Winter 2021 Environmental Reports from Nonviolent Change Journal

 

Environmental Reports from Winter 2021

Compiled February 3, 2021 -  http://www.nonviolentchangejournal.org,

 

Table of Contents

Environmental Developments                                                                                                                              p.   1

Environmental Activities                                                                                                                                      p. 61

DIALOGUING

  The Biden-Harris plan to create union jobs by tackling the climate crisis                                            p. 74

  Howie Wolke, "Thirty by Thirty and Half Earth: Promises and Pitfalls"                                            p. 75

  Stephen M. Sachs, "A Note on the How of achieving 30-30 and Half Earth"                                       p. 80

ARTICLES

John Lynch, "Global Food System Emissions Alone Threaten Warming Beyond 1.5°C

    —But We Can Act Now to Stop It"                                                                                                                   p. 81

Upcoming Environmental Events                                                                                                                         p. 83

Useful Web Sites                                                                                                                                   p. 85

 

Environmental Developments

 

Steve Sachs

 

 

             

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Environmental Activities

 

Steve Sachs

Brandon Specktor  "Earth barreling toward 'Hothouse' state not seen in 50 million years, epic new climate record shows: Record goes back to the dinosaur extinction," Science Live, September 10, 2020, https://www.livescience.com/author/brandon-specktor, reports that a new study of climate developments since the event the extinguished the dinosaurs, shows that current global warming is rapidly moving the Earth toward a "hot house" climate not seen in 50 million years.

 

              Veronica Penney, "2020 Had the Warmest September on Record, Data Shows: The analysis, by European scientists, kept this year on track to be one of the five hottest in recorded history," The New York Times, October 7, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/climate/hottest-september.html?campaign_id=54&emc=edit_clim_20201007&instance_id=22904&nl=climate-fwd%3A&regi_id=52235981&segment_id=40132&te=1&user_id=2984790c14170290245238c0cd4fd927, reported, "Worldwide, last month was the warmest September on record, topping a record set just a year before, European scientists announced Wednesday," As the world was on course to be at least one of the hottest years ever recorded."

 

              John Branch and Brad Plumer. Climate Disruption Is Now Locked In. The Next Moves Will Be Crucial," The New York Times, September 22, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/climate/climate-change-future.html, reported, "America is now under siege by climate change in ways that scientists have warned about for years. But there is a second part to their admonition: Decades of growing crisis are already locked into the global ecosystem and cannot be reversed.

            This means the kinds of cascading disasters occurring today — drought in the West fueling historic wildfires that send smoke all the way to the East Coast, or parades of tropical storms lining upacross the Atlantic to march destructively toward North America — are no longer features of some dystopian future. They are the here and now, worsening for the next generation and perhaps longer, depending on humanity’s willingness to take action."

            The choice is right now to do little or nothing and have a far greater climate catastrophe, or to act strongly and quickly to significantly limit the continuing growth of climate change harm and prevent terrible massive calamity.

 

              Coral Davenport and Jeanna Smialek, "Federal Report Warns of Financial Havoc From Climate Change: A report commissioned by President Trump’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued dire warnings about climate change’s impact on financial markets," The New York Times, September 8, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/climate/climate-change-financial-markets.html, reported, "A report commissioned by federal regulators overseeing the nation’s commodities markets has concluded that climate change threatens U.S. financial markets, as the costs of wildfires, storms, droughts and floods spread through insurance and mortgage markets, pension funds and other financial institutions.

              'A world wracked by frequent and devastating shocks from climate change cannot sustain the fundamental conditions supporting our financial system,' concluded the report, Managing Climate Risk in the Financial System (https://www.cftc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-09/9-9-20%20Report%20of%20the%20Subcommittee%20on%20Climate-Related%20Market%20Risk%20-%20Managing%20Climate%20Risk%20in%20the%20U.S.%20Financial%20System%20for%20posting.pdf), which was requested last year by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and set for release on Wednesday morning."

 

              Somini Sengupta, "Hotter Planet Already Poses Fatal Risks, Health Experts Warn: A new report presented climate change as an immediate public health danger and urged lawmakers to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

December 2, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/climate/climate-change-health-risks.html, reported, "Rising temperatures and environmental pollutants are already endangering the health and well-being of Americans, with fatal consequences for thousands of older men and women, a team of public health experts warned Wednesday. Their report, published in The Lancet (http://www.thelancet-press.com/embargo/climatecountdown.pdf), called on lawmakers to stem the rise of planet-warming gases in the next five years.

              The section on the United States presents climate change as a public health risk now, rather than a hazard faced by future generations. It points to the immediate dangers of extreme heat, wildfires and air pollution, and makes the case for rapidly shifting to a green economy as a way to improve public health."

 

              "Emissions Gap Report 2020," UNEP, UNEP DTU Partnership, December 9, 2020, https://www.unep.org/emissions-gap-report-2020, reported, "For over a decade, the UNEP Emissions Gap Report has provided a yearly review of the difference between where greenhouse emissions are predicted to be in 2030 and where they should be to avoid the worst impacts of climate change."

              The full 2020 report may be downloaded at: https://www.unep.org/emissions-gap-report-2020new in this year’s report

              "The report finds that, despite a brief dip in carbon dioxide emissions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is still heading for a temperature rise in excess of 3°C this century – far beyond the Paris Agreement goals of limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C.

              However, a low-carbon pandemic recovery could cut 25 per cent off the greenhouse emissions expected in 2030, based on policies in place before COVID-19. Such a recovery would far outstrip savings foreseen with the implementation of unconditional Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, and put the world close to the 2°C pathway.

The report also analyses low-carbon recovery measures so far, summarizes the scale of new net-zero emissions pledges by nations and looks at the potential of the lifestyle, aviation and shipping sectors to bridge the gap."

              Emissions Gap Report 2020 Key Messages

              Despite a brief dip in carbon dioxide emissions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is still heading for a temperature rise in excess of 3°C this century – far beyond the Paris Agreement goals of limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C. However, a green pandemic recovery can cut around 25 per cent off the greenhouse emissions predicted in 2030 and put the world close to the 2°C pathway. Governments should pull out all the stops to implement a green recovery and strengthen their pledges before the next climate meeting in 2021.

              Although the COVID-19 pandemic will cause a dip in 2020 emissions, this will not bring the world closer to the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming this century to well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C

The year 2020 is on track to be one of the warmest on record, with wildfires, droughts, storms and glacier melt intensifying.

              In 2019, total greenhouse gas emissions, including land-use change, reached a new high of 59.1 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent (GtCO2e).

              Carbon dioxide emissions are predicted to fall up to 7 per cent in 2020. However, long-term, this dip means only a 0.01°C reduction of global warming by 2050.

              Government pledges under the Paris Agreement, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), are still woefully inadequate. Predicted emissions in 2030 leave the world on the path to a 3.2°C increase this century, even if all unconditional NDCs are fully implemented.

              The levels of ambition in the Paris Agreement must be roughly tripled for the 2°C pathway and increased at least fivefold for the 1.5°C pathway.

              The pandemic is a warning from nature that we must act on climate change, nature loss and pollution. It also provides an opportunity for a recovery that puts the world on a 2°C pathway

            • A green pandemic recovery could cut up to 25 per cent off the emissions we would expect to see in 2030 based on policies in place before COVID-19. This far outstrips emissions savings that would be delivered under unconditional NDCs, although more will be needed to achieve the 1.5°C goal.

              A green recovery could put emissions in 2030 at 44 GtCO2e – within the range of emissions that give a 66 per cent chance of holding temperatures to below 2°C.

              Measures to prioritize include direct support for zero-emissions technologies and infrastructure, reducing fossil fuel subsidies, no new coal plants, and promoting nature-based solutions – including large-scale landscape restoration and reforestation.

              To date, the opening for using recovery measures to accelerate a green transition has largely been missed. Unless this is reversed, the Paris Agreement goals will slip further out of reach

Around one-quarter of G20 members have dedicated shares of their spending, up to 3 per cent of GDP, explicitly to low-carbon measures.

              For most, spending has been predominantly high carbon, implying net negative emissions, or neutral, having no discernible effects on emissions.

              There nonetheless remains a significant opportunity for countries to implement low-carbon policies and programmes. Governments must take this opportunity in the next stage of COVID-19 fiscal interventions.

              The growing number of countries committing to net-zero emissions goals by mid-century is the most significant climate policy development of 2020. To remain feasible and credible, these commitments must be urgently translated into strong near-term policies and action and reflected in NDCs.

              At the time of report completion, 126 countries covering 51 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions had adopted, announced or were considering net- zero goals. If the United States of America adopts a net-zero target by 2050, as suggested in the Biden-Harris climate plan, the share would increase to 63 per cent.

              Although the net-zero emissions goals are encouraging, they highlight a vast discrepancy between the ambition of the goals and the inadequate level of ambition in NDCs.

              More countries need to develop long-term strategies consistent with the Paris Agreement, and new and updated NDCs need to become consistent with the net- zero emissions goals.

              The shipping and aviation sector, which account for 5 per cent of global emissions and growing, also requires more attention

              • If current trends are continued, combined international emissions from shipping and aviation will likely consume between 60 and 220 per cent of allowable CO2 emissions by 2050 under the 1.5°C scenario.

              Improvements in technology and operations can improve the fuel efficiency of transport if incentivized, but projected increases in demand mean this will not result in decarbonization and absolute reductions of CO2. Both sectors need to combine energy efficiency with a rapid transition away from fossil fuel.

            Additional policies are required to drive changes in technology, operations, fuel use and demand.

              Stronger action must include facilitating, encouraging and mandating changes in consumption behaviour by the private sector and individuals

              Around two-thirds of global emissions are linked to private households, when using consumption-based accounting. The mobility, residential and food sectors each contribute about 20 per cent of lifestyle emissions.

              Governments must enable and encourage consumers to avoid high-carbon consumption. Possible actions include replacing domestic short haul flights with rail, incentives and infrastructure to enable cycling and car-sharing, improving energy efficiency of housing, renewable energy defaults from grid providers and policies to reduce food waste.

              The combined emissions of the richest one per cent of the global population account for more than twice the poorest 50 per cent. The elite will need to reduce their footprint by a factor of at least 30 to stay in line with the Paris Agreement targets."

 

              "2020 on track to be one of three warmest years on record," World Meteorological Organization (WMO), December 2, 2020, https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/2020-track-be-one-of-three-warmest-years-record, reported, "Climate change continued its relentless march in 2020, which is on track to be one of the three warmest years on record. 2011-2020 will be the warmest decade on record, with the warmest six years all being since 2015, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

              Ocean heat is at record levels and more than 80% of the global ocean experienced a marine heatwave at some time in 2020, with widespread repercussions for marine ecosystems already suffering from more acidic waters due to carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption, according to the provisional WMO report on the State of the Global Climate in 2020 (https://library.wmo.int/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=21804#.YAJcJi2z1MM)."

 

              August, September and October 2020 were record hot months in California, contributing to the state's worst fire season (Hawley Smith, "California suffered three straight months of record heat," Albuquerque Journal, December 9, 2020).

              Indeed, in late October the fire season was continuing, including the new Silverado Fire, near Irvine, CA, which quickly forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate ("Thousands Told to Flee New wildfire in California," The New York Times, October 27, 2020).

 

              Kenny Stancil, "'Where Will Everyone Go?' New Report Documents How Climate Migration Could Reshape US: 'The cost of resisting the new climate reality is mounting,' a new report shows, suggesting the U.S. is 'on the cusp of a great transformation' involving the relocation of millions of displaced people." Common Dreams, September 15, 2020,  https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/15/where-will-everyone-go-new-report-documents-how-climate-migration-could-reshape-us?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "Potentially millions of people in the U.S. will be displaced as the climate crisis makes certain regions increasingly uninhabitable, prompting new migrations that will reshape the country, a new report shows. 

              The story published Tuesday is the second installment in a series on global climate migration that stems from a collaboration between ProPublica and the New York Times, with support from the Pulitzer Center. 

              While the first article in the series focused on the movement of climate refugees across international borders, the latest story focuses on how climate migration within the U.S. will reshape the country. 

              As report author Abrahm Lustgarten explains, 'In much of the developing world, vulnerable people will attempt to flee the emerging perils of global warming, seeking cooler temperatures, more fresh water and safety.'

              But here in the U.S., many people have for years 'avoided confronting these changes in their own backyards,' he writes. 

              'The decisions we make about where to live are distorted not just by politics that play down climate risks, but also by expensive subsidies and incentives aimed at defying nature,' Lustgarten adds in the report. 'People have largely gravitated toward environmental danger, building along coastlines from New Jersey to Florida and settling across the cloudless deserts of the Southwest.'

              In light of a summer in which millions of people have endured the devastating combined effects of a pandemic, wildfires, hurricanes, and heatwaves, the journalist wonders: 'Might Americans finally be waking upto how climate is about to transform their lives? And if so—if a great domestic relocation might be in the offing—was it possible to project where we might go?'

              Lustgarten argues that the U.S., where 162 million people—nearly one in two—will 'most likely experience a decline in the quality of their environment" in the coming years, is "a nation on the cusp of a great transformation.' 

            'The changes could be particularly severe' for 93 million Americans, and 'if carbon emissions rise at extreme levels, at least four million Americans could find themselves living at the fringe, in places decidedly outside the ideal niche for human life,' according to the analysis. 

              The story is accompanied by a set of maps depicting likely shifts in the niche of human habitability, and the scenarios 'suggest massive upheavals in where Americans currently live and grow food.'

              Several factors are driving changes in the suitability of different environments, researchers note. These include extreme heat and humidity—the collision of which will create what scientists call 'wet bulb' temperatures that will "disrupt the norms of daily existence"—as well as larger and more frequent wildfires, rising sea levels, declining crop yields, and economic damages related to higher energy costs and lower labor productivity. 

              According to the analysis, the greatest climate risk exists in counties throughout the Southeast and the Southwest where the perils are likely to intermingle and generate 'compounding calamities.'

              'The cost of resisting the new climate reality is mounting,' the report states. Public officials in Florida "have already acknowledged that defending some roadways against the sea will be unaffordable,' explains Lustgarten. Furthermore, 'the nation's federal flood-insurance program is for the first time requiring that some of its payouts be used to retreat from climate threats across the country.'

              If 'it will soon prove too expensive to maintain the status quo'—as Lustgarten argues it will—then what might we expect?

              The author paints a grim picture of the possible consequences of mass relocations between now and 2070, arguing that such a population shift is:

            "likely to increase poverty and widen the gulf between the rich and the poor. It will accelerate rapid, perhaps chaotic, urbanization of cities ill-equipped for the burden, testing their capacity to provide basic services and amplifying existing inequities. It will eat away at prosperity, dealing repeated economic blows to coastal, rural and Southern regions, which could in turn push entire communities to the brink of collapse.

Mobility itself, global migration experts point out, is often a reflection of relative wealth, and as some move, many others will be left behind. Those who stay risk becoming trapped as the land and the society around them ceases to offer any more support."

              While a growing number of citizens consider climate change a top political priority, Lustgarten argues that 'policymakers, having left America unprepared for what's next, now face brutal choices about which communities to save—often at exorbitant costs—and which to sacrifice.' 

              Lustgarten devotes considerable attention to what he describes as the negative effects of the country's property insurance system, which has distorted perceptions of risk and incentivized real estate development in locations vulnerable to disasters. The experts he talked to anticipate shocks to the financial system and the upending of 'entire communities' once 'all the structural disincentives that had built Americans' irrational response' to the threats posed by climate change begin 'reaching their logical endpoint.' 

              "Until now," the report notes, "market mechanisms had essentially socialized the consequences of high-risk development. But as the costs rise—and the insurers quit, and the bankers divest, and the farm subsidies prove too wasteful, and so on—the full weight of responsibility will fall on individual people."

'And that's when the real migration might begin,' says Lustgarten.

              Past experiences with socio-environmental disasters in the U.S. raise concerns about the welfare of people who are displaced as well as those who are left behind. When the Dust Bowl 'propelled an exodus of some 2.5 million people' from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri, 'they were funneled into squalid shanty towns' in California, the author writes.

              Experts told Lustgarten that similar problems are likely to arise in the 21st century, as hundreds of thousands of climate refugees move to cities already struggling with poverty, inequality, and 'long-neglected' infrastructural systems 'suddenly pressed to expand under increasingly adverse conditions.'

              In the 1930s, 'Colorado tried to seal its border from the climate refugees,' the report notes. And 'the places migrants left behind never fully recovered.'

              Barring a reorientation of economic priorities and resources through far-reaching legislation like the Green New Deal, Lustgarten suggests that the decisions made by policymakers 'will almost inevitably make the nation more divided, with those worst off relegated to a nightmare future in which they are left to fend for themselves.'

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              Andrea Germanos, "Obsession With GDP, Disregard of Nature Leading Towards Ecosystem Collapse: Report 'Securing nature is investing in our self-preservation,'" Common Dreams, February 2, 2021, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/02/obsession-gdp-disregard-nature-leading-towards-ecosystem-collapse-report?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "A new report out Tuesday from the U.K. government framing the natural environment as 'our most precious asset says the world's destruction of biodiversity has put economies at risk and that a fundamental restructuring of global consumption and production patterns is needed for humanity's survival.

              The 600-page review (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nature-is-a-blind-spot-in-economics-that-we-ignore-at-our-peril-says-dasgupta-review) was commissioned by Britain's Treasury and authored by Partha Dasgupta, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Cambridge, who wrote that gross domestic product (GDP) is a faulty measure of sustainable economic growth.

              In a foreword to the report, renown naturalist and TV host David Attenborough wrote that although we 'are totally dependent upon the natural world,' we 'are currently damaging it so profoundly that many of its natural systems are now on the verge of breakdown.'

              Humanity is 'plundering every corner of the world, apparently neither knowing or caring what the consequences might be,' wrote Attenborough. 'Putting things right will take collaborative action by every nation on earth.'

              'The Dasgupta Review at last puts biodiversity at its core and provides the compass that we urgently need,' he added. 'In doing so, it shows us how, by bringing economics and ecology together, we can help save the natural world at what may be the last minute—and in doing so, save ourselves.'

              The report argues that a recovery effort like that seen in the aftermath of World World II is necessary. 'If we are to enhance the biosphere's health and reduce our demands, large-scale changes will be required, underpinned by levels of ambition, coordination, and political will akin to (or even greater than) those of the Marshall Plan,' it states.

              As the Associated Press reported:

              'Dasgupta called on the world to ensure demands on nature do not exceed sustainable supplies by changing food production and consumption, investing in natural solutions such as restoring forests, and protecting natural habitats. He said coordinated action now would in the long-run be less costly and would also help tackle other issues such as climate change and poverty.

              Additionally, he pointed to a need to move away from using gross domestic product, or GDP, as a measure of economic success toward one that accounts for the benefits of investing in natural assets such as forests, soils, and oceans.'

              'Truly sustainable economic growth and development means recognizing that our long-term prosperity relies on rebalancing our demand of nature's goods and services with its capacity to supply them,' Dasgupta said in a statement. 'It also means accounting fully for the impact of our interactions with nature across all levels of society.'

              The coronavirus pandemic 'has shown us what can happen when we don't do this,' Dasgupta added. 'Nature is our home. Good economics demands we manage it better.'

              According to Bloomberg, 'The review is the first time natural capital accounting—the act of quantifying ecosystems and their losses—has been discussed in detail by a mainstream economist with the support of the U.K. government.' The outlet added:

              Academics have spent decades attempting to put a price on nature. A widely-cited study in 1997 estimated that the global flow of the earth's biosphere was valued at an average of $33 trillion per year—far higher than the global gross domestic product of that era.

              Dasgupta said assigning absolute monetary values to nature would be meaningless because life would simply cease to exist if it was destroyed. The Indian-British economist called on governments to find an alternative to GDP as a way of measuring wealth, warning it is 'wholly unsuitable' for ensuring sustainable development. Instead, he said, governments should use a more inclusive measure of wealth that accounts for nature as an asset.

              'The message from the Dasgupta Review is clear,' said United Nations Environment Programme chief Inger Andersen. 'Securing nature is investing in our self-preservation.'

              'It is armed with this knowledge that in 2021 we must agree on an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework that ends nature loss,' she said.

              The report was also welcomed by Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, who said its findings 'are clear: nature underpins our economy and our wellbeing.'

              'Our failure to recognize this relationship, and take decisive and urgent steps to reverse nature loss, is costing us dearly and putting the future of humanity at risk,' said Lambertini. 'To safeguard our future, we must stop taking nature for granted as an expendable commodity, value its services, and transform our economies and finance systems so they are geared towards conserving and restoring the natural world on which we all depend.'

              'This should be required reading at @hmtreasury,' tweeted Green Party MP Carolie Lucas of the report.

              'Biodiversity and enhancing nature cannot be separated from economic policy,' she wrote, calling for a replacement of "GDP growth with a wellbeing economy, starting with next month's budget.

              The report was not without criticism from environmental advocates, including from author and climate activist George Monbiot, who took issue with putting a price tag on nature. [S. Sachs note, 'I agree with Monbiot to the extent that given current mainstream economics, we cannot simply put prices on nature - which the report also intimates. What we need to do is to redefine economics and development. As the report indicates and several commentators intimate, we need to move away basing economics and development in terms of money, and see them in terms of relationships with an emphasis on the quality of the relationships and of all the elements (natural elements as well as people, groups,... institutions) in which money measures of it are useful, but the main indicators are of quality. See the discussion of redefining economics and development and many references concerning the aspects of doing this in, Stephen M. Sachs, "Returning to Reciprocity: Reconceptualizing Economics and Development, An Indigenous Economics for the Twenty-First Century," Indigenous Policy, fall 2016, www.indigenouspolicy.org, which shows what economics and development would be like if carried out according to relational Indigenous values. An updated version of the paper is Chapter 6, of S. Sachs, et al, Honoring the Circle: Ongoing Learning From American Indians on Politics and Society (Waterside Productions, 2000)].

              In a set of tweets ahead of and after the report's release, Monbiot called the review's approach 'morally wrong' and accused Dasgupta of promoting 'a kind of totalitarian capitalism' in which 'everything must now be commodified and brought within the system.'

              'Destruction is driven, above all, by the power of the rich. Regardless of how others value nature, those with power will destroy it, until their power is curtailed,' Monbiot wrote.

            'Dasgupta's natural capital agenda,' he added, 'is naive on many levels, but above all it is naive about power. Putting a social price on something does nothing to stop anti-social interests from exploiting it.'

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              Jessica Corbett, "NYC Pension Funds Set 'New Bar for Climate Finance Action' With Approval of $4 Billion Fossil Fuel Divestment: 'Fossil fuels are not only bad for our planet and our frontline communities, they are a bad investment,' said Mayor Bill de Blasio," Common Dreams, January 26, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/26/nyc-pension-funds-set-new-bar-climate-finance-action-approval-4-billion-fossil-fuel?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "In another win for the global movement to stop the flow of money to big polluters, New York City leaders announced Monday that two major pension funds have voted to divest their portfolios of an estimated $4 billion from securities related to fossil fuel companies, citing the risks that such holdings pose to both the funds and the planet.

              The statement from Mayor Bill de Blasio, Comptroller Scott M. Stringer, and trustees of New York City Employees' Retirement System (NYCERS) and New York City Teachers' Retirement System noted that the New York City Board of Education Retirement System 'is expected to move forward on a divestment vote imminently.'"

            Stephen Castle, "U.K. to Halt Subsidies for Fossil Fuel Projects Abroad: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been positioning himself as a leader in fighting global warming, an area where he can make common cause with President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr," The New York Times, December 11, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/world/europe/UK-fossil-fuel-subsidies.html, reported, "Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain promised on Friday to end direct taxpayer support for fossil fuel projects overseas as soon as possible, in a move designed to help position his country as a global leader in the battle to curb climate change."

 

              Kenny Stancil, "'Bankrolling Extinction': Report Shows Big Banks Lent Over $2.6 Trillion to Fund Global Biodiversity Destruction in 2019: 'Imagine a world in which projects can only raise capital when they have demonstrated that they will contribute meaningfully and positively to restoring the planet's bounty and a safe climate for all. That's the future this report envisions and builds toward," Common Dreams, October 28, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/28/bankrolling-extinction-report-shows-big-banks-lent-over-26-trillion-fund-global?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email, reported, "The world's largest banks in 2019 provided more than $2.6 trillion in loans and underwriting to economic sectors linked to the global biodiversity crisis while doing little to monitor, let alone curb, damage to life-sustaining ecosystems."

 

              Andrea Germanos, "'Now Do #TarSands': TD Bank Urged to Go Further on Climate After Nixing Arctic Projects: 'It no longer makes business sense for banks to back polluting projects, and those that plan for a low-carbon future will prosper in the economies of tomorrow,'" Common Dreams, November 9, 2020, reported, "Climate campaigners on Monday welcomed as a step forward TD Bank Group's announcement that it will not fund fossil fuel projects in the Arctic, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as part of its net-zero emissions by 2050 target.

              The new climate action plan, the bank said, is 'aligned to the associated principles of the Paris agreement' and will help "capture the opportunities of the low-carbon economy."

              'This ambitious plan shows the game has changed on climate,' said Ameila Meister, senior campaigner at SumOfUs, in a statement. 'It no longer makes business sense for banks to back polluting projects, and those that plan for a low-carbon future will prosper in the economies of tomorrow.'

              According to the announcement, the bank will rule out providing financial services 'for activities that are directly related to the exploration, development, or production of oil and gas within the Arctic Circle, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).'

              The statement further recognized that the region is 'home to protected species, and of crucial importance to the local Indigenous populations,' and that it 'is warming significantly faster than the rest of our planet, which poses the risk of increased [greenhouse gas] releases and further warming.'

              To be sure, the bank has been under pressure to take such action, having been named among the     dirty dozen            worst banks (pdf) in terms of fossil fuel funding since the Paris climate pact entered into force four years ago.

              Ben Cushing, Sierra Club senior campaign representative, said, 'Committing to net-zero financed emissions by 2050 is a good step forward, and in recent months has become the new baseline for banks looking to clean up their act on climate.'

            Still, TD Bank must document its 'critical next steps for actually getting there,' Cushing added, "including a near-term target for emissions reductions and a clear plan to phase out financing for fossil fuels immediately."

              As for TD Bank's plan to rule out Arctic drilling, Cushing was tempered in his praise.

              With the backdrop of Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo all having recently pledged to stop financing fossil fuel activities in the Arctic, Cushing framed the step as merely 'low-hanging fruit for any socially or environmentally responsible bank' and said that 'any institution that hasn't yet done so should follow suit.'

              Cushing also pointed to a notable absence in TD Bank's plan—a commitment to phase out financing of tar sands projects.

            That's especially important given the climate impact of tar sands, as well as the fact that TD Bank continues to be one of the biggest bankers in the world of such operations, according to the latest Banking on Climate Change report released in March.  

              A 'realistic plan to achieve net-zero emissions and align with the Paris agreement must include an immediate commitment to phase out dirty tar sands as well,' Cushing said.

              The increasing evidence of the climate crisis makes clear there's no time to waste, say progressive campaigners.

              'While banks and other financial institutions are rapidly waking up to the severity of these climate risks to their own bottom lines, the climate movement is driving home the fact that by increasing financing of fossil fuels, banks are responsible for an extremely high risk of massive harm to the planet and its people—that is, banks and the financial industry at large have enormous climate impact,' said the Banking on Climate Change report. 'Financiers need to cut their climate impact with the utmost urgency.'

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              The U.S. Federal Reserve announced in mid-December that it was joining a network of banks and other financial institutions to plan for meeting climate change (Jeanna Smialek," Federal Reserve Joins Climate Network, to Cheers From the Left," The New York Times, December 16, 2020).

 

              "The government of Great Brittan announced, in Mid-December 2020, that it is ending subsidizing fossil fuel projects abroad at the earliest possible date (Stephen Castle, "U.K. to End Fossil Fuel Subsidies Abroad," The New York Times, December 12, 2020).

 

              Jessica Corbett, "Under Pressure From Climate Activists, World's Largest Insurance Market to Ditch Coal, Tar Sands, and Arctic Projects: 'An Insure Our Future welcomed the step but also said that 'Lloyd's 2030 deadline is not justified by climate science and the urgent need for action,'" Common Dreams, December 17, 2020, reported, "Caving to pressure from climate action campaigners, Lloyd's of London, the world's largest insurance market, announced Wednesday that it will no longer cover coal-fired power plants and mines, tar sands, or Arctic energy exploration activities from January 2022 onward, with plans to fully phase out such businesses by 2030.

              Framing the move as 'a reversal of its traditional hands-off approach to climate change strategy,' Reuters explained that 'Lloyd's acts as regulator for around 100 syndicate members, and leaves decisions on underwriting and investment strategy to them.'

              While welcoming the announcement—along with Llyod's Environmental, Social, and Governance Report 2020—campaigners urged the market to ditch the fossil fuel industry on a more accelerated timeline, given warnings from scientists and world leaders about the necessity of an ambitious and urgent transition to a sustainable economy.

              'We welcome Lloyd's new policy of no longer providing new insurance cover for coal-fired power plants, thermal coal mines, oil sands, and new Arctic energy exploration as a step in the right direction,' said Lindsay Keenan, European coordinator for Insure Our Future, in a statement. 'However, the policy should take effect now, not 2022.'

              'Additionally, the target date for Lloyd's to phase out existing policies should be January 2021 for companies still developing new coal and tar sand projects,' she said. 'Lloyd's 2030 deadline is not justified by climate science and the urgent need for action. We will continue to hold Lloyd's accountable until it has met these recommendations.'

              The new policies came after the Insure Our Future campaign released its fourth annual scorecard on the insurance industry, dirty energy, and the climate emergency—which called out Lloyd's for underwriting and investing in fossil fuels, particularly coal.

              Lloyd's chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown told The Guardian that 'we want to align ourselves with the U.N. sustainability development goals and the principles in the Paris [climate] agreement,' but also defending the 2030 choice.

              'We want to try to support our customers in the transition and we don't want to create cliff edges for them,' he said. 'Oil is too fundamental an energy supply source for the world today and it would be impossible to get out of that without creating real dislocation to our customers. It's an issue of calibration over time.'

              Flora Rebello Arduini, senior campaigner consultant for SumOfUs, disagreed.

              'Lloyd's needs to prohibits all members of its market from renewing insurance for the Adani Carmichael coal mine, the Trans Mountain tar sand pipeline extension, and other such climate-wrecking projects when they come up for renewal in 2021, not in 2030,' she said in a statement.

              'The time to act is now,' she added. 'Lloyd's must set binding market-wide policies that make clear to all stakeholders what can and cannot be done under Lloyd's brand name and credit rating.'

              Adam McGibbon, U.K. campaigner for Market Forces, said that Lloyd's new report 'sends a message to its syndicates that taking on new thermal coal risks, such as the Adani Carmichael coal project, is not supported,' while U.S.-based campaigners suggested the policies boost pressure on companies across the Atlantic.

              As Elana Sulakshana, energy finance campaigner at Rainforest Action Network, put it: 'Lloyd's is sending a message to the U.S. insurance industry that it cannot continue its unchecked support for climate-wrecking projects under the Lloyd's name.'

"Building on today's momentum, we will continue pressuring the U.S. insurance industry to match and exceed Lloyd's policies across their entire fossil fuel underwriting and investment portfolios," Sulakshana vowed.

              AIG, Liberty Mutual, and other U.S. insurers that operate Lloyd's syndicates will be forced to abide by the new rules for their underwriting.

              'The writing is on the wall—coal is becoming increasingly uninsurable,' said David Arkush, climate program director at Public Citizen. 'Lloyd's announcement makes AIG's and Travelers' refusal to even consider dumping coal even more inexcusable. These companies can talk all they want about sustainability, but until they change their underwriting policies, that talk is meaningless.'

              As the outgoing Trump administration works to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to fossil fuel extraction, the Gwich'in Steering Committee is urging Lloyd's and insurers to join with dozens of financial institutions, including major U.S. and Canadian banks, in restricting support for Arctic drilling projects.

              Lloyd's announcement is 'a step in the right direction' but 'not enough,' said Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee. 'As Indigenous Peoples, we are living in ground zero of climate change while fighting to protect our sacred lands and our ways of life. People need to understand that the land, the water, and the animals are what makes us who we are.'

              'Our human rights have been violated not just by our government but by corporations and people that are not educated on Indigenous issues,' she added. 'We urge Lloyd's to join AXA and Swiss Re to exclude themselves from any Arctic Refuge energy development or exploration immediately and show the world that they respect the rights of Indigenous peoples whose lives will forever change if drilling is to occur.'

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              Eric Larson, Chris Greig, Jesse Jenkins, Erin Mayfield, Andrew Pascale, Chuan Zhang, Joshua Drossman, Robert Williams, Steve Pacala, Robert Socolow, Ejeong Baik, Rich Birdsey, Rick Duke, Ryan Jones, Ben Haley, Emily Leslie, Keith Paustian, and Amy Swan, "Interim Report: Net-Zero America: Potential Pathways, Infrastructure, and Impacts," Princeton University, December 15, 2020, https://environmenthalfcentury.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf331/files/2020-12/Princeton_NZA_Interim_Report_15_Dec_2020_FINAL.pdf, "Executive Summary,

Synopsis

A growing number of pledges are being made by major corporations, municipalities, states, and national governments to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 or sooner. This study provides granular guidance on what getting to net-zero really requires and on actions needed to translate these pledges into tangible progress.

