet to come if we fail to seize this moment.

AMY GOODMAN: On Monday, yes, President Biden addressed the U.N. climate summit. He later apologized for the United States pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement when President Trump was in office.

While Biden repeatedly vowed to address the climate crisis, his climate agenda was dealt a major setback back in Washington, D.C., when Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia criticized the slimmed-down $1.75 trillion Build Back Plan to address the climate crisis and to expand the nation’s social safety net. The plan will only pass the Senate if Manchin and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema come around to support it. It was interesting Senator Manchin used Biden’s moment in Glasgow to hold his own news conference in Washington, D.C., to say, well, he’s weighing whether to support the Build Back Better Act.

To talk more about the U.N. climate summit and Biden’s climate agenda, we’re joined by two guests in Glasgow. Tom Goldtooth is executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, member of the Diné and Dakota Nations. He lives in Minnesota. Bill McKibben is an author, educator, environmentalist, co-founder of 350.org, his latest book, Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? He writes a weekly climate newsletter for The New Yorker.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! We’re going to begin with Bill McKibben. Both our guests are in Glasgow. Bill, if you can respond to President Biden yesterday, the speech, both what’s happening in Glasgow with the U.N. — with the world leaders, over 120 gathered — this is far different than any other time — and what’s happening back in Washington, D.C., with Senator Manchin trying to steal the headlines?

BILL McKIBBEN: Sure, Amy and Juan. What a pleasure to be with you. And it’s strange not to have you here, I’ve got to say.

Yesterday, the air went out of this conference, I think, pretty much right at the start. The hope was that Joe Biden was going to arrive with some legislative victories that would at least point us in the right direction. He doesn’t. He arrives having approved, more or less, Line 3 and with nothing to show on the other side so far.

You know, the Build Back Plan plan had already been stripped of its most important elements, the enforcement provisions under this clean energy pricing plan, and now it’s not even clear it’s going to pass. The half-trillion dollars in subsidies for renewable energy are being held up by Joe Manchin’s latest hissy fit. Mark my words: Every single delegate from every nation heard Manchin’s quote yesterday about how he wasn’t at all sure he was going to vote for this.

It makes it extremely difficult to proceed when the world’s carbon champion — the country that’s poured more carbon into the atmosphere by far than any other — won’t provide leadership. Yeah, it’s better than Trump pulling out, but I think that, you know, basically, it’s a good thing that people like Tom Goldtooth are here, because this summit is not going to solve our problem. We’re going to be back in the streets in a serious way.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Bill, I wanted to ask you, first of all, about the Manchin new roadblock once again, because Manchin is really, basically, a stand-in or a puppet for the fossil fuel industry. What does it tell us about the ability of these corporate powers to stymie the majority or democratic action just by being able to capture a few key senators? What does that tell us about the future of action in a — by democratic vote in Congress? And also, what do you make of Biden, on the one hand, making this strong statement in Glasgow, but just a couple of days earlier at the G20 summit, he was urging the industrialized nations to increase oil and gas production temporarily?

BILL McKIBBEN: So, Manchin is the perfect example of how Big Oil works. He’s taken more money than any other senator from the fossil fuel industry. And, you know, there was that sting videotape released a couple of weeks ago where Exxon’s chief lobbyist reported talking to him every week and calling him their “kingmaker.” There was a report yesterday that Manchin spent part of September huddled with all the leading coal barons at a golf resort someplace, where they played a Civil War-themed golf tournament in between speeches. That sounds like a good deal of fun, I’ve got to say.

AMY GOODMAN: Some have said, Bill, that Senator Manchin has to decide whether he wants to be a senator or a lobbyist or maybe a Republican.

BILL McKIBBEN: Clearly, our system allows you to do both at the same time, Amy, and that’s the problem. Look, credit to Biden for getting 48 senators on board with a serious, progressive commitment around climate and other things. And that’s because we’ve built movements, and that’s because Bernie showed that there was a real appetite for this. But 48 isn’t quite enough. And so, I think one way to say it is, movements have gotten big enough and strong enough to force the question, to call the question in Congress, but not quite big enough to carry the question.

