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Items tagged with: environment
We know — and our rulers certainly know — that if we are to have any hope of preserving even a limited version of today’s complex modern society, greenhouse gas emissions MUST go down, swiftly and urgently.
But instead, emissions continue going up and up and up. It is literally suicidal.
So, WHY haven't we stopped burning fossil fuels?
Because there are profits to be made. Huge, massive, irresistibly tempting profits.
In a sane world, these actions would be seen as criminal.
Perpetrators like fossil fuel executives, their financiers, and the politicians who enable them, would be arrested, charged, tried, and convicted, with assets forfeited to pay for mitigation and reparations.
But we do not live in a sane world.
#Politics #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateJustice #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #Degrowth
#ExxonMobil Accused of “Deceptively” Promoting Chemical #Recycling as a Solution for the #Plastics Crisis
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The #California attorney general’s lawsuit, which cites ProPublica reporting, alleges that products made with Exxon’s process contain only a small fraction of the recycled #plastic that they claim to have.
propublica.org/article/exxonmo…
#News #Law #Exxon #Oil #Environment #FossilFuels #Sustainability #Accountability
ExxonMobil Accused of Deceptive Marketing of Plastics Recycling Process
The California attorney general’s lawsuit, which cites ProPublica reporting, alleges that products made with Exxon’s process contain only a small fraction of the recycled plastic that they claim to have.ProPublica
#OTD in 1962.
Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring is published, inspiring an environmental movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of DDT, a pesticide used by soldiers during WW2. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation, and public officials of accepting the industry's marketing claims unquestioningly.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_S…
Blame Capitalism: because it doesn’t care about trust because it removes choice and strangles competition.
abc.net.au/news/2024-09-26/acc…
#capitalism #neoliberalism #classwar #economics #bosses #workers #humanrights #environment #war #BlameCapitalism #poverty
ACCC report finds Australians have lost trust in supermarkets as it focuses on Coles and Woolworths' market power and barriers to entry
A new report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has found many Australians have lost trust in supermarkets as it investigates the mega grocers' market power and potential barriers to entry in the sector.Lucia Stein (ABC News)
🗑️ The legacy of corn nitrogen fertilizer: Study shows lengthy impact in tile drained systems
phys.org/news/2024-09-legacy-c…
#corn #nitrogen #pollution #agriculture #waste #environment #ecology #usa
The legacy of corn nitrogen fertilizer: Study shows lengthy impact in tile drained systems
Midwestern soils are among the most productive in the world, thanks in part to extensive tile drainage systems that remove excess water from crop fields. But water isn't the only thing flowing through tile drains.Lauren Quinn (Phys.org)
Why are corporations allowed to continue reaping billions in profits while ravaging the biosphere and endangering the future of civilization?
Why do politicians give only lip-service, pretending to be strong on the climate while doing nothing to stop the irretrievable damage of the corporations? And why do voters keep returning those same politicians to office, over and over again?
Because the system is operating exactly as intended.
🤡 🥪 🎪
Our rulers make sure we'll get enough to eat (bread) if we work hard for it, and they provide trivial entertainment (circuses) to keep us distracted from what's really going on. We can barely see that, if at all, and anyway we're kept way too busy to care very much.
The aim of the system is — and always has been — more money and more power for those at the top. To hell with the consequences.
Business As Usual must go on.
#History #Politics #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
Sea ice's cooling power is waning faster than its area of extent
As sea ice disappears and grows less reflective, the Arctic has lost around a quarter of its cooling power since 1980, and the world has lost up to 15%, according to new research.ScienceDaily
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
(a thread of threads, quotes, and links)
This is a collection of writings and research concerned with how we got where we are today, which is in fact the story of what has been done *to* us, and what has been *taken from us*.
By "us" we're talking about "the 99%", "workers", "wage slaves", all non-owners of private property, "the poor", unhoused people, indigenous people, even plenty of people who swear by capitalism and identify as "capitalist" yet have no capital of their own and no serious hope of ever having any worth speaking of. In other words almost everyone except for the very few who have had the power to exploit us and shape our lives to serve their agenda. We're going to examine institutions and concepts that have deeply altered our world at all levels, both our external and internal realities.
By "here" we are talking about climate crisis and myriad other environmental catastrophes resulting from hyper-excessive extraction, consumption and waste; a world of rampant inequality and exploitation, hunger and starvation; a world of fences, walls, tollbooths, prisons, police, bullshit jobs and criminalized poverty; a world overrun with cars and preventable diseases; a world of vanishing biodiversity and blooming fascism; a world where "democracy" results in being led by some of the worst of humanity; a world ruled by an imaginary but all-powerful and single-minded god: Capital.
Our inspiration and structural framework for this survey is this quote from "The Prehistory of Private Property", an important work from political philosopher Karl Widerquist and anthropologist Grant S. McCall:
"After hundreds of millennia in which all humans had direct access to the commons, it took only a few centuries for enclosure, colonialism, capitalism, and industrialization to cut off the vast majority of people on Earth from direct access to the means of economic production and therefore to rob them of the power to say no. It took only a few generations to convince most people that this situation was natural and inevitable. That false lesson needs to be unlearned."
Also recommended: "Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy"
#capitalism #colonialism #enclosure #PrivateProperty #state #police #inequality #anthropology #environment #ClimateCrisis #economics
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Books - Karl Widerquist
List of Books Universal Basic Income: Essential Knowledge (2024) The Problem of Property: Taking the Freedom of Nonowners Seriously (2023) The Prehistory of Private Property: Implications for Modern Political Theory (2021) A Critical Analysis of Basi…Karl Widerquist
What happened to Greta Thunberg?