Using state-of-the-art modeling tools, this study provides five different technologically and economically plausible energy- system pathways for the U.S. to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. We then further refine these model results to provide highly-resolved mapping, sector-by-sector, of the timing and spatial distribution of changes in energy infrastructure, capital investment, employment, air pollution, land use, and other key outcomes at a state and local level.

We find that each net-zero pathway results in a net increase in energy-sector employment and delivers significant reductions in air pollution, leading to public health benefits that begin immediately in the first decade of the transition. The study also concludes that a successful net-zero transition could be accomplished with annual spending on energy that is comparable or lower as a percentage of GDP to what the nation spends annually on energy today. However, foresight and proactive policy and action are needed to achieve the lowest-cost outcomes.

Building a net-zero America will require immediate, large-scale mobilization of capital, policy and societal commitment, including at least $2.5 trillion in additional capital investment into energy supply, industry, buildings, and vehicles over the next decade relative to business as usual. Consumers will pay back this upfront investment over decades, making the transition affordable (total annualized U.S. energy expenditures would increase by less than 3% over 2021-2030), but major investment decisions must start now, with levels of investments ramping up throughout the transition.

Each transition pathway features historically unprecedented rates of deployment of multiple technologies. Impacts on landscapes, incumbent industries and communities are significant and planning will need to be sensitive to regional changes in employment and local impacts on communities.

Motivation, Objectives, Approach

Motivation

• Growing government and corporate net-zero-by-2050 pledges, but little detail on execution, costs and impacts. Project objectives

• Temporally and spatially resolve scales, costs, and pacing of required physical, institutional, and human-resource efforts to reach net-zero by 2050 across the continental US.
• Focus on articulating a granular picture of prospective transitions. Identify potential bottlenecks to success.
• No advocacy of specific policies, but provide actionable details for policy- and decision-making; engage with stakeholders.

Analytical approach

• Start with energy service demands projected to 2050 by US EIA (AEO 2019) for 14 regions across continental US.
• Construct multiple (diverse) technology pathways for meeting demands, while reaching net-zero emissions in 2050.

• End-use technologies to meet service demands are exogenously specified in 5-year time steps. This determines final energy demands that must be delivered by the energy supply system.

• Optimization model finds the energy supply mix that minimizes the 30-year societal NPV of total energy-system costs. The model has perfect foresight and seamless integration between all sectors.

• Modeling results are downscaled from 14 regions to state or sub-state geographies to quantify local plant and infrastructure investments, construction activities, land-use, and jobs impacts, 2020 - 2050.

Six pillars are needed to support the transition to net-zero

1  End-use energy efficiency and electrification

2  Clean electricity: wind & solar generation, transmission, firm power

3  Bioenergy and other zero-carbon fuels and feedstocks

4  CO2 capture, utilization, and storage

5  Reduced non-CO2 emissions

6  Enhanced land sinks

Six pillars expand rapidly for 3 decades. By 2050:

2. Clean Electricity

Wind and solar Rapidly site 10s-100s of GW per year, sustain for decades 3x to 5x today’s transmission Nuclear In RE- scenario site up to 250 new 1-GW reactors (or 3,800 SMRs). Spent fuel disposal. NGCC-CCS • In RE-, 300+ plants (@750 MW) Flexible resources Combustion turbines w/high H2 Large flexible loads: electrolysis, electric boilers, direct air capture 50 - 180 GW of 6-hour batteries

5. Non-CO2 Emissions

Methane, N2O, Fluorocarbons • 20% below 2020 emissions (CO2e) by 2050 (30% below 2050 REF).

 

1. Efficiency & Electrification

Consumer energy investment and use behaviors change • 300 million personal EVs • 130 million residences with heat pump heating Industrial efficiency gains • Rapid productivity gain • EAF/DRI steel making

 

3. Zero-Carbon Fuels

Major bioenergy industry 100s of new conversion facilities 620 million t/y biomass feedstock production (1.2 Bt/y in E- B+) H2 and synfuels industries 8-19 EJ H2 from biomass with CCS (BECCS), electrolysis, and/or methane reforming Largest H2 use is for fuels synthesis in most scenarios

 

6. Enhanced land sinks

Forest management • Potential sink of 0.5 to 1 GtCO2e/y, impacting 1⁄2 or more of all US forest area (> 130 Mha). Agricultural practices • Potential sink ~0.20 GtCO2e/y if conservation measures adopted across 1 – 2 million farms.

 

4. CO2 capture & storage

Geologic storage of 0.9 – 1.7 GtCO2/y • Capture at ~1,000+ facilities 21,000 to 25,000 km interstate CO2 trunk pipeline network 85,000 km of spur pipelines delivering CO2 to trunk lines Thousands of injection wells

Executive Summary (5/9)

Net increase of 1⁄2 to 1 million jobs over REF in the 2020s.

Annual energy-related jobs (E+ scenario) U.S. total: net gain of 0.6 million jobs

Thousand jobs

Green, yellow, and red indicate average annual employment in a decade is >15% above, within + 15%, or >15% below 2021 employment, respectively.

Big air pollution health benefits starting in 2020s

Cumulative air quality benefits, 2020 – 2050, include 200,000 to 300,000 premature deaths avoided (2 - 3 T$ estimated damages)

 

Net-Zero America by 2050 is possible and affordable if:

• Ø  Technology and infrastructure are deployed at historically unprecedented rates across most sectors.
• Ø  Expansive impacts on landscapes and communities are mitigated and managed to secure broad social license and sustained political commitment.
• Ø  Large amounts of risk-capital are mobilized rapidly by government and private sectors.
• Ø  Electrification uptake by consumers is rapid across all states (EV’s, space heating, etc.).
• Ø  Industry transforms (electrification, hydrogen, low-carbon steel and cement, etc.)
• Ø  Ambitious expansion of low-carbon technology starts now, with 2020s used to:
  § Increase and accelerate deployment of wind and solar generation, EVs, heat pumps
  § Invest in critical enabling infrastructure (EV chargers, transmission, CO2 pipelines)
  § Demonstrate and mature technology options for rapid deployment in the 2030’s and 2040’s

A Blueprint for the Next Decade

This study provides a blueprint for action, including a set of robust measures needed this decade to get on track to net-zero emissions by 2050, regardless of which net-zero pathway the country follows in the longer term. This implies that big energy investments can be made this decade with confidence that they will deliver value over the long term.

Priority actions for now to 2030 include:

• Get roughly 50 million electric cars on the road and install 3 million or more public charging ports nationwide
• Increase by more than double the share of electric heat pumps for home heating (23% vs. 10% today) and triple the use of

heat pumps in commercial buildings

• Grow wind and solar electricity generating capacity fourfold (to approximately 600 gigawatts), enough to supply roughly

half of U.S. electricity (vs. 10% today)

• Expand high-voltage transmission capacity by roughly 60% to deliver renewable electricity to where it is needed
• Increase annual uptake of carbon stored permanently in forests and agricultural soils by 200 million metric tons of CO2-e
• Reduce non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, nitrous oxides and hydrofluorocarbons, by at least 10%

Actions for the 2020s also include a set of important investments in enabling infrastructure and innovative technologies to create real options to complete the transition to net-zero beyond 2030:

• Plan and permit additional electricity transmission to enable further wind and solar expansion
• Plan and begin construction of a nationwide CO2 transportation network and permanent underground storage basins
• Invest in maturing key technologies to make them cheaper, scalable and ready for widespread beyond 2030, including: carbon capture for a various industrial processes and power generation technologies; low-carbon industrial processes; clean “firm” electricity technologies, including advanced nuclear, advanced geothermal, and hydrogen combustion turbines; advanced bioenergy conversion processes & high yield bioenergy crops; hydrogen and synthetic fuel production from clean electricity, and from biomass and natural gas with carbon capture; and direct capture of CO2 from the air.

Added capital invested (vs. REF) in 2020s is at least $2.5T

Total additional capital invested, 2021-2030, by sector and subsector for a net-zero pathway vs. business as usual (billion 2018$)

Includes capital invested pre-financial investment decision (pre-FID) and capital committed to projects under construction in 2030 but in-service in later years.
All values rounded to nearest $10b and should be considered order of magnitude estimates. Incremental capital investment categories totaling less than $5B excluded from graphic. Other potentially significant capital expenditures not estimated in this study include establishment of bioenergy crops and decarbonization measures in other industries besides steel and cement, non-CO2 GHG mitigation efforts, and establishing enhanced land sinks."

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              Julia Conley, "'Huge News': Nearly Four Dozen Faith Institutions Announce Divestment From Fossil Fuels: "While government leaders cling to the economic models of yesterday, faith leaders are looking ahead to the energy future we share,'" Common Dreams, November 16, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/16/huge-news-nearly-four-dozen-faith-institutions-announce-divestment-fossil-fuels?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "Climate action campaigners applauded Monday after 47 faith institutions from 21 countries announced they would divest from fossil fuels, marking the largest-ever joint divestment by religious leaders in history."

              "'With renewables now growing at a faster pace than fossil fuels,' the group noted, 'institutional investors are increasingly moving toward sustainable investments in the clean energy economy. Faith investors help lead this movement, constituting the single-largest source of divestment in the world, making up one-third of all commitments. To date, nearly 400 religious institutions have committed to divest."

              The institutions which announced their divestment include the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union, Irish religious order the Sisters of Our Lady Apostles, the American Jewish World Service, and the Claretian Missionaries in Sri Lanka. Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish organizations joined the coalition."

            "The Pope is convening an 'Economy of Francesco' conference beginning on Thursday, at which leaders and young climate action campaigners will discuss ways for the Church to help develop a sustainable world economy. 

              'The economic power of faiths, turned to responsible investments and the green economy, can be a major driver of positive change, and an inspiration to others, as we rebuild better,' said Inger Andersen, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program and under secretary-general of the United Nations.

              The American Jewish World Service said it had decided to divest from fossil fuels earlier this year."

 

              The mining company Vale, agreed to pay the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais $7 billion in damages for the 2019 collapse of one of its dams that killed 270 people while sending great quantities of pollution down river (Manuela Andreoni and Letica Casado, "Mining Giant to Pay $7 billion for Lethal Brazil Dam Collapse," The New York Times, February 5, 2021).

 

              Jessica Corbett, "UN Biodiversity Report Urges 8 Transitions Needed to Restore Essential Ecosystems Impacted by Humanity: 'We can no longer afford to cast nature aside. Now is the time for this massive step up—conserving, restoring, and using biodiversity fairly and sustainably,'" Common Dreams, September 15, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/15/un-biodiversity-report-urges-8-transitions-needed-restore-essential-ecosystems?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "A major United Nations report released Tuesday—especially as the world continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic—underscores the enormous threat of ongoing biodiversity loss and details eight necessary transitions to restore ecosystems damaged by and essential to humanity.

            "The Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of the relationship between people and nature—and it reminds us all of the profound consequences [for] our own well-being and survival that can result from continued biodiversity loss and degradation of the ecosystems," Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), said during a press conference to launch the new report.

              The fifth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-5, https://www.cbd.int/gbo5) serves as a final report card on the Aichi Biodiversity Targets that world leaders agreed upon in 2010 for the decade that followed. The latest version of CBD's flagship publication comes ahead of a September 30 summit to be held on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly's 75th session—which kicked off Tuesday—and amid efforts to finalize the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, set to be adopted at a meeting in China next year.

              Since setting 20 specific goals at the meeting in Japan 10 years ago and the 2014 release of the fourth GBO, governments across the globe and other key actors have taken significant, meaningful action to address the international biodiversity crisis, Maruma Mrema said Tuesday. 'But I need to be brutally honest,' she added: 'in the final reckoning, the world has not met the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, nor are we on track to reach the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.'

              The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 envisioned humanity working to and ultimately 'living in harmony with nature,' with the hope that 'by 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored, and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet, and delivering benefits essential for all people.'               Despite making notable progress on some targets, none of the 20 goals that were set in Japan have been fully achieved.

              Emphasizing Tuesday that biodiversity is 'declining at an unprecedented rate,' as shown by the GBO-5 and other recent accountings of human activity's devastating impact on nature, Maruma Mrema called for all governments to scale up their national ambitions. She also expressed hope that pursuing the much needed societal changes outlined in the CBD report will lead to the emergence of a greener post-pandemic future for people and the planet.

              'Each of the measures necessary to achieve the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity requires a significant shift away from 'business as usual' across a broad range of human activities,' says the GBO-5. Specifically, the report calls for:

            The land and forests transition: conserving intact ecosystems, restoring ecosystems, combating and reversing degradation, and employing landscape level spatial planning to avoid, reduce and mitigate land-use change.

            The sustainable agriculture transition: redesigning agricultural systems through agroecological and other innovative approaches to enhance productivity while minimizing negative impacts on biodiversity.

The sustainable food systems transition: enabling sustainable and healthy diets with a greater emphasis on a diversity of foods, mostly plant-based, and more moderate consumption of meat and fish, as well as dramatic cuts in the waste involved in food supply and consumption.

            The sustainable fisheries and oceans transition: protecting and restoring marine and coastal ecosystems, rebuilding fisheries and managing aquaculture and other uses of the oceans to ensure sustainability, and to enhance food security and livelihoods.

            The cities and infrastructure transition: deploying "green infrastructure" and making space for nature within built landscapes to improve the health and quality of life for citizens and to reduce the environmental footprint of cities and infrastructure.

            The sustainable freshwater transition: an integrated approach guaranteeing the water flows required by nature and people, improving water quality, protecting critical habitats, controlling invasive species and safeguarding connectivity to allow the recovery of freshwater systems from mountains to coasts.

The sustainable climate action transition: employing nature-based solutions, alongside a rapid phase-out of fossil fuel use, to reduce the scale and impacts of climate change, while providing positive benefits for biodiversity and other sustainable development goals.

            The biodiversity-inclusive One Health transition: managing ecosystems, including agricultural and urban ecosystems, as well as the use of wildlife, through an integrated approach, to promote healthy ecosystems and healthy people.

              'We can no longer afford to cast nature aside,' according to Inger Andersen, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program. "Now is the time for this massive step up—conserving, restoring, and using biodiversity fairly and sustainably.'

              'If we do not, biodiversity will continue to buckle under the weight of land and sea use changes, overexploitation, climate change, pollution, and invasive species, and that will further damage human health, economies, and societies with particular impact on Indigenous communities,' Anderson warned at the Tuesday press conference.

              'The Global Biodiversity Outlook that is being launched today,' she added, 'spells out the transitions that can create a society living in harmony with nature.;

              Echoing comments he has made throughout the pandemic, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized in a statement about the GBO-5that 'we have an unprecedented opportunity to 'build back better,' incorporating the transitions outlined in this Outlook and embodied in an ambitious plan to put the world on track to achieve the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.'

              'Part of this new agenda must be to tackle the twin global challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss in a more coordinated manner,' he said, 'understanding both that climate change threatens to undermine all other efforts to conserve biodiversity, and that nature itself offers some of the most effective solutions to avoid the worst impacts of a warming planet.'

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              Kenny Stancil, "'Few Things Matter More to Humans': UN Report Says We Must Protect and Restore Biodiversity of World's Soil: 'If things carry on as they are, the outlook is bleak, unquestionably. But I think it's not too late to introduce measures now,'" Common Dreams, December 4, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/04/few-things-matter-more-humans-un-report-says-we-must-protect-and-restore?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "While nutritious diets, healthy populations, pollution remediation, and even climate change mitigation all depend, at least in part, on soil biodiversity, society is not doing enough to protect 'the variety of life below ground.'

              That's according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, which published a new report (pdf, http://www.fao.org/3/cb1929en/CB1929EN.pdf) Friday on "The State of Knowledge of Soil Biodiversity" in anticipation of World Soil Day this weekend.

              'Soil biodiversity and sustainable soil management is a prerequisite for the achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals,' said FAO deputy director-general Maria Helena Semedo. 'Therefore, data and information on soil biodiversity, from the national to the global level, are necessary in order to efficiently plan management strategies on a subject that is still poorly known."

              The loss of 'above-ground biodiversity' is a well-understood problem, researchers say, but the loss of 'biodiversity beneath our feet' is equally important and a crisis on par with the climate emergency, considering how soil forms the basis for food production, medical breakthroughs, carbon retention, and thus the foundation for human well-being. 

              The report, compiled by 300 scientists, notes that soil is home to more than 25% of the world's biological diversity, and more than 40% of living organisms in terrestrial ecosystems are connected to soils during their life cycle.

              Biodiverse organisms in the soil are essential to the creation and maintenance of the conditions for sustainable agri-food systems, researchers point out. 'Few things matter more to humans [than the] vast reservoir of biodiversity living in the soil that is out of sight and is generally out of mind,' Richard Bardgett, a professor at the University of Manchester and a lead author of the report, told The Guardian.

              Despite the critical role played by healthy soil in improving food production, dominant patterns of agricultural intensification—including the overuse and misuse of pesticides and fertilizers—are major drivers of biodiversity loss, thus undermining soil's potential contributions. 

              People should be worried about the loss of 'topsoil through bad treatment and then erosion,' said Nico Eisenhauer, a professor at Leipzig University and another lead author of the report. 

              'Scientists describe soils as like the skin of the living world, vital but thin and fragile,' The Guardian reported Friday. 'It takes thousands of years for soils to form, meaning urgent protection and restoration of the soils that remain is needed.'

              Soil biodiversity is essential to sustaining life on Earth, which is why we need to 'protect this precious resource,' tweeted the FAO.

              Without biodiverse soil, ecosystems would cease to function. But 'the essential contributions of soil organisms are threatened by soil-degrading practices' such as deforestation, droughts and wildfires, monocropping and other intensive agricultural activities, as well as unsustainable forms of urbanization, the report notes. 

For this reason, the FAO says that 'policies that minimize soil degradation and protect soil biodiversity should be a component of biodiversity protection at all levels.'

The report states:

              'While above-ground biodiversity is familiar to most people, and its protection is managed under national and global laws and regulations, there are few comparable activities that focus on the protection of soil biodiversity. Protecting above-ground biodiversity is not always sufficient to protect soil biodiversity. Above-ground and below-ground biodiversity are shaped by different environmental drivers, and are not necessarily linked to one another. Above and below-ground biodiversity requires tailored protection, conservation, and restoration considerations because they are connected but at the same time very distinct.'

              It's in humanity's best interest to promote soil health, researchers say, since it will shape the quality of our future. According to the report, soil organisms could help mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon—absorbing and therefore reducing the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. 

              'The most important action is to protect existing healthy soils from damage,' The Guardian reported, 'while degraded soils can be restored by growing a diverse range of plants.'

              To enhance soil biodiversity, the adoption of sustainable management and restoration practices in agricultural and urban settings 'needs to be scaled up,' the FAO stressed.

              'It's time we stopped treating soil like dirt,' The Guardian explained in a video:

              'If things carry on as they are, the outlook is bleak, unquestionably,' Bardgett warned. 'But I think it's not too late to introduce measures now.'

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              Fiona Harvey, "Rewild to mitigate the climate crisis, urge leading scientists," Grist, This story was originally published by The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/us) and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration, Grist,  October 18, 2020, https://grist.org/climate/rewild-to-mitigate-the-climate-crisis-urge-leading-scientists/, reported, "Restoring natural landscapes damaged by human exploitation can be one of the most effective and cheapest ways to combat the climate crisis while also boosting dwindling wildlife populations, a scientific study finds.

            If a third of the planet’s most degraded areas were restored, and protection was thrown around areas still in good condition, that would store carbon equating to half of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial revolution.

            The changes would prevent about 70 percent of predicted species extinctions, according to the research, which is published in the journal Nature (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2784-9.epdf?sharing_token=CzsSmBT3AGP1OWgGFxJwDNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0O-LQbPFf5E56f7ybAlUXkbEcA7aLEGu3q7w6l0xApcTXrilYMtu8KIUO1b9qEwQoQY4JbsKi7tAnI6BwdbFY8R3-JgkRGGR_szaFdMm5SQnBn7Oes7rDRBuUkBLLOFC-03xTfyT-RWiLIoJeKSNdn_pCq7siCqaHJxFWAIYvklfg%3D%3D&tracking_referrer=grist.org).

 

              Nada Culver, Natalie Dawson, Aurelio Ramos, and Jeff Wells, "Boreal Forests: A New Study Shows What It Will Take to Reverse Biodiversity Declines, Indigenous stewardship of land in Canada, Alaska, and beyond are key to reaching biodiversity goals," Audubon Society,  September 17, 2020, https://www.audubon.org/news/a-new-study-shows-what-it-will-take-reverse-biodiversity-declines?ms=digital-eng-email-ea-x-engagement_20201001_eng-email_indigenous-peoples-day&utm_source=ea&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=engagement_20201001_eng-email&utm_content=indigenous-peoples-day&emci=9637f1fe-640a-eb11-96f5-00155d03affc&emdi=80d8557f-930c-eb11-96f5-00155d03affc&ceid=710506, reported, "Thanks to a new report, “Financing Nature: Closing the Global Biodiversity Financing Gap,” by the Paulson Institute, The Nature Conservancy, and Cornell University (https://www.paulsoninstitute.org/key-initiatives/financing-nature-report/), we now have an authoritative analysis of the financial resources needed to stop and reverse the catastrophic biodiversity declines happening across the globe. This is a crisis the world can afford to address.

              There can be little doubt that biodiversity is in free fall. Here in North America there are now almost three billion fewer birds than there were in the 1970s. One million species worldwide are threatened with extinction. A recent World Wildlife Fund report found that there has been a nearly 70 percent average decline in wildlife populations around the globe since 1970.

            Many governments committed to doing more to solve this crisis by signing the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which pledged them to reach certain targets for increased biodiversity protection. But the 2020 UN Global Biodiversity Outlook, which reviewed the progress of the nations that signed the treaty back in 2010, told a clear-eyed but sobering story: none of the target goals were fully reached. For example, the 2020 goal of halving the rate of loss of natural habitats, although slowed compared to the previous decade, was not achieved. The goal of removing incentives and subsidies harmful to biodiversity and establishing ones helpful to biodiversity and sustainability has seen little progress. And the goal of improving the status of species most in decline has, except for a handful of exceptions, clearly not been achieved.

              This is not to say that success is not possible. Some initiatives in some countries made substantial conservation gains. Indigenous-led conservation in Canada has resulted in multimillion acre protected areas like those of Pimachiowin Aki in Manitoba and Ontario, Thaidene Nene and Edehzhie in the Northwest Territories and Tursujuq in Quebec. And millions of acres in Alaska and more in Canada could benefit from Indigenous stewardship. Audubon coastal bird initiatives across the U.S. and with partners in the Bahamas have been part of the incredible rebound of Piping Plover populations. Audubon California’s work with farmers to protect nesting habitat for Tricolored Blackbirds has helped sustain populations of that rare bird. National commitments in the U.S. to addressing harm from pesticides and applying the strong protections of the Endangered Species Act helped recover populations of the Bald Eagle and Brown Pelican.

            More of these kinds of successes are possible, and we must achieve them in order to save life on our planet. But we need to put massively more resources and effort into such endeavors if we are to maintain the biodiversity that makes our planet healthy. How much more funding will be needed to turn the corner and stop continued biodiversity crashes has been a gaping unknown until now.

              The new Financing Nature report provides the answer at time when we need it most. Not only does the report describe the size of the global gap in funding (between $598 billion and $824 billion) but it also provides recommendations for how to close that gap. Before the trillion-dollar pandemic relief bills passed by the U.S. Congress, that would have seemed like an insurmountable amount of money—and it is indeed a large price tag but it is a crisis we can afford to fix. This new report provides wise, well-researched recommendations from credible and experienced voices on how governments can find smart ways to finance conservation at scales the world desperately needs. Measures like nature-based climate solutions are particularly cost-effective since they can also achieve as much as a third of the world’s needed climate change emission reductions.

              The Financing Nature report highlights the crucial need for all governments, national and sub-national (states or provinces/territories) included, to increase funding for conservation and development of these nature-based climate solutions. Canada’s federal government has shown         leadership with its recent investments in support of Indigenous-led conservation and Indigenous Guardians programs. It will be critical to build on these initial investments with long-term support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) and their management by Indigenous Guardians to protect biodiversity and climate resilience.

              In Latin America and the Caribbean, many nations have made substantial commitments to deal with biodiversity issues. Costa Rica continues to exceed in its commitments, accomplishments and innovative approaches, inspiring other countries across the world and the region. This must continue with the help and support of both non-governmental organizations, including Audubon, but especially from larger more wealthy donor nations like the United States, Canada, and the EU countries.

              Here in the U.S. as we slowly emerge from the economic difficulties of the pandemic and consider funding relief packages, it is vital that we include in them the win-win opportunity—and urgent need—of supporting nature-based climate solutions and new policy reforms that shift financing toward mechanisms that support a healthy environment and sustainable economies for local communities. It is only through scaling up these solutions that we will collectively achieve the goal of stopping further steep declines in biodiversity.

            Our human interdependence with the environment and its biodiversity has perhaps never been more obvious to so many of us as it has been during the global COVID emergency that has left us separated and staying closer to home. That interdependence means that it is in our best interest to do whatever it takes to stop the biodiversity and climate change freefall. National, state, and provincial governments should look carefully at the recommendations contained within the Financing Nature report and non-governmental organizations should help them find ways to implement them. There is no time to lose."

 

              Brett Wilkins, "'No Time to Lose': New Study Shows 50% Coral Decline on Great Barrier Reef: 'We expect this decline to continue,' predicted one of the study's authors, who said that unless urgent climate action is taken, 'the reef will be unrecognizable,'" Common Dreams, October 14, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/14/no-time-lose-new-study-shows-50-coral-decline-great-barrier-reef?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "A new study published Tuesday found that half of the coral in Australia's Great Barrier Reef have been killed off over the past three decades as ocean temperatures rise due to human-caused global heating. 

            The study, conducted by the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Townsville, Queensland, shows that coral populations along the reef have fallen dramatically due to bleaching, which is caused by the death of the algae that live symbiotically with coral and provide their food.

              'The decline occurred in both shallow and deeper water, and across virtually all species—but especially in branching and table-shaped corals,' Terry Hughes, a professor at the ARC Center who co-authored the study, wrote. "These were the worst affected by record breaking temperatures that triggered mass bleaching in 2016 and 2017." Unless carbon emissions decline significantly, the reef die-off is expected to continue."

 

              Brett Wilkins, "Highlighting 'Extreme Carbon Inequality,' Oxfam Study Shows World's Richest 1% Emit More Than Twice as Much CO2 as Poorest 50%: 'The over-consumption of a wealthy minority is fueling the climate crisis, yet it is poor communities and young people who are paying the price,' said study author Tim Gore," Common Dreams, September 21, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/21/highlighting-extreme-carbon-inequality-oxfam-study-shows-worlds-richest-1-emit-more?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "The wealthiest 1% of the world's population is responsible for emitting more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorest 50% of humanity, according to new research published Monday by Oxfam International.

              The study (pdf at: https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621052/mb-confronting-carbon-inequality-210920-en.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y), which was conducted in partnership with the Stockholm Environmental Institute, analyzed data collected in the years 1990 to 2015, a period during which emissions doubled worldwide. It found that the world's richest 63 million people were responsible for 15% of global CO2 emissions, while the poorest half of the world's people emitted just 7%.

              The researchers reported that air and automobile travel were two of the main emission sources among the world's wealthiest people. The study revealed that during the 15-year period, the richest 10% blew out one-third of the world's remaining "carbon budget"—the amount of carbon dioxide that can be added to the atmosphere without causing global temperatures to rise above 1.5°C—as set under the Paris Agreement. It also found that annual emissions grew by 60% between 1990 and 2015, with the richest 5% responsible for 37% of this growth.

              ccording to the study, 'the per capita footprint of the richest 10% is more than 10 times the 1.5°C-consistent target for 2030, and more than 30 times higher than the poorest 50%.'

              The researchers noted a sharp drop in CO2 emissions during the coronavirus pandemic. However, they said that 'emissions are likely to rapidly rebound as governments ease Covid-related lockdowns.'

              In 2020, climate change has fueled deadly cyclones in India and Bangladesh, massive locust swarms that have devastated crops throughout Africa, and intense heatwaves and wildfires in Australia and western North America, among many other events. 

              Oxfam is calling for more taxes on high-carbon luxuries, including a frequent-flier tax, in order to invest in lower-emission alternatives and improve the lives of the world's poorest people, who are the least responsible for—but most affected by—the disasters and harm unleashed by global CO2 emissions. 

              'The over-consumption of a wealthy minority is fueling the climate crisis, yet it is poor communities and young people who are paying the price,' wrote study author Tim Gore, Oxfam's head of climate policy. 'Such extreme carbon inequality is a direct consequence of our governments decades-long pursuit of grossly unequal and carbon intensive economic growth.'"

              Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License." 

 

              Christopher Flavelle, "Hotter Days Widen Racial Gap in U.S. Schools, Data Shows: Higher temperatures are linked to worse test scores, but only for Black and Hispanic children. The likely culprit: a lack of air-conditioning," The New York Times," October 5, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/05/climate/heat-minority-school-performance.html?campaign_id=54&emc=edit_clim_20201007&instance_id=22904&nl=climate-fwd%3A&regi_id=52235981&segment_id=40132&te=1&user_id=2984790c14170290245238c0cd4fd927, reported, "In a paper published Monday (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-00959-9) in the journal Nature Human Behavior, researchers found that students performed worse on standardized tests for every additional day of 80 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, even after controlling for other factors. Those effects held across 58 countries, suggesting a fundamental link between heat exposure and reduced learning.

              But when the researchers looked specifically at the United States, using more granular data to break down the effect on test scores by race, they found something surprising: The detrimental impact of heat seemed to affect only Black and Hispanic students." The difference appears to be caused primarily by the presence or lack of air conditioning."

 

              Kenny Stancil, "'What the Future Can Look Like': Study Shows US Switch to 100% Renewables Would Save Hundreds of Billions Each Year: 'Too often we are told doing the right thing for the environment requires sacrifice and costs more. But we can actually make a better economy and save people money and a byproduct will be to cut emissions,'" Common Dreams, October 22, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/22/what-future-can-look-study-shows-us-switch-100-renewables-would-save-hundreds?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email, reported, "While President Donald Trump has baselessly attacked plans to eradicate fossil fuel-based sources of energy from the United States' power grid on the grounds that doing so would be expensive and economically destructive, a new analysis reveals the opposite to be true—aggressively transitioning to 100% renewables would save Americans up to $321 billion per year while reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions that are heating the planet. 

              The report (pdf: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e540e7fb9d1816038da0314/t/5f9125184a17493652db0ba9/1603347768714/No_Place_Like_Home_RA.pdf), No Place Like Home: Fighting Climate Change (And Saving Money) by Electrifying America's Households, published Wednesday by Rewiring America shows that a complete switch to clean energy sources like solar and wind would not only put the U.S. on a path toward zero emissions, but it would also save each household on average between $1,050 to $2,585 per year on utility bills. 

              'Too often we are told doing the right thing for the environment requires sacrifice and costs more,' Adam Zurofsky, executive director of the energy policy organization, told The Guardian. 'But no one is talking about the upside—we can actually make a better economy and save people money and a byproduct will be to cut emissions from residential buildings.'

              According to the study, more than 40% of the nation's energy-related carbon emissions are determined by daily activities like bathing, cooking, and commuting. Today, most of the household appliances and neighborhood infrastructure used to facilitate refrigeration, lighting, heating, cooling, and mobility are powered by fossil fuels. 

            But, the researchers explain, the process of extracting and delivering dirty energy to households and communities is enourmously wasteful and costly.

              If we 'electrify' residential buildings and 'decarbonize' what the authors call 'life infrastructure' by linking household consumption to renewable sources of power, we can reduce energy use, costs, and emissions, they say, and therefore "fight climate change starting right in our own homes.'

              The report states that 'electrification is the only viable pathway to decarbonizing a household.' The authors say that doing so 'is possible with the technology we have now,' giving several examples of changes that could be adopted:

              We can decarbonize our driving with electric cars, and charge them cleanly with solar on our rooftops and renewable electricity from the grid. Where most homes now burn methane in the kitchen to run the stove, we can switch to electric induction for cooking... We can use electric water heaters, or better still, heat pump hot water heaters that more efficiently provide us with hot showers and warm water. A heat pump, potentially with energy storage cheaply attached, can replace our furnace or other heating systems with electricity. We can buy electric clothes dryers to replace natural gas ones.

              'To make this all work,' the report notes, 'we need to install a bigger load center, wire in electric car chargers, and attach a battery capable of running the loads in the house for a half day or so.'

              One of the biggest barriers to change may be the high upfront costs associated with upgrading household infrastructure—yet, as the report points out, 'we only succeed in fighting climate change if all households can transition to the new economy.'