That’s why I think, coming out of this COP, those of us from all sorts of places, including Third Act, this new group we’re doing with people over the age of 60, are going to be heavily focused on banks and the finance system. That’s where groups like Indigenous Environmental Network were working 15 years ago, trying to interrupt bank financing for — and we’re going to have to go back there, because there really is a sense here that the political system and the U.N. system are beginning to reach limits. They’re not moving fast enough. They’re not coming close to keeping up with the pace of the devastation.

And so, Greta pretty much captured it: There’s a lot of “blah blah blah.” There is. And some of it’s very noble and very powerful, and the people who are saying it are magnificent. But it’s not adding up to enough. And there’s a sense, as with Manchin, that we spend a lot of time talking to the cashier at the front of the store, when our problem’s with the guy in the back room counting the money. So, I know I’m coming out of Glasgow determined to be taking on the Chases and BlackRocks and whatever of the world just as hard as we can.

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ISLAMIC STATEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE

THE ABSURD TIMES

Illustration: From the great Latuff.  (Not really related to our topic, but it has been awhile, so here it is.  No explanation is needed.)

ISLAMIC STATEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE

BY

Czar Donic

            One looks back with nostalgia of the times of the Cold War and slightly before.  At that time, it was clear that in a matter of minutes, one could be completely vaporized.  While some were busy buying expensive shelters with passageways that would somehow elude gamma radiation, the more sensible people were hoping that a nuclear bomb might land next door.  One even mentioned a desire to try to catch it before it hit the ground.  Our family, on the other hand, moved to a place where missal silos were rumored to be built.  Whether or not there actually were missals there was irrelevant: if the "enemy" thought they were there, that place would be a target, making death that much more complete and rapid.

            Today, we do not face that luxury.  We have the inevitable outcome of making our own planet uninhabitable for ourselves within this century.  In fact we have made it so and the environmentalists are optimists, or at least trying to make the near future less unlivable.

            There was a time we could have reversed this trend.  As late as the 70s, people became aware of something happening.  Nixon began the EPA.  People recognized that the ozone layer was being depleted.  Ozone kept things so people could still lie in the sun, so saving it was important.  Ozone is O₃ and that means it has an extra O in it.  The stuff that deodorants and freon were made of lacked an O, so once up there in the air, it could grab one of the Os and make carbon dioxide.  (This is very simplistic, and still I've lost a few here.)  Anyway, the process turned out also to be a chain reaction, so there was a move to ban that offending stuff and the ozone layer is reasonably safe. 

            However, other stuff kept accumulating up there and now there is so much that the process is irreversible.  Steps should have been taken in the 80s, but by then Reagan was screwing with everything American, so things went to hell and have been declining since.  For example, we often hear of clear, clean water.  Sometimes blue water, although it looks brown, or green.  Here is the U.S. of A., we have ORANGE water flowing in our rivers.  No, I'm not making that up.  Still, the rate of deterioration can be slowed.  Anyway, here's some documentation and efforts:

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Islamic Leaders Take on Climate Change, Criticizing "Relentless Pursuit of Economic Growth"

A group of leading Islamic scholars have issued a declaration calling on the world's 1.6 billion Muslims to do their part to eliminate dangerous greenhouse gas emissions and turn toward renewable energy sources. The declaration urges world leaders meeting in Paris later this year to commit to a 100 percent zero-emissions strategy and to invest in decentralized renewable energy in order to reduce poverty and the catastrophic impacts of climate change. The declaration comes on the heels of the publication of Pope Francis's encyclical on the environment earlier this year, which also calls for sweeping action on climate change. Like the encyclical, this declaration, endorsed by more than 60 leading Islamic scholars, links climate change to the economic system, stating: "We recognize the corruption that humans have caused on the Earth due to our relentless pursuit of economic growth and consumption." We speak to Bangladeshi climate scientist Saleemul Huq, one of the contributors and signatories to the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now to a sweeping climate change declarationissued by the world's leading Islamic scholars, calling on the world's 1.6 billion Muslims to do their part to eliminate dangerous greenhouse gas emissions and turn towards renewable energy sources. The declaration urges world leaders meeting in Paris later this year to commit to a 100 percent zero-emissions strategy and to invest in decentralized renewable energy in order to reduce poverty and the catastrophic impacts of climate change.

