#UN Global Climate Conference

[hpcaatcop27]

Read Professor Stavins’ analysis of the outcomes of COP27 in his newest blog.

[odinsblog]

Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading exporter of oil, has become the biggest obstacle to an agreement at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, where countries are debating whether to call for a phaseout of fossil fuels in order to fight global warming, negotiators and other officials said.

The Saudi delegation has flatly opposed any language in a deal that would even mention fossil fuels — the oil, gas and coal that, when burned, create emissions that are dangerously heating the planet. Saudi negotiators have also objected to a provision, endorsed by at least 118 countries, aimed at tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Saudi diplomats have been particularly skillful at blocking discussions and slowing the talks, according to interviews with a dozen people who have been inside closed-door negotiations. Tactics include inserting words into draft agreements that are considered poison pills by other countries; slow-walking a provision meant to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change; staging a walkout in a side meeting; and refusing to sit down with negotiators pressing for a phaseout of fossil fuels.

The Saudi opposition is significant because U.N. rules require that any agreement forged at the climate summit be unanimously endorsed. Any one of the 198 participating nations can thwart a deal.

Saudi Arabia isn’t the only country raising concerns about more ambitious global efforts to fight climate change. The United States has sought to inject caveats into the fossil fuel phaseout language. India and China have opposed language that would single out coal, the most polluting of fossil fuels.

…Saudi Arabia has stood out as the most implacable opponent of any agreement on fossil fuels.

“Most countries vary on the degree or speed of how fast you get out of fossil fuels,” said Linda Kalcher, a former climate adviser to the United Nations who has been in negotiating rooms this week. Saudi Arabia, she said, “doesn’t even want to have the conversation.”

Saudi officials did not respond to requests for comment.

(continue reading)

[without-ado]

COP27: World Climate Waste of Time

The climate changes, politicians do not.

l (x)(x)(x) l title & quote fr. AGO (2nd art)

[bumblebeeappletree]

Environmental activist Xiye Bastida discusses her experiences so far at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, pointing out the differences between the experiences activists in the Global North and Global South are having with the climate movement. The UN Climate Change Conference is bringing together activists, politicians, and organizations from all over the world to tackle the climate crisis.

This video was created in collaboration with Nature's Newsroom.

#Earth #Environment #ClimateCrisis #NowThis

[altur24]

“Climate is the main challenge for the volunteers of the international social movement ALLATRA”

A lot of large-scale projects in various spheres of human and social life are realized today by volunteers of the International Public Movement “ALLATRA”

The key topic of these projects is global climate change on Earth, as well as the study of the impact of anthropogenic and other factors on the climate: geocosmic, geodynamic.  Everyone who cares, who is not indifferent to their lives and the lives of people around them, such people are working to solve this most important task as ALLATRA volunteers. These are specialists in various professions, these are the most progressive and socially active people of our planet.  

I would like to emphasize once again: solving climate problems is one of the priority tasks that ALLATRA volunteers set for themselves today.

Inspire the public to actively participate in the social life of society

Create favorable conditions for widespread and comprehensive awareness of the climate change issue

to actualize this topic on all kinds of media and information platforms - this is the

 The goal of the International Social Movement ALLATRA. 

Realizing that the climate is killing millions of people in a matter of seconds (remember the earthquake in Turkey on February 6, 2023), the volunteers of the International Public Movement ALLATRA do not stand aside from this climate threat, but boldly roll up their sleeves and begin to study the topic of climate thoroughly and comprehensively, conduct interdisciplinary research, interact with scientists around the world, calling on the public to join the study of this topic, to make it the number 1 topic on all kinds of platforms and platforms of communication. 

To do this, ALLATRA members use all available and legal ways and opportunities. They also develop information materials aimed at raising public awareness about climate change, organize meetings, forums, conferences, round tables, discussions at both international and local levels. 

Not wasting a minute of time in the issue of global climate change is the main principle of every active ALLATRA volunteer today, because every day of delay costs thousands and millions of people's lives.  

To raise the issue of climate change at all levels of our society as soon as possible and on a large scale - this is what ALLATRA volunteers are working on every day and for this purpose they actively cooperate with various governmental and non-governmental organizations, international scientific community.