              In order to ensure an equitable and environmentally just future, the authors advocate harnessing the power of the state to implement 'creative policy solutions,' from low-cost financing to direct purchasing assistance for low- and moderate-income households and those with low credit scores.  

              Zurofsky told The Guardian that "the federal government can make it 'dirt cheap' for people to switch to renewables," especially now that solar is the cheapest form of electricity in human history. 

              In addition to public subsidies, the report acknowledges that "regulatory reform and restructuring of monopoly control of energy services is absolutely necessary."

              Transforming household energy consumption would not only result in the decarbonization of more that 40% of the U.S. economy, but the efficiency gains would also generate savings that 'are more than enough to return money to households,' Zurofsky said. 

              As the report notes, 'It is the poorest households that have the most to gain from household energy savings."

              The authors write that "if we apply the same technologies and approaches to the commercial sector, it would eliminate around 65% of emissions.'

              Bryan Snyder, an energy and environment expert at Louisiana State University, told The Guardian that such an undertaking would be difficult because it would require the country 'to build an electrical generation system on top of our roofs that is the same size as contemporary U.S. generation,' while regional inconsistencies in sunlight would add to the challenge. 

              Zurofsky retorted that the widespread adoption of rooftop solar power is feasible. 'That does not mean it will be easy to do,' he said, 'or that we won't have to stretch our existing capacities to make it happen.'

              According to Zurofsky, Rewiring America's new report—which echoes a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute confirming that investments in energy efficiency and clean energy would create millions of jobs—is meant to demonstrate 'what the future can look like if we are motivated to make it so.'

              Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License."

 

              Juan Cole, "President Biden, the US Is Capable of This Too: Europe Generates More Electricity With Renewables Than Fossil Fuels for First Time: If highly industrialized, carbon-intensive socieities like those in Europe can already in 2020 get a majority of their electricity from renewables, the world can clearly get to carbon neutrality," Common Dreams, January 26, 2021, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/26/president-biden-us-capable-too-europe-generates-more-electricity-renewables-fossil?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "A new report from Ember and Agora Energiewende finds that in 2020, the 27 countries of the European Union generated more electricity with renewables (wind, solar, hydro) than with fossil fuels (coal and natural gas). The growth in renewables has all come from wind and solar. These two increased by 51 terawatt-hours in 2020, substantially higher than the yearly average growth during the past decade.

              Ember writes, “Renewables rose to generate 38% of Europe’s electricity in 2020 (compared to 34.6% in 2019), for the first time overtaking fossil-fired generation, which fell to 37%.” The full report is here (https://ember-climate.org/project/eu-power-sector-2020/).

            Europe’s electricity was 29% cleaner in 2020 than in 2015, they report"

 

            Somini Sengupta, "China, in Pointed Message to U.S., Tightens Its Climate Targets," The New York Times," September 22, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/climate/china-China, reported, "President Xi Jinping of China pledged on Tuesday that his country would adopt much stronger climate targets and achieve what he called 'carbon neutrality before 2060.' If realized, the pledges would be crucial in the global fight against climate change."

 

              Andy Kroll, "The New Pandemic Relief Bill Is a Huge Win for the Plane: The $900-billion deal contains $35 billion for renewable energies and calls for cutting greenhouse gases. It’s ;a light in the darkness,' says Sierra Club director," RollingStone, December 22, 2020, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/covid-relief-congress-climate-hfc-trump-biden-1107117/, reported the late December 2020 "Covid relief bill includes $35 billion in new funding for various renewable energy initiatives, including $4 billion for the research and development of wind, solar, and geothermal; $1.7 billion to expand access to renewables to low-income Americans; and $2.6 billion for the Energy Department’s sustainable transportation project. One environmental advocate told the Post the relief bill was 'perhaps the most significant climate legislation Congress has ever passed.'

              The bill also 'includes key language on the ‘sense of Congress’ that the Energy Department must prioritize funding for research to power the United States with 100 percent ‘clean, renewable, or zero-emission energy sources,’ ' the Post reported. That commitment aligns with Democratic proposals to get the U.S. to a point of net-zero emissions, a goal shared by other nations in the fight against the climate crisis.

              But perhaps the biggest provision in the bill is one that would allow the Environmental Protection Agency to begin to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are used in air conditioners found in cars, homes, and other cooling systems."

 

              Henry Fountain, "Arctic Sea Ice Reaches a Low, Just Missing Record: Only 2012 had less sea ice coverage, scientists say, as climate change takes its toll in the region," The New York Times, September 21, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/climate/arctic-sea-ice-climate-change.html,reported, "A 'crazy year' in the Arctic has resulted in the second-lowest extent of sea ice in the region, scientists said Monday."

              "Since satellite measurements of sea ice began four decades ago, only 2012 has had a lower minimum, when 1.32 million square miles were measured. The 2020 minimum was nearly a million square miles less than the average annual minimum between 1981 and 2010.

              This year also continues an alarming streak: The 14 lowest ice years have occurred in the past 14 years. Many scientists expect that the Arctic could be devoid of ice in summers well before midcentury."

 

              Henry Fountain, "Shift to a Not-So-Frozen North Is Well Underway, Scientists Warn: 'There is no reason to think that in 30 years much of anything will be as it is today,' one of the editors of a new report on the Arctic climate said," The New York Times, December 8, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/climate/arctic-climate-change.html, reported, "The Arctic continued its unwavering shift toward a new climate in 2020, as the effects of near-record warming surged across the region, shrinking ice and snow cover and fueling extreme wildfires, scientists said Tuesday in an annual assessment of the region (https://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Report-Card-2020)."

              ”'Nearly everything in the Arctic, from ice and snow to human activity, is changing so quickly that there is no reason to think that in 30 years much of anything will be as it is today,' he [University of Alaska climate specialist, Rick Thoman] said."

 

              Jessica Corbett, "Mayors of 12 Major Global Cities Home to 36 Million People Make Unified Fossil Fuel Divestment Pledge: 'We're in a make-or-break decade for the preservation of our planet and our livelihoods,' said C40 chair and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti," Common Dreams," September 22, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/22/mayors-12-major-global-cities-home-36-million-people-make-unified-fossil-fuel?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "In another win for climate campaigners, leaders of 12 major cities around the world—collectively home to about 36 million people—committed Tuesday to divesting from fossil fuel companies and investing in a green, just recovery from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

            `The announcement from C40 Cities—a global network of communities dedicated to tackling the climate emergency—came on day two of Climate Week NYC, some of which is being held online because of the Covid-19 crisis."

 

              Veronica Penney, "Climate Change Is Making Winter Ice More Dangerous: A new study has found that cold-weather drownings are increasing sharply in warmer parts of the Northern Hemisphere," The New York Times, November 20, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/climate/thin-ice-winter-drowning.html, reported, "New research on the connection between climate change and winter drownings has found that reported drowning deaths are increasing exponentially in areas with warmer winters.

              The study, published on Wednesday in the journal PLoS One (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0241222), looked at drownings in 10 countries in the Northern Hemisphere. The largest number of drownings occurred when air temperatures were just below the freezing point, between minus 5 degrees Celsius and 0 Celsius (between 23 degrees Fahrenheit and 32 Fahrenheit)," with increases in winter drownings often the highest in places where Indigenous customs and livelihood require extended time on ice.

 

              Repeating a pattern of several years, interrupted in 2019, in mid-December a major storm dumped record amounts of snow in a number of places as it hit the East coast of the U.S., causing disruptions and at least 3 deaths (Lucy Tompkins, "Storm Dumps Snow on East Coast, Shutting Schools and Virus Testing: Three people died in highway crashes in Pennsylvania and Virginia. New York expecting up to a foot of precipitation as the mess moved on to New England," The New York Times, December 18, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/16/us/snowstorm-east-coast.html).

            The rounds of cold and snowy hitting the North American Midwest and East are repeating again this winter, because warming of the Arctic has tended to cause a weak poor vortex, sending Arctic air south. John Schwartz, "Forecast: Wild Weather in a Warming World: The polar vortex is experiencing an unusually long disturbance this year because of a 'sudden stratospheric warming.' Bundle up," The New York Times, January 31, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/30/climate/polar-vortex-weather-climate-change.html, reported, "Rough winter weather is working its way across the United States, with bitterly cold air hitting the Northeast and snowstorms expected along the East Coast next week."

              Leighton Rowell, "Hurricane Zeta disrupts early in-person voting in Georgia," The New York Times, October 29, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/us/elections/hurricane-zeta-disrupts-early-in-person-voting-in-georgia.html, reported, "The morning after Hurricane Zeta’s forceful winds downed power lines, toppled trees and caused road closures across the state of Georgia, widespread outages left more than 600,000 Georgians without electricity and took some of the state’s advanced voting locations offline Thursday — the penultimate day for early, in-person voting."

 

              And yet another tropical storm hits the U.S. Gulf Coast: Patricia Mazzei and Frances Robles, "Tropical Storm Eta Causes Flooding in South Florida: Some areas saw more than 13 inches of rainfall, and there was a storm surge along the coast," The New York Times, November 10, 2020, reported, "South Florida awoke to streets turned into shallow rivers on Monday after Tropical Storm Eta soaked the region overnight. It dumped rain inland, caused storm surge along the coast and left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity.

            More than 13 inches of rain fell in some areas, according to the National Weather Service, flooding front yards and back patios, threatening mobile home communities and creating dangerous driving conditions. By 11 a.m. on Monday, three flash-flood emergency alert warnings had screeched over cellular phones, each time extending the danger period."

              Carol Rosenberg, Amaris Castillo and Christina Morales, Eta Returns, Soaking Florida’s West Coast: The same storm that earlier hit eastern Florida flooded streets and prompted several water rescues when it hit the state again," The New York Times, "Tropical Storm Eta pounded Florida again on Thursday, flooding beach communities along the Gulf of Mexico, forcing rescuers to wade through hip-deep water and hitting portions of Tampa and Jacksonville as it made its way back out to sea."

 

              Climate change is making even less powerful hurricanes more damaging by slowing many of them down, while with a hotter atmosphere and ocean they pick up more moisture. Hurricane Sally is an example, coming in a season of more than the previous average number of storms, itself a phenomenon of climate change. Henry Fountain, "Why Hurricane Sally Could Bring a Deluge: Scientists know climate change has made storms wetter. There’s evidence that it makes some slower, too. It all adds up to trouble when they hit land," The New York Times, September 15, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/climate/hurricane-sally-climate-change.html, reported, "Climate change is making hurricanes wetter, because as the atmosphere warms it can hold more moisture. But Hurricane Sally is expected to dump as much as two and a half feet of rain on parts of the Gulf Coast over the next few days, and such enormous amounts cannot be chalked up to increased atmospheric moisture alone.

              On Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center reported that Sally’s translation speed, the rate at which it moves forward, was about 2 miles an hour, and that the storm was not expected to accelerate much as it moved northward in the Gulf of Mexico toward an expected landfall Wednesday. It was stalling, in effect, as it approached the Mississippi coast."

              Sally proved unpredictable, swerving east into Alabama and the Florida panhandle. Having increased to a category 2 hurricane, it struck harder than expected. Pensacola, FL was among many places flooded, with five feet of water flowing down the main street. Two feet of rain had fallen before the storm struck directly. More than 35 inches of rain were anticipated in coastal areas as the storm proceeded slowly inland toward Virginia and Washington, DC. (Richard Fausset, Rick Rojas and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, "Hurricane Sally Slams the Florida Panhandle With Deluge of Rain: The sluggish storm veered east and intensified before making landfall near the Alabama and Florida state line. Residents and officials said they were not anticipating a direct hit," The New York Times, September 16, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/us/hurricane-sally-landfall.html).

              Henry Fountain, "Warming May Make Hurricanes Weaken More Slowly After Landfall: New research suggests that climate change may be causing storms to retain destructive power for longer after moving inland," The New York Times, November 11, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/climate/hurricanes-climate-change-patterns.html, reported, "But a new study looks at what happens after hurricanes make landfall and work their way inland. The research suggests that climate change is affecting storms during this phase of their life as well, causing them to weaken more slowly and remain destructive for longer."

 

              Veronica Penney, "5 Things We Know About Climate Change and Hurricanes: Scientists can’t say for sure whether global warming is causing more hurricanes, but they are confident that it’s changing the way storms behave. Here’s how," The New York Times, November 11, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/climate/climate-change-hurricanes.html, reported, "It has been a record season for storms. On Monday night, Subtropical Storm Theta became the 29th named storm of the 2020 hurricane season, surpassing the total count from 2005."

 

              While science cannot predict that in any given season there will now be more tropical storms, what is clear is that there are five ways hurricanes are being changed by increasing climate change, as detailed in this Times article: 1. Higher winds, 2. More rain, 3. Slower storms, 4. Wider-ranging storms (the area in which tropical storms can form is increasing, which makes possible an increase in the number of storms and the places vulnerable to them), and 5. More volatility (storms will intensify more rapidly, with those that increase very greatly occurring much more frequently).

            In the record tenth hurricane to strike the United States, as of October 10, 2020, Rick Rojas and Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, "Hurricane Delta Brings Floods and Destruction to an Already Battered Louisiana: The storm made landfall some 20 miles from where Laura touched down a few weeks ago, intensifying the devastation the state has experienced during a brutal hurricane season," The New York Times, October 10, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/10/us/hurricane-delta-damage.html, reported, "Hurricane Delta tore across Louisiana late Friday, leaving a trail of destruction as it turned roadways into rapids and uprooted trees that crashed onto roofs. It also dealt a demoralizing blow to a state still staggering its way back from one of the most powerful storms that it had ever endured" just six weeks earlier. Climate change is clearly increasing natural destruction at an alarming, increasing rate.

              Rick Rojas and Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, "Hurricane Delta Brings Floods and Destruction to an Already Battered Louisiana: The storm made landfall some 20 miles from where Laura touched down a few weeks ago, intensifying the devastation the state has experienced during a brutal hurricane season," The New York Times, October 10, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/10/us/hurricane-delta-damage.html, reported, "Hurricane Delta tore across Louisiana late Friday, leaving a trail of destruction as it turned roadways into rapids and uprooted trees that crashed onto roofs. It also dealt a demoralizing blow to a state still staggering its way back from one of the most powerful storms that it had ever endured."

            And after a record tenth hurricane hitting the U.S. this year an 11th, and a record fifth for Louisiana:  Katy Reckdahl and Rick Rojas, "Hurricane Zeta Lashes Louisiana Coast in a Storm Season to Remember: The storm, responsible for at least one death, was upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane before making landfall, The New York Times, October 29, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/us/hurricane-zeta.html, reported, "Hurricane Zeta lashed the Louisiana coast on Wednesday with heavy rainfall and powerful winds that officials feared could pulverize parts of New Orleans as the storm made landfall with Category 2 strength."

              "Zeta, which was responsible for at least one death, is the fifth major storm to hit Louisiana this year, coming as yet another blow late in a long and punishing hurricane season that has wrought billions of dollars in devastation in the state and left many residents worn out."

              Zeta is the strongest storm in many decades to hit Louisiana this late in the season.

 

              Scientific studies now show conclusively that there is a direct relationship between ocean heat 'blobs', ocean heat waves, and climate change. Some of these could not occur without global warming ("Ocean Heat Waves Are Directly Linked to Climate Change: The “blob” of hotter ocean water that killed sea lions and other marine life in 2014 and 2015 may become permanent," The New York Times, September 24, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/climate/ocean-heat-waves-blob.html?campaign_id=54&emc=edit_clim_20200930&instance_id=22664&nl=climate-fwd%3A&regi_id=52235981&segment_id=39446&te=1&user_id=2984790c14170290245238c0cd4fd927).

 

              Kendra Chamberlain, "Water reckoning looms in New Mexico’s future: ‘We’re not prepared for what’s ahead of us’," New Mexico Political Report, September 19, 2020, https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2020/09/19/water-reckoning-looms-in-new-mexicos-future-were-not-prepared-for-whats-ahead-of-us/?mc_cid=93cddaf25c&mc_eid=cde7993ced, reported, "Water experts painted a grim picture of New Mexico’s water future during a panel discussion focused on water policy and management. The panel was hosted by Retake Democracy, an advocacy group based in Santa Fe." 

              "Gutzler said climate change will have three major impacts to water resources in the state." These include rising temperature, already up 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1970s, as the climate becomes more energetic and variable. The state is experiencing a rapid decline in snowpack, speedy increase in evaporation rates, resulting in a decrease in groundwater recharge, not counting decreased rainfall. "Rainfall will tend to be delivered in more intense doses, and the dry spells will also be more intense." 

 

            The U.S. Department of Agriculture noted, in October 2020, that where extreme, "exceptional", drought in New Mexico used to occur once every 50 years, it now occurs more often, having been experienced several times over the last decade (Geoffrey Plant, "USDA: ‘Exceptional drought’ no longer the exception," Silver City Press, October 20, 2020, http://www.scdailypress.com/site/2020/10/20/usda-exceptional-drought-no-longer-the-exception/?utm_source=Environment+Wrap-Up&utm_campaign=aafab00f3f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_07_12_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_be5ca4cdac-aafab00f3f-142253585&mc_cid=aafab00f3f&mc_eid=cde7993ced).

 

              Natalie Kitroeff, "‘This Is a War’: Cross-Border Fight Over Water Erupts in Mexico: Farmers in Mexico ambushed soldiers and seized a dam to stop water payments to the United States, in a sign of growing conflict over increasingly scarce resources," The New York Times, October 16, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/world/americas/mexico-water-boquilla-dam.html, reported, "The farmers armed themselves with sticks, rocks and homemade shields, ambushed hundreds of soldiers guarding a dam and seized control of one of the border region’s most important bodies of water.

              "The Mexican government was sending water — their water — to Texas, leaving them next to nothing for their thirsty crops, the farmers said. So they took over the dam and have refused to allow any of the water to flow to the United States for more than a month."

              "The standoff is the culmination of longstanding tensions over water between the United States and Mexico that have recently exploded into violence, pitting Mexican farmers against their own president and the global superpower next door."

 

              Thomas Fuller and Christopher Flavelle, "A Climate Reckoning in Fire-Stricken California," The New York Times, September 11, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/10/us/climate-change-california-wildfires.html, reported, "Multiple mega fires burning more than three million acres. Millions of residents smothered in toxic air. Rolling blackouts and triple-digit heat waves. Climate change, in the words of one scientist, is smacking California in the face.

            The crisis in the nation’s most populous state is more than just an accumulation of individual catastrophes. It is also an example of something climate experts have long worried about, but which few expected to see so soon: a cascade effect, in which a series of disasters overlap, triggering or amplifying each other."

              "The intensely hot wildfires are not only chasing thousands of people from their homes but causing dangerous chemicals to leach into drinking water. Excessive heat warnings and suffocating smoky air have threatened the health of people already struggling during the pandemic. And the threat of more wildfires has led insurance companies to cancel homeowner policies and the state’s main utility to shut off power to tens of thousands of people pre-emptively."

              Long-term draught, and a brutal heat wave have helped bring the fires, and merged with it along with the COVID-19 pandemic into a cascade of catastrophes.

              Jack Healy, Mike Baker and Tim Arango, "States Are in Desperate Search for Help Battling Record Wildfires: With millions of acres ablaze across the West Coast, states are having a tough time finding available fire crews. California resorted to calling in a team of firefighters from Israel," The New York Times, September 11, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/10/us/wildfires-help-ca-or-wa.html, reported that, as of September 10, 2020, in Oregon more than 900,000 acres has been consumed - more than twice the previous normal wildfire loss in a season - hundreds of thousands of people evacuated, and hundreds of homes destroyed by the still spreading fires.

              In California, with more than a record 3 million acres burned, the August Complex had become the largest wildfire in state history. Six of the 20 largest fires in California history have already occurred in 2020, and it is still early in fire season.

            In Washington, several towns have been destroyed, as record fires burn.

              As of September 11, with a 36 mile wide band of fires burning into Portland, OR suburbs, nearly 5 million acres had been consumed by fire on the west coast with at least 17 dead and many missing from the wide, fast moving fires. Acrid smoke continued to choke people and darken the days in cities and around the region (Jack Healy, Jack Nicas and Mike Baker, "A Line of Fire South of Portland and a Yearslong Recovery Ahead: Firefighters continued to battle blazes along the West Coast that have now charred nearly five million acres. At least 17 people are dead, with dozens still missing," The New York Times, September 12, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/us/fires-oregon-california-washington.html).

            In Oregon, climate change has shifted the weather patterns, drying out areas previously too wet to burn, so they are now suffering serious fires (Christopher Flavelle and Henry Fountain, "In Oregon, a New Climate Menace: Fires Raging Where They Don’t Usually Burn: The northwest part of the state, usually much wetter, has dried out this year, enabling flames driven by powerful winds to 'just explode down these canyons.'” The New York Times, September 12, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/climate/oregon-wildfires.html).

 

              Ariel Iannone Román, "West Coast Fires Disproportionately Affect Indigenous Communities," Cultural Survival, September 23, 2020, https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/west-coast-fires-disproportionately-affect-indigenous-communities, reported, "This year’s wildfire season, which started as early as mid-May in California, has been disproportionately impacting Indigenous communities in two very different ways. The first is the reality of fires burning through Tribal reservations as well as on sacred lands. The second is the reality of Indigenous migrant farm workers, who are already a vulnerable population without much option but to keep working despite the pandemic, and now, are exposed to the toxic air quality caused by wildfire smoke. A high percentage of the farm workers working in Washington, Oregon, and California are undocumented migrant workers, and many come from Indigenous communities.

              In Washington, the five fires that started in early September heavily impacted the Colville Reservation, resulting in the loss of over 80 homes, the destruction of over 200,000 acres of land, and one death. In California, the Slater fire has burned down the homes of Karuk Tribal members and Tribal staff and the Red Salmon complex fire is burning an area that is sacred to the Karuk Peoples. Also in California, farm workers haven't been guaranteed the most basic of protections against COVID-19 and the smoke from wildfires. Even though state and agricultural groups have reportedly distributed millions of N-95 masks to employers, farmworker rights protection groups have reported that hardly any workers have actually received the masks. Because of the fact that many of the workers are undocumented, they are afraid to report violations, and similarly, are unable to choose not to work despite the toxic air quality. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an air quality index (AQI) that exceeds 150 is unhealthy for the general population, and in California, the AQI has far exceeded this amount in many areas.

            In Oregon, the organization Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) reported that farm workers were being asked to work despite Level 2 evacuation warnings and hazardous air quality. According to PCUN, Oregon Occupational Safety and Health (Oregon OSHA) and the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) recommended a halt to outdoor work activity when air quality exceeds 151 AQI, as well as rearranging schedules so that workers could get relief from smoke exposure, and providing N-95 masks where and when applicable. In mid-September, air quality has far exceeded this amount, though workers were still being asked to report for work.

            As of September 21, 2020, over 40,000 fires have burned close to 7 million acres of land. This exceeds the 10-year average by one million acres. What we are seeing are the consequences of decades of fire suppression, the federal government’s preferred tactic for dealing with wildfires, which ignores generations of traditional Indigenous knowledge regarding fire management.

              At one time, before the advent of colonization and the forced displacement of Indigenous Peoples, the risk of fire was managed via what is now called cultural burning. Cultural burning practices encompass different techniques of controlled burning that have been passed down by Indigenous Peoples living in areas with high risk of wildfires.  The key to cultural burning is that the practice reflects an intimate understanding of the landscape, as opposed to federal and state tactics, which seek to suppress all fire without acknowledging its potential benefits. In Californiaand Oregon, religious ceremonies related to cultural burning were banned by the mid-1800s, with Tribal members being shot by law enforcement over fire disputes as recently as the 1930s.

              In more recent times, Indigenous leaders in California and Oregon have begun to push for government-sanctioned land management practices to include aspects of cultural burning. A similar movement is happening in Australia, after the devastation of the wildfires that burned over 11 million acres of land in Western Australia over the course of August 2019 through March 2020. In the Northwest Territories, cultural burning practices have remained largely intact as part of Aboriginal fire and land management practices, resulting in a 50 percent decrease in bushfire destruction. According to Oliver Costello (Bundjalung Jagun), CEO of the Firesticks Alliance, 'Greater devastating fires are the future for Australia if we continue to apply short term thinking to what is a long-term problem, [one] that has been 200 years in the making.' This sentiment could apply to California, Oregon, and Washington as well, where the ban of cultural burning practices over the last 200 years has resulted in the accumulation of small trees, grass, brush, leaves, and other forest debris that provide the fuel needed for a wildfire to grow into a severe burn. Climate change and rising temperatures make these landscapes every more fire-prone than they already were.

              In Northern California, fire experts from the North Fork Mono, Karuk, and Yurok Peoples have begun to partner with the Forest Service to integrate traditional practices, including cultural burning, into governmental land management plans. The state of California has committed to reducing undergrowth on half-a-million acres, and the federal government has a similar goal. Unfortunately, this is not an easy problem to fix, as fire cannot be easily added back into an ecological system that has been impacted by decades of fire suppression.  Another problem is the general lack of governmental consensus. President Trump blamed the severity of the wildfires solely on poor forest management and suggested that the solution be an increase in logging, ignoring the impact of climate change, as well as the benefits of restoring traditional Indigenous forest management practices. Within the state of California, changes in forest management policy have also been made difficult due to regional air regulators who still require burn permits due to concerns over smoke and air pollution. Only certain counties offer special burn permits for Tribes to engage in cultural burning practices.

            The Karuk Tribe, whose lands span northwestern California and southern Oregon, put together the Somes Bar Integrated Fire Management Project, which combines strategic forest thinning with controlled burns in a groundbreaking piece of policy that incorporates the most Indigenous knowledge into traditional policy in the United States to date. The project has stalled in the early stages due to continued resistance from federal officials to allow Tribal members to engage in controlled burns, as well as the recurrence of devastating fire seasons, which by necessity push officials back into using  fire suppression tactics to deal with the problem in the short-term.

              The result is a job left dangerously half-done. Karuk fire management professionals completed the first part of the project, which entailed strategic forest thinning. The resulting collection of slash piles, composed of debris and branches, were never burned as was originally intended. Federal officials were too busy dealing with the catastrophic wildfire season to arrange for their own people to do the controlled burns, and they did not want to turn the responsibility over to the Karuk Tribe, citing liability issues, despite the fact that the Tribe has members who are certified in controlled burn management. What is left is a collection of fuel piles that could make an already catastrophic fire season worse. Bill Tripp (Karuk), the director of natural resources and environmental policy for the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources, wrote in an article for The Guardian that the federal government keeps giving 'excuses, not solutions.' Excuses have ranged from lack of environmental clearance under the National Environmental Policy Act, the previously mentioned liability concerns, lack of personnel to supervise the burn, and the latest — COVID-19.

              The problem is not simply one of crisis management, but also one of Indigenous rights, Tribal sovereignty, and cultural preservation. According to Tripp, “Overcoming the structural racism at the root of this problem has been a multi-generational task. It shouldn’t have to be.” The multi-generational task doesn’t just involve the fight to be included in governmental land management policy, but also the need to ensure that the traditional knowledge held by the elders of different Indigenous Peoples is being passed on before it is lost."

            John Schwartz, "Heat and Drought Team Up More Frequently, With Disastrous Results: A new study finds that what used to be a rare weather double whammy has been occurring more frequently in recent decades because of climate change.” The New York Times, September 23, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/climate/heat-drought-climate-change.html, reported, "The combination of drought conditions and heat waves, which can make wildfires more likely, is becoming increasingly common in the American West, according to a new study (https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/39/eaaz4571). The results may be predictably disastrous."

            By Mid-October the fire season continued to blaze on the West Coast, with More than 8,500 wildfires have consumed more than 4.1 million acres in California, including in the largest single wildfire, and four of the five largest in state history. 31 people died in the California fires In Oregon and Washington, over a million acres have burned. In Colorado, the usual snows have not come the mountains, and in the drought the fire season was extending far beyond its usual end, with 430,000 acres already consumed and still burning. The largest fire in Colorado history was still spreading on October 18, while another destroyed much of the  town of Jamestown (Charlie Brennan and Rick Rojas, "Colorado Wildfire Grows Into Largest in State History: Left vulnerable by dry conditions, more than 430,000 acres have burned so far in what has been one of the worst years ever for wildfires in the state," The New York Times, October 19, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/us/colorado-wildfires-cameron-peak.html).

              Brad Plumer and John Schwartz, "These Changes Are Needed Amid Worsening Wildfires, Experts Say: The blazes scorching the West highlight the urgency of rethinking fire management policies, as climate change threatens to make things worse," The New York Times, September 11, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/10/climate/wildfires-climate-policy.html, reported that much more needs to be done as wildfires become worse every year in the western U.S., "Colorado is dealing with infernos like the Cameron Peak Fire west of Fort Collins, with more than 100,000 acres burned. Washington State has seen more than 300,000 acres burn, including 80 percent of the town of Malden. California, with a record 2.5 million acres burned so far, has 14,000 firefighters working to contain 25 major wildfires even though 'this year’s fire season has another four months to go,' according to the state’s fire agency, Cal Fire.

              The worsening wildfire disasters mean the United States needs to drastically rethink its approach to managing fire in the decades ahead, experts warn. 'The first step is to acknowledge that fire is inevitable, and we have to learn to live with it,' said David McWethy, a fire scientist at Montana State University."

              The first problem is that large numbers of people continue to move into and develop wild areas in fire zones. Too much of the wild is already invaded. This development needs to be limited. Too often states and municipalities have not enacted, and when enacted, enforced fire safety measures that would greatly reduce damage and loss when fires occur. There are numerous examples of properties in the midst of very intense fires that have suffered little damage because their owners took necessary fire safety steps, while neighbors who did not take preventive action lost everything. Federal, state and local authorities and insurance companies need to take necessary action to minimize the losses. The losses to habitat and carbon absorbing trees and plants will still be serious, making climate change worse. Major rapid steps to move to green energy will begin to limit the fire and that set of problems.

 

              Mike Baker, "Some of the Planet’s Most Polluted Skies Are Now Over the West Coast: Smoke from the wildfires in the West was also spotted high in the skies over Washington, D.C. Firefighters continued to battle blazes that were still spreading," The New York Times, September 16, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/us/fires-california-oregon-washington-west.html, reported, "The billowing wildfire smoke that has blanketed much of the West Coast with a caustic haze also began settling into the atmosphere thousands of miles away on Tuesday"

              "Scientists say that the wildfires in the West combined with drought and record heat waves could be triggering one of the Southwest’s largest migratory bird die-offs in recent decades.

              West Coast residents from San Francisco to Seattle and beyond have for days suffered from the smoke, which has sent air-quality readings soaring to hazardous levels, closed some schools and led officials to shut parks and beaches while pleading for people to stay indoors. In Seattle, Harborview Medical Center reported seeing a rise in the number of people seeking help for breathing issues — many of them people with underlying conditions such as asthma or lung disease."

 

              Somini Sengupta, "Wildfire Smoke Is Poisoning California’s Kids. Some Pay a Higher Price," The New York Times, November 26, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/26/climate/california-smoke-children-health.html, "The fires sweeping across millions of acres in California aren’t just incinerating trees and houses. They’re also filling the lungs of California’s children with smoke, with potentially grave effects over the course of their lives.

            The effects are not evenly felt. While California as a whole has seen a steady uptick in smoke days in recent years, counties in the state’s Central Valley, which is already cursed with some of the most polluted air, were particularly hard hit by wildfire smoke this year."

 

              Blacki Migliozzi, Scott Reinhard, Nadja Popovich, Tim Wallace and Allison McCann, "Record Wildfires on the West Coast Are Capping a Disastrous Decade," The New York Times, September 24, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/24/climate/fires-worst-year-california-oregon-washington.html, repored, "With more than a month of fire weather ahead for large parts of the West Coast, the 2020 fire season has already taken a disastrous toll.

Combined, over five million acres have burned in California, Oregon and Washington so far. Thousands of buildings have been destroyed by some of the largest fires ever recorded. More than two dozen people have died. Millions up and down the coast have spent weeks living under thick clouds of smoke and ash."

              "Data from two NASA satellites that can detect heat shows fire activity in California, Oregon and Washington in 2020 has already eclipsed even the worst previous year" as shown graphically in the Times article, West Coast fire seasons have been growing continually worse over the last decade, with 2020 - with yet a month to go - far worse than anything seen before.

 

              At the end of September 2020, the worst fire season in history in California continued to get worse. For example, Tim Arango, Johnny Diaz and Carly Stern, "3 Killed in Fresh Wildfires in Northern California: In addition to the deaths, the famous Chateau Boswell winery is gone, a community of tiny homes for homeless people has burned, and an untold number of houses are feared lost," The New York Times,  September 29, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/us/california-glass-zogg-fires.html, reported, "California’s famed wine country, already suffering an economic blow brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and covered in smoke for weeks, is on fire again.

            The state’s losses were mounting on Monday as two new wildfires burned out of control, killing three people in Shasta County, the sheriff said. And in wine country, the famous Chateau Boswell winery was gone, a community of tiny homes for homeless people has burned, and an untold number of houses were feared lost."