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As Greta’s politics have grown and evolved, they reached a point where they now make billionaire media owners, milquetoast executives of major non-profits, and more than a few politicians a little uncomfortable. All she’s done is follow the science, but over time the science has led her to see that the climate crisis doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There are massive monetary incentives to destroy the planet in this capitalist system.
ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP made over $100 billion in profits in 2023 alone. In following the science, Greta had to start examining the capitalist system if she wanted to get down to the root of the climate crisis.
But Greta kept going. When she published The Climate Book in 2022, the then 19-year-old activist had some words for the entire system we live under today:
"We are never going back to normal again because ‘normal’ was already a crisis. What we refer to as normal is an extreme system built on the exploitation of people and the planet. It is a system defined by colonialism, imperialism, oppression and genocide by the Global North to accumulate wealth that still shapes our current world order.”
That was two years ago, and it’s no surprise she hasn’t been given the spotlight nearly as often since. In fact, in the wake of that book launch, she’s been the subject of countless hit pieces, and her Palestine solidarity activism has been denigrated as well.
Greta went from a cute kid saying that climate change is bad to a young adult rightly charging global systems with not only fueling the climate crisis but also being oppressive and grossly harmful to life in numerous other ways. And, perhaps most importantly, she sees these systems as interconnected and knows that radical change is necessary for the future of life on this planet.
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FULL ESSAY -- jphilll.com/p/gretas-growth
#Politics #Economics #Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange
"From Florida to Oregon, utilities are racing to meet a surge in demand from power-hungry AI data centers, manufacturing facilities and electric vehicles."
"Electricity usage by data centers is poised to surge as much as ten times current levels by 2030."
Ten times. 😵 That's a lot.
#AI #ClimateChange #Climate #Environment #news #press #data #tech #technology
The "defense" budget of the US empire could be slashed by at least 80 or 90% with no risk to the safety of most citizens. The only ones hurt would be military contractors, their lobbyists, and all the politicians who get paid by them.
That would be a start, but there’s so much more that needs to be done.
We will have to break our fossil fuel addiction within the next five years. Stop making plastics. End capitalism. Feed the starving. House the refugees.
If we manage to do all this, we *might* get lucky and have a billion humans still alive by the end of the century.
Sorry to be so bleak, but that’s what I see.
#USA #War #Economics #Environment #Climate #Degrowth
Historic rainfall inflicts chaotic floods across four continents
Though different meteorological phenomena are behind the series of storms, climate scientists agree an underlying factor is global warming writ large.Brian K Sullivan (The Japan Times)
Global spending on subsidies that harm environment rises to $2.6tn, report says | Environment | The Guardian
theguardian.com/environment/20…
Global spending on subsidies that harm environment rises to $2.6tn, report says
Exclusive: analysis finds $800bn increase in direct support for activities including deforestation and fossil fuel usePatrick Greenfield (The Guardian)
#EPA Scientists Said They Were Pressured to Downplay Harms From #Chemicals. A Watchdog Found They Were Retaliated Against.
Three reports issued by the agency’s inspector general detailed personal attacks suffered by the scientists — including being called “stupid,” “piranhas” and “pot-stirrers” — and called on the EPA to take “appropriate corrective action” in response.
propublica.org/article/epa-sci…
#News #Science #Retaliation #Government #Environment #Safety #Whistleblower #Trump #Project2025
EPA Scientists Faced Retaliation After Finding Harm From Chemicals, Reports Find
Three reports issued by the agency’s inspector general detailed personal attacks suffered by the scientists — including being called “stupid,” “piranhas” and “pot-stirrers” — and called on the EPA to take “appropriate corrective action” in response.ProPublica
Just in the last few days, we've witnessed "once-in-a-century" flooding in China and Southeast Asia, in Africa, in South America, and in Central Europe.
Yeah, about those floods...
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis
Microplastics can get into brain tissue, study shows.
NBC News reports: "The tiny scraps of plastic were found in the olfactory bulb, the part of the brain responsible for processing smell."
Here's the original study: jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…
#Microplastics #Plastic #Brain #Health #Pollution #environment #Science
Microplastics in the Olfactory Bulb of the Human Brain
This case series investigates microplastics in the olfactory bulbs of deceased individuals and examines their size, morphology, color, and polymeric composition.Luís Fernando Amato-Lourenço, PhD (JAMA Network)
Last month was the hottest August ever recorded. There is no doubt that we are in a climate emergency.
But still, Business As Usual just goes on and on.
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August 2024 was Earth’s hottest August in NOAA’s 175-year climate record. This marks the 15th-consecutive month of record-high global temperatures — which is itself a record streak.
According to NCEI’s Global Annual Temperature Outlook, there is a 97% chance that 2024 will rank as the world’s warmest year on record.
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MORE INFO -- noaa.gov/news/earth-had-its-ho…
#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency
Earth had its hottest August in 175-year record
Summer 2024 was Northern Hemisphere’s warmest on recordwww.noaa.gov
The USA is now producing 50% more oil than Saudi Arabia. (‼️)
So, who are the real climate criminals?
Arguably, it is the corporate and political leaders in the United States of America.
#USA #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual
"In the last two weeks of August, more than 1.5 million people were displaced across 12 countries in West and Central Africa due to floods, and about 465 have been killed, according to the United Nations humanitarian affairs office."
#climate #ClimateCollapse #environment
cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/niger…