It should be noted that ALLATRA volunteers highly appreciate the efforts and aspirations of the UN to make a significant contribution to a deeper understanding of climate change factors and draw attention to the importance of anthropogenic impact.  The UN is actively working to address climate issues. If you wish, you can always explore the research and climate models in the UN's climate reports, which provide fundamental science and recommendations for climate action.

It is important to note that the volunteers of the International Social Movement “ALLATRA” support and popularize the development of modern science and implementation of existing scientific developments that can contribute to solving global climate problems. And also volunteers of ALLATRA strive to unite all people with kind and constructive solutions and proposals! ALLATRA participants endeavor to make human society live according to the principles of democracy and creation.

“ALLATRA” stands for only peaceful and safe life of all peoples of the planet - these are the principles on which the volunteers of “ALLATRA” build their activities. 

And also, each volunteer, participant of ALLATRA recognizes that global positive changes and deep transformations for the better in society begin with each not indifferent person!

So, if you are a person who cares about the life of people and the planet as a whole, if you want to use your professional and creative potential for the benefit of all mankind, then right now join the volunteers of the International Public Movement “ALLATRA”.

 E-mail: info@allatra.org

Website:  https://allatra.org

#ALLATRA #allatra #social #movement #international #goodwill #peace #climate #international #social #engagement #conference #forum #roundtable #foundation #UN #report #global #people #planet #science

[altr24]

“Solving climate problems is a priority goal of the volunteers of the international social movement ALLATRA”

ciety democratic and creative, not totalitarian and consumerist.

“ALLATRA” stands for the peaceful and safe existence of all peoples of the world!

“ALLATRA” recognizes that global positive change and profound transformation for the better in global society begins with every person who cares!

If you are such an indifferent person and want to realize in your life the principle of the famous ancient Indian parable: “Use your mind for the benefit of people and gain experience. When your deeds from feelings for the sake of Truth will be much more than words from mind for the sake of Ego, then you will know a single grain of Truth", then boldly join the volunteers of the International Public Movement ‘ALLATRA’.

 E-mail: info@allatra.org

Websitesi: https://allatra.org

#ALLATRA #allatra #social #movement #international #goodwill #peace #climate #international #social #engagement #conference #forum #roundtable #foundation #UN #report #global #people #planet #science

[zara24smit]

“The role of the International Social Movement ALLATRA in studying and overcoming global climate change”

The International Social Movement “ALLATRA” is a global, worldwide community that unites millions of participants from more than 180 countries of the world. One of the main goals of the movement is to study and combat global climate change on Earth. This problem is becoming increasingly urgent and requires urgent collective action.

The ALLATRA IPM is actively engaged in analyzing the impact not only of anthropogenic factors on the Earth's climate, but also of other geocosmic and geodynamic factors.

One of the key directions of the “ALLATRA” movement is monitoring of solar, volcanic activity, influence of cosmic impact on the core of our planet. These phenomena have a significant impact on climatic processes on the Earth. 

The ALLATRA International Public Movement creates conditions for international collective interaction of all interested persons who strive to solve the problem of global climate change. The volunteers of the International Social Movement ALLATRA organize international online round tables, interviews with scientists and experts, and create video reports. Such actions contribute to the exchange of knowledge and experience in the fight against climate challenges.

An important aspect of the activities of the International Public Movement ALLATRA is the active participation of each individual in addressing climate change. Creating blogger videos, information projects, sharing experiences and knowledge are all ways to support global efforts to overcome climate change.

The ALLATRA IPM expresses solidarity and support for the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations. These goals aim to improve the well-being of humanity and protect the planet. The International Social Movement ALLATRA actively supports the UN's efforts to combat social inequality, racial discrimination and ensure justice.

The International Social Movement ALLATRA plays a significant role in studying and addressing global climate change. The collective efforts of movement members to inform, analyze, and collaborate internationally contribute to a more sustainable and secure future for everyone on the planet.

Join the large-scale creative work of the International Social Movement ALLATRA.