            And still more California serious fires: "90,000 Told to Flee as California Fires Nearly Double in Size: The Silverado Fire and the Blue Ridge Fire grew rapidly overnight, forcing more evacuations in Irvine and other parts of Orange County," The New York Times, October 27, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/us/california-fires-updates.htmlm reported, "As two wildfires raged across Southern California on Tuesday, nearly doubling in size overnight and forcing thousands more people to flee their homes, the state’s utility companies are again coming under scrutiny for their potential role in sparking new blazes."

              "Fueled by strong Santa Ana winds, the fires in Orange County have put more than 90,000 people under emergency evacuation orders, many of them in Irvine. Their homes are being threatened by both the Silverado Fire [then at 13,000 Acres in Orange County] and the Blue Ridge Fire, which has a footprint of about 15,000 acres."

            A major indicator of the complex negative impacts of global warming induced climate change: Christopher Flavelle,  "Fires and Storms Push Demand for Emergency Shelter to a New High: The Red Cross has provided more nights of shelter to Americans this year than at any point on record, a sign of the widening human toll of climate change," The New York Times, October 1, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/climate/disaster-shelter-red-cross.html, reported, "A year already filled with historic wildfires and hurricanes can now claim another dubious distinction: Americans have spent far more time in emergency housing than in any year during the past decade, smashing 2017’s full-year record with three months left to go."

 

              As a result of climate change, the financial cost of natural disasters in the U.S. doubled to $95 billion in 2020 over 2019. Insurance companies say they can't just continue to pay out more and more for rebuilding after storms or wildfires. In poorer countries, most people do not have insurance, making rebuilding even harder Christopher Flavelle, "Costs of Damage from Natural Disasters Doubled in 2020 to $95 Billion," The New York Times, January 8, 2021).

 

              Jake Johnson, "'Yet Another Alarm Bell': Ice Chunk Twice Size of Manhattan Breaks Off Greenland Glacier Amid Record Arctic Warming: News of the development came as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared this summer the hottest ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere," Common Dreams, September 15, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/15/yet-another-alarm-bell-ice-chunk-twice-size-manhattan-breaks-greenland-glacier-amid?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "A chunk of ice nearly twice the size of Manhattan has broken off from Greenland's largest remaining glacier and fallen into the ocean, a frightening phenomenon that researchers and environmentalists attributed to record-breaking Arctic warming driven by the human-caused climate crisis.

              'This is yet another alarm bell being rung by the climate crisis in a rapidly heating Arctic,' Greenpeace spokesperson Laura Meller told the Associated Press."

 

              Henry Fountain, "The Arctic Is Shifting to a New Climate Because of Global Warming: Open water and rain, rather than ice and snow, are becoming typical of the region, a new study has found," The New York Times, September 14, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/14/climate/arctic-changing-climate.html, reported, "The effects of global warming in the Arctic are so severe that the region is shifting to a different climate, one characterized less by ice and snow and more by open water and rain, scientists said Monday.

              Already, they said, sea ice in the Arctic has declined so much that even an extremely cold year would not result in as much ice as was typical decades ago. Two other characteristics of the region’s climate, seasonal air temperatures and the number of days of rain instead of snow, are shifting in the same way, the researchers said."

 

              Anna Schaverien, "Madrid Is Buried Under Heaviest Snowfall in 50 Years: At least three people have died after Storm Filomena wreaked havoc across Spain and blanketed the capital in more than a foot and a half of snow, paralyzing it for days," The New York Times, January 20, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/world/europe/spain-snow-storm-filomena.html, reported, "The heaviest snowfall in five decades has blanketed Madrid over the past few days, after a giant storm hit southern and central Spain, causing at least three deaths and prompting the authorities to activate the highest level of weather warning in the capital."

 

              Natalie Kitroeff, "2 Hurricanes Devastated Central America. Will the Ruin Spur a Migration Wave? The storms displaced hundreds of thousands of people, creating a new class of refugees with more reason than ever to migrate north and setting up an early test for the incoming Biden administration," The New York Times, December 4, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/world/americas/guatemala-hurricanes-mudslide-migration.html, reported, "Already crippled by the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic crisis, Central America is now confronting another catastrophe: The mass destruction caused by two ferocious hurricanes that hit in quick succession last month, pummeling the same fragile countries, twice.

            The storms, two of the most powerful in a record-breaking season, demolished tens of thousands of homes, wiped out infrastructure and swallowed vast swaths of cropland." Vast areas remained flooded days later, giant mud slides wiped out whole villages. The double disaster is likely to launch another wave of climate refugees north to the United States. The storm was most destructive in Guatemala, and Honduras, but also hit Nicaragua.

 

              Maria Magdalena Arréllaga, Ernesto Londoño and Letícia Casado, "Brazil Fires Burn World’s Largest Tropical Wetlands at ‘Unprecedented’ Scale: The blazes in Brazil, often intentionally set, have scorched a record-setting 10 percent of the Pantanal, one of the most biologically diverse habitats on the planet," The New York Times, September 4, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/world/americas/brazil-wetlands-fires-pantanal.html, reported, "A record amount of the world’s largest tropical wetland has been lost to the fires sweeping Brazil this year, scientists said, devastating a delicate ecosystem that is one of the most biologically diverse habitats on the planet.

              The enormous fires — often set by ranchers and farmers to clear land, but exacerbated by unusually dry conditions in recent weeks — have engulfed more than 10 percent of the Brazilian wetlands, known as the Pantanal, exacting a toll scientists call 'unprecedented.'”

 

              Megan Specia, "Cyclone Batters Greek Islands as It Makes Landfall: Ianos, a rare hurricane-strength Mediterranean storm, slammed into Greece’s western islands, bringing lashing rain and gales," The New York Times, September 18, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/world/europe/greece-medicane-ianos-cassilda.html, reported, "A rare, powerful cyclone slammed into the western Ionian Islands of Greece and other parts of the country on Friday, bringing lashing rain, strong winds and flooding as it tore into the coastline.

            Such storms — which some meteorologists call Medicanes, or Mediterranean hurricanes — were virtually unheard-of before the 1990s, but in recent years have become a more regular occurrence because of rising sea temperatures."

 

               In a two week period in late August and early September the Korean Peninsula was hit by three typhoons: Bavi, Maysak and Haishen ("Typhoon Haishen (2020)," Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, September 17, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Haishen_(2020).

            Livia Albeck-Ripka, "Landslide in Vietnam Kills at Least 20 Military Personnel: Search-and-rescue efforts were underway after a landslide in the central province of Quang Tri, resulting in what may be the country’s greatest military loss in peacetime," The New York Times, Otober 19, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/world/asia/vietnam-landslide.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article reported, "A landslide in Vietnam on Sunday killed at least 20 military personnel and left two missing, the local news media reported, following weeks of torrential rains and flooding that have devastated parts of the country and killed dozens of people."

              And then, an even worse storm: Yan Zhuang, "Typhoon Molave Slams Into Vietnam, Bringing Death and More Misery: Already battling devastating floods, the country was hit by one of its biggest storms in decades," The New York Times, October 28, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/world/asia/vietnam-typhoon-molave-landslide.html, reported, "A typhoon that slammed into central Vietnam has set off a series of landslides that buried villages and towns, left more than 60 people dead or missing and compounded the misery of a country already struggling with catastrophic floods.

            Typhoon Molave was one of the biggest storms to hit the country in two decades, bringing a second round of deadly landslides there this month."

 

              Emily Schmall and Hari Kumar, "Cyclone Nivar Reaches India, Battering Its Eastern Coast: The severe storm weakened after making landfall near Puducherry. At least 3 people were killed," The New York Times, November 26, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/world/asia/india-cyclone-nivar.html, reported," A severe cyclone made landfall in eastern India early Thursday, killing at least three people and lashing coastal areas off the Bay of Bengal with strong winds and heavy rain."

              "Cyclones have grown more intense and more frequent across South Asia as climate change has resulted in warmer sea temperatures."

 

              "Pakistan’s Most Terrifying Adversary Is Climate Change: The country debates women’s honor inexhaustibly but pays little attention to the ferocious and imminent dangers of climate disasters," The New York Times, September 27, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/27/opinion/pakistan-climate-change.html, commented that Pakistan, and the City of Karachi, has suffered adversity from many struggles, but none have been so destructive as worsening climate change. "In August, Karachi’s stifling summer heat was heavy and pregnant. The sapodilla trees and frangipani leaves were lush and green; the Arabian Sea, quiet and distant, had grown muddy. When the palm fronds started to sway, slowly, the city knew the winds had picked up and rain would follow. Every year the monsoons come — angrier and wilder — lashing the unprepared city. Studies show that climate change is causing monsoons to be more intense and less predictable, and cover larger areas of land for longer periods of time.

              On Aug. 27, Karachi received nearly nine inches of monsoon rain, the highest amount of rainfall ever in a single day. Nineteen inches of rain fell in August, according to the meteorological officials. It is enough to drown a city that has no functioning drainage, no emergency systems and no reliable health care (except for those who can pay). Thousands of homes and settlements of the poor were subsumed and destroyed, and more than 100 people were killed."

            Dera Menra Sijabat and Richard C. Paddock, "At Least 12 Dead in 2 Landslides in Indonesia: The landslides on the island of Java were set off by heavy rainfall and unstable soil, officials said, and left rescue workers searching for survivors," The New York Times, January 15, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/world/asia/indonesia-landslide-rains-west-java.html, "Two landslides set off by heavy rainfall and unstable soil killed at least 12 people on Java, Indonesia’s most populous island, and left rescue workers searching for survivors, disaster officials said Sunday."

 

              Hannah Beech and Jason Gutierrez, Published Nov. 1, 2020Updated Nov. "A Typhoon Spared the Philippine Capital. Will Manila Be So Lucky Next Time? With climate change heightening the Philippines’ risk of natural disaster, the country is braced for the next catastrophe," The New York Times, November 2, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/01/world/asia/typhoon-goni-philippines-manila.html, reported that while Typhoon Goni, the most powerful storm to hit the Philippines in many years, missed the capitol, it caused severe flooding and wind damage south of Manila. Moreover, "The Philippines may have been lucky with Goni, the 18th typhoon to strike the country this year. But it remains starkly exposed to a multitude of natural disasters."

              "As sea-surface temperatures rise, the Philippines’ positioning in warm ocean waters means the country is being subjected to both bigger and more frequent tropical storms. Residents of densely populated slums are particularly imperiled. So are miners and farmers who excavate and till mountainous earth, creating slippery, muddy conditions in which torrents of soil can bury people alive.

            Mass deforestation, including the destruction of mangroves along the coastlines, has torn away natural barriers to wind and water."

 

              Jason Gutierrez, "‘Within Seconds Everything Was Gone’: Devastating Floods Submerge the Philippines: Torrential rains and back-to-back typhoons have ripped through the country in the past two weeks, turning a once picturesque river into a sea of murky brown, killing dozens and setting off deadly landslides," The New York Times, November 18, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/world/asia/philippines-floods-photos.html, reported that in the northern Philippines, "The Cagayan River overflowed after two weeks of torrential rains, burying entire villages under water and mud."

            Typhons are a regular occarrance in the Philippines. "But the storms are getting more ferocious and more frequent, the tragic consequence of a changing climate that is making disasters more intense. Rapid development and deforestation along flood-prone areas have exacerbated the devastation."

            Climate change related drought is bringing is bringing serious wildfires to new areas of Africa. Abdi Latif Dahir,  "Fires on Slopes of Kilimanjaro Threaten a Diverse Ecosystem: Strong winds and dry weather have hampered efforts to extinguish the spreading blaze on Africa’s highest peak," The New York Times, October15, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/world/africa/mount-kilimanjaro-fire-tanzania.html, reported, "As fires swept up the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain, for the fifth day on Thursday, hundreds of volunteers from local villages joined firefighters racing to stop a blaze threatening to ravage one of the world’s richest and most diverse ecosystems."

 

              With February, brutal fires have returned to Australia. Livia Albeck-Ripka, "First Came the Lockdown. Then Came the Wildfire: Residents on the outskirts of Perth in Western Australia fled their homes in the middle of the night, just days after being told to stay in because of the coronavirus," The New York Times, February 2, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/world/australia/perth-wooroloo-fire-covid.html, reported, "Just days after residents of Perth, Australia’s fourth-largest city, were ordered to stay in because of the coronavirus, some were forced to flee their homes on Tuesday as a ferocious wildfire bore down on the city’s outskirts.

              The blaze northeast of Perth, which began on Monday and was fueled by hot, dry and windy conditions, was out of control by about 2 a.m. on Tuesday, officials said. Residents described a confused scramble in the middle of the night, as they were unsure where they were supposed to go in light of the lockdown rules."

            A new study published in Environmental Research Letters (https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1748-9326) shows that it essential in the fight to limit global warming to maintain peatbogs and other wetlands, for when they dry out they release large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere (Henry Fountain, "What’s Green, Soggy and Fights Climate Change? You might be surprised: Protecting peat bogs could help the world avert the worst effects of global warming, a new study has found," The New York Times, October 9, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/climate/peat-climate-change.html).

 

              Catrin Einhorn, Maria Magdalena Arréllaga, Blacki Migliozzi and Scott Reinhard, "The World’s Largest Tropical Wetland Has Become an Inferno," The New York Times,   October 13, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/13/climate/pantanal-brazil-fires.html, reported, "This year, roughly a quarter of the vast Pantanal wetland in Brazil, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, has burned in wildfires worsened by climate change.

              The unprecedented fires in the wetland have attracted less attention than blazes in Australia, the Western United States and the Amazon, its celebrity sibling to the north. But while the Pantanal is not a global household name, tourists in the know flock there because it is home to exceptionally high concentrations of breathtaking wildlife: Jaguars, tapirs, endangered giant otters and bright blue hyacinth macaws. Like a vast tub, the wetland swells with water during the rainy season and empties out during the dry months. Fittingly, this rhythm has a name that evokes a beating heart: the flood pulse.

              The wetland, which is larger than Greece and stretches over parts of Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, also offers unseen gifts to a vast swath of South America by regulating the water cycle upon which life depends. Its countless swamps, lagoons and tributaries purify water and help prevent floods and droughts. They also store untold amounts of carbon, helping to stabilize the climate."

              This year a quarter of the Pantanal was consumed by fires, many of which were started by ranchers. Usually, even in the dry season, there is enough water in the land to contain the fires. But climate change has brought drought that has so dried the land that the fires now burn out of control.

 

              Julia Conley, "'Seismic Shift' in World's Approach to Land Use, Wildlife, and Climate Action Needed to Avoid New 'Era of Pandemics,' Study Says: 'The same human activities that drive climate change and biodiversity loss also drive pandemic risk through their impacts on our environment,'", October 29, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/29/seismic-shift-worlds-approach-land-use-wildlife-and-climate-action-needed-avoid-new?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "Warning that without a 'seismic shift' in how world governments approach the treatment of wildlife, land conservation, and public health, the planet could be entering an "era of pandemics," a United Nations-backed report released Thursday emphasized that the ability to avoid more public health crises like Covid-19 is entirely within the human population's control. 

              Resulting from an urgent virtual workshop attended by 22 experts from around the world, the report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (https://ipbes.net/sites/default/files/2020-10/20201028%20IPBES%20Pandemics%20Workshop%20Report%20Plain%20Text%20Final_0.pdf) notes that more than five new diseases emerge in people each year, and each of these has the potential to develop into a global pandemic as the coronavirus did. 

              The novel coronavirus has origins in microbes detected in animal species and is believed to have 'jumped' from an animal to the human population in Wuhan, China, and human activity has made it dangerously easy for this sort of jump to happen again and again. 

              Scientists estimate that 1.7 million unknown viruses currently exist in mammals and birds, and that up to 850,000 of them could potentially infect humans.

              'There is no great mystery about the cause of the Covid-19 pandemic—or of any modern pandemic,' said Dr. Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance and chair of the IPBES workshop. 'The same human activities that drive climate change and biodiversity loss also drive pandemic risk through their impacts on our environment. Changes in the way we use land; the expansion and intensification of agriculture; and unsustainable trade, production, and consumption disrupt nature and increase contact between wildlife."

              To stop a new era of pandemics from emerging, the experts say, governments must work together to stop the exploitation of land and wildlife by profit-driven systems, which cause humans and animals to come into close enough contact for pathogens to jump to humans. 

              Unsafe contact between humans and wildlife would be reduced by conservation efforts to protect biodiversity and natural habitats, the promotion of 'responsible consumption' and a reduction in "excessive consumption of meat from livestock production,' and climate action, the report reads. 

              'Climate change has been implicated in disease emergence (e.g. tick-borne encephalitis in Scandinavia) and will likely cause substantial future pandemic risk by driving movement of people, wildlife, reservoirs, and vectors, and spread of their pathogens, in ways that lead to new contact among species, increased contact among species, or otherwise disrupts natural host-pathogen dynamics," the IPBES wrote. 

              According to the report, land-use change has been linked to the emergence of more than 30% of new diseases in the human population since 1960. 

              'Land-use change includes deforestation, human settlement in primarily wildlife habitat, the growth of crop and livestock production, and urbanization,' the report reads. 

              'The solution here seems pretty clear,' tweeted Dr. Scott Sampson, executive director of the California Academy of Sciences, in response to the report's section on land-use change.

              The study includes a number of suggested reforms which could help to keep pathogens from spreading to humans, including:

            Launching a high-level intergovernmental council on pandemic prevention to provide decision-makers with the best science and evidence on emerging diseases; predict high-risk areas; evaluate the economic impact of potential pandemics and to highlight research gaps. 

            Institutionalizing the 'One Health' approach in national governments to build pandemic preparedness, enhance pandemic prevention programs, and to investigate and control outbreaks across sectors.

            Ensuring that the economic cost of pandemics is factored into consumption, production, and government policies and budgets.

            Enabling changes to reduce the types of consumption, globalized agricultural expansion and trade that have led to pandemics—this could include taxes or levies on meat consumption, livestock production and other forms of high pandemic-risk activities.

            Reducing zoonotic disease risks in the international wildlife trade through a new intergovernmental 'health and trade' partnership; reducing or removing high disease-risk species in the wildlife trade; enhancing law enforcement in all aspects of the illegal wildlife trade and improving community education in disease hotspots about the health risks of wildlife trade.

            Valuing Indigenous Peoples and local communities' engagement and knowledge in pandemic prevention programs, achieving greater food security, and reducing consumption of wildlife.

            The cost of confronting global public health emergencies after they've arrived—including damage to economies around the world, healthcare costs, and vaccine research—is roughly 100 times what it would cost to prevent another pandemic, the IPBES said.

            'We have the increasing ability to prevent pandemics—but the way we are tackling them right now largely ignores that ability," said Daszak. "Our approach has effectively stagnated—we still rely on attempts to contain and control diseases after they emerge, through vaccines and therapeutics. We can escape the era of pandemics, but this requires a much greater focus on prevention in addition to reaction.'

              Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License."

 

              Catrin Einhorn, "Restoring Farmland Could Drastically Slow Extinctions, Fight Climate Change: Returning strategic parts of the world’s farmlands to nature could help mitigate both climate change and biodiversity loss, a new study found," The New York Times, October 14, 2020, Catrin Einhorn, reported, "A global road map, published Wednesday in Nature (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2784-9), identifies a path to soaking up almost half of the carbon dioxide that has built up since the Industrial Revolution and averting more than 70 percent of the predicted animal and plant extinctions on land. The key? Returning a strategic 30 percent of the world’s farmlands to nature.

              It could be done, the researchers found, while preserving an abundant food supply for people and while also staying within the time scale to keep global temperatures from rising past 2 degrees Celsius, the upper target of the Paris Agreement."

 

              Somini Sengupta, "Europe Moves to Protect Nature, but Faces Criticism Over Subsidizing Farms: The proposal would protect 30 percent of the continent’s land and water by 2030," The New York Times, October 23, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/climate/europe-nature-farms.html, reported, "The European Union’s Environment Council on Friday endorsed the proposal by the president of the European Union to create protected areas for 30 percent of the continent’s land and water by 2030, along with legally binding measures to tighten forest protections.

            But Europe’s governing body also was criticized by environmental and climate activists for not curbing agricultural subsidies that drive pollution."

 

              Henry Fountain, "Cutting Greenhouse Gases From Food Production Is Urgent, Scientists Say: Efforts to limit global warming often focus on emissions from fossil fuels, but food is crucial, too, according to new research," The New York Times, November 6, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/climate/climate-change-food-production.html, reported. "Rising greenhouse gas emissions from worldwide food production will make it extremely difficult to limit global warming to the targets set in the Paris climate agreement, even if emissions from fossil-fuel burning were halted immediately, scientists reported Thursday," in Michael A. Clark, Nina G. G. Domingo, Kimberly Colgan, Sumil K. Thakrar, and David Tilman, "Global food system emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5° and 2°C climate change targets," Science, Vol. 370, Issue 6517, pp. 705-708, November 6, 2020, https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6517/705.

              "But they said that meeting one of the targets, limiting overall warming this century to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, could be achieved through 'rapid and ambitious' changes to the global food system over the next several decades, including adopting plant-rich diets, increasing crop yields and reducing food waste."

 

              Damien Cave,  "China Battles the World’s Biggest Coal Exporter, and Coal Is Losing: China has officially blocked coal imports from Australia after months of vague restrictions. For Australia, the world’s largest coal exporter, the decision is a gut punch," The New York Times, December 16, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/16/world/australia/china-coal-climate-change.html, reported, " China is forcing Australia[, the world's  largest coal exporter,] to confront what many countries are concluding: The coal era is coming to an end.

              China has now officially blocked coal imports from Australia after months of vague restrictions that dramatically slowed trade and stranded huge ships at sea."

 

              Julia Conley, "'An Acknowledgment of the Next Generation': New Zealand Declares Climate Emergency: 'It is up to us to make sure we demonstrate a plan for action, and a reason for hope," said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern,'" Common Dreams, December 2, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/02/acknowledgment-next-generation-new-zealand-declares-climate-emergency?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "Climate action campaigners on Wednesday acknowledged New Zealand's declaration of a climate emergency as a positive step forward, while noting that the move must be backed by decisive action.

              The country's Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, introduced the proposal in Parliament Wednesday after pressure from Extinction Rebellion and other campaign groups to 'tell the truth' about the climate crisis. The measure passed in a 76-43 vote along party lines.

              Under the declaration, New Zealand's government will dedicate $141 million to transitioning to a carbon neutral public sector by 2025. The fund will be used to replace the government's 200 coal-fired boilers and to purchase only electric or hybrid vehicles for public use. Government agencies will be required to measure and report their emissions and offset any they cannot reduce to zero by 2025.

              'This declaration is an acknowledgement of the next generation. An acknowledgement of the burden that they will carry if we do not get this right and do not take action now,' Ardern said. 'It is up to us to make sure we demonstrate a plan for action, and a reason for hope.'

              The proposal introduced by the Labour Party recognized 'the devastating impact that volatile and extreme weather will have on New Zealand and the wellbeing of New Zealanders, on our primary industries, water availability, and public health through flooding, sea level rise, and wildfire.'

              The New Zealand Ministry for the Environment reported in 2018 that the country's 'indigenous ecosystems and species [are] in a state of rapid decline,' with the climate crisis negatively affecting bird migration and egg-laying in some species. 

              New Zealand's government is the 33rd in the world to declare a climate emergency, following countries including the U.K., Japan, and France. In 2019 New Zealand passed the Zero Carbon Act, which set up a Climate Change Commission to work towards achieving net zero fossil fuel emissions by 2050. 

            That legislation included an exemption for farmers, leading climate campaigners to accuse the government of passing only a symbolic proposal that won't address the emissions of the agriculture sector, which is responsible for most of the New Zealand's greenhouse gas pollution—particularly methane.

              'When the house is on fire, there's no point hitting the alarm without fighting the fire as well,' Greenpeace agriculture and climate campaigner Kate Simcock told Al Jazeeraon Wednesday after the climate emergency legislation passed. 'Fighting the fire in New Zealand means tackling agricultural emissions.'

              New Zealand is responsible for 0.17% of global fossil fuel emissions and is ranked 17th out of 32 OECD countries for emissions, with its pollution levels accelerating in the past two decades. 

              On social media, climate action advocates emphasized that Ardern's government must back up the declaration with action that leads to measurable, positive results for the planet. 

              'We have not seen these declarations matched with ambitious enough targets or roadmaps to get there,' tweeted Ali Sheridan, a sustainability advisor in Ireland. "Less of the declarations and pledges, more of the measurable action please.'

              Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License."

 

              "Japan’s New Leader Sets Ambitious Goal of Carbon Neutrality by 2050: The announcement, coming weeks after a similar pledge by China, will require a major overhaul of the infrastructure in Japan," The New York Times, October 26, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/business/japan-carbon-neutral.html, reported, "Japan will be carbon neutral by 2050, its prime minister said on Monday, making an ambitious pledge to sharply accelerate the country’s global warming targets, even as it plans to build more than a dozen new coal-burning power plants in the coming years."

              "It is not clear whether Mr. Suga’s commitment is feasible, and he offered few specifics about how Japan would reach its goal, saying only that he would harness the power of 'innovation' and 'regulatory reform' to transform the country’s energy production and usage." This will require a major overhaul of Japan’s largely fossil fuel dependent infrastructure, and raises the question of how much of a role nuclear power generation will play."

 

              John Timmer, "New study: A zero-emissions US is now pretty cheap: In 2050, benefits to the US offset costs, but there are some unexpected outcomes," Technica, January 3, 2021, reported, "In many areas of the United States, installing a wind or solar farm is now cheaper than simply buying fuel for an existing fossil fuel-based generator. And that's dramatically changing the electricity market in the US and requiring a lot of people to update prior predictions. That has motivated a group of researchers to take a new look at the costs and challenges of getting the entire US to carbon neutrality.

              By building a model of the energy market for the entire US, the researchers explored what it will take to get the country to the point where its energy use has no net emissions in 2050—and they even looked at a scenario where emissions are negative. They found that, as you'd expect, the costs drop dramatically—to less than 1 percent of the GDP, even before counting the costs avoided by preventing the worst impacts of climate change. And, as an added bonus, we would pay less for our power."

 

              Stanley Reed, "A Monster Wind Turbine Is Upending an Industry: G.E.’s giant machine, which can light up a small town, is stoking a renewable-energy arms race," The New York Times, January 1, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/business/GE-wind-turbine.html, reported, "Twirling above a strip of land at the mouth of Rotterdam’s harbor is a wind turbine so large it is difficult to photograph. The turning diameter of its rotor is longer than two American football fields end to end. Later models will be taller than any building on the mainland of Western Europe.

            Packed with sensors gathering data on wind speeds, electricity output and stresses on its components, the giant whirling machine in the Netherlands is a test model for a new series of giant offshore wind turbines planned by General Electric. When assembled in arrays, the wind machines have the potential to power cities, supplanting the emissions-spewing coal- or natural gas-fired plants that form the backbones of many electric systems today."

 

            United Airlines, in December 2020, announced a goal of achieving zero emissions by 2050 ("United Airlines Plans Zero Emissions by 2050," The New York Times, December 11, 2020).

 

              Ivan Penn and Clifford Krauss, "California Is Trying to Jump-Start the Hydrogen Economy: The fuel could play an important role in fighting climate change, but it has been slow to gain traction because of high costs," The New York Times, November 11, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/business/hydrogen-fuel-california.html, reported, "But in California, the beginnings of a hydrogen economy may finally be dawning after many fits and starts.

            Dozens of hydrogen buses are lumbering down city streets, while more and larger fueling stations are appearing from San Diego to San Francisco, financed by the state and federal governments. With the costs of producing and shipping hydrogen coming down, California is setting ambitious goals to phase out vehicles that run on fossil fuels in favor of batteries and hydrogen. Large auto and energy companies like Toyota Motor and Royal Dutch Shell have committed to supplying more cars and fueling stations."

 

              The Center for Biodiversity reported January 27, 2020, Randi Spivak, (310) 779-4894, rspivak@biologicaldiversity.org, " Biden Executive Order Pushes for Protection of 30% of America’s Land, Oceans," "President Joe Biden will issue an executive order today directing federal officials to protect 30% of the country’s lands and ocean waters by 2030, part of an effort to slow the wildlife extinction crisis and curb global warming.

              'This is a crucial step to stopping the wildlife extinction crisis, which threatens the future of all life on our planet,' said Kierán Suckling, executive director at the Center for Biological Diversity. 'We’ve got to preserve the most biologically rich ecosystems to have any hope of bringing nature back from the brink. Human activity got us to this heartbreaking point, and we’re grateful the Biden administration will address this global crisis by working to protect 30% of the nation’s lands and oceans by 2030.'

              Under the president’s order, the Interior Department will determine how to measure the country’s progress toward the 30x30 goal and outline steps to achieve it. Federal officials also will support local, state, private and tribal conservation and restoration efforts and work to improve access to nature for low-income communities and communities of color.

              Three-quarters of the planet’s lands and two-thirds of its ocean have been heavily altered by humans. Habitat loss and degradation remains the largest driver of extinction in the United States and around the world. The U.S. loses a football-field worth of natural area every 30 seconds to human development, severely affecting wildlife, fresh water and clean air.

              The United Nations last year said more than 1 million plant and animal species are heading toward extinction. Species are dying out at hundreds to thousands of times the natural rate. For example, there are less than 400 North Atlantic right whales left, just 14 red wolves known in the wild in North Carolina, and likely around 10 vaquita porpoises in Mexico. In the Southeast extinction looms for 28% of the region’s fishes, 48% of crayfishes and nearly 70% of freshwater mussels.

              A year ago the Center launched Saving Life on Earth, a plan that calls for a $100 billion investment to save species and the creation of new national monuments and parks, wildlife refuges and marine sanctuaries so that 30% of U.S. lands and waters are fully conserved and protected by 2030 and 50% by 2050."

 

              Brad Plumer and Jill Cowan, "California Plans to Ban Sales of New Gas-Powered Cars in 15 Years: The proposal would speed up the state’s efforts to fight global warming at a time when California is being battered by wildfires, heat waves and other consequences of climate change," The New York Times, September 23, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/climate/california-ban-gas-cars.html, reported, "In an executive order, Governor Newsom directed California’s regulators to develop a plan that would require automakers to sell steadily more zero-emissions passenger vehicles in the state, such as battery-powered or hydrogen-powered cars and pickup trucks, until they make up 100 percent of new auto sales in just 15 years [by 2035].

            The plan would also set a goal for all heavy-duty trucks on the road in California to be zero emissions by 2045 where possible. And the order directs the state’s transportation agencies to look for near-term actions to reduce Californian’s reliance on driving by, for example, expanding access to mass transit and biking."

            It's just a beginning, but hydrogen fueled cars are becoming practical.  Roy Furchgott, "The Gospel of Hydrogen Power: Mike Strizki powers his house and cars with hydrogen he home-brews. He is using his retirement to evangelize for the planet-saving advantages of hydrogen batteries," The New York Times, December 28, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/business/hydrogen-power-cars.html, reportedm "In December, the California Fuel Cell Partnership tallied 8,890 electric cars and 48 electric buses running on hydrogen batteries, which are refillable in minutes at any of 42 stations there. On the East Coast, the number of people who own and drive a hydrogen electric car is somewhat lower. In fact, there’s just one. His name is Mike Strizki. He is so devoted to hydrogen fuel-cell energy that he drives a Toyota Mirai even though it requires him to refine hydrogen fuel in his yard himself."

 

              Neal E. Boudette and Coral Davenport, "G.M. Announcement Shakes Up U.S. Automakers’ Transition to Electric Cars: Every carmaker is trying to figure out how to make the leap before governments force it and Tesla and other start-ups lure away drivers," The New York Times, January 29, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/business/general-motors-electric-cars.html, reported, "A new president took office this month determined to fight climate change. Wall Street investors think Tesla is worth more than General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen and Ford put together. And China, the world’s biggest car market, recently ordered that most new cars be powered by electricity in just 15 years.

              Those large forces help explain the decision by G.M.’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, that the company will aim to sell only zero-emission cars and trucks by 2035."

 

              Clifford Krauss, "Oil Refineries See Profit in Turning Kitchen Grease Into Diesel: Struggling energy companies are increasing the production of renewable diesel, which can reduce greenhouse gas emissions," The New York Times, December 3, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/business/energy-environment/oil-refineries-renewable-diesel.html, reported, "Many businesses are betting that electric and hydrogen-powered cars and trucks will play a critical role in the fight against climate change. But some oil companies are hoping that so will smelly restaurant grease and slaughterhouse waste.

            Companies that refine crude oil into fuel are increasingly using such putrid scraps to make a renewable version of diesel that can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from trucks, buses and industrial equipment without requiring families and businesses to invest in expensive new vehicles and factory gear. Phillips 66, Marathon, HollyFrontier and several other refiners are spending roughly $2 billion to retool refineries to produce the fuel over the next four years."

 

              Vote Solar reported in a December 16, 2020 E-mail, "The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission just unanimously rejected El Paso Electric’s proposal to expand their dirty gas plant! Over 1,000 New Mexicans wrote to the Commission, a huge show of support for clean and air water."

              "Our expert witnesses made the case that EPE did not need to build the new gas turbine, and could meet future energy demand with solar and storage, and better resource management."

