The United Kingdom’s Labour Party is ramping up its climate proposals, making the crisis a central issue amid a wave of protests and new signs that the ruling Conservative Party is failing to cut emissions fast enough.
The opposition party, led by socialist firebrand Jeremy Corbyn, plans to force a vote this week on whether to declare climate change a national emergency.
And now its parliamentarians are promising a Green New Deal modeled on the movement quickly gaining steam among left-wing Democrats in the United States.
“‘Green New Deal’ is a phrase that has resonance,” Barry Gardiner, the U.K.’s shadow secretary of state for international climate change, told HuffPost.
On Sunday, the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party eked out a narrow parliamentary victory running on “El Green New Deal de España.” Jagmeet Singh, the leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, said last week he’s proposing “a Canadian version of the Green New Deal” just months before the country’s next federal election.
Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister, called for “nations to unite around an International Green New Deal” in an op-ed last week.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said over the weekend that climate activists “are right,” and backed calls to declare a climate emergency.
Some utilities are attempting to steel themselves against plans to bring them under public control, and Labour officials are considering creative ways to avoid 12-figure national expenditures.
“This has changed the whole atmosphere in the country,” Gardiner said.
Gardiner said the party plans to make a bid to host the U.N.’s 26th Conference of the Parties next year.
Conservation & Sustainability
Remember that time in the 1980s when we almost took serious action on climate change?
We were never really that close to acting, although we certainly missed an opportunity to get the ball rolling.
That’s why I’ve started a new program within Grist called, simply, Fix.
Let’s not lose Earth this time.
The city passed a law this month that requires buildings like the Empire State Building and Trump Tower to slash their greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent.
“We act like we’re aliens here, or like we’ve been given everything to dominate by God.” 4.
Your Sunday plans When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
And when life gives you stinging nettles, well, make yourself some pesto!
In Washington state, where I live, the stuff is everywhere this time of year, and it hurts like hell when it rakes across your shins.
Ingredients: 3 cups fresh nettle leaves (careful!)
brainwaves Which phrase does a better job of grabbing people’s attention: “global warming” or “climate change”?
If you want to get people to care, try “climate crisis,” suggests new research from an advertising consulting agency in New York.
SPARK Neuro measures brain activity and sweaty palms to gauge people’s emotional reactions and attention to stimuli.
And now SPARK Neuro is turning its attention to climate change.
“Global warming” and “climate change” performed the worst of all in terms of emotional engagement and audience attention.
He pointed to the “estate tax,” which normal people didn’t care much about until Republicans started rebranding it as the “death tax” in the 1990s.
If a term doesn’t evoke a strong emotional response in the first place, it’s even more likely to wear out quickly, Gerrol said.
People who care about our warming planet are starting to realize the power of words.
The company’s work has been called a “lie detector on steroids.” For the messaging experiment, participants were first shown neutral stimuli to establish a baseline.
That kind of response leads people to pay more attention and encourages a sense of urgency, Gerrol said.
What is the Tropical Forest Conservation Act?
It’s a law that redirects countries’ debt to the U.S. into the conservation of forests, wildlife and now — for the first time — coral reefs.
Why coral reefs in a law with “tropical forests” in the name?
Coral reefs were included in the reauthorization at the suggestion of Conservation International, which worked to build support for the act.
How does TFCA work?
It uses debt-for-nature swaps, which enable countries to trade their debt to the U.S. for funds to protect nature in their own country.
Conservation International was the first to employ a debt-for-nature swap in a project in Bolivia, even before the U.S. government had signed TFCA into law.
Why was Conservation International involved in getting the law reauthorized?
“If the country agrees to a debt-for-nature swap, then the U.S. government, beneficiary country and often a non-profit organization, such as Conservation International, work together to develop a specific project,” he said.
But … The reauthorization act only signed TFCA into law for two years, which means in 2020, it will lapse again.
Humans are causing the mass extinction of animal species all across the globe and not enough is being done to
Unable to play video.
Content loading… A proposal from Washington Gov.
Jay Inslee to have a presidential debate focused on climate change gained steam on Wednesday with backing from a rival 2020 candidate and a coalition of environmental groups.
The governor, who is centering his presidential campaign around climate change, said in an email to supporters that the Democratic nominee selected to challenge President Donald Trump needed to have a “concrete plan to address” the phenomenon, and that American’s deserved to hear it in advance of the primaries.
Most Democrats in the crowded field have made climate change a core tenet of their campaigns, in direct opposition to Trump’s climate-denying policies.
The White House has dramatically rolled back many environmental regulations and moved to withdraw the U.S. from the landmark Paris Climate Agreement as Trump himself has mocked the science around the issue.
Inslee’s debate idea was quickly endorsed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who called climate change the “greatest threat to humanity today.” “A DNC debate focused on climate change would show the world that America intends to lead again on this issue, and would be a smart place to discuss the key tenets of the Green New Deal — infrastructure, green jobs and clean air and water — and how to put a price on carbon,” Gillibrand said in a statement to The Daily Beast.
But it’s unclear how far those conversations will go.
The DNC’s communications director declined to commit to Inslee’s proposal, simply saying that the party was “eager to put forward solutions to combat climate change” and that future debates would “absolutely have these discussions during the 2020 primary process.” “The DNC is currently ironing out the details for all 12 debates and will work with the networks to ensure that Democrats have a platform to discuss these issues directly with the American people,” the spokesperson, Xochitl Hinojosa, told Axios.