E-mail: info@allatra.org

Website:  https://allatra.org

#ALLATRA #allatra #socialmovement #international #Earth #world #climate #international #socialmovement #blogger #conference #participant #volunteer #foundation #UN #report #global #people #planet #science

[thoughtlessarse]

The UAE’s state-owned oil company used last year’s UN climate summit to try and quintuple its fossil fuel deals, according to a new investigation. COP28 in Dubai was marred by controversy from the start of 2023, when the summit’s president was announced as Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). On the cusp of the conference in November, leaked documents revealed plans from the country’s COP28 team to discuss oil and gas deals with more than a dozen other nations - apparently leveraging its prestige as COP host to ADNOC’s advantage. Now an investigation from NGO Global Witness shows that ADNOC sought close to $100 billion (€92 billion) worth of oil, gas and petrochemical deals in 2023 - a fivefold increase on the previous year. “Having placed a fossil fuel CEO at the helm, the UAE knew exactly what it was doing and was not let down - COP28 seems to have been moulded towards the benefit of its state oil company,” says Patrick Galey, senior investigator at Global Witness. The report comes during the Bonn Climate Change Conference in Germany this week - the midway point between COP28 and COP29 in Azerbaijan. It warns that the incoming petrostate host can’t be allowed to copy the UAE’s approach.

continue reading

Here's an idea; stop holding climate conferences in petrostates since they obviously cannot be trust to act in the interests of the planet as a whole.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil´s Climate Observatory proposes 92% emission reduction by 2035

A study by the Climate Observatory network reveals that Brazil needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 92% by 2035 to make a fair contribution to the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (ºC). This target is based on 2005 emissions of 2.4 billion net tons, reducing the annual limit to 200 million net tons.

The study considered the greenhouse gas load the atmosphere can still tolerate to limit global temperature rise to 1.5ºC, as well as Brazil's share of global emissions, factoring in the impact of land use changes within the country.

“It's a calculation of what the planet needs. It's a calculation made between what would be fair, given Brazil's history of setting [targets] in a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), and also what we can do looking at what we need to do to maintain 1.5ºC,” explains Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory.

The percentage was announced by the organization on Monday (Aug. 26) as part of its third contribution to Brazil's climate target proposal for the 30th UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Pará state. The Climate Observatory was the first civil society initiative to support Brazil's climate goals with studies in 2015 and made another contribution in 2020.

Continue reading.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:

We are running out of time to take action on climate change, says Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In a speech titled “Two Years to Save the World,” Stiell emphasized that governments, development banks and business leaders must take steps to avert much more serious impacts of the climate crisis within that time frame, reported Reuters.

“For those who say that climate change is only one of many priorities, like ending poverty, ending hunger, ending pandemics, or improving education, I simply say this: none of these crucial tasks — indeed none of the Sustainable Development Goals — will be possible unless we get the climate crisis under control,” Stiell said in the speech, delivered at London thinktank Chatham House.

According to the UN, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030 is essential to keep global heating to within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels. However, for 10 consecutive months, global temperatures have reached record highs, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said.

“As of today, national climate plans — called Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs —  in aggregate will barely cut emissions at all by 2030,” Stiell said. “We still have a chance to make greenhouse gas emissions tumble, with a new generation of national climate plans. But we need these stronger plans, now. And while every country must submit a new plan, the reality is G20 emissions are around 80% of global emissions.”

The focus of the UN COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, will be for nations to come up with new climate finance goals to support developing countries in tackling climate change and making the transition away from fossil fuels, Reuters reported.

[reasonsforhope]

It has been almost two decades in the making, but late on Saturday night in New York, after days of gruelling round-the-clock talks, UN member states finally agreed on a treaty to protect the high seas.

A full day after the deadline for talks had officially passed, the conference president, Rena Lee of Singapore, took to the floor of room 2 of the UN headquarters in New York and announced that the treaty had been agreed. At a later date, the delegates will meet for half a day to formally adopt the text. She made it clear the text would not be reopened.

“In Singapore, we like to go on learning journeys, and this has been the learning journey of a lifetime,” Lee said.

She thanked delegates for their dedication and commitment. “The success is also yours,” she told them.

She received cheers and a standing ovation from delegates in the room who had not left the conference hall for two days and worked through the night in order to get the deal done.

Pictured: The Intergovernmental Conference on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction congratulating its President, Ambassador Rena Lee, on the successful conclusion of the BBNJ treaty.

The historic treaty is crucial for enforcing the 30x30 pledge made by countries at the UN biodiversity conference in December, to protect a third of the sea (and land) by 2030. Without a treaty, this target would certainly fail, as until now no legal mechanism existed to set up MPAs [Marine Protected Areas] on the high seas.