 

              Jasper Jolly, "More than 500,000 full electric cars sold so far this year in Europe: Milestone comes as sales of all plug-in cars, including hybrids, pass 1m in 18 European markets, The Guardian, December 3, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/dec/03/more-than-500000-full-electric-cars-sold-in-europe-in-10-months, reported, "Carmakers have sold more than 500,000 battery electric cars in Europe during 2020, a milestone in the automotive industry’s move away from fossil fuels.

            Sales of all plug-in cars, including hybrids, have surpassed 1m during the year in the UK and the largest 17 European markets, according to data collated by Schmidt Automotive Research.

            During the whole of last year only 354,000 battery electric sales were recorded across the region."

 

              Jessica Corbett, "Tests Reveal Toxic 'Forever Chemicals' in Aerial Pesticide Showered Over Millions of Acres in US, 'These findings shock the conscience,'" Common Dreams, December 1, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/01/tests-reveal-toxic-forever-chemicals-aerial-pesticide-showered-over-millions-acres?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email, reported, "A national nonprofit revealed Tuesday that testing commissioned by the group as well as separate analysis conducted by Massachusetts officials show samples of an aerially sprayed pesticide used by the commonwealth and at least 25 other states to control mosquito-borne illnesses contain toxic substances that critics call 'forever chemicals.'

              Officially known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), this group of man-made chemicals—including PFOA, PFOS, and GenX—earned the nickname because they do not break down in the environment and build up in the body. PFAS has been linked to suppressed immune function, cancers, and other health issues.

              Lawmakers and regulators at various levels of government have worked to clean up drinking water contaminated by PFAS. The newly released results of pesticide testing by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MADEP) generated alarm about the effectiveness of such efforts.

              'In Massachusetts, communities are struggling to remove PFAS from their drinking water supplies, while at the same time, we may be showering them with PFAS from the skies and roads,' PEER science policy director Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney formerly with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said in a statement Tuesday.

              'The frightening thing is that we do not know how many insecticides, herbicides, or even disinfectants contain PFAS,' added Bennett, who arranged for the testing. 'PEER found patents showing chemical companies using PFAS in these products, and recent articles discuss the variety of pesticides that contain PFAS as either an active or an inert ingredient.'

              The product tested initially by PEER and subsequently MADEP, once the nonprofit alerted the department of its findings, is Anvil 10+10, produced by the Illinois company Clarke.

              Karen Larson, Clarke's vice president of government affairs, told the Boston Globe that 'when this was first brought to our attention, we conducted an internal inquiry of our manufacturing and supply chain to ensure that PFAS was not an ingredient in the production, manufacturing, or distribution of either the active or inactive ingredients of Anvil.'

              'No PFAS ingredients are used in the formulation of Anvil, nor in the production of any source material in Anvil. PFAS components are not added at any point in the production of Anvil,' she said. Larson added that while it is unclear why the Clarke pesticide contained PFAS, the company 'will continue to work closely with the EPA to conduct our own testing.'             

              PEER executive director Tim Whitehouse detailed the recent testing results in a letter(pdf) sent last week to MADEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg that called for halting the use of Anvil 10+10, ensuring any replacement does not contain forever chemicals, and requiring pesticide companies to comprehensively test their products for PFAS:

              'This fall, PEER conducted several tests for PFAS of a 2.5 gallon jug of Anvil 10+10, the pesticide used in the aerial spraying programs of Massachusetts and many other states. Our tests revealed that Anvil 10+10 contains roughly 250 parts per trillion (ppt) of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and 260–500 ppt of hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA), a GenX replacement for PFOA. Both these results are hovering around the detection limits of the laboratory's equipment, but there is no doubt that these PFAS are in the insecticide. While PFAS may be useful when added to pesticides as surfactants, dispersants, and anti-foaming agents, it is unclear whether the PFAS found in Anvil 10+10 is an ingredient added by the manufacturer, contained in one of the ingredients supplied to Anvil's manufacturer by other companies, or whether it is a contaminant from the manufacturing/storage process. Moreover, since we were only able to test for 36 PFAS out of the 9,252 on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) inventory, it is impossible to know how many other PFAS might be in Anvil 10+10.

              [...]

              When PEER obtained its first positive PFAS results on Anvil 10+10, we immediately contacted DEP because of the far-reaching implications. MADEP independently tested nine samples of Anvil 10+10 from five different containers, and found eight different PFAS, including PFOA and PFOS. Some PFAS levels were over 700 ppt. As such, there appears to be no doubt that there are PFAS in the pesticide Massachusetts has chosen for mosquito control.'

              Whitehouse noted that Massachusetts aerially sprayed 2.2 million acres with Anvil 10+10 last year and more than 200,000 acres this year. The Globe explained that 'most of the spraying has been done in the southeastern part of the state, where EEE, a rare but deadly mosquito-borne disease, has been most prevalent.'

              The EPA, which has been lambasted by lawmakers as well as environmental and public health advocates for its handling of PFAS contamination on a national scale, is working on 'an analytical method' to detect the forever chemicals in pesticides and plans to conduct its own tests of Anvil 10+10, according to the newspaper.

              'There are significant unanswered questions about the data currently available,' Dave Deegan, a spokesperson for the federal agency's offices in New England, told the Globe. 'EPA will continue to work closely with and support the state on this issue. Aggressively addressing PFAS continues to be an important, active, and ongoing priority for EPA.'

              Bennett and other critics of the EPA's response to PFAS reiterated concerns about the agency in the wake of the revelations in Massachusetts.

              'This PFAS fiasco shows that public trust in EPA having a full accounting of these materials and their safety is utterly misplaced,' said Bennett. 'Until EPA acts, states need to adopt their own safeguards and chemical disclosure requirements because they certainly cannot depend upon the diligence of EPA.'

              In a statement about the testing on Tuesday, Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter declared that 'these findings shock the conscience—states likely have unknowingly contaminated communities' water with PFAS hidden in pesticides. Once again, the EPA has failed to protect the American people from harmful pollution.'

              Emphasizing that 'we need to stop the introduction of toxic forever chemicals into the environment and our water sources to protect public health," Hauter said that "the EPA must ban all pesticides with PFAS components, designate PFAS as hazardous substances to hold polluters accountable for cleanup of contamination, and set strong enforceable standards for PFAS in our drinking water.'

              'The GOP-controlled Senate must step up and pass the PFAS Action Act, which passed the House in January, to regulated these toxic compounds and hold polluters accountable, and Congress must pass he WATER Act to provide the financial relief to community water providers and households with wells to remove PFAS from drinking water or find alternative sources where treatment fails," she added. "Now is the time for decisive action to protect people's health and safety.'

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              Aishvarya Kavi, "Biden’s 17 Executive Orders and Other Directives in Detail: The moves aim to strengthen protections for young immigrants, end construction of President Donald J. Trump’s border wall, end a travel ban and prioritize racial equity," The New York Times, January 21, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/us/biden-executive-orders.html, reported, "In 17 executive orders, memorandums and proclamations signed hours after his inauguration, President Biden moved swiftly on Wednesday to dismantle Trump administration policies." The orders were on moving to have a speedy and safe program for fighting the pandemic, reserecting the economy moving to a just and fair immigration policy, protecting rights  and prompting equality, including for people of color and LGBTQ people, returning to government accountability and ethics, and on meeting climate change.

                             "On Climate Change

            "Chief among executive orders that begin to tackle the issue of climate change, Mr. Biden has signed a letter to re-enter the United States in the Paris climate accords, which it will officially rejoin 30 days from now. In 2019, Mr. Trump formally notified the United Nations that the United States would withdraw from the coalition of nearly 200 countries working to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas.

            In additional executive orders, Mr. Biden began the reversal of a slew of the Trump administration’s environmental policies, including revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline; reversing the rollbacks to vehicle emissions standards; undoing decisions to slash the size of several national monuments; enforcing a temporary moratorium on oil and natural gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; and re-establishing a working group on the social costs of greenhouse gasses."

 

              Coral Davenport, "Restoring Environmental Rules Rolled Back by Trump Could Take Years," The New York Times, President Biden has promised to reinstate more than 100 rules and regulations aimed at environmental protection that his predecessor rolled back. It won’t happen overnight," The New York Times, January 22, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/climate/biden-environment.html, reported, "President Biden, vowing to restore environmental protections frayed over the past four years, has ordered the review of more than 100 rules and regulations on air, water, public lands, endangered species and climate change that were weakened or rolled back by his predecessor.

              But legal experts warn that it could take two to three years — and in some cases, most of Mr. Biden’s term — to put many of the old rules back in place," as creating new rules, even if that is putting back old ones, in many cases must follow extensive procedures including public hearings and input and environmental impact statements.

 

              Coral Davenport, "Trump Administration Declines to Tighten Soot Rules, Despite Link to Covid Deaths: Health experts say the E.P.A. decision defies scientific research showing that particulate pollution contributes to tens of thousands of premature deaths annually," The New York Times, December 7, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/climate/trump-epa-soot-covid.html, reported, "The Trump administration on Monday declined to tighten controls on industrial soot emissions, disregarding an emerging scientific link between dirty air and Covid-19 death rates.

            In one of the final policy moves of an administration that has spent the past four years weakening or rolling back more than 100 environmental regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency completed a regulation that keeps in place the current rules on tiny, lung-damaging industrial particles, known as PM 2.5, instead of strengthening them, even though the agency’s own scientists have warned of the links between the pollutants and respiratory illness. In April, researchers at Harvard released the first nationwide study (https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/covid-pm) linking long-term exposure to PM 2.5 and Covid-19 death rates."

 

              "Federal Judge Rejects Approval of Federal Oil, Gas Leases in Utah: Decision Comes Ahead of Biden’s Promised Leasing Ban," Center for Biological Diversity, December 11, 2020, https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/federal-judge-rejects-approval-federal-oil-gas-leases-utah-2020-12-11/?utm_source=eeo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=eeo1067&utm_term=PublicLands&emci=2b791e31-d23f-eb11-a607-00155d43c992&emdi=0afae900-af40-eb11-a607-00155d43c992&ceid=357453, reported, "A federal judge overturned the Trump administration’s plan to lease more than 60,000 acres of public land for fracking in northern Utah’s Uintah Basin, including areas near Dinosaur National Monument, ruling that the Bureau of Land Management violated the law by refusing to consider alternatives to leasing all 59 parcels."

              President "Biden has pledged to ban new oil and gas leasing on federal public lands and waters when he takes office Jan. 20."

 

            Eric Lipton, "In Last Rush, Trump Grants Mining and Energy Firms Access to Public Lands: The outgoing administration is pushing through approval of corporate projects over the opposition of environmental groups and tribal communities," The New York Times, December 19, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/us/politics/in-last-rush-trump-grants-mining-and-energy-firms-access-to-public-lands.html, reported, "The Trump administration is rushing to approve a final wave of large-scale mining and energy projects on federal lands, encouraged by investors who want to try to ensure the projects move ahead even after President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. takes office."

              In Arizona, the Forest Service is preparing to sign off on the transfer of federal forest land at Oak Flat considered sacred by a neighboring Native American tribe for a huge largest copper mine. In Utah, the Interior Department was moving towards granting final approval go the Twin Bridges Bowknot Helium extraction project in a remote location inside a national wilderness area, where new energy leasing is currently banned. In northern Nevada, the Interior Department was moving toward granting final approval go the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine, which would be a large open-pit operation on federal land above the site of a prehistoric volcano. In Virginia and West Virginia, in Jefferson National Forest, the Forest Service was on the verge of taking a major step toward permitting Mountain Valley Pipeline, natural gas pipeline, to be constructed, which would run beneath the Appalachian Trail. Other projects are moving toward approval on public lands elsewhere. But if Deb Haaland is approved early on as Secretary of the Interior, she would likely be able to stop these projects, all of which would face daunting court challenges if not blocked by the new administration.

 

              As part of President Trump's last minute rush to overturn environmental regulations, in mid-January, his administration opened 15 million acres of protected forest habitat of the northern spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest to logging (Lisa Friedman and Catrin Einhorn, "Habitat of a Threatened Owl Is Opened for Timber Harvesting," The New York Times, January 17, 2021).

 

              Lakota People’s Law Project reported in a January 30, 2021 E-mail, "On the heels of President Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline (KXL), another good piece of news came down this week! On Tuesday, a U.S. appellate court decision dealt one more legal blow to the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL), upholding a lower court decision to throw out its permit to operate without proper environmental review."

 

              Steve Horn, "Trump Approved Shipping Tar Sands by Rail to Alaska. The Project's Owners Are Banking on a Melting Arctic," Desmog, October 30, 2020, https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/10/30/trump-a2a-tar-sands-rail-alaska-melting-arctic, reported, "On September 28, President Donald Trump signed a presidential permit to ship Alberta’s tar sands oil via a proposed 1,600-mile private rail line across the U.S.-Canada border into Alaska." 

              "Referred to as A2A Rail, the project is specifically touted by its proponents as a way to expedite exports to Asian markets," as Alaska ports are closer to Asian markets than ports further South.

 

              Kenny Stancil, "In Victory for Public Health, Federal Judge Scraps Trump's Polluter-Friendly 'Censored Science' Rule: 'Science matters again, and it will again guide how to best protect people from dangerous pollution and toxic chemicals,'" Common Dreams, February 2, 2021, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/02/victory-public-health-federal-judge-scraps-trumps-polluter-friendly-censored-science?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "In a development welcomed by environmental and public health advocates, a federal judge on Monday invalidated the Trump administration's last-minute rule change dictating which types of research the Environmental Protection Agency can use to regulate polluting industries and toxic chemicals."

 

              Coral Davenport, "Illegal Tampering by Diesel Pickup Owners Is Worsening Pollution, E.P.A. Says," The New York Times, November 25, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/climate/diesel-trucks-air-pollution.html, reported, "The owners and operators of more than half a million diesel pickup trucks have been illegally disabling their vehicles’ emissions control technology over the past decade, allowing excess emissions equivalent to 9 million extra trucks on the road, a new federal report has concluded."

 

            Kendra Chamberlain, "Bill would halt new fracking permits while state conducts impact studies," New Mexico Political Report, January 6, 2021, https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2021/01/06/bill-would-halt-new-fracking-permits-while-state-conducts-impact-studies/?mc_cid=73cf6d9ad7&mc_eid=cde7993ced, reported, "State Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque, plans to introduce a bill during the upcoming [early 2021] legislative session that would enact a four-year pause on fracking permits while studies are conducted to determine the impacts of fracking on agriculture, environment and water resources and public health."

              Jill Cowan, "Alarmed by Scope of Wildfires, Officials Turn to Native Americans for Help: Indigenous groups have a long history of intentionally setting fires to keep ecosystems healthy. Policymakers are now more interested in the practice," The New York Times, October 7, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/us/native-american-burning-practices-california.html, reported, "Long before California was California, Native Americans used fire to keep the lands where they lived healthy. That meant intentionally burning excess vegetation at regular intervals, during times of the year when the weather would keep blazes smaller and cooler than the destructive wildfires burning today.

              The work requires a deep understanding of how winds would spread flames down a particular hillside or when lighting a fire in a forest would foster the growth of certain plants, and that knowledge has been passed down through ceremony and practice. But until recently, it has been mostly dismissed as unscientific.

            Now, as more Americans are being forced to confront the realities of climate change, firefighting experts and policymakers are increasingly turning to fundamental ecological principles that have long guided Indigenous communities."

 

              Food and Water Watch reported in a January 27,2021 E-mail, "Today President Biden signed an executive order that will pause new leases for fracking and drilling on federal lands and waters for one year! And the administration will conduct a 'rigorous review' of existing oil and drilling leases and permits and work with Congress to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies."

 

              Lisa Friedman, Coral Davenport and Christopher Flavelle, "Biden, Emphasizing Job Creation, Signs Sweeping Climate Actions: The array of directives — touching on international relations, drilling policy, employment and national security, among other things — elevate climate change across every level of the federal government," The New York Times, January 27, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/climate/biden-climate-executive-orders.html, reported, "President Biden on Wednesday signed a sweeping series of executive actions — ranging from pausing new federal oil leases to electrifying the government’s vast fleet of vehicles — while casting the moves as much about job creation as the climate crisis.

            Mr. Biden said his directives would reserve 30 percent of federal land and water for conservation purposes, make climate policy central to national security decisions and build out a network of electric-car charging stations nationwide."

 

              Jessica Corbett,  'This Is a Really, Really Big Deal': Michigan Gov. Moves to Shut Down Line 5 Pipeline to Protect Great Lakes: 'Enbridge has imposed on the people of Michigan an unacceptable risk of a catastrophic oil spill in the Great Lakes that could devastate our economy and way of life,'" Common Dreams, November 13, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/13/really-really-big-deal-michigan-gov-moves-shut-down-line-5-pipeline-protect-great?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "Environmental and Indigenous activists celebrated Friday after Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took action to shut down the decades-old Enbridge Line 5 oil and natural gas pipelines that run under the Straits of Mackinac, narrow waterways that connect Lake Huron and Lake Michigan—two of the Great Lakes.

              Citing the threat to the Great Lakes as well as 'persistent and incurable violations' by Enbridge, Whitmer and Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Dan Eichinger informed the Canadian fossil fuel giant that a 1953 easement allowing it to operate the pipelines is being revoked and terminated.

              The move, which Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel asked the Ingham County Circuit Court to validate, gives Enbridge until May 2021 to stop operating the twin pipelines, 'allowing for an orderly transition that protects Michigan's energy needs over the coming months,' according to a statement from the governor's office.

              The Great Lakes collectively contain about a fifth of the world's surface fresh water. As Whitmer explained Friday, 'Here in Michigan, the Great Lakes define our borders, but they also define who we are as people.'

              'Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans who depend on them for clean drinking water and good jobs,' the governor said. 'They have repeatedly violated the terms of the 1953 easement by ignoring structural problems that put our Great Lakes and our families at risk.'

              'Most importantly, Enbridge has imposed on the people of Michigan an unacceptable risk of a catastrophic oil spill in the Great Lakes that could devastate our economy and way of life,' she added. 'That's why we're taking action now, and why I will continue to hold accountable anyone who threatens our Great Lakes and fresh water.'

              MLive noted that the state attorney general's new filing 'is in addition to Nessel's lawsuit filed in 2019 seeking the shutdown of Line 5, which remains pending in the same court.' Nessel said Friday that Whitmer and Eichinger 'are making another clear statement that Line 5 poses a great risk to our state, and it must be removed from our public waterways.'

              The 'bombshell news,' as one Michigan reporter called it, elicited applause from environmentalists and Indigenous leaders within and beyond the state.

              'This is a brave and just decision for the Great Lakes,' Mike Shriberg, the National Wildlife Federation's regional executive director for the Great Lakes, told MLive. 'It's going to benefit the Great Lakes by removing what is probably the single biggest threat to water quality in the region.'

              As the Detroit Free Press detailed Friday:

              Enbridge was responsible for one of the largest inland oil spills in U.S. history—a major leak on one of its large oil transmission lines near Marshall in July 2010. That spill fouled more than 38 miles of the Kalamazoo River and took four years and more than $1 billion to clean up. Enbridge in 2016 agreed to a $177-million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency, including $62 million in penalties, over the Marshall spill and a 2010 spill on another of its pipelines in Romeoville, Illinois.

              A similar spill disaster on Line 5 in the Straits would devastate the Great Lakes shoreline communities and the Michigan economy, critics of the pipeline have long contended. Enbridge officials have countered that Line 5 is safe.

              'Line 5 should have never been built in the first place,' Shriberg told the Free Press. 'Gov. Whitmer is now bravely, and correctly, standing up for the Great Lakes.'

              'This is a legacy-defining action by the governor,' he added. 'She is standing on the side not only of clean water, but clean energy and the jobs that go along with the transition to a renewable energy economy.'

              Dallas Goldtooth, Keep It In The Ground Campaign organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network, welcomed the 'huge news' in a series of tweets that acknowledged the years of campaigning by tribal nations against the Line 5:

              'We are thrilled and thankful for Gov. Whitmer's decision to revoke the easement for Enbridge's pipeline to run beneath the Straits,' Bryan Newland, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community, said in a statement from Earthjustice. 'Enbridge has consistently shown that it only cares about its profits and not about the communities of the Great Lakes. This is a monumental first step in rectifying the harm that the company has already inflicted upon Bay Mills and other tribal nations for decades.'

              The shutdown notice is 'an enormous victory for the climate, and for incredible organizers who have fought for many years!' declared activist and author Bill McKibben, who co-founded 350.org. After thanking both Whitmer and 'the indefatigable organizers,' he added that 'it's not often enough we Shut Stuff Down!'

              Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) also welcomed the development in a statement Friday. Peters, who secured a narrow reelection victory last week, is a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which oversees the federal agency responsible for pipeline safety.

              'There's no question an oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac would have catastrophic and long-term consequences to the economic and environmental health of Michigan and the Great Lakes,' Peters said. 'Unfortunately here in Michigan, we already know from the Enbridge pipeline leak in the Kalamazoo River just how devastating and costly spills are to our state.'

              'Given the structural integrity and age concerns around Line 5—particularly in recent years—and Enbridge's failures and inability to be transparent with Michiganders, it's clear that Line 5 poses too serious of a threat and must be removed in the coming months," the congressman continued, vowing to work with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and the State of Michigan "to swiftly evaluate alternatives to Line 5 while continuing to hold Enbridge accountable.'

              This post has been updated with comment from Bryan Newland, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community.

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            "Minnesota gives final green light to disputed oil pipeline," Lakota Times,  December 3, 2020, https://www.lakotatimes.com/articles/minnesota-gives-final-green-light-to-disputed-oil-pipeline/, reported, "Minnesota regulators approved the final permit Monday for Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 crude oil pipeline replacement across northern Minnesota, giving the company the green light to begin construction on the $2.6 billion project."

              Alec Jacobson, "These Zombies Threaten the Whole Planet: Canada’s oil patch has nearly 100,000 suspended wells, neither active nor capped, and they’re a worrying source of planet-warming methane," The New York Times, October 30, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/climate/oil-wells-leak-canada.html, reported, on the huge number of inactive, but not yet capped, oil wells in Alberta, Canada, many of which are leaking methane. This is a local air pollution issue and a major contributor to climate change. "After decades of booms and busts, an enormous backlog of these inactive wells has built up, and it grows about 6 percent each year. There are now 97,920 wells, like the one on Mr. Romaniuk’s land, that are licensed as temporarily suspended, compared to the province’s 160,000 active wells. The inactive wells are unlikely to be switched on ever again but have not yet been decommissioned. No one knows how many are leaking methane and other pollutants."

 

              Constant Méheut, "Court Faults France Over ‘Ecological Damage’ From Its Emissions Levels: A Paris court said the French state had failed to meet its commitments on greenhouse gas emissions. The lawsuit is among a growing number of such legal actions internationally," The New York Times, February 3, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/world/europe/france-emissions-court.html, reported, "A French court ruled on Wednesday that France had caused 'ecological damage' by insufficiently reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, a landmark decision that environmentalists said they hoped would be more than merely symbolic as such cases are increasingly brought to courts internationally.

              The court said it would give the French government two months to take action before issuing any order to reduce emissions and repair the damage, a decision that the four groups that brought the case described as a 'a victory for the truth.'”

 

              Andrea Germanos, "After 13 Years, Justice!" Dutch Court Orders Shell Oil to Pay for Harm Done to Nigerian Farmers: 'Victims of environmental pollution, land grabbing, or exploitation now have a better chance to win a legal battle against the companies involved,'" Common Dreams, January 29, 2021, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/29/after-13-years-justice-dutch-court-orders-shell-oil-pay-harm-done-nigerian-farmers?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "Global environmental justice campaigners heralded a Dutch court's ruling Friday that Royal Dutch Shell's Nigerian subsidiary must pay punitive restitution to Nigerian villages for oil spill contamination that brought death, illness, and destruction to Nigerian farmers and communities.

              'After 13 years, justice!' tweeted Friends of the Earth Europe.

              The legal effort seeking accountability for the oil pollution in the Niger Delta, as Agence France-Presse noted, was brought forth by the Netherlands branch of Friends of the Earth, and 'has dragged on so long that two of the Nigerian farmers have died since it was first filed in 2008.'"

 

              Paul Tullis, "New Technology Claims to Pinpoint Even Small Methane Leaks From Space: Amid growing alarm about methane’s role in driving global warming, a Canadian firm has begun selling a service to detect even relatively small leaks. At least two rivals are on the way," The New York Times, November 11, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/climate/methane-leaks-satellite-space.html, reported, "Methane, the powerful, invisible greenhouse gas, has been leaking from oil facilities since the first wells were drilled more than 150 years ago. Most of that time, it was very difficult for operators to measure any emissions accurately — and they had little motivation to, since regulations are typically weak.

              Now, technology is catching up just as there is growing alarm about methane’s role driving global warming. A Canadian company, GHGSat, last month used satellites to detect what it has called the smallest methane leak seen from space and has begun selling data to emitters interested in pinpointing leaks that previously were harder to spot."

 

               Bengt Halvorson, "Faster US transition to EVs will save 6,300 lives and $185 billion by 2050, study projects," Green Car Reports, September 18, 2020, https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1129653_faster-us-transition-to-evs-will-save-6300-lives-by-2050-study-projects, reported that a report released by the American Lung Association because air pollution from cars is a major health problem, including making people more susceptable to COVID-19, and making cases of the virus worse, "With a nationwide transition to EVs (electric vehicles), the organization found that by 2050 the U.S. could avoid 6,300 premature deaths, 93,000 asthma attacks, and 416,000 lost work days, adding up to $72 billion in health benefits and $113 in climate-related benefits."

            The price of batteries has been dropping unexpectedly quickly, making some electric cars no more expensive to produce and buy then some similar petroleum powered vehicles. Electric vehicles last longer and require less maintenance. The cost of battery production is expected to continue to drop while the distance they can propel a vehicle without recharging is increasing which is likely to increase their popularity (Jack Ewing, "The Age of Electric Cars Is Dawning Ahead of Schedule: Battery prices are dropping faster than expected. Analysts are moving up projections of when an electric vehicle won’t need government incentives to be cheaper than a gasoline model," The New York Times, September 20, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/business/electric-cars-batteries-tesla-elon-musk.html).

 

              "Hydrogen-Powered Passenger Plane Completes Maiden Flight In 'World First'," Slashdot,  September 25, 2020, https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/25/2018217/hydrogen-powered-passenger-plane-completes-maiden-flight-in-world-first, reported, "ZeroAvia's hydrogen fuel-cell plane that's capable of carrying six passengers completed its maiden flight this week. The aircraft has been retrofitted with a device that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity."

 

              Marlee Kokotovic, "Scientists at two of America’s giant automaker companies knew about car emission climate effects back in the 1960s: 'Another cog in the climate denial machine rattles loose,'” NationofChange, October 29, 2020, https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/10/29/scientists-at-two-of-americas-giant-automaker-companies-knew-about-car-emission-climate-effects-back-in-the-1960s/, reported, "Researchers at two auto giant American companies have discovered scientists knew the environmental effects of car emissions back in the 1960s. 

              According to E&E News, researchers at both General Motors and Ford Motor Co. found strong evidence in the 1960s and ’70s that human activity was warming the Earth. A primary culprit was the burning of fossil fuels, which released large quantities of heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide that could trigger the melting of polar ice sheets and other dire consequences."

 

              Although the rate of growth of solar and wind power slowed during the pandemic in 2020, it still increased by 7 percent world-wide, while over-all energy use declined by 5 percent (Stanley Reed, "Renewable Energy Gains Ground Even in a Pandemic," The New York Times, November 11, 2020.

 

              Adrian Cho, "Several U.S. utilities back out of deal to build novel nuclear power plant," Science, November 4, 2020, https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/several-us-utilities-back-out-deal-build-novel-nuclear-power-plant, reported, "Plans to build an innovative new nuclear power plant—and thus revitalize the struggling U.S. nuclear industry—have taken a hit as in recent weeks: Eight of the 36 public utilities that had signed on to help build the plant have backed out of the deal. The withdrawals come just months after the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), which intends to buy the plant containing 12 small modular reactors from NuScale Power, announced that completion of the project would be delayed by 3 years to 2030. It also estimates the cost would climb from $4.2 billion to $6.1 billion."

              Hitachi announced, September 16, 2020, that it was giving up an 18-year quest to build a nuclear power plant in Wales ("Hitachi Ends Bid to Build a nuclear power plant in Wales," The New York Times, September 17, 2020).

 

              Andrea Germanos, "Greenpeace Warns 'Potential Damage to Human DNA' at Risk With Japan's Plan to Dump Fukushima Water Into Ocean: 'The policy of the Japanese government to dump nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean is not based on scientific or environmental protection principles and has no justification,'" Common Dreams, October 23, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/23/greenpeace-warns-potential-damage-human-dna-risk-japans-plan-dump-fukushima-water?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email#, reported, "Greenpeace sounded alarm Friday over the Japanese government's plan to release stored water from the ill-fated Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, releasing a new report warning about the presence of carbon-14, which the group says 'has the potential to damage human DNA."

              The warning laid out in a new report says the government and plant operator TEPCO's controversial plan—which has been under consideration for some time—is founded on 'a series of myths' and pursues the cheapest option to get rid of the water over what is best for human and ecological health.

              The plan allows 'the government [to] create the impression that substantial progress is being made in the early decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors,' Greenpeace says. 

              Entitled Stemming the tide 2020: The reality of the Fukushima radioactive water crisis, the publication argues that the planned release of the water 'will have serious, long-term consequences for communities and the environment, locally and much further afield.'

              'Nearly 10 years after the start of the disaster, TEPCO and the Japanese government are still covering up the scale of the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi,' said Shaun Burnie, author of the report and senior nuclear specialist with Greenpeace Germany. He further accused the entities of having 'deliberately held back for years detailed information on the radioactive material in the contaminated water.'

              Beyond the remaining radioactive material tritium in the water, an additional problem is the presence of high levels of carbon-14, which belies the government's assertion that the water is not 'contaminated,' said Greenpeace.

              According to the report,

              'If the contaminated water is discharged to the Pacific Ocean, all of the carbon-14 will be released to the environment. With a half-life of 5,730 years, carbon-14 is a major contributor to global human collective dose; once introduced into the environment carbon-14 will be delivered to local, regional, and global populations for many generations. [...]

            Contrary to the understanding of the Japanese government, water that contains large quantities of radioactive carbon-14 (as well as the other radioactive isotopes including strontium-90 and tritium) can only be described as contaminated.'

              Burnie said that TEPCO and the Japanese government 'have failed to explain to the citizens of Fukushima, wider Japan, and to neighboring countries such as South Korea and China that the contaminated water to be dumped into the Pacific Ocean contains dangerous levels of carbon-14. These, together with other radionuclides in the water will remain hazardous for thousands of years with the potential to cause genetic damage.'

              'It's one more reason why these plans have to be abandoned,' said Burnie.

              The report puts some of the blame on TEPCO's decision to rely on technology known as ALPS that the operator should have known was incapable of bringing concentrations of radionuclides down to acceptable levels.

              Rather than quickly moving to dump the water into the ocean, the Greenpeace report says the government should pursue 'continued long-term storage and processing of the contaminated water.'

            'There is no technical, engineering, or legal barrier to securing additional storage space for ALPS-treated contaminated water. It is a matter of political will,' said Burnie.

              'The policy of the Japanese government to dump nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean is not based on scientific or environmental protection principles,' he said, 'and has no justification.'

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              Eric Lipton, "A Regulatory Rush by Federal Agencies to Secure Trump’s Legacy: With the president’s re-election in doubt, cabinet departments are scrambling to finish dozens of new rules affecting millions of Americans," The New York Times, October 17, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/us/politics/regulatory-rush-federal-agencies-trump.html, reported, "Facing the prospect that President Trump could lose his re-election bid, his cabinet is scrambling to enact regulatory changes affecting millions of Americans in a blitz so rushed it may leave some changes vulnerable to court challenges.

              The effort is evident in a broad range of federal agencies and encompasses proposals like easing limits on how many hours some truckers can spend behind the wheel, giving the government more freedom to collect biometric data and setting federal standards for when workers can be classified as independent contractors rather than employees."

 

              Henry Fountain, "White House Releases New Plan for Seismic Tests in Arctic Refuge: The survey would bring heavy trucks looking for signs of oil reserves into one of the most remote and pristine parts of the United States," The New York Times, October 24, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/by/lisa-friedman, reported, "The Trump administration has relaunched long-delayed plans to conduct a seismic survey in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as a prelude to drilling for oil there.

              The Bureau of Land Management on Friday released a proposal to begin a seismic survey in December that would look for underground signs of oil reserves over more than half a million acres on the east side of the refuge’s coastal plain. The Bureau said it would accept public comments on the plan, which was proposed by an Alaska Native village corporation, for 14 days before deciding whether to issue a permit."

              The Trump administration hopes that the testing would lead to quickly to selling oil leases.