“We need to know that whoever is nominated to take on Trump in 2020 has what it takes to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and fight for bold solutions to the climate crisis,” the coalition said in a statement.
These projects are in different stages of permitting and funding, but are moving ahead even as headlines about the river’s dwindling supply dominate the news.
The headwaters of the river and the main source of water lie in the upper basin, which includes Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico.
The lower basin, where much of the water is used, includes Nevada, California, and Arizona.
The upper basin has never used its full allotment of water.
As a result, lower basin states such as California and Arizona have benefitted from the “bonus water” that upper basin states have left in the river.
“The upper basin is going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and the lower basin is going on a diet,” said Zachary Frankel, executive director of Utah Rivers Council.
The state wants to build a 140-mile pipeline from the reservoir, which is currently near historic lows, to Washington and Kane counties in southwest Utah.
The pipeline is estimated to cost between $1.1 and $1.8 billion, but Nuding says conservation measures could be implemented to save the same amount of water the pipeline would transport for a third of that cost.
Utah has the legal right to draw more water from the river.
It is allowed to use 1.7 million acre-feet every year, but only draws about a million.
Singapore has seized more than 14 tons of pangolin scales worth an estimated $38.7 million. Authorities are calling one of
awkward night at the museum Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, known for his strong anti-environmental policies and intention to open up the Amazon rainforest to increased deforestation, will be one of the guests of honor next month at a gala at, wait for it, the American Natural History Museum.
On May 14th, the New York museum, whose permanent collections include the hall of biodiversity and the hall of North American forests, is scheduled to house the black-tie event, hosted by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce.
Each year, the organization honors two “persons of the year” — one Brazilian, one American– who have advanced economic ties between the two countries.
While the American honoree has not yet been announced, Bolsonaro is slated to take the Brazilian slot, Gothamist reports.
But the irony of lauding a man who has repeatedly aired racist, homophobic and misogynist views all the while rolling back environmental protections in the Amazon at a venue dedicated to the natural world has not been lost on advocates or fans of the museum.
“The fact that American Museum of Natural History would accept an event for something so counter to their own values, they should be ashamed themselves,” Priscila Neri, a Brazilian activist with the New York City-based human rights organization WITNESS, told Gothamist.
“In a moment when there’s been a rise of authoritarianism around the world, they’re giving a positive nod to a man who is rolling back human rights protections and scientific knowledge.” Bolsonaro, dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics,” has undertaken an aggressive campaign of deforestation and mining that indigenous groups have likened to an “institutionalization of genocide in Brazil.” The Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce has close ties to the Bolsonaro regime.
Earlier this week, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ted Helms struck a $9 billion dollar deal with Bolsonaro’s government to sell oil production rights, and the organization’s president and board chairman, Alexandre Bettamio, was reportedly one of Bolsonaro’s choices to run the country’s state-run bank.
To be fair to the American Natural History Museum, the pro-Bolsonaro event is external, meaning the Museum is only acting as a venue; the event was also booked at the before the honoree was announced.
Roberto Lebron, a spokesperson for the museum, told Gothamist that the event “does not in any way reflect the Museum’s position that there is an urgent need to conserve the Amazon Rainforest, which has such profound implications for biological diversity, indigenous communities, climate change, and the future health of our planet.” Museum representatives also tweeted that they are “deeply concerned” and are exploring their options.
Its theme is climate change, marking the second time in eight months that the magazine has dedicated an entire issue to the pressing problem.
The first was Nathaniel Rich’s “Losing Earth,” which took up an entire issue last August and was reportedly the longest article ever published in the magazine.
Lo and behold, the new issue features a second article by Rich that offers a scathing rebuke of corporations for their ruthless pursuit of easy profits.
“It has become commonplace to observe that corporations behave like psychopaths,” he writes, calling out ExxonMobil by name.
“They are self-interested to the point of violence, possess a vibrant disregard for laws and social mores, have an indifference to the rights of others and fail to feel remorse.” He wonders whether capitalism is fundamentally at odds with climate action and ends his piece with the assertion that coercion — economic, political, or moral — “must be the remedy” to whipping corporations into shape.
“The Problem With Putting a Price on the End of the World” Another article from Sunday’s issue evaluates the obstacles to putting a price on climate change.
The central question, he writes, “is whether any policy is both big enough to matter and popular enough to happen.” “Climate Chaos Is Coming — and the Pinkertons Are Ready” Journalist Noah Gallagher Shannon’s piece about a private security contractor prepping for climate fallout paints a bleak and fascinating picture of a future in which huge corporate clients turn to third parties to protect themselves against upheaval.
Turns out, that world is already here.
Pinkerton, an agency originally formed in the mid-1800s “in response to the lawlessness of the frontier,” is rebranding itself as disaster-security-for-hire prepared to mitigate the risks of climate change for its clients: hurricanes, mass migration, violence, food shortages, and more.
Whereas the New York Times Magazine’s previous climate-themed issue focused on a single narrative, its second foray into the world of climate writing puts a lineup of articles in conversation with one another about the economic, political, and moral feasibility of reigning in climate change.