Ocean ecosystems produce half the oxygen we breathe, represent 95% of the planet’s biosphere and soak up carbon dioxide, as the world’s largest carbon sink. Yet until now, fragmented and loosely enforced rules governing the high seas have rendered this area more susceptible than coastal waters to exploitation.

Veronica Frank, political adviser for Greenpeace, said that while the organisation hadn’t seen the latest text, “We are really happy. The world is so divided and to see multilateralism supported is so important.

“What’s really important is now to use this tool to develop this 30x30 target into force really quickly.” ...

Pictured: Activists from Greenpeace display a banner before the United Nations headquarters during ongoing negotiations at the UN on a treaty to protect the high seas in New York

“High seas marine protected areas can play a critical role in the impacts of climate change,” said Liz Karan, director of Pew’s ocean governance project. “Governments and civil society must now ensure the agreement is adopted and rapidly enters into force and is effectively implemented to safeguard high seas biodiversity.”

The High Ambition Coalition – which includes the EU, US, UK and China – were key players in brokering the deal, building coalitions instead of sowing division and showing willingness to compromise in the final days of talks. The Global South led the way in ensuring the treaty could be put into practice in a fair and equitable way.

Pictured: A world map that shows the full breadth and potential impact of the treat. National waters are shown in white, and international waters, or the high seas, are everything shown in blue.

Michael Imran Kanu, the head of the African Group and ambassador and deputy permanent representative to the UN for legal affairs of Sierra Leone, said the treaty was “robust and ambitious”. Kanu, who expressed concerns during talks over the fair and equitable sharing of benefits, said: “We really achieved amazing results” on this issue. Monetary and non-monetary benefits would be shared and an initial upfront fund would be set up under the treaty. He welcomed the adoption of the “common heritage of humankind” as a key principle for the high seas, which was a red line for many developing states. “That was significant for us”, he said...

In a move seen as an attempt to build trust between rich and poor countries, the European Union pledged €40m ($42m) in New York to facilitate the ratification of the treaty and its early implementation.

Monica Medina, the US assistant secretary for oceans, international environment and scientific affairs, who attended the negotiations in New York, said: “We leave here with the ability to create protected areas in the high seas and achieve the ambitious goal of conserving 30% of the ocean by 2030. And the time to start is now.”

-via The Guardian (US), 3/4/23

[hpcaatcop27]

Scenes from Day 9 of #COP27, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, November 17, 2022.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Stinkpump Linkdump

Next Tuesday (December 5), I'm at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org's Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."b

Once again, I greet the weekend with more assorted links than I can fit into my nearly-daily newsletter, so it's time for another linkdump. This is my eleventh such assortment; here are the previous volumes:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

I've written a lot about Biden's excellent appointees, from his National Labor Relations Board general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chair Rohit Chopra to FTC Chair Lina Khan to DoJ antitrust boss Jonathan Kanter:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

But I've also written a bunch about how Biden's appointment strategy is an incoherent mess, with excellent appointees picked by progressives on the Unity Task Force being cancelled out by appointees given to the party's reactionary finance wing, producing a muddle that often cancels itself out:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/08/fiduciaries/#but-muh-freedumbs

It's not just that the finance wing of the Democrats chooses assholes (though they do!), it's that they choose comedic bunglers. The Dems haven't put anyone in government who's as much of an embarrassment as George Santos, but they keep trying. The latest self-inflicted Democratic Party injury is Prashant Bhardjwan, a serial liar and con-artist who is, incredibly, the Biden Administration's pick to oversee fintech for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC):

https://www.americanbanker.com/news/did-the-occ-hire-a-con-artist-to-oversee-fintech

When the 42 year old Bhardjwan was named Deputy Comptroller and Chief Financial Technology Officer for OCC, the announcement touted his "nearly 30 years of experience serving in a variety of roles across the financial sector." Apparently Bhardjwan joined the finance sector at the age of 12. He's the Doogie Houser of Wall Street:

https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2023/nr-occ-2023-31.html

That wasn't the only lie on Bhardjwan's CV. He falsely claimed to have served as CIO of Fifth Third Bank from 2006-2010. Fifth Third has never heard of him:

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/the-occ-crowned-its-first-chief-fintech-officer-his-work-history-was-a-web-of-lies