            Lisa Friedman, "E.P.A. Rejects Its Own Findings That a Pesticide Harms Children’s Brains: The agency’s new assessment directly contradicts federal scientists’ conclusions five years ago that chlorpyrifos can stunt brain development in young children," The New York Times, September 23, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/climate/epa-pesticide-chlorpyrifos-children.html, reported, "The Trump administration has rejected scientific evidence linking the pesticide chlorpyrifos to serious health problems, directly contradicting federal scientists’ conclusions five years ago that it can stunt brain development in children.

              The Environmental Protection Agency’s assessment of the pesticide, which is widely used on soybeans, almonds, grapes and other crops, is a fresh victory for chemical makers and the agricultural industry, as well as the latest in a long list of Trump administration regulatory rollbacks."

 

              Andrea Germanos, "'Major Win for the Planet': Federal Court Strikes Down Trump Coal Power Plant Rule: 'This decision frees up the new Biden administration to begin working immediately on the science-based greenhouse pollution rules we desperately need to make up for lost time,'" Common Dreams, January 19, 2020, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/19/major-win-planet-federal-court-strikes-down-trump-coal-power-plant-rule?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "Climate campaigners welcomed a federal court's decision Tuesday to strike down the Trump administration's Affordable Clean Energy rule—dubbed by its critics the 'Dirty Power' rule—which loosened restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants.

              'A failure by Trump is a major win for the planet,' said Clare Lakewood, legal director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute. 'The court has wisely struck down another effort by this administration to shred environmental protections in service of polluters.'

              Finalized in 2019 and signed by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule was a replacement to the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. ACE was met with fierce outrage and lawsuits from environmental groups and dozens of states and cities who said it was an industry-friendly rule that rejected science to the detriment of public health and the climate crisis.

              The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said Monday that "promulgation of the ACE rule and its embedded repeal of the Clean Power Plan rested critically on a mistaken reading of the Clean Air Act." The court remanded the rule back to the EPA.

              According to Bloomberg,

              'Tuesday's decision rejects the Trump EPA's position that the Clean Air Act only allows the agency to craft emissions restrictions that apply directly 'at the source' of power plants. The position was a departure from the Obama administration's sector-wide approach to reducing emissions.'

              'In other words, the EPA reads the statute to require the Agency to turn its back on major elements of the systems that the power sector is actually and successfully using to efficiently and cost-effectively achieve the greatest emission reductions,' the court said.

              It added that there is 'no basis–grammatical, contextual, or otherwise–for the EPA's assertion.'

              Andrea McGimsey, senior director for Environment America's Global Warming Solutions campaign, saw the ruling as 'a major step in the right direction' that affirms ACE 'was clearly a disastrous and misconceived regulation from the start.'

              The Sierra Club also applauded the appeals court's decision and expressed hope the incoming Biden administration would put the EPA back on the right course.

              'The court's decision to vacate former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler's Dirty Power Plan is the apt bookend to the Trump administration's EPA, which was defined by a general subservience to the fossil fuel industry and dozens of legal defeats brought by public health and environmental organizations," Joanne Spalding, the organization's chief climate counsel, said in a statement.'          

              She said that 'the EPA's role is to protect the American people from dangerous pollution and act on the greatest threat to our country: the climate crisis," but the "Dirty Power Plan didn't do either of these things and the court rightly vacated it.'

              'We now look forward to the Biden administration keeping its promise and acting aggressively to restore the EPA to its institutional mandate and put its resources and expertise toward solving problems, not creating more of them,' said Spalding.

              Center for Biological Diversity's Lakewood added that the ruling 'frees up the new Biden administration to begin working immediately on the science-based greenhouse pollution rules we desperately need to make up for lost time.'

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              "Protections Eliminated for Tongass National Forest," Pew Charitable Trust, E-mail received October 29, 2020, https://view.pewtrusts.org/?qs=a418f48e4e6a4f3702f966cfb3a16ea16388cea9bab762389cf36443c51b5d2401050c6c422ca675c74a04a3d64510bc2ad53c9059f46bfccd2e1f465dbbbb8958278b62336405d9da17855e0f065134, reported, The U.S. Forest Service yesterday finalized its plan to eliminate protections for roadless areas in Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the largest in the United States.
            Despite overwhelming local opposition, the Trump administration decision will open 9.2 million acres to commercial logging and construction—and allow clear-cutting in vast old-growth stands.

              The decision to exempt the area from the Roadless Area Conservation Rule goes against strong economic and scientific evidence.

              3 Reasons the Cuts Don't Make Sense:

              Logging here isn't profitable.

              Salmon habitat will be sacrificed

              Alaskans support the roadless rule protections."

 

              Brad Plumer,  "Environmentalists and Dam Operators, at War for Years, Start Making Peace: Facing a climate crisis, environmental groups and industry agree to work together to bolster hydropower while reducing harm from dams," The New York Times, October 13, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/climate/environmentalists-hydropower-dams.html, reported, "The industry that operates America’s hydroelectric dams and several environmental groups announced an unusual agreement Tuesday to work together to get more clean energy from hydropower while reducing the environmental harm from dams, in a sign that the threat of climate change is spurring both sides to rethink their decades-long battle over a large but contentious source of renewable power."

              "In a joint statement, industry groups and environmentalists said they would collaborate on a set of specific policy measures that could help generate more renewable electricity from dams already in place, while retrofitting many of the nation’s 90,000 existing dams to be safer and less ecologically damaging."

 

            While it will not solve the entire problem, or end the debate about how cattle are raised in the U.S. and elsewhere, and how much meet should be in people's diets, the cattle factory farming industry in the United States has been seeking ways to reduce the amount of methane that cows produce by experimenting with changing cattle diets and using supplements (Henry Fountain, "Belching Cows and Endless Feedlots: Fixing Cattle’s Climate Issues: The United States is home to 95 million cattle, and changing what they eat could have a significant effect on emissions of greenhouse gases like methane that are warming the world," The New York Times, October 21, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/climate/beef-cattle-methane.html).

 

              Catrin Einhorn and Christopher Flavelle, "A Race Against Time to Rescue a Reef From Climate Change: In an unusual experiment, a coral reef in Mexico is now insured against hurricanes. A team of locals known as “the “the Brigade” rushed to repair the devastated corals, piece by piece," The New York Times, December 5, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/05/climate/Mexico-reef-climate-change.html, reported, "When Hurricane Delta hit Puerto Morelos, Mexico, in October, a team known as the Brigade waited anxiously for the sea to quiet. The group, an assortment of tour guides, diving instructors, park rangers, fishermen and researchers, needed to get in the water as soon as possible. The coral reef that protects their town — an undersea forest of living limestone branches that blunted the storm’s destructive power — had taken a beating.

            Now it was their turn to help the reef, and they didn’t have much time." The longer it takes to take corrective action, the less chance the reef will survive.

 

              A Washington State report has determined that 5 of the 14 salmon and steelhead species in its waters are "in crisis" and may not survive, while the other 5 species considered endangered are "lagging in their recovery goals" (Marie Fazio," Time is Running Out for Salmon Species in Northwest, Report Finds," The New York Times, January 21,2021).

 

              Catrin Einhorn, "Wolverines Don’t Require Protection, U.S. Officials Rule: The decision capped a quarter-century legal battle that exposed deep divisions over the role of government and how humans interact with nature," The New York Times, October 8, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/climate/wolverines-no-federal-protection.html, reported," The New York Times, "The federal government said Thursday that it had decided against protecting wolverines, the elusive mammal that inspired a superhero and countless sports teams around America. Despite fears that climate change threatens the animals’ habitat in the lower 48 states, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday that wolverine populations there were stable and that its own earlier concerns about the effects of global warming on the species had been overstated."

            Coral Davenport, "Trump Administration Releases Plan to Open Tongass Forest to Logging: The effort to open the Alaskan wilderness area, the nation’s largest national forest, has been in the works for about two years," The New York Times, September 24, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/by/coral-davenport, reported, "The Trump administration on Friday finalized its plan to open about nine million acres of the pristine woodlands of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to logging and road construction."

 

              Marguerite Holloway, "New England’s Forests Are Sick. They Need More Tree Doctors. Climate change is taking a toll on woodlands in the Northeast. Many arborists say they are spending more time taking down dead or unhealthy trees than ever before," The New York Times, October 7, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/climate/new-england-trees-forests.html?campaign_id=54&emc=edit_clim_20201007&instance_id=22904&nl=climate-fwd%3A&regi_id=52235981&segment_id=40132&te=1&user_id=2984790c14170290245238c0cd4fd927, reported, "As climate change accelerates, the trees in the Eastern forests of the United States are increasingly vulnerable. For many arborists, the challenges facing trees are reshaping and expanding the nature of their work. Many said they are spending more time on tree removal than ever before — taking down dead or unhealthy trees, or trees damaged or felled by storms."

 

              A new report has found that there is far more plastic imbedded in ocean floors than the huge amounts floating on the surface. Some 9.25 to 15.87 metric tons of micro-plastic are imbedded in the ocean floor (Tiffany May, "Millions of Tons of Micro Plastics Lurk Below," The New York Times, Octobr 8, 2020).

 

            Scientists at the University of Washington have concocted a new enzyme cocktail that breaks down plastics more quickly, providing hope for developing a new kind of faster plastic recycling (Isabella Kwai, "Science Finds Way to Speed Breakdown of Plastics," The New York Times, October 4, 2020).

              Mihir Zaveri, "Even Paper Bags Will Be Banned From N.J.: Supermarkets: The bill, which would make the state the first to ban single-use paper bags at supermarkets, would also ban single-use plastic bags in stores and restaurants," The New York Times, September 25, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/nyregion/nj-paper-plastic-bag-ban.html, reported, "The state Legislature on Thursday voted to make New Jersey the first in the country to ban single-use paper bags in supermarkets along with all single-use plastic bags in stores and restaurants."

              Henry Fountain, "Alaska’s Controversial Pebble Mine Fails to Win Critical Permit, Likely Killing It: The immense project would have been one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines, but regulators found it 'contrary to the public interest' due to environmental risks in the pristine Alaskan tundra," The New York Times, November 25, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/climate/pebble-mine-permit-denied.html, reported ,"The Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday denied a permit for the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska, likely dealing a death blow to a long-disputed project that aimed to extract one of the world’s largest deposits of copper and gold ore, but which threatened breeding grounds for salmon in the pristine Bristol Bay region."

 

              "Mexico Issues a Decree to Phase Out Glyphosate and Genetically Modified Corn," International Treaty Council, January 7, 2020, http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/1383891/ce1f66c4d2/545546365/aa063f1824/, reported, "On December 31, 2020, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador issued a Decree announcing that Mexico will phase out the 'use, acquisition, distribution, promotion, and import of the chemical called GLYPHOSATE and the agrochemicals used in our country containing this substance as their active ingredient.' The Presidential Decree went into effect on January 1st, 2021, and establishes a transition period until January 2024 for private companies to replace Glyphosate with sustainable, culturally appropriate alternatives to 'safeguard human health, the country’s bio-cultural diversity, and the environment.'    

              Glyphosate is produced by the multinational corporation Monsanto. Monsanto was formerly based in the United States and was purchased by the German Company Bayer Crop Science in 2018. Glyphosate is the primary component of Monsanto’s infamous weed killer 'Roundup' and is known to cause cancer.

              According to the Decree, “Public and government institutions as of the entry into force of this Decree, shall refrain from acquiring, using, distributing, promoting and importing glyphosate or agrochemicals that contain it as an active ingredient, within the framework of public programs or any other activity of the government.'

              The Decree also establishes that 'the [Mexican] authorities, within the scope of their competence, in accordance with the applicable regulations, will revoke and refrain from granting permits for the release into the environment of genetically modified corn seeds' to protect food security and food sovereignty, native corn, traditional cornfields ('milpas') and the country’s biocultural wealth.

              Andrea Carmen, Executive Director of the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) called this a victory for the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico and the many organizations and UN Human Rights experts from around the world that have joined the campaign to eliminate the use and international traffic of toxic and banned agro-chemicals. She affirmed that 'this is most specifically a response to the long-standing challenge on Mexico to halt the import and use of toxic agrochemicals in the territory of the Yaqui People of Sonora.'

              In 2001 the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) organized a meeting between the UN Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes Ms. Fatma-Zohra Ouhachi-Vesely’s and representatives of Indigenous Peoples impacted by toxic pesticides from the US, Alaska, Mexico, and Guatemala. During her visit, she addressed the United States’ practice of exporting pesticides that are banned for use in its own country due to their known deadly health impacts, which is permitted under US and international law. She stated that 'Just because something is not illegal, it may still be immoral. Allowing the export of products recognized to be harmful is immoral.'

              Since that time the IITC has consistently presented the export of banned and highly toxic pesticides from 'developed' countries as a human rights violation and an example of environmental racism. IITC, in coordination with its affiliate Jittoa Bat Natika Weria and the Yaqui Traditional Authorities in Rio Yaqui Sonora, Mexico, collected over 90 testimonies from impacted Yaqui community members. These have included over 40 deaths, severe birth defects, cancers such as leukemia, and other deadly illnesses caused using highly toxic pesticides, including aerial spraying, and burning of contaminated crops by agri-business companies. These have been presented to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), and UN Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights and Toxics, Health, Food, Environment and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

              In 2015, for the Committee on the Rights of Child’s country review of Mexico, IITC sponsored a delegation from Rio Yaqui Sonora, Mexico, to present cases of deceased and dying children from the use of toxic pesticides in the Yaqui homelands. As a result, the CRC called upon Mexico to halt the import of pesticides that have been banned by the exporting country and to work with the Yaqui and other impacted communities to address the health impacts. The CRC also recognized for the first time that 'Environmental Health' is a right protected under the Convention.

              Francisco 'Paco' Javier Villegas Paredes is the coordinator of Jittoa Bat Natika Weria ('ancestral medicine') in Vicam, Rio Yaqui, Sonora, Mexico. He was a member of the delegation that traveled to Geneva Switzerland to present the devastating impacts of pesticides and other agrochemicals on the health of the Yaqui mothers and young children to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Francisco welcomed the Presidential Decree as an important first step to removing these hazardous chemicals from the Yaqui homeland. 'Toxic chemicals like glyphosate imported from the US and other developed countries to Mexico, have been sprayed on our lands and communities for many years. Many of our Yaqui people have died and many children have suffered deadly illnesses and permanent disabilities as a result. We believe that the import and use of toxic pesticides and other agrochemicals should be prohibited for the health and well-being of the Yaqui and other Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, for all Peoples and our Mother Earth.; 

              For more information contact Roberto Borrero via email at communications@treatycouncil.org or log on to IITC’s web page: www.iitc.org.

              For a complete text of the Mexico Presidential Decree log on to:

https://www.dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5609365&fecha=31/12/2020."

 

              In Australia, after the mining company Rio Tinto blew up two caves at the Juukan Gorge, sacred sites and archeological treasure sites, to mine the iron ore below, company share holders revolted and fired top managers. The company chairman said the mining firm would never again destroy important cultural sites (Livia Albeck-Ripka, "Executives to Step Down After Rio Tinto Destroys Sacred Australian Sites: The mining giant’s chief executive was among those pushed out after shareholders revolted over the destruction of ancient Indigenous sites in Western Australia," The New York Times, September 11, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/business/rio-tinto-indigenous-sites.html).

 

              In New Mexico, the deaths of a large number of migratory birds were under investigation, in mid-September 2020. Heat waves, drought and smoke from wildfires are being looked at as possible factors (Simon Romero, "Mystery in New Mexico: Flocks of Birds are Dying and Scientists Seek Clues," The New York Times, September 17, 2020).

 

              After years of research, scientists at Washington University have solved the mystery of mysterious salmon die-offs in Puget Sound to a chemical used in tire manufacture that in small quantities has been reaching the ocean, beginning as roadway water runoff. The chemical also harms other fish species. The researchers have been discussing the problem with tire makers in hopes of finding a safe substitute for the toxin (Catrin Einhorn, "Finding a Mass Killer of Salmon in Puget Sound," The New York Times, December 3, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/climate/salmon-kill-washington.html).

 

               Catrin Einhorn, "Shark Populations Are Crashing, With a ‘Very Small Window’ to Avert Disaster: Oceanic sharks and rays have declined more than 70 percent since 1970, mainly because of overfishing, according to a new study," The New York Times, January 27, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/climate/sharks-population-study.html?campaign_id=54&emc=edit_clim_20210127&instance_id=26467&nl=climate-fwd%3A&regi_id=52235981&segment_id=50404&te=1&user_id=2984790c14170290245238c0cd4fd927, reported, "In just the last half-century, humans have caused a staggering, worldwide drop in the number of sharks and rays that swim the open oceans, scientists have found in the first global assessment of its kind, published Wednesday in the journal Nature (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03173-9).

              Oceanic sharks and rays have declined by 71 percent since 1970, mainly because of overfishing. The collapse is probably even more stark, the authors point out, because of incomplete data from some of the worst-hit regions and because fishing fleets were already expanding in the decades before they started their analysis."

 

               John Branch, "They’re Among the World’s Oldest Living Things. The Climate Crisis Is Killing Them: California’s redwoods, sequoias and Joshua trees define the American West and nature’s resilience through the ages. Wildfires this year were their deadliest test," The New York Times, December 12, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/09/climate/redwood-sequoia-tree-fire.html, reported, "The wildfires that burned more than four million acres in California this year were both historic and prophetic, foreshadowing a future of more heat, more fires and more destruction. Among the victims, this year and in the years to come, are many of California’s oldest and most majestic trees, already in limited supply," the giant sequoia, the Joshua tree, and the coast redwood.

 

              Wild Earth Guardians, "Historic agreement sets new model for managing national forests, path to recovery for threatened Mexican spotted owls: Agreement highlights the importance of a strong Endangered Species Act, strong National Environmental Policy Act, and the ability of citizens to hold their government accountable," October 27, 2020, https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/mexican-spotted-owl-agreement/, reported, "Contact John Horning, Executive Director, WildEarth Guardians: (505) 795-5083, jhorning@wildearthguardians.org; WildEarth Guardians, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reached an agreement (http://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/Stipulation-of-Dismissal-MSO.pdf and http://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/Stipulation-of-Dismissal-MSO-Attachment1-60-day-NOI-Response.pdf) to resolve a major legal dispute over threatened Mexican spotted owls and national forest protection in New Mexico and Arizona. A federal court issued an injunction (https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/judge-rules-agencies-failing-to-ensure-recovery-of-mexican-spotted-owl-in-violation-of-endangered-species-act/) on tree cutting on national forests in the Southwest that has been in place since September 2019. The injunction came in response to a lawsuit, originally filed in 2013 by WildEarth Guardians.

              The agreement requires the U.S. Forest Service to comply with the Endangered Species Act by conducting annual Mexican spotted owl population trend monitoring through 2025, the key legal dispute at issue and the legal basis for the federal judge’s order that the agency had violated the Act.

            'This agreement provides a framework for the Forest Service to better protect national forests and Mexican spotted owls,' said John Horning, Executive Director of WildEarth Guardians. 'By agreeing to rigorously monitor species and track habitats, this management framework could be a national model for the Forest Service to protect and recover threatened and endangered species.'

            The agreement also contemplates that the Forest Service will comply with the requirements of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s spotted owl recovery plan by identifying and protecting owls by surveying for owls prior to ground-disturbing activities and protecting those areas where owls are found and tracking long-term trends in the owl’s habitat. The agreement also establishes a Mexican spotted owl leadership forum, something the agency recently created. The agreement applies to all 11 national forests in Arizona and New Mexico, which cover over 20 million acres.

              'WildEarth Guardians has tenaciously fought to protect the Mexican spotted owl and its ancient forest habitat since the mid-1990s, when the species was first recognized as threatened,' said Steve Sugarman, a Guardians founder and the attorney who litigated the case on behalf of WildEarth Guardians. “Hopefully, the comprehensive management framework contemplated by the agreement reached by Guardians and the Forest Service in this case will end the cycle of forest mismanagement and ensuing litigation.'

              The agreement to end this litigation on the basis of a mutually agreed to management framework concludes the latest chapter in a 25-year saga over the management of Mexican spotted owls on national forests in the Southwest. During that period, beginning in 1996, the courts have sided with Guardians multiple times in its legal advocacy to assure that the Forest Service accounts for old-growth dependent species in its approach to national forest management in Arizona and New Mexico.

              The agreement further requires the Forest Service to assess the effects of timber management activities such as logging, thinning, and prescribed burning on the owls and their habitat. The Forest Service will then use its monitoring data and assessments of effects, along with up-to-date scientific studies, to inform, constrain, and modify ongoing and future timber management in owl habitat.

              'We have long contended that the Forest Service’s claims that logging is good for owls is not based on sound science,' stated Judi Brawer, WildEarth Guardians’ Wild Places Program Director. 'This agreement requires the agency to finally assess the impacts of its timber management actions and adjust those actions accordingly to ensure that they do not harm the owls or their habitat.'

              The parties negotiated the agreement over a six-month period and the ultimate product reflects the efforts of all of the parties to create a new paradigm for forest protection that will ensure that the agency funds, creates, and abides by the latest and best available science.

              'The agreement’s greatest significance is that it brings citizens, science, and the law together in the way that the framers of environmental laws intended,' stated Horning 'The foundational principle of environmental laws is that citizens uphold the laws. This is the core principle of healthy, functioning, and effective democracy, and one that is currently under direct threat.'

              Background: WildEarth Guardians filed the case in March 12, 2013 over the agencies’ failure to ensure the recovery of the owl by collecting basic information, for more than 20 years, about the status of owl populations across the Southwest. In September 2019, a federal district court judge in Arizona ruled that the agencies have shirked their responsibilities to ensure that Forest Service management activities are making progress towards recovery of the Mexican spotted owl. The ruling halted all “timber management actions” on six national forests in New Mexico and Arizona, including all the national forests in New Mexico and the Tonto National Forest in Arizona.

              As the September 2019 decision explains, the Forest Service was required to implement a population monitoring protocol for Mexican spotted owl since at least 1996. It was expected that, within 10-15 years, management activities such as logging and prescribed burning that the agencies claimed would improve owl habitat, supported by monitoring that would show the species recovery, would enable its de-listing from the Endangered Species Act. Yet, as the decision stated, “Over twenty years later, delisting has not occurred, and information about the current [Mexican spotted owl] population is still minimal.”

              Other Contact: Steve Sugarman, Guardians Founder and Attorney: (505) 670-8283, stevensugarman@hotmail.com."

            Catrin Einhorn, "Monarch Butterflies Qualify for Endangered List. They Still Won’t Be Protected: Officials said they did not have the money or resources to protect the species even though it meets the criteria under the Endangered Species Act," The New York Times, December 15, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/climate/monarch-butterflies-endangered-species-list.html, reported, "The monarch butterfly is threatened with extinction, but will not come under federal protection because other species are a higher priority, federal officials announced Tuesday."

 

              Catrin Einhorn, "U.S. to Remove Wolves From Protected Species List: Populations have rebounded in recent decades, but some scientists on the panel that evaluated the proposal said it was deeply flawed," The New York Times, October 29, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/climate/wolves-endangered-species-list.html, reported, "Gray wolves, one of the first animals shielded by the Endangered Species Act after Americans all but exterminated them in the lower 48 states, will no longer receive federal protection, officials announced Thursday."

            "Environmentalists condemned the decision as dangerously premature and vowed to take the Fish and Wildlife Service back to court, where they have successfully blocked previous attempts to strip wolves of federal protections."

              Holly Binns, "Gulf of Mexico Deep-Sea Corals Win Protection: Federal rule restricts harmful fishing gear where critical, vulnerable species grow, Pew, October 16, 2020, https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/10/16/gulf-of-mexico-deep-sea-corals-win-protection?utm_campaign=2020-10-20+Latest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Pew,

              "They are fragile, ancient, and vital to the marine ecosystem. And now they’re protected. Federal officials today issued a final rule to safeguard Gulf of Mexico deep-sea coral hot spots—priority areas for conservation, management, and research—by restricting damaging fishing gear in most of those areas.

              More than 11,000 people signed their names in support of the measure during a final round of public comment in fall 2019; the plan was initiated in 2014 and went through multiple rounds of public input and revision. The protections mark a major milestone in safeguarding coral ecosystems that provide food, shelter, and breeding grounds for wildlife ranging from sharks and crabs to fish such as snapper and grouper.

              The U.S. Department of Commerce secretary approved the first-of-its-kind plan that won initial approval in June 2018 from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. Before the vote, nearly 18,000 people signed their names or wrote comments urging the council to act.

              The decision designates 21 sites totaling 484 square miles (more than twice the size of New Orleans) as Habitat Areas of Particular Concern. It also allows the Gulf council to recommend measures to avoid, mitigate, or offset any adverse impacts from activities authorized by federal or state agencies at these sites, including oil and gas exploration and drilling. In most of the new areas, the council restricted damaging fishing gear, such as trawls, traps, anchors, and longlines, which can break or smother corals. Trolling and other hook-and-line fishing will still be allowed, because those methods do not normally affect the deep ocean floor where these corals live."

+))))=((((+

 

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVITIES

 

     Steve Sachs

 

              "Worldwide Climate Activists Protest to Demand Urgent Action," Telsur, September 25, 2020, https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/worldwide-climate-activists-demonstrated-to-demand-urgent-action-20200925-0021.html, reported, "Worldwide young environmental activists demonstrated on Friday to claim urgent action against climate change, marching for the first time after the COVID-19 pandemic began.

            Led by Swede activist Greta Thunberg, demonstrators planned to march in over 3,000 locations, but most of the activities took place online due to pandemic precautionary measures. They posted pictures on social media and joined Zoom call to discuss climate action. 

              Tina Gerhardt, Indigenous Leaders and Environmental Activists Are Standing Firm on Their Demands of President Biden: Indigenous groups and environmental activists are also calling on President Biden to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and Enbridge Line 3," Common Dreams, January 29, 2021, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/29/indigenous-leaders-and-environmental-activists-are-standing-firm-their-demands?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "On his first day in office, President Joe Biden canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline, which has been a pendulum swinging back and forth since Obama denied a key permit for the pipeline in 2015 and Trump reversed that decision in 2017. Now, Sioux tribes are calling on Biden to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and Anishinaabe tribes are calling on him to stop the Enbridge Line 3, thereby taking the next steps to ensure justice for future generations.

              Since it was proposed in 2008, Keystone XL has faced a decade of protest and legal action led by Indigenous communities and involving farmers and ranchers, environmental activists and groups.

              The $8 billion pipeline would transport 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast of the United States, running 1,700 miles and crossing rivers and aquifers, including the Ogallala Aquifer. Tar sands oil is acidic and corrosive, leading to a greater risk that the pipelines carrying it will leak and contaminate surrounding communities."

 

              350.org/s focus at the beginning of February 2021 was, "We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.

              Here's how we get there:

              1. A fast & just transition to 100% renewable energy for all: Accelerate the transition to a new, just clean energy economy by supporting community-led energy solutions.

              2. No new fossil fuel projects anywhere: Stop and ban all oil, coal and gas projects from being built through local resolutions and community resistance.

              3. Not a penny more for dirty energy: Cut off the social license and financing for fossil fuel companies — divest, desponsor and defund."

              For details go to: http://act.350.org/.

             

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) had four main foci at the start of February 2021.

              UCS and the Coronavirus

              The Union of Concerned Scientists is actively monitoring the coronavirus pandemic and its implications for scientific integrity.

              COVID-19 Disinformation

              Disinformation is threatening to derail science-based responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's how to spot it and stop it.

              The Federal Brain Drain

              The Trump administration's attacks on science damaged scientific capacity across multiple agencies. What can the Biden administration do to rebuild federal science?

              Restoring Federal Science

              Dr. Gretchen Goldman details what is needed to bring back and strengthen the role of science in government."

              For more information visit: www.ucsusa.org.

 

              The Western Environmental Law Center stated in a January 27, 2021 E-mail, "Today President Biden issued an expansive set of executive orders to address the climate crisis, safeguard 30% of our country’s lands and waters by 2030, restore the scientific integrity of federal decision-making, invest in sustainable infrastructure, and deliver justice to communities that have shouldered the brunt of public health and environmental harms.

              We applaud the Biden administration’s visionary and ambitious framework for climate action. These executive orders create a forward-looking framework to spark long-needed action at the confluence of the climate, pandemic, economic, and racial justice crises facing our country.

              The executive orders will have a positive impact in the Western U.S., heralding a new era of land and water conservation to safeguard the West’s natural heritage and communities, from the Pacific Northwest’s ancient forests and rivers to the Southwest’s sun-drenched mountains, deserts, and grasslands.

              At the same time, the executive orders will remove threats to these regions by pausing new federal public lands oil and gas leasing on Western U.S. public lands and undercutting the logic of harmful, ill-advised projects, such as the Jordan Cove Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal and Pacific Connector Pipeline.

              Just as importantly, the executive orders will help prevent and remedy environmental injustices while creating new, stable, and good-paying job opportunities for hard-working families in the clean energy sector.

              The Western U.S. is getting hotter and drier. And people are suffering, right now, from increasingly severe wildfires, more intense droughts, extreme weather, and a lack of economic opportunities—especially those that strengthen, rather than compromise our beloved natural heritage. Our way of life hangs in the balance, and climate change amplifies each of these threats.

              Today’s bold, 'whole of government' approach not only tackles the climate crisis head on, but recognizes this challenge can be addressed by investing in the West’s greatest asset—its people. In so doing, today’s executive orders create tangible and actionable hope for present and future generations of Westerners.

                We look forward to working with the administration to implement this framework and, where necessary, holding them accountable to their commitments to the American people.

                For the West,

               

              Erik Schlenker-Goodrich

                Executive Director"

 

              Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) stated in an E-mail. September 24, 2020, "Please show your support for Weymouth in their fight for health and safety.

              On Friday, September 11th, an accident at the Weymouth Compressor Station released 265,000 cubic feet of fracked gas into the air. The plant isn’t even operational yet and they are having major accidents. Many groups warned of such risks over a year ago, including GBPSR, but were ignored. We need to send a message to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) that Weymouth needs a safety and evacuation plan in place before this dangerous compressor station should be allowed to go online."

              For more information go to: https://www.nocompressor.com/home.

 

              Defenders of Wildlife announced in an E-mail, September 24, 2020, "Our wild world is in trouble. Countless species are threatened by impacts from climate change, overdevelopment, industrial exploitation, and attacks on bedrock environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act.

           That’s why we’re launching our new Biodiversity Ambassadors program to empower activists like you! By signing up, you’ll be able to speak out against habitat destruction, the threat of extinction, and powerful corporations that are exploiting our planet. By taking a stand for biodiversity, you’re taking a stand for all of us!

              We're looking for passionate individuals who want to:

              Speak up for imperiled species and their habitat;

              Advocate for strong environmental policies that protect the health of our planet;

              Share their personal stories and opinions with members of Congress;

              Represent themselves or their community in wildlife advocacy;

              And engage in meaningful, action-oriented activities to stand up to industries and politicians aiming to sell off our public lands and the earth’s biodiversity for profit!"

              For more information go to: https://defenders.org/take-action/biodiversity-ambassadors.

                For more information, begin by going to: https://support.defenders.org/page/20081/survey/1?utm_medium=email&utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_campaign=092420_BiodiversityAmbassador_SignUp&utm_content=092420+Biodiversity+Ambassador+Sign+Up&ea.url.id=600366.

 

              "UN plan to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030 could displace hundreds of millions, NGOs and experts warn," Survival International, September 2, 2020, https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/12455, reported, "One hundred twenty eight environmental and human rights NGOs and experts today warn that a United Nations drive to increase global protected areas such as national parks could lead to severe human rights violations and cause irreversible social harm for some of the world’s poorest people.¹

              In May 2021, the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) is set to agree on a new target to place at least 30 percent of the Earth’s surface under conservation status by 2030². This ‘30 x 30’ target would double the current protected land area over the coming decade.³

              However, concerns about the human cost of the proposal as well as its efficacy as an environmental measure are growing as nature protection in regions such as Africa’s Congo Basin and South Asia has become increasingly militarized in recent years. A series of recent exposés have revealed that communities continue to be forcibly displaced and dispossessed to make way for protected areas and face severe human rights violations by heavily armed anti-poaching agents.⁴

              In a letter to the CBD Secretariat (https://assets.survivalinternational.org/documents/1959/final-en-ngo-concerns-over-the-proposed-30-target-for-protected-areas-and-absence-of-safeguards-for-indigenous-people-and-local-communities-200901.pdf), the NGOs warn that as many as 300 million people could be affected unless there are much stronger protections for the rights of indigenous peoples and other traditional land-owners and environmental stewards.⁵

              Environmental groups have also stated that ‘fortress conservation’ found in much of the Global South is failing to prevent the rapid decline in biodiversity, citing how typically heavy-handed enforcement can turn local people against conservation efforts and could actually hasten environmental destruction.⁶

              Any further increase in protected areas, they argue, must first be preceded by an independent review into the social impacts and conservation effectiveness of existing protected areas.

              Stephen Corry of Survival International, said: "The call to make 30% of the globe into “Protected Areas” is really a colossal land grab as big as Europe’s colonial era, and it’ll bring as much suffering and death. Let’s not be fooled by the hype from the conservation NGOs and their UN and government funders. This has nothing to do with climate change, protecting biodiversity or avoiding pandemics – in fact it’s more likely to make all of them worse. It’s really all about money, land and resource control, and an all out assault on human diversity. This planned dispossession of hundreds of millions of people risks eradicating human diversity and self-sufficiency – the real keys to our being able to slow climate change and protect biodiversity”.