The declaration comes on the heels of the publication of Pope Francis's encyclical on the environment earlier this year, which also calls for sweeping action on climate change. Like the encyclical, this declaration, endorsed by more than 60 leading Islamic scholars, links climate change to the economic system, stating, quote, "We recognize the corruption that humans have caused on the Earth due to our relentless pursuit of economic growth and consumption." It places special emphasis on richer countries and communities, noting that the risks of climate change are, quote, "unevenly distributed, and are generally greater for the poor and disadvantaged communities of every country, at all levels of development."

AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about the significance of this declaration, we go to London to speak with Saleemul Huq, one of the contributors and signatories to the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change, a climate scientist at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, and director of the International Center for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh.

Saleemul Huq, welcome back to Democracy Now! Talk about what prompted the declaration, who wrote it, and who were the major signatories on it.

SALEEMUL HUQ: I think the origin of this came some—a few months ago, when the Climate Action Network, a group of climate activists, got together with the Islamic Relief Worldwide, a humanitarian Islamic organization that does quite a lot of work with vulnerable communities around the world. And they agreed that this was something that they should take up, and got in touch with Islamic scholars and leading clergy around the world, and started drafting a potential declaration of this kind. And then they held a two-day symposium in Istanbul, which ended just a day or so ago, where they brought about 60 international scholars, Muslim scholars, leading clergy from different countries, and we—and then invited me as a climate scientist to join them, also a Muslim, as well. And we honed the final declaration, which came out and has been released.

And it's aimed very much at the 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, bringing to their attention the verses of the Holy Qur'an, which enjoin Muslims everywhere to preserve the environment as stewards of the environment, and at the same time not cause harm to other people by their own pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and so, at a personal level, to reduce our emissions, and, at a global level, to join efforts by all faiths and all countries to bring down the fossil fuel use to zero as soon as possible.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, last month, Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley made headlines by suggesting that the rise of the so-called Islamic State came about in part because of the effects of climate change. He was speaking on Bloomberg TV. Let's go to a clip.

MARTIN O'MALLEY: One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation-state of Syria and the rise of ISIS was the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that region, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis. It created the symptoms, or, rather, the conditions, of extreme poverty that has led now to the rise of ISIL and this extreme violence.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Dr. Saleemul Huq, your response? I mean, to what extent do you think the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, etc., Yemen, are exacerbated by climate change? Can the creation of ISIS really be attributed to the effects of a changing climate?

SALEEMUL HUQ: I think that—I don't think there's a direct attribution of the rise of ISIS as an organization to climate change, but there is no denying the underlying logic of the statement that we just heard, which is that there was a continuing drought for quite a few years in Syria that predates the conflict, the civil war, and the rise ofISIS, and caused migration and refugees going from the rural areas to urban areas. And that's the kind of thing that climate change is likely to cause in future, and almost certainly will cause future conflicts.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Dr. Huq, what does the declaration call on some of the Muslim-majority oil-producing countries to do? They're the ones with among the least incentives to cut down on fossil fuels, since they're dependent on them for their economy.

SALEEMUL HUQ: Well, first of all, it enjoins all the Muslims in those countries, as individuals, to do what they can to reduce their own carbon footprints and also to help their fellow Muslims, who very often are amongst the most vulnerable people to the impacts of climate change, people like Muslims living in Pakistan, in Bangladesh, my country, and in parts of Africa. Many of these are Muslims who are suffering the consequences, and therefore those of us who are better off have a duty to help them, protect them and to stop causing the pollution that is causing the impacts on them, and at the same time hope to influence the leaders of these countries that it's in their own best interest to move away from fossil fuels in the long run. And indeed, this is beginning to happen. If you look at the leaders of Abu Dhabi, for example, they are investing heavily in solar energy and in renewable energy, because they know that their oil is not going to last forever.

AMY GOODMAN: Saleemul Huq, we want to thank you for being with us, one of the contributors and signatories to the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change, climate scientist at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, director of the International Center for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh.

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