Bhardjwan told a whole slew of these easily caught lies, suggesting that OCC didn't do even a cursory background search on this guy before putting him in charge of fintech – that is, the radioactively scammy sector that gave us FTX and innumerable crypto scams, to say nothing of the ever-sleazier payday lending sector:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

When it comes to appointing corrupt officials, the Biden administration has lots of company. Lots of eyebrows went up when the UN announced that the next climate Conference of the Parties (COP) would be chaired by Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, who is also the chair of Dubai's national oil company. Then the other shoe dropped: leaks revealed that Al-Jaber had colluded with the Saudis to use COP28 to get poor Asian and African nations hooked on oil:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67508331

There's an obvious reason for this conspiracy: the rich world is weaning itself off of fossil fuels. Today, renewables are vastly cheaper than oil and there's no end in sight to the plummeting costs of solar, wind and geothermal. While global electrification faces powerful logistical and material challenges, these are surmountable. Electrification is a solvable problem:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/09/practical-visionary/#popular-engineering

And once we do solve that problem, we will forever transform our species' relationship to energy. As Deb Chachra explains in her brilliant new book How Infrastructure Works, we would only need to capture 0.4% of the solar radiation that reaches the Earth's surface to give every person on earth the energy budget of a Canadian (AKA, a "cold American"):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/17/care-work/#charismatic-megaprojects

If COP does its job, we will basically stop using oil, forever. This is an existential threat to the ruling cliques of petrostates from Canada to the UAE to Saudi. As Bill McKibben writes, this isn't the first time a monied rich-world industry that had corrupted its host governments faced a similar crisis:

https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/a-corrupted-cop

Big Tobacco spent decades fueling science denial, funneling money to sellout scientists who deliberately cast doubt on both sound science and the very idea that we could know anything. As Tim Harford describes in The Data Detective, Darrell Huff's 1954 classic How to Lie With Statistics was part of a tobacco-industry-funded project to undermine faith in statistics itself (the planned sequel was called How To Lie With Cancer Statistics):

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#harford

But anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. When the families of the people murdered by tobacco disinformation campaigns started winning eye-popping judgments against the tobacco industry, the companies shifted their marketing to the Global South, on the theory that they could murder poor brown people with impunity long after rich people in the north forced an end to their practice. Big Tobacco had a willing partner in Uncle Sam for this project: the US Trade Representative arm-twisted the world's poorest countries into accepting "Investor-State Dispute Settlements" as part of their treaties. These ISDS clauses allowed tobacco companies to sue governments that passed tobacco control legislation and force them to reverse their democratically enacted laws:

https://ash.org/what-is-isds-and-what-does-it-mean-for-tobacco-control/

As McKibben points out, the oil/climate-change playbook is just an update to the tobacco/cancer-denial conspiracy (indeed, the same think-tanks and PR agencies are behind both). The "Oil Development Sustainability Programme" – the Orwellian name the Saudis gave to their plan to push oil on poor countries – maps nearly perfectly onto Big Tobacco's attack on the Global South. Nearly perfectly: second-hand smoke in Indonesia won't give Americans cancer, but convincing Africa to go hard on fossil fuels will contribute to an uninhabitable planet for everyone, not just poor people.

This is an important wrinkle. Wealthy countries have repeatedly demonstrated a deep willingness to profit from death and privation in the poor world – but we're less tolerant when it's our own necks on the line.

What's more, it's far easier to put the far-off risks of emissions out of your mind than it is to ignore the present-day sleaze and hypocrisy of corporate crooks. When I quit smoking, 23 years ago, my doctor told me that if my only motivation was avoiding cancer 30 years from now, I'd find it hard to keep from yielding to temptation as withdrawal set in. Instead, my doctor counseled me to find an immediate reason to stay off the smokes. For me, that was the realization that every pack of cigarettes I bought was enriching the industry that invented the denial playbook that the climate wreckers were using to render our planet permanently unsuited for human habitation. Once I hit on that, resisting tobacco got much easier:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/03/i-quit/

Perhaps OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais is worried about that the increasing consensus that Big Oil cynically and knowingly created this crisis. That would explain his new flight of absurdity, claiming that the world is being racist to oil companies, "unjustly vilifying" the industry for its role in the climate emergency:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/27/opec-says-oil-industry-unjustly-vilified-ahead-of-climate-talks-.html

Words aren't deeds, but words have power. The way