              Joshua Castellino of Minority Rights Group International said: “Urgent measures are needed to arrest the imminent breach of planetary boundaries. This requires reigning in those responsible for its continued destruction, replacing them with those responsible for its safeguarding. Making indigenous peoples pay the price for destruction that took place in the drive towards overconsumption for profit by others constitutes not only the bullying of the dispossessed, it reifies the quest for profit over people privileging western ‘scientific approaches’ borne out of commerce, over the traditional knowledge it subjugated, dominated and nearly destroyed on the path to this precipice.”

              Notes to Editor

1 https://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/media.ashx/en-ngo-30-percent-target-for-protected-areas-and-absence-of-safeguards.pdf

2 The target is stated in a draft agreement called the ‘Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework’, which is currently being prepared and negotiated amongst the 186 governments which are signatories to the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD). See here for the full document: https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/da8c/9e95/9e9db02aaf68c018c758ff14/wg2020-02-03-en.pdf

3 The CBD, adopted in 1992, is seen as the key document regarding sustainable development and provides the overarching international policy framework for conservation. Parties to the CBD are set to adopt a post-2020 global biodiversity framework in May 2021. The draft agenda includes the objective to protect at least 30 percent of all land and seas by 2030, a near doubling of the current target of 17 percent (Aichi Target 11).

4 See, for example, https://www.buzzfeed.com/tag/world-wildlife-fund and http://rainforestparksandpeople.org/.

5 Based on a paper published in the academic journal Nature analysing the areas most likely to be put forward as protected areas, it is estimated that the new target could displace or dispossess as many as 300 million people. See, Schleicher, J., Zaehringer, J.G., Fastré, C. et al. ‘Protecting half of the planet could directly affect over one billion people’. Nat Sustain 2, 1094–1096 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0423-y.

6 See, for example, the community-managed forests that could be threatened by conservation land grabs in the Congo Basin, https://www.mappingforrights.org/resource/300-million-at-risk-from-cbd-drive/.

If other organizations or individuals wish to sign on to the joint statement, please contact Fiore Longo: fl@survivalinternational.org.

              About the organisations:

              ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples. We work with more than 150 partners in over 50 countries.

Survival International is the global movement for tribal peoples.

              Press enquires:

MRG: Samrawit Gougsa, MRG Press Office (London, UK).
M: +44 (0)790 364 5640 /  samrawit.gougsa@mrgmail.org, Twitter: @SamGougsa / @MinorityRights

Survival International: Jonathan Mazower, Communications Director. 
M: +44 (0)7841 029 289, press@survivalinternational.org."

 

              Lakota People's Law Project stated in an E-mail, September 30, 2020, "As Keystone XL pipeline (KXL) construction continues near our Cheyenne River Nation, youth organizers are leading the resistance! Last Friday, a group of young activists calling themselves “Cheyenne River Grassroots Collective” held an action to bring attention to the ongoing threat of KXL. Some were arrested, but they’ve now been released, thanks to the support of our tribal chairman, Harold Frazier. Over the coming weeks, the Lakota People’s Law Project will help these brave young leaders continue organizing in the community to keep the pressure on.

              As you may know, the Trump administration recently lost a battle at the Supreme Court over KXL: in July, the justices upheld a Montana court’s injunction against KXL construction based on potential violations of the Endangered Species Act. But TC Energy, the Canadian company building KXL, is working hard to get around environmental protections and secure permits. There’s a good chance they will eventually succeed — if we don’t stop them. Biden has said that he will shut the pipeline down if elected, but since we don’t know what will happen in November, we must keep fighting. 

              Cheyenne River Grassroots Collective is doing more than just organizing demonstrations. In recent days, it outed TC Energy for going, secretly, to several Cheyenne River Tribal Council members in a clandestine attempt to buy off the tribe. The oil company offered $22,000 annually to each tribal member to let the 'zombie pipeline' pass through our treaty territory unmolested. But just as the Black Hills are not for sale, the Missouri River and the Ogallala Aquifer are not on offer to the highest bidder. KXL would put both at risk, and we won't tolerate the destruction of our water systems. 

              Instead, we will collaborate with Cheyenne River Grassroots Collective and the Indigenous Environmental Network to ramp up resistance to TC Energy and KXL. Mancamp construction continues just off our western border. West-end districts on my reservation like Cherry Creek and Bridger, closest to KXL’s intended path, are most vulnerable. We’ll hold events in those communities to keep the people activated against Big Oil, and together, we will protect the Cheyenne River Nation.

Wopila tanka — thank you for your solidarity!

Madonna Thunder Hawk
Cheyenne River Organizer
The Lakota People’s Law Project"

 

              Joaqlin Estus, "5 Alaska tribes protest groundwork for Tongass logging," Indian Country Today, October 20, 2020, https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/5-alaska-tribes-protest-groundwork-for-tongass-logging-n-braYDs5UCPw8zh-ALITg, reported, "Five tribal nations of southeast Alaska [the Tlingit and Haida tribes] are objecting to a federal agency decision that leaves the U.S. Forest Service poised to open 9 million acres in the Tongass National Forest to logging.

              The federal agency recently recommended lifting a 2001 rule that bans new road construction and commercial logging in the Tongass, the country’s largest national forest at nearly 17 million acres."

 

            MoveOn.Org, stated on its web site, at the opening of February 2021, "Our values form the roundwork of our organizing and campaigns. Here are just a few of our focus areas:

            Electing Progressive Leaders

            Fighting for Universal Healthcare

            Solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives

            Saving Our Elections.

              some of the primary campaigns are:

              “America for All.” " We know that a grassroots, people-powered movement that inspires and turns out high numbers of voters is what’s needed to win in 2020. That’s why MoveOn launched a bold, $20 million effort that not only invests in the election but builds the long-term movement needed to build a country where we all can thrive. Our “America for All” 2020 election program aims to mobilize millions of members to defeat Donald Trump, end Republican control of the Senate, and help Democrats hold the majority in the House of Representatives."

              "MoveOn’s campaign has three core strategies:

              Mobilize millions of members and other grassroots progressives to make their voices heard in this election cycle—at the doors, on social media, through volunteering and contributing money, and more. In battleground states, MoveOn expects to mobilize over 30,000 members to volunteer on the ground in person.

              Inspire turnout among potential voters in battleground states. MoveOn has identified a voter turnout population of more than 7 million “high-potential” voters—young people, people of color, and previously infrequent voters—who are likely to support Democratic candidates if they cast ballots. The group will work to turn out those voters through direct voter contact, creative and cultural interventions, ads, and more.

              Protect the right to vote for those targeted by disinformation and voter suppression online. With the rise of digital disinformation as a fundamental threat, and the reality that electoral disinformation tactics have been targeted in recent years to suppress votes among Democratic-leaning constituencies including people of color, MoveOn has assembled a team of experts who are working to stop and counteract voter suppression online."

              "Solidarity With The Movement For Black Lives": " Police continue to hunt down Black folks in cities across America, and we refuse to sit silent. It was not too long ago we heard Eric Garner utter the same last words, “I can’t breathe.” And [for example, inaddoition to Geore Floyd] just months ago, officers stormed Breonna Taylor’s house and murdered her in her own home. 

              We stand in solidarity with calls to Defund the Police and with the entire Movement for Black Lives."

              "Save The Postal Service": "The USPS is a self-funded quasi-independent government agency that provides jobs to more than 640,000 workers. Their revenue comes entirely from postage and services—not from tax dollars—and they’re anticipating a 50% loss of revenue in the coming year" because a republican Congress wanting to privatize USPS burdened it with tremendous artificial expenses, that no organization has ever faced, that could not be met by raising rates. 

              "To date, the USPS has not been included in any stimulus bills—though FedEx and UPS have been—and is at great risk of running out of money within a few months. This would leave millions of Americans in the lurch and would wreak havoc for those who need to vote by mail. People impacted by COVID-19 and deployed members of the military and their families who rely on voting by mail would have to overcome unnecessary obstacles to exercise their right to vote."

For details go to: http://www.moveon.org/.

 

              United for Peace & Justice in early 2021 was focusing on the issues concerning: end endless war, military spending, injustice at home, nuclear disarmament. Its main campaigns involved: The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, Divest from the War Machine, No Foreign Bases Campaign, Global Days of Action on Military Spending, and Korea Peace Network.

              Among early 2021 actions and statements:

              "The World Says No to War on Yemen!" January 22, 2021,  stated, "Join the Global Day of Action to end the war in Yemen, January 25, 2021, which has killed 250,000 people and created what the UN has pronounced 'the worst humanitarian crisis anywhere in the world.' This protest is timed to take place just days after the inauguration..."

            "Poor People’s Campaign Launches 14 Policy Priorities for the First 100 Days to Heal the Nation," December 14, 2020, Economic Justice, Military Spending, Poor Peoples Campaign, Racial Justice, stated, 

              "On December 7, The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, released a set of 14 policy and legislative priorities for the first 100 days of the Biden-Harris administration. The 14 policies priorities are:

1.     Enact comprehensive and just COVID-19 relief that provides free testing, treatment, vaccines and direct payments to the poor

2.     Guarantee quality health care for all, regardless of any pre-existing conditions

3.     Raise the minimum wage to $15/ hour immediate

4.     Update the poverty measure

5.     Guarantee quality housing for all

6.     Enact a federal jobs program to build up investments, infrastructure, public institutions, climate resilience, energy efficiency and socially beneficial industries and jobs in poor and low-income communities

7.     Protect and expand voting rights and civil rights

8.     Guarantee safe, quality and equitable public education, with supports for protection against re-segregation

9.     Comprehensive and just immigration reform

10.   Ensure all of the rights of indigenous peoples

11.   Enact fair taxes and targeted tax credits

12.   Use the power of executive orders

13.   Redirect the bloated Pentagon Budget towards these priorities as matters of national security

14.   Work with the PPC to establish a permanent Presidential Council to advocate for this bold agenda

            Sign on now to add your support to these 14 priorities for the healing of the nation.

              When President-elect Biden joined the Poor People’s Campaign Moral Monday Mass Assembly on the voting power of poor and low-income people on Sept. 14, in front of over 1 million viewers, he vowed that, “ending poverty will not just be an aspiration, it will be a theory of change — to build a new economy that includes everyone, where we reward hard work, we care for the most vulnerable among us, we release the potential of all our children, and protect the planet.”

Recently, the Poor People’s Campaign has been in conversation with members of the Biden-Harris transition team about a round table with poor and low-income, moral leaders and key public health, economic and legal advisers to follow up on the new administration’s commitments to addressing poverty and systemic racism made in the election season and to discuss the Poor People’s Campaign policy priorities for the first 100 days.

            BACKGROUND: More than 140 million poor and low-income people live in the United States, or 43% of the country’s population, and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic. The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, with organizing committees in 45 states, is building a moral fusion movement to address the five interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism and a distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. The 14 Policy Priorities for the First 100 Days are drawn from the comprehensive Poor People’s Campaign Jubilee Platform.

              UFPJ is proud to be a national mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign."

              "Celebrating Entry-Into-Force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons," January 23, 2021, stated "On January 22, 2021, people around the world celebrated entry-into force of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).  Spanning the globe, at least 150 events, included protests, bannering at nuclear facilities, ringing of church bells, vigils, and a variety of zoom events.

              The TPNW prohibits the possession, development, testing, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons for the 52 countries that have so far ratified it.  Entry-into-force of the TPNW was hailed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as 'a major step toward a world free of nuclear weapons'. Gutierrez “call[ed] on all countries to work together to realize this vision, for our common security and collective safety”. Regrettably the TPNW has been rigorously opposed by the United States and other nuclear armed states, as well as those allied states under 'nuclear umbrellas.'”

            "Trump’s pardon of Blackwater guards convicted for killing Iraqi civilians provokes outrage," January 23, 2021, stated, "The September 16, 2007 Nisour Square massacre of 17 Iraqi civilians, including two young boys, by Blackwater employees led to worldwide condemnation of the use of private military contractors in war zones. In addition to those killed, at least 20 other Iraqis were wounded in the conflict. Now, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s December 2020 pardon of the four men who were convicted and had been serving jail terms for murder and manslaughter has sparked a new round of outrage in Iraq and internationally."

For more information go to: www.unitedforpeace.org/.

 

CODEPINK's Late fall 2020 and early 2021 campaigns included:

"President for Peace: Want to create some beautiful trouble? Make your voice for peace and justice heard by joining us in urging 2020 presidential candidates to adopt peaceful positions and policies."

              "China: If we are to collectively confront climate change, global inequality, and other existential threats, we must cultivate peace with China. China is not our enemy!"

              "The Peace Collective: The Peace Collective was created and started by the twenty-somethings at CODEPINK for the young folks that want to become a part of the peace movement, raise hell, and just do some cool sh*t because we give ash*t."

              "The Feminist Foreign Policy Project: Women face the brunt of the violence of US foreign policy. If we care about gender justice, we need an anti-imperial feminist foreign policy."

              CODEPINK has bene engaging in a number of actions and made a number recent statements.

              "CODEPINK Statement on White Supremacist Attack on the Capitol on January 6th, Jan 22, 2021" stated, "As a feminist peace organization known for our peaceful and creative disruptions inside of the United States Capitol Building, we want to respond to some equivocation we’ve seen between our work and the events that took place on January 6th, 2021 at the United States Capitol Building.

              We stand in complete opposition to both the political goals and violent tactics of the white supremacists who stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

              Our goals are the complete opposite of those who stormed the Capitol. Those who attacked our Capitol were trying to overturn a democratic election, violate the people’s will, and 'take back America' for a racist agenda determined to stop the progressive march of history. Our vision is a very different one: we are fighting for a world without war and violence, where racial equality, gender equality, environmental protection, and international solidarity guide our priorities and actions.

              In terms of tactics, we are dedicated to nonviolent resistance. We don’t object to people peacefully protesting at government buildings or the offices of their elected representatives; in fact, we encourage it as a way to redress grievances as outlined in the First Amendment of our Constitution. We believe democracy flourishes when people hold those in power accountable. In fact, our first protest as an organization was a 4-month all-day peaceful vigil in front of the White House to protest the U.S.-led war on Iraq. Since then, we have repeatedly disrupted hearings in Congress, but with signs and our voices–never with violence. We are fully aware that when we peacefully protest in the Capitol building, we are subject to arrest, and hundreds of our members have been arrested there. We see these peaceful protests as part of our responsibility to improve our government’s policies and the workings of our democracy, but the first requirement for anyone wanting to join our protests is a commitment to nonviolence.

              Violence should not be used as cover to expand the U.S. security apparatus. While we unequivocally condemn the violence and violent ideologies that converged on the Capitol Building on January 6th, we caution against using this as a pretense to support calls for new laws against 'domestic terrorism.' We cannot support initiatives that will give more money and power to government agencies that have been responsible for the violation of our privacy and for the illegal surveillance and harassment of Muslim communities and people of color since their inception.

              We must not let this shocking incident be forgotten or swept under the rug. The President has repeatedly used his platform to stoke bigotry, sow division, and incite violence for the past five years, which is unforgivable. But these problems are much deeper than Donald Trump. We cannot expect white supremacists and other violent extremists to disappear when the new administration is inaugurated. We pledge to continue working toward a peaceful and equal world under President Biden and beyond. "

With  President Biden having suspended offensive arms sales to Saudi Arabia, CODEPINK began a petition campaign, "Tell Biden and US Secretary of State Blinken to cancel weapon sales for good!"

For more information visit: https://www.codepink.org.

 

Gush Shalom, Peace Now and other Israeli and Palestinian peace organizations, supported by internationals, have remained extremely active over the last three months. A list of links to many of these organizations is on the Gush Shalom web site: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/links.

Peace Now reported, November 15, 2020, "Top Diplomats to Hold Protest Visit to Givat HaMatos," https://peacenow.org.il/en/top-diplomats-to-hold-protest-visit-to-givat-hamatos, "According to an EU statement, tomorrow (16 November 2020) at 10:30am, Heads of Mission from throughout the EU and 'like-minded countries' will come together for a visit to Givat HaMatos, an area in southern East Jerusalem where a settlement neighborhood is to be built that would drive a wedge between East Jerusalem and Bethlehem, thereby dismantling the territorial contiguity of the Palestinians’ main Ramallah-Jerusalem-Bethlehem metropolitan area.

For more information on the Israeli peace movement contact Gush Shalom, P.O. Box 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033, 972-3-5221732, info@gush-shalom.org, www.gush-shalom.org, Adam Keller of Gush Shalom launched a blog, at: http://adam-keller1.blogspot.com/ in Hebrew and http://adam-keller2.blogspot.com/ in English; or Peace Now: https://peacenow.org.il.

 

 

Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR) actions and statements are available at: www.psysr.org.

 

              Global Exchange, stated in December 2020, https://takeaction.salsalabs.org/facebook-oversight-board/index.html, "An Urgent Call to the Facebook Oversight Board: Ban Donald Trump and Hold Political Leaders Accountable for Inciting Violence Through Facebook," Donald Trump is no longer on Facebook. 

              According to a recent report from Zignal Labs, misinformation dropped over 70% once the former President was banned.  

              That's great news for everyone who wants hate and lies off their social media platforms.             If Facebook had held the former President to the same standards as other users, he would have been booted a long time ago. But now the tech giant has announced the decision to ban Trump is under review by the brand new Facebook Oversight Board.

              Let's make sure the new Facebook Oversight Board does their jobs and keeps Donald Trump off Facebook.  

              Email the Oversight Board members today: hate and lies have no place on Facebook."          

            Global Exchange has produced the 2020 Peace and Human Rights Debate Guide – final stretch edition.  It’s for people who have their minds made up and for those still thinking things over. It may b downloaded at: https://globalexchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GX2-Peace-and-Human-Rights.pdf.

 

 For information, including on other Global Exchange Campaigns, go to: http://www.globalexchange.org.

 

              Kenny Stancil, "Amid Pandemic and Endless War, 170+ Global Organizations Urge World Leaders to 'Recommit to Peace Today': 'Our hearts go out to those suffering today, in the sober knowledge that this may turn out to be but a foretaste of the disruptions that may arise in the years to come,'" Common Dreams, September 18, 2020,  https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/18/amid-pandemic-and-endless-war-170-global-organizations-urge-world-leaders-recommit?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email, reported, "Amid the coronavirus pandemic and ahead of the International Day of Peace, over 170 global and U.S. peace-building organizations have issued a statement urging governments to recommit to peace in the response to Covid-19 and a world torn apart by war. 

            The public health emergency and corresponding economic crisis have underscored the magnitude of inequality and hardship in the world today, yet "some action by governments and others are making things worse," explained the authors of the statement (pdf, in Dialoguing, below). 

 

              "Renewed Threat of Nuclear Holocaust Requires Physician Activism," Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), via E-mail, January 27, 2021, The letter was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on January 21, 2021.

              The recent abrogation of critical treaties and the aggressive development of nuclear technologies have greatly diminished the security of the entire world, and once again the threat of nuclear holocaust looms. The new leadership in the White House promises that policy decisions will be made on the basis of science and facts and has called on health professionals to guide the nation in addressing important health challenges. Now is the time for physicians to again advocate that only the prohibition of nuclear arms can address this threat to society and human existence.

              In 1962, an editor’s note published in the Journal introduced a series of Special Articles that described in detail the theoretical effects of a single thermonuclear bomb explosion in the city of Boston and the medical consequences of thermonuclear war.1 The Journal has continued to urge readers to demand the elimination of these genocidal weapons as the only possible means to prevent global holocaust.2,3 The support of physicians for the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. opens in new tab4 and the five demands of Back from the Brink. opens in new tab5 would alert the nation to the threat of nuclear weapons and would highlight the role of physicians in reducing this threat through public activism.

Bernard Lown, M.D.
Richard A. Cash, M.D., M.P.H.
Jon E. Rohde, M.D.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, drjonrohde@gmail.com."

            Rick Gladstone, "Former World Leaders Urge Ratification of Nuclear Arms Ban Treaty: In an open letter, the onetime leaders implored their own governments to embrace an arms treaty negotiated at the U.N. three years ago. It is six ratifications short of the 50 needed to go into effect," The New York Times, September 20, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/world/treaty-nuclear-arms-united-nations.html, "Fifty-six former prime ministers, presidents, foreign ministers and defense ministers from 20 NATO countries, plus Japan and South Korea, released an open letter Sunday imploring their current leaders to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the pact negotiated in 2017 that is now just six ratifications shy of the 50 needed to take effect."

 

              "U.S. prepares to block cotton imports from Uyghur Region," Freedom United, September 11, 2020, https://www.freedomunited.org/news/u-s-prepares-to-block-cotton-imports-from-uyghur-region/?trk_msg=U0HTB9MF2CG4JA9SBCSO7607PC&trk_contact=B6M8ONO3GA0V4UPHDKT7AR6C7G&trk_sid=14OBILPJI6EO33L9RIS11HLUKO&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Read+more...&utm_campaign=News+Digest_9.06.2020&utm_content=News+Digest_9.06.2020, stated. "Last week, Freedom United signed a petition urging the U.S. to ban the import of cotton goods from Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, where over a million Uyghurs have been detained and many forced to work.

            Less than a week later, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has moved to accept our demands."

 

              Freedom United Stated in an Email, September 29, 2020. "Write directly to fashion brands (https://www.freedomunited.org/advocate/forced-labour-fashion/?trk_msg=C9AGV1JIHVBK74UFIDD8NJQ6OK&trk_contact=B6M8ONO3GA0V4UPHDKT7AR6C7G&trk_sid=IOMGIREL3HK8Q8THOSUI6CR3CS&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=You+can+now+write+directly+to+fashion+brands&utm_campaign=FU-FreeUyghurs-ETT-29Sep2020&utm_content=FU-FreeUyghurs-ETT-29Sep2020)with our new action to end the forced labor of Uyghurs.

              We’re grateful for your petition signature. In a few short months, we’ve gathered more than 50,000 names, including yours, calling for the Chinese government to end its system of forced labor in the Uyghur Region and beyond.  We've brought the power of our collective voice to protests and actions at Fashion Week in New York, London, and Milan."

 

              "#ShutDownAFRICOM," Veterans for Peace, E-mail, October 2, 2020, stated "Veterans For Peace has endorsed Black Alliance for Peace day of action against AFRICOM.  Check out the downloadable resources and sign the letter to the Black Caucus! 

              'We are particularly concerned about the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and its expanding military presence on the continent. The dramatic expansion of AFRICOM through its various basing structures and military to military relations with 53 out of the 54 states, not only appears to be having a deleterious impact on the economic, social and political life of nations on the continent but also their ability to exercise national sovereignty."

              See the letter at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfR29Hevz_yMdS9iZbQN1b84Fv0HiK3irliOkoL7G2IRyyESA/viewform?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=39c9f571-64ec-4536-9234-d711fcd07437.

 

              "NIAC Statement on the Assassination of Iranian Nuclear Scientist," National Iranian American Council, November 27, 2020, Contact: Mana Mostatabi, 202.386.6325 x103, mmostatabi@niacouncil.org, stated, "Ryan Costello, Policy Director of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), issued the following statement on reports of the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who led Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program until it was shelved in the early 2000s. Israel and the U.S. have long been linked to assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted Fakhrizadeh as pivotal to any Iranian weaponization possibilities in 2018.

              'If confirmed, the assassination of Iran’s nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is yet another reckless step that appears intended to poison the well for negotiations under a Biden administration and set the stage for war. Coming shortly after the assassination of Qassem Soleimani earlier this year, the killing of a scientist who formerly directed Iran’s shelved military nuclear program risks war between Iran, the U.S. and Israel.

              President Elect Biden has made clear his desire to return to the negotiating table and the international agreement that restrained Iran’s nuclear program, signaling an end to the failed pressure-only approach directed by Trump and cheered on by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Saudi kingdom. This dramatic escalation in the waning days of the Trump presidency appears to be part of a scorched earth approach to sabotaging diplomacy and locking the U.S. and Iran onto the war path. While Iran reacted with relative restraint after one of its nuclear facilities was destroyed in an act of sabotage over the summer, each new step weakens those advocating restraint and empowers those advocating confrontation.

              Assassinations, sabotage, sanctions and military confrontation have all accelerated the U.S. and Iran on the path to war as well as resulted in an expanding Iranian nuclear program. The killing of military men and scientists will only result in their replacement and Iran accelerating their pursuit of credible deterrents. By contrast, sincere diplomacy managed to overcome decades of mistrust and take the dual threats of war and an Iranian nuclear weapon off the table. It has taken President Trump the better part of four years to return those threats to the fore.

              There is still space for urgent diplomacy to stop a rush to war. Conflict is not inevitable. But it will require restraining those in Washington and around the region who are determined to plunge forward into war.”

 

            "Myanmar: Release Government Officials and Human Rights Defenders Detained in Military Coup: State Counselor, President, and human rights defenders detained in nationwide raids," Fortify Rights, February 1, 2020, https://www.fortifyrights.org/mya-inv-2021-02-01/,atated, "The Myanmar military should immediately and unconditionally release State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, government ministers, members of parliament, and human rights defenders detained in early morning nationwide raids, said Fortify Rights today. State-run media announced that Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing would take control of the country for 12 months."

 

              "UN Security Council: Refer Myanmar to the ICC, Impose a Global Arms Embargo: Security Council due to meet Tuesday in response to Myanmar coup," Fortify Rights, February 2, 2021 stated, "The United Nations Security Council should impose a global arms embargo on Myanmar and refer the situation in the country to the International Criminal Court (ICC), said Fortify Rights today. The Security Council is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. on Tuesday in response to a coup launched on Monday by the Myanmar military,"

 

              "Malaysia: Release Inquiry Report on Mass Graves and Trafficked Rohingya, Ensure Accountability: One year on, Royal Commission of Inquiry report remains unpublished," Fortify Rights, September 16, 2020, https://mailchi.mp/fortifyrights/malaysia-release-inquiry-report-on-mass-graves-and-trafficked-rohingya-ensure-accountability?e=24e6ca1455, commented,  "The Government of Malaysia should immediately release the final report and recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the human trafficking and mass graves of Rohingya and Bangladeshis discovered in Wang Kelian, Perlis State in 2015, said Fortify Rights today. The RCI submitted its report to the King of Malaysia one year ago this month, according to media reports.
              Fortify Rights released a short film today with footage of Wang Kelian, where Malaysian authorities discovered 139 graves and 28 suspected human trafficking camps in 2015.

 

              "Bangladesh: Remove Fencing That Confines Rohingya to Refugee Camps: Nearly completed barbed-wire fencing surrounds more than 700,000 refugees," Fortify Rights, October 9, 2020, https://www.fortifyrights.org/bgd-inv-2020-10-09-2/, stated, "The construction of barbed-wire fencing to confine hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh violates their dignity, right to freedom of movement, and will complicate the delivery of vital services and humanitarian aid, said Fortify Rights today. In recent weeks, the Government of Bangladesh accelerated the construction of more than 17 miles (28 kilometers) of barbed-wire fencing around at least 25 interconnected refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar District."

 

              "Bangladesh: Free Rohingya Refugees Detained on Isolated Island: Five international human rights organizations request access to Bhasan Char," Fortify Rights, November 12, 2020, https://mailchi.mp/fortifyrights/bangladesh-free-rohingya-refugees-detained-on-isolated-island?e=24e6ca1455, stated, "The Government of Bangladesh should free more than 300 Rohingya refugees detained on Bhasan Char island and cease plans for further relocations to the island until after independent appraisals that allow Rohingya to make informed and voluntary decisions, said Fortify Rights today."

 

            "Bangladesh: Halt Relocation of Rohingya Refugees to Bhasan Char: Concerns of possible coercive and involuntary transfers," Fortify Rights, December 3, 2020, https://mailchi.mp/fortifyrights/bangladesh-halt-relocation-of-rohingya-refugees-to-bhasan-char?e=24e6ca1455, stated, "The Government of Bangladesh should immediately cease the relocation of hundreds of Rohingya from refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar District to Bhasan Char, an isolated and flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal, Fortify Rights said today. Testimonial evidence suggests relocations may be coerced and involuntary."

 

              "Donor Governments: Recognize Crimes Against Rohingya as Genocide: Governments convene to raise US$1 billion for Rohingya relief," Fortify Rights, https://www.fortifyrights.org/mya-bgd-inv-2020-10-21/," October 21, 2020, https://www.fortifyrights.org/mya-bgd-inv-2020-10-21/, stated, "Donor governments seeking to raise one billion dollars in aid for Rohingya should acknowledge the crimes perpetrated against them in Myanmar as genocide and crimes against humanity, Fortify Rights said today. Tomorrow, the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, and the U.N. refugee agency will co-host a virtual donor conference to raise humanitarian funds for displaced Rohingya and host communities."

 

              The Sentry stated in an October 23, 2020 E-mail, "We know that as long as corrupt officials, warlords, and predatory foreign forces profit from the war economy in the Central African Republic (CAR), they will reject peace. For this reason, we are laser focused on finding strategic ways to enact meaningful change in the region.

              This week, we convened concerned constituents and engaged with policymakers to change the narrative and propose new solutions to address the complex crisis in CAR. Our goal is to expose the foreign interests fueling a conflict that is killing thousands and to advocate for the use of financial tools of pressure and hard-hitting actions by governments and the banking sector to create new leverage for peace.

              In a series of briefings, videos, and op-eds, including this latest piece published by the Atlantic Council, The Sentry has shown how, with elections just two months away, France and Russia are interfering in CAR’s domestic politics, sowing conflict in a competition to gain geostrategic advantage and strip the country of its natural resources. This dynamic has turned the country into a silent, devastating proxy war fought between pro-French and pro-Russian actors and a breeding ground for organized crime and terror financing. Sadly, we have seen this movie before: if left unchecked, these illicit activities will have dangerous consequences for communities not just in CAR, but around the world.

              The Sentry and the Open Square Project strongly believe that power should be shared, not hoarded or consolidated, and we are committed to working closely together to build equality around the world. Thanks to our partnership, The Sentry will continue to shine a spotlight on war profiteers, both foreign and domestic, in CAR and across the region. We hope that you will join us by sharing this important content and engaging with us on our future work in the region.

              Sincerely,

              John Prendergast, Co-Founder, The Sentry

              Wynnette LaBrosse, President and Founder, Open Square Project"

 

              "Securing Democracy in a Conflicted Election: Resources for Educators," October 25, 2020, up dated November 2, 2020, Curricula, Democracy, News & Highlights 1, https://www.peace-ed-campaign.org/securing-democracy-in-a-conflicted-election-resources-for-educators/, stated, "Introduction"

            "The U.S.A. is on the verge of a historically volatile election, in which certain political leaders have intentionally cast misleading seeds of doubt about the legitimacy of election outcomes. Furthering the risks to democracy are direct and strategic efforts to intimidate voters; threats to deploy the military should the election be contested by protestors in the streets; a rising spread of right-wing militias aimed at securing political victories through violence; and a president whom has continually stated that he may not accept election outcomes and refuse to leave office. Many political analysts and peace researchers are predicting conflicted results, a potential coup, and a high potential for post-election violence.

            So, what can be done to preserve democracy and protect election outcomes? How might we respond to fear-mongering, a potential coup, intimidation efforts, and violence with nonviolence? The Global Campaign for Peace Education is compiling a list of resources to support educators in their efforts to teach about the current political moment, prepare students to constructively and nonviolently respond to threats, and to foster a more robust and sustainable democracy for the future.

This collection – a work in progress – includes analysis, historical case studies, links to pro-democracy movements, and nonviolence training opportunities. We will continue to add to this collection as we discover new resources. We also welcome your contributions. Please consider posting your suggestions in the comments section below or via email."

              The articles in the collection can be accessed at:  https://www.peace-ed-campaign.org/securing-democracy-in-a-conflicted-election-resources-for-educators/.

              The Peace Education Campaign carries numerous reports of, and information concerning, peace education in principle and around the world in practice. Its website was the source for locating the peace education reports in this issue.

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DIALOGUING

 

CLIMATE CHANGE

The Biden-Harris plan to create union jobs by tackling the climate crisis

 

From the Biden-Harris Transition website: https://buildbackbetter.com/priorities/climate-change/

 

From coastal towns to rural farms to urban centers, climate change poses an existential threat — not just to our environment, but to our health, our communities, our national security, and our economic well-being. It also damages our communities with storms that wreak havoc on our towns and cities and our homes and schools. It puts our national security at risk by leading to regional instability that will require U.S military-supported relief activities and could make areas more vulnerable to terrorist activities.

The current COVID-19 pandemic reminds us how profoundly the energy and environmental policy decisions of the past have failed communities — allowing systemic shocks, persistent stressors, and pandemics to disproportionately impact communities of color and low-income communities.

At this moment of profound crisis, we have the opportunity to build a more resilient, sustainable economy — one that will put the United States on an irreversible path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050. Biden is working to seize that opportunity and, in the process, create millions of good-paying jobs that provide workers with the choice to join a union and bargain collectively with their employers.

President-elect Biden is leading the world to address the climate emergency and leading through the power of example. Biden knows how to stand with America’s allies, stand up to adversaries, and level with any world leader about what must be done. He will not only recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate change – he will go much further than that. He is working to lead an effort to get every major country to ramp up the ambition of their domestic climate targets.

“I KNOW THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS THE CHALLENGE THAT’S GOING TO DEFINE OUR AMERICAN FUTURE — AND I KNOW MEETING THIS CHALLENGE WILL BE A ONCE-IN-A-CENTURY OPPORTUNITY TO JOLT NEW LIFE INTO OUR ECONOMY, STRENGTHEN OUR GLOBAL LEADERSHIP, AND PROTECT OUR PLANET FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.”

JOE BIDEN, JULY 14, 2020

President-elect Biden will ensure that — coming out of this profound public health and economic crisis, and facing the persistent climate crisis — we are never caught flat-footed again. He is working to launch a national effort aimed at creating the jobs we need to build modern, sustainable infrastructure now and deliver an equitable clean energy future.

The current coronavirus crisis destroyed millions of American jobs, including hundreds of thousands in clean energy. It has exacerbated historic environmental injustices. Biden will immediately invest in engines of sustainable job creation — new industries and re-invigorated regional economies spurred by innovation from our national labs and universities; commercialized into new and better products that can be manufactured and built by American workers; and put together using feedstocks, materials, and parts supplied by small businesses, family farms, and job creators all across our country.

President-elect Biden is working to make far-reaching investments in:

• Infrastructure: Create millions of good, union jobs rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure – from roads and bridges to green spaces and water systems to electricity grids and universal broadband – to lay a new foundation for sustainable growth, compete in the global economy, withstand the impacts of climate change, and improve public health, including access to clean air and clean water.
• Auto Industry: Create 1 million new jobs in the American auto industry, domestic auto supply chains, and auto infrastructure, from parts to materials to electric vehicle charging stations, positioning American auto workers and manufacturers to win the 21st century; and invest in U.S. auto workers to ensure their jobs are good jobs with a choice to join a union.
• Transit: Provide every American city with 100,000 or more residents with high-quality, zero-emissions public transportation options through flexible federal investments with strong labor protections that create good, union jobs and meet the needs of these cities — ranging from light rail networks to improving existing transit and bus lines to installing infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists.
• Power Sector: Move ambitiously to generate clean, American-made electricity to achieve a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035. This will enable us to meet the existential threat of climate change while creating millions of jobs with a choice to join a union.
• Buildings: Upgrade 4 million buildings and weatherize 2 million homes over 4 years, creating at least 1 million good-paying jobs with a choice to join a union; and also spur the building retrofit and efficient-appliance manufacturing supply chain by funding direct cash rebates and low-cost financing to upgrade and electrify home appliances and install more efficient windows, which will cut residential energy bills.
• Housing: Spur the construction of 1.5 million sustainable homes and housing units.
• Innovation: Drive dramatic cost reductions in critical clean energy technologies, including battery storage, negative emissions technologies, the next generation of building materials, renewable hydrogen, and advanced nuclear – and rapidly commercialize them, ensuring that those new technologies are made in America.
• Agriculture and Conservation: Create jobs in climate-smart agriculture, resilience, and conservation, including 250,000 jobs plugging abandoned oil and natural gas wells and reclaiming abandoned coal, hardrock, and uranium mines — providing good work with a choice to join or continue membership in a union in hardhit communities, including rural communities, reducing leakage of toxics, and preventing local environmental damage.

Environmental Justice: Ensure that environmental justice is a key consideration in where, how, and with whom we build — creating good, union, middle-class jobs in communities left behind, righting wrongs in communities that bear the brunt of pollution, and lifting up the best ideas from across our great nation — rural, urban, and tribal.

o0O0o

 

THIRTY BY THIRTY AND HALF EARTH: PROMISES AND PITFALLS

 

Howie Wolke*

 

Republished from Wilderness Watch, Monday, 25 January 2021, https://wildernesswatch.org/uncategorized/thirty-by-thirty-and-half-earth-promises-and-pitfalls?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=965f7d09-b96c-45d7-a2d1-f8379acc99e9.

 

INTRODUCTION

 

              In 2016, legendary ecologist Edward O. Wilson published Half Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life. In this remarkable book, Wilson documents the ongoing anthropogenic planet-wide biological meltdown, the greatest extinction event since a meteor crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, about 60 million years ago. As a remedy, Wilson argues for protecting half of the Earth’s terrestrial acreage as inviolate nature reserves.

 

              Flash back to the early 1980s. The original wilderness-focused Earth First! suggested that a fair balance for wilderness and civilization might be 50% for each. It was called “crazy”, “radical”, “unrealistic” and other terms of endearment not fit for print. And in my 1991 book Wilderness on the Rocks, I suggested that 30% of the U.S. be designated wilderness as a short term goal. That was also ridiculed as “unrealistic”.

 

              Today, the “Nature Needs Half” coalition is promoting Wilson’s vision, and the “Thirty by Thirty” movement is gaining traction in the mainstream political discourse. Its goal is to protect 30% of the Earth’s landscape in nature reserves by the year 2030. The 30/30 goal is now considered by many to be attainable. And it is gratifying to see land protection efforts of this magnitude inch their way into the public discourse. The 30/30 goal does not mean that 30% of the land would be designated wilderness in the United States. Wilderness is our highest level of protection and it will be an important part of the equation. But other protective strategies, which also protect natural habitats for wildlife, biodiversity and other ecosystem values, will also be essential, especially for lands that lack wilderness characteristics. The purpose of this essay is to advance the discussion on how to effectively protect nearly a third of the U.S. landscape, including but not limited to designated wilderness.

 

DISCUSSION

 

              30/30 would be a great start toward Wilson’s more thorough vision of Half Earth. But in my view, it is just that: a great start. Increasing numbers of scientists have concluded that 30/30 is the minimum starting point for conserving native biodiversity. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has endorsed 30/30, along with a growing list of American and international conservation groups.

 

              President Joe Biden has endorsed 30/30, as has California Governor Gavin Newsom. There is also plenty of public support for protecting wildlands. According to a poll by the Center for American Progress, about 86% of Americans support the 30/30 concept, including 76% of polled Republicans. Clearly, when it comes to land protection, there is a huge disconnect between Republican politicians and the rank and file.

 

              The extinction crisis is driven by habitat destruction and fragmentation, pollution, poaching, the proliferation of exotic weed species plus climate change. The meltdown is fueled by a growing human population that continues to expand unabated like a spreading cancer into remaining natural habitats around the globe, displacing native life and ecosystems. Some ecologists estimate that half of the estimated 10 million species that we share the planet with could be extinct or plummeting toward the eternal abyss by late this century. Thus, the need to protect land and water becomes more acute. Conservation biologists assert that we need to protect big interconnected landscapes as nature reserves.

 

              Of course, protecting wild nature isn’t just about countering the biological meltdown. Wilderness is the primary repository of 3.5 billion years of organic evolution on this blue green spinning ball of life that we call Earth. Wilderness is the fundamental environment that shaped all known life, including humans, though many deny this primal connection. That’s why new wilderness designations and good wilderness stewardship should top the 30/30 agenda, while recognizing that other kinds of land protections will also be essential.

              I also believe that wild nature has intrinsic value, something that’s worthwhile for its own sake, independent of the multitude of benefits it provides humans. That’s my primary motive as a conservationist. Many of us simply love all that is wild—and we know deep in our primate bones that Aldo Leopold said it best: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

 

              “Untrammeled”, “primeval”, “natural”, and “where the imprint of man’s (sic) work is substantially unnoticeable” are phrases used in the 1964 Wilderness Act to define designated wilderness (I believe the authors of the Wilderness Act used the term “natural” to describe a landscape dominated by native plants and animals. Thus I do not consider croplands, livestock pastures and monocultures of exotic weeds to be “natural”). Today's National Wilderness Preservation System encompasses about 111 million acres, or about 4% of the U.S. landscape. Yet about half of that acreage is in Arctic and Subarctic Alaska, whereas only about 2.7% of the lower 48 states is designated Wilderness.

 

              Because of this geographic disparity, for the 30/30 campaign, let’s view these two geographies through distinct lenses, so that at least 30% of the lower 48 is protected. And, let’s set the 2030 goal for Alaska at 50%. In that vast realm that’s still mostly wild, achieving Wilson’s goal would be easy, at least from a landscape viewpoint. For starters in Alaska, the Naval Petroleum Reserve (keep that oil in the ground, where it won’t harm the atmosphere!), the entire Alaska Range east of Denali, and most of the Chugach and Tongass national forests should all be protected as designated wilderness.

 

              Where do we find 30%—or 50%—of our landscape to protect? Start with the existing National Wilderness Preservation System (2.7% of the lower 48 states). Then, add protections for all roadless areas, wilderness study areas, and backcountry areas administered by our four federal land management agencies. Based upon research I did back in the 1980s, I estimate that roughly 12-15% of the land area of the lower 48 states is in a wilderness or near-wilderness condition. This includes over a hundred million additional acres—according to agency inventories—of wilderness or semi-wilderness quality lands in the lower 48 states, in national forest and BLM-administered roadless areas and Wilderness Study Areas alone! We can also designate many new national parks, monuments and wildlife refuges.

 

              States can also add to the protected acreage by adding parks and wildlife preserves. A few states already maintain significant protected wildland acreages: New York’s Adirondack Forest Preserve, for example. In the private domain, large holdings with conservation easements and protected holdings of land trusts and conservancies might also qualify as “protected” lands under 30/30. We can also use additional tax incentives for conservation easements plus the Land and Water Conservation fund to acquire additional conservation lands.

 

              In addition, we can restore the wilds! There is vast potential for wildland restoration (“re-wilding”) across tens of millions of acres of the public domain. We can even restore wilderness. The Wilderness Act’s authors never intended for the definition of wilderness to preclude lands that were less than pristine. Note that according to the Wilderness Act, the imprint of humanity’s work must simply be “substantially unnoticeable”. In fact, Congress can and has designated wilderness for lands that had been previously roaded, clearcut and otherwise developed. Once designated, under the Wilderness Act, agencies must manage such lands as wilderness, letting nature re-wild the landscape. In fact, most wilderness areas in the eastern U.S. have been re-wilding themselves, for the most part just by being left alone.

 

              Yet agency bureaucrats routinely violate the Wilderness Act by allowing illegal developments in designated wilderness. And Congress too often enacts wilderness bills with special provisions (for example allowing for off-road vehicular use in wilderness for ranchers) which weaken wilderness protections. Nonetheless, in this imperfect world, designated wilderness remains our highest level of land protection in the U.S., and should be a big component of the 30/30 movement. Thus, as we move toward 30/30, keeping designated wilderness areas truly wild (the primary mission of Wilderness Watch) will assume even more importance!

 

              I mentioned entrenched bureaucrats. Here’s an example: According to Custer-Gallatin National Forest Supervisor Mary Erickson, “I view all public lands as being protected.” It is hard to believe, I know, but yes, I heard her say that. Thus, in her worldview, giant eroding weed-infested clearcuts, roads gouged across 45-degree slopes (including a 400,000+ mile road network on national forest lands alone!), open- pit mines, oil fields, ORV sacrifice areas, heavily fenced livestock pastures with devastated riparian zones, exotic weed monocultures, dams, pipelines, power corridors, ski areas, summer homes and more constitute the fabric of “protected” public lands. We must guard against bureaucrats who would water down the meaning of “protected” land. Otherwise, 30/30 will be used to simply rubber stamp existing agency mismanagement.

 

SPECIFICS

 

              Which brings us to the central question of both the Nature Needs Half and the 30/30 movements: “What constitutes ‘protected’ land?” We need definitive standards in addition to those in the Wilderness Act, which will assure that all of the 30% is really protected. 

 

              For example, the U.S. Geological Survey defines 4 levels of land protection called “Gap Status”. Status level 1 represents the strictest level of protection and Status 4 the least. Without detailing each of these levels, I would argue that even Gap Status 1 is weak, and that Status levels 2 through 4 represent little more than business as usual for public lands under typical agency multiple (ab)use management. For the record, Gap Status 1 is defined as

 

     An area having permanent protection from conversion of natural land cover and a mandated management plan in operation to maintain a natural state within which disturbance events (of a natural type, frequency, intensity and legacy) are allowed to proceed without interference or are mimicked through management.

 

              Here's another, slightly better definition of protected land utilized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):

 

     A protected area is a clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve long term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.

 

              I propose that we combine the best aspects of the above two definitions, and then further strengthen the definition with a few caveats. My proposed definition of protected land:

 

     A clearly defined geographical area having permanent protection through legal or legislated or other effective means, to achieve long term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values. Natural conditions are maintained and the conversion of natural native land cover is precluded. Natural disturbance events and processes such as wildfire, flood and predation, are allowed and encouraged.

 

I believe this to be a workable definition, with the following caveats:

 

·       Mechanized Travel must be restricted to designated roads within reserves.

·       New road construction is prohibited.

·       Resource extraction such as mining, oil drilling and commercial logging are prohibited.

·       Lands that have been impacted in the past, including logged over lands and lands with limited or primitive road networks, can be included if a management plan is in place to restore and maintain wild and natural conditions (re-wilding).

·       In some regions of the world, existing subsistence hunting/gathering/fishing rights—preferably via traditional primitive means—might continue, depending upon the circumstance. However, this question probably merits more of a discussion than is practical in this brief overview.

 

Here are some examples of lands that could constitute our protected 30%:

 

·       The National Wilderness Preservation System

·       National forest and BLM Roadless areas and Wilderness Study Areas

·       Protected state wildlands such as those in New York’s Adirondack Forest Preserve

·       National Parks

·       National Monuments

·       National Wildlife Refuges

·       Forest Service and BLM-administered multiple use lands in which a plan is in place to restore wild and natural conditions (re-wilding).

·       Private conservation lands in which natural conditions are maintained via conservation easement or other legal protection(s)

·       About 24 million acres of lands included in the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, which designates new wilderness areas, biological corridors, and wildland recovery areas in the U.S. Northern Rockies.

·       Protected public and private lands in Montana’s growing American Prairie Reserve

·       Existing and potential biological corridors

 

Here are a few examples of lands that should NOT be included in the “protection” category:

·       Lands that are intensively grazed and managed primarily for livestock production

·       Croplands or manicured urban parks not characterized by native vegetation, even if they are maintained as “open space” by conservation easements

·       Typical Forest Service- and BLM-administered “multiple use lands” that are managed for timber production, livestock, minerals, and mechanized transportation. As noted above, such lands can be moved into “protected” status if a re-wilding plan replaces “multiple abuse”.

              And finally, the first step to 30/30 should be a National Wildlands Inventory conducted by an independent panel of scientists to identify both public and privately-owned wildlands that could qualify for some level of protected status under a 30/30 plan. Part of the inventory—and ultimately part of the 30/30 plan—should specifically identify the country’s major eco-regions, to assure that each ecoregion  has at least one protected area that is large enough (and/or functionally interconnected with other nearby wild areas) to support most of the native keystone species—large carnivores, for example —for that ecosystem.

 

SUMMARY

 

              Wildland conservation has an opportunity to move forward with a bold plan to protect wilderness and other wild habitats on nearly one third of our landscape. Conservation groups can support the 30/30 movement as a minimum starting point, looking ahead to E.O. Wilson’s Half Earth vision as the long term goal.

 

              Achieving 30/30 will not be easy. It faces a hostile gauntlet of the usual bad actors: entrenched bureaucrats, myopic and corrupt elected officials plus the industry lobbies that work to thwart most conservation initiatives. Not to mention the rapidly expanding army of mechanized recreationists, including mountain bike organizations. Yet the history of conservation proves that commitment and determination can overcome enormous political obstacles. Today’s global ecological crisis demands that we dramatically increase land and water protections. This includes pushing for maximum protected acreage for wilderness quality lands and other areas that remain relatively natural and wild.

 

              Like cockroaches, humans can adapt to and even thrive in nearly every artificial environment imaginable. Like Mumbai, for example. Or Houston. Or the expansive monocultural wastelands of Kansas. But is cockroach habitat and vast impoverished human-scapes the world that we wish to pass on? The least we can do for future generations of both human and non-human life is to approach wildland conservation as though the survival of life as we know it on Earth depends upon it—which in fact, it does. Enacting a strong 30/30 plan would be a great start.

 

*Howie Wolke is a long-time wilderness proponent. He has been a board member for Wilderness Watch on and off for over two decades, including two terms as President. He is a retired wilderness backpacking and canoeing guide/outfitter who now enjoys wilderness adventure without having to be responsible for others. He and his wife, Marilyn Olsen, and their dog Rio live in the foothills of the Gallatin Range, just north of Yellowstone National Park in southern Montana.

AVAVAVA

A NOTE ON THE HOW OF ACHIEVING 30-30 AND HALF EARTH

 

Stephen M. Sachs, "A Note on the How of achieving 30-30 and Half Earth"

 

              It is clearly very important to move to having very large portions of land around Earth free of development, and left in a natural state to the extent practical, as argued above, to keep the Earth in balance, which is for human good as well as for all other species, and to limit the spread new deadly pandemics crossing to humans from wild species.

 

              However, it is critical that in undertaking this global conservation, that we move away from misguided and long shown to be incorrect conservation notions based on the idea that human beings are separate from nature. In several parts of the world, this unfortunate approach has led to the removal of Indigenous peoples from their homelands against their will - destroying their cultures and qualities of life in major human and Indigenous rights violations.

 

              Moreover, this has been counterproductive of conservation as the best preservers/conservers of the land are well proven to be their Indigenous inhabitants, while many of the poorly paid guards brought in from outside the area to be conserved have often been bribed to allow poaching or illegal extractive activity in the conservation zone, or engaged in it themselves. Where Indigenous people live in an area to be conserved, arrangements must be made with them, that they agree to willingly, to have them either be the conservers or engage in real co-conservation in which they are the leading voice. All of this has been well researched and spelled out repeatedly by Survival International over 30 years (https://www.survivalinternational.org, and search "conservation").

>>>+UUUU+<<<

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ARTICLES

 

GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM EMISSIONS ALONE THREATEN WARMING BEYOND 1.5°C

—BUT WE CAN ACT NOW TO STOP IT

WE HAVE TO SWITCH THE ENERGY SOURCES POWERING FARMS AND FOOD PRODUCTION FROM FOSSIL FUELS TO RENEWABLES, WHILE HALTING THE DEFORESTATION THAT CREATES NEW FARMLAND.

 

John Lynch,*

 

Republished under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License from Common Dreams, November 6, 2020,  https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/11/06/global-food-system-emissions-alone-threaten-warming-beyond-15degc-we-can-act-now?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email.

              How people grow food and the way we use the land is an important, though often overlooked, contributor to climate change. While most people recognise the role of burning fossil fuels in heating the atmosphere, there has been less discussion about the necessary changes for bringing agriculture in line with a “net-zero” world.

              But greenhouse gas emissions from the global food system are growing. Unless there are significant changes in the way we produce and deliver food from fields to tables, the world will miss the climate targets of the Paris Agreement, even if we immediately phase out fossil fuel use.

              In a new paper, my colleagues and I explored how food system emissions fit into remaining carbon budgets which are intended to limit global warming to 1.5 or 2°C above pre-industrial levels. We estimated that if global food systems continue to develop at their current rate – known as a “business as usual” trajectory – the resulting increase in emissions from this alone would likely add enough extra warming to take Earth’s average temperature beyond a 1.5°C rise in the 2060s.

              The good news is that this outcome is not inevitable. There are improvements to what we eat and how we farm it that are achievable, and can be pursued right now.

Carbon budgets

              Thanks to the Paris Agreement, the world has an internationally agreed target of keeping global warming below 2°C, and striving for 1.5°C.

              To meet any given temperature target, there’s a fixed carbon budget – a finite amount of CO₂ that can be emitted before global temperatures surpass the limit. This surprisingly straightforward link between CO₂ emissions and global temperature helps scientists set useful targets for reducing emissions. Achieving this temperature target means keeping total CO₂ emissions within the carbon budget, by phasing out fossil fuel burning so that we reach net-zero emissions before exceeding the budget.

              The same applies to CO₂ emissions from agriculture. We have to switch the energy sources powering farms and food production from fossil fuels to renewables, while halting the deforestation that creates new farmland.

              But here things get complicated, as CO₂ is only a relatively small part of the total emissions from food systems. Agricultural emissions are dominated by nitrous oxide (N₂O), mostly from fertilisers spread on fields (both synthetic and animal manures), and methane (CH₄), largely produced by ruminant livestock such as cows and sheep, and rice farming. So how do these two gases fit into our carbon budgets?

Nitrous oxide lasts in the atmosphere for around a century, making it relatively long-lived (though still a lot shorter than CO₂ on average). Each N₂O emission subtracts from the carbon budget in a similar way to CO₂ itself.

              Methane only survives in the atmosphere for around a decade once emitted. Each emission causes a significant but fairly short burst of warming, but doesn’t contribute to long-term warming and reduce the available carbon budget in the same way as CO₂ or N₂O. To account for this, we used a new approach, which treats methane differently to longer-lived gases, in order to incorporate it in carbon budgets.

Keeping warming below 2°C

              Using this new framework, we considered how food system emissions might affect the world’s remaining carbon budget in lots of different scenarios. These included what might happen if we made the typical diet more or less sustainable, if people wasted less food, or if farms produced more food from the same amount of land.

              Given that there’s an increasing human population that is, on average, eating more food – and more emissions-intensive types of food such as meat and dairy – the world is on track to exceed the carbon budget for limiting warming to 1.5°C due to these food system emissions alone, and take up a large share of the 2°C budget.

              But there are many changes we can make to avoid this. Switching to healthier diets that are more plant-based and lower in calories or reducing food waste could allow the same number of people to be fed with less overall food production and a smaller environmental footprint. Improved farming methods, including more efficient use of fertilisers, could help produce more food with fewer resources. These are achievable changes which would significantly reduce food system emissions.

              Even better, implementing all of these measures could actually expand the total carbon budget the world has left. If the amount of food the world needs and how it was produced were carefully planned, more land could be freed for other purposes. That includes rewilding, which would expand wild habitats on former farmland, encouraging biodiversity and fixing carbon from the atmosphere into plants.

              People will always have different dietary preferences, and climate change could limit how much we’re able to improve agricultural efficiency, even if warming remains below 1.5°C. But even if some strategies are only partially fulfilled, pursuing multiple approaches simultaneously could still significantly reduce food system emissions overall.

              Keeping global warming to 1.5°C gives the world very little wiggle room. It’s essential that emissions from burning fossil fuels are eliminated as rapidly as possible. The world must build on the plunge in emissions that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, and force similar declines every year onwards.

              We have shown that if – and it is a big if – the world does actually manage to decarbonise this quickly, we have a good chance of keeping food system emissions low enough to limit warming to between 1.5 and 2°C. We can waste no more time in achieving this.

*John Lynch is Postdoctoral Researcher in Physics, University of Oxford.

^^^^^^^^^^^

 

UPCOMING ENVIRONMENTAL EVENTS

 

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) 2021 Health and Environment Series (PSR Wisconsin Virtual Event) is February 11-March 25, 2021. For details visit: https://www.psr.org/get-involved/upcoming-events/.

 

World Sustainable Development Summit 2020: Toward 2030 Goals is February 10-12, 2021 in New Delhi, Indian. For details visit: http://wsds.teriin.org. 

 

The Annual Meeting of the Citizens for Global Solutions Action Network will take place on Tuesday, February 16th at 7:00PM Eastern Time, 6:00PM CST, and 4:00PM PST.  The speaker with be John Washburn, former Convener for the American Non-Governmental Organizations Coalition for the International Criminal Court (AMICC).  
Please register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtdeyorD4uHte6E1pfFzCEl6qUEVFmatPq.

 

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) Environmental Justice and Human Health: Creating Systemic Solutions (SF Bay PSR Virtual Event) is February 23-March 30, 2021. For details visit: https://www.psr.org/get-involved/upcoming-events/.

 

The Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability: Accelerating the Transition to Sustainability: Policy Solutions for the Climate Emergency is February 24-26, 2021 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. For details visit: http://onsustainability.com.

 

17th International Conference on Environment, Geology and Materials is at Marathon Beach, Athens, Greece, March 8-10, 2021. For details visit:
www.ieeesd.org/engema.

 

Social Justice & Our Food System is March 15-21, 2021, For information visit: https://www.farmsanctuary.org/community-learning-program/.

 

8th Annual Sustainable Development Conference [Sdc2021] may be in April 2021, details to be announced at: https://www.sdconference.org.

The 7th International Conference on Financing for Development may be in April 2021. For more information visit: http://www.un.org/.

 

Earth Day is April 22, 2021.

 

The annual workshop of Rising Voices: Collaborative Science with Indigenous Knowledge for Climate Solutions may be in April 2021. For details go to: iitc.org.

 

The 9th International Conference on "Livelihoods, Sustainability and Conflict may be in April 2021. For more information go to: https://www.hwcconference.org.

 

The 13th International Conference on Climate: Impacts and Responses: Adaptations: responding to Climate Change as an Emergency is 8-9 April 2021, At UBC Robinson Square, Vancouver, BC, Canada. The Climate Change Conference is for any person with an interest in, and concern for, scientific, policy and strategic perspectives in climate change. It will address a range of critically important themes relating to the vexing question of climate change. Plenary speakers will include some of the world’s leading thinkers in the fields of climatology and environmental science, as well as numerous paper, workshop and colloquium presentations by researchers and practitioners. For details go to: http://on-climate.com/the-conference.

 

17th International Conference on Environment, Energy, Ecosystems and Sustainable Development is at Chania, Crete Island, Greece, April 20-22, 2021. For details go to: www.ieeesd.org/eeesd.

Summer School in a variety of courses with different beginning dated from June through July, include some on alternative dispute resolution and on sustainability  at Central European University, Budapest, Nádor u. 9, 1051 Hungary.  For information go to" https://summeruniversity.ceu.edu/.

Stony Point Center 11th Annual Summer Institute: Farm the Land, Grow the Spirit has been postponed until 2021, possibly in June, at Stony Point Center, Stony Point, NY, in June 2021. For details go to: https://www.peace-ed-campaign.org/event/stony-point-center-10th-annual-summer-institute/.

 

The 18th Annual Global Solutions Lab on line will be focused on developing strategic solutions for reaching the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It is June 22-28, 2021, at the United Nations in New York and Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, PA.  Participants, from around the world, will be briefed by, interact with and question UN experts (from the UN Development Program, UN Environmental Program, UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, FAO and other UN agencies) and then, working collaboratively in small teams, develop designs, programs and strategies that deal with one of the critical problems facing our world. The participants present their work to a group of UN corporate and foundation leaders. After this their work is published in a book.

              The Global Solutions Lab is a structured learning experience that fosters creativity, disruptive innovations, global perspectives and local solutions. It is intense, fast-paced, and for many, transformative.

              For information visit: Global Solutions Lab:  www.designsciencelab.com.

 

World Resources Forum (WRF) 20 scheduled to take place in Accra, Ghan, June 23-25, 2020 has been postponed until 2021. For information visit: https://www.wrforum.org.

 

The 18th Annual Global Solutions Lab on line will be focused on developing strategic solutions for reaching the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It is June 22-28, 2021, at the United Nations in New York and Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, PA.  Participants, from around the world, will be briefed by, interact with and question UN experts (from the UN Development Program, UN Environmental Program, UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, FAO and other UN agencies) and then, working collaboratively in small teams, develop designs, programs and strategies that deal with one of the critical problems facing our world. The participants present their work to a group of UN corporate and foundation leaders. After this their work is published in a book.

              The Global Solutions Lab is a structured learning experience that fosters creativity, disruptive innovations, global perspectives and local solutions. It is intense, fast-paced, and for many, transformative.

              For information visit: Global Solutions Lab:  www.designsciencelab.com.

 

World Resources Forum (WRF) 20 scheduled to take place in Accra, Ghan, June 23-25, 2020 has been postponed until 2021. For information visit: https://www.wrforum.org.

 

8th Annual Sustainable Development Conference​​ will be in Autumn 2020. Our Sustainable Development Conference - Green technology, Renewable energy and Environmental protection, annually held in Bangkok is a perfect place to meet world’s leading professionals, scholars and governmental representatives from all over the world in the fields of sustainable development, green energy and environmental protection. For information go to: www.sdconference.org.

 

The 9th World Sustainability Forum may be held in September 2021. For details visit: http://wsforum.org.

 

International Conference on Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence is postponed until international travel to large events can be safely resumed. We hope to run the conference in either September 2021 or March 2022, depending on further developments of the global coronavirus situation. For details visit: https://www.hwcconference.org.

 

International Conference on the Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas (EMECS 12) is virtual September 6-10, 2021. For details go to:  https://www.emecs.or.jp/en/emecs.

 

The International MEDCOAST Congress on Coastal and Marine Sciences, Engineering, Management & Conservation may be in October 2021. For details go to: http://www.medcoast.net/.

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USEFUL WEB SITES

 

UN NGO Climate Change Caucus, with numerous task forces, is at: http://climatecaucus.net.

 

On the Frontlines of Climate Change: A global forum for indigenous peoples, small islands and vulnerable communities can be subscribed to at: http://www.climatefrontlines.org/lists/?p=subscribe. See postings on the website at: http://www.climatefrontlines.org/en-GB/node/148.

 

350.org focusses on stopping and mitigating global warming induced climate change: http://act.350.org/.

 

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is concerned with the proper use of science in decision making, and of using science to prevent public harm in many areas, especially concerning the environment: www.ucsusa.org.

 

The Indigenous Environmental Network works on environmental issues  from an Indigenous point of view: http://www.ienearth.org.

 

The League of Conservation voters (LCV) is concerned with environmental issues: https://www.lcv.org.

 

Food & Water Action Fund (https://www.foodandwateractionfund.org) and Food and Water Watch (https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org) work to protect food and water.

 

Ocean River Institute is a non-profit that provides opportunities to make a difference and go the distance for savvy stewardship of a greener and bluer planet Earth: https://www.oceanriver.org.

 

Waterkeeper Alliance is a global movement for swimmable, drinkable, fishable water: https://waterkeeper.org.

 

WildEarth Guardians works to protect and restore wildlife, wild places and wild rivers in the American West: wildearthguardians.org.

 

Nuclear Information and Resource Service focuses on the dangers of nuclear arms and nuclear power: https://www.nirs.org.

 

Earth Policy Institute, dedicated to building a sustainable future as well as providing a plan of how to get from here to there: www.earthpolicy.org.

 

Wiser Earth lists more than 10,700 environmental and environmental justice organizations at: http://www.wiserearth.org/organization/

 

Earthwatch, the world’s largest environmental volunteer organization, founded in 1971, works globally to help the people of the planet volunteer realize a sustainable environment: http://www.earthwatch.org/.

 

Avaaz.org works internationally on environmental and peace and justice issues: http://www.avaaz.org.

 

The Environmental Defense Fund works on environmental issues and policy, primarily in the U.S.: http://edf.org.

 

Earthjustice focuses on environmental issues and action: http://action.earthjustice.org.

 

The Sierra Club works on environmental issues in the United States: http://action.sierraclub.org.

 

SaveOurEnvironemnt.org, a coalition of environmental organizations acting politically in the U.S.: http://ga3.org/campaign/0908_endangered_species/xuninw84p7m8mxxm.

 

The National Resources Defense Council works on a variety of environmental issues in the U.S.: NRhttp://www.nrdconline.org/, asd is affiliated with the NRDC Action Fund work http://www.nrdcactionfund.org.

 

Care 2 is concerned about a variety of issues, including the environment: http://www.care2.com/.

 

Rainmakers Oceania studies possibilities for restoring the natural environment and humanity's rightful place in it, at: http://rainmakers-ozeania.com/0annexanchorc/about-rainmakers.html.

 

Green Ships, in fall 2008, was is asking Congress to act to speed the development of new energy efficient ships that can take thousands of trucks off Atlantic and Pacific Coast highways, moving freight up and down the costs with far less carbon emissions and more cheaply:  http://www.greenships.org.

 

Carbon Fund Blog carries climate change news, links to green blogs, and a green resource list, at: http://carbonfund.blogspot.com/2008/03/sky-is-falling.html. Carbon Fund is certifying carbon free products at: http://www.carbonfund.org/site/pages/businesses/category/CarbonFree.

 

Grist carries environmental news and commentary: http://www.grist.org/news/,

 

Green Inc. is a new blog from The New York Times devoted to energy and the environment at: greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com.

 

Planting Peace is, "A Resource Center for news and activities that seek to build a powerful coalition to bring about cooperation and synergy between the peace movement, the climate crisis movement, and the organic community." Their web site includes extensive links to organizations, articles, videos and books that make the connections, at: http://organicconsumers.org/plantingpeace/index.cfm, Planting Peace is sponsored by the Organic Consumers Association: http://organicconsumers.org/.

 

The Global Climate Change Campaign: http://www.globalclimatecampaign.org/.

 

The center for defense information now carries regular reports on Global Warming & International Security at: http://www.cdi.org.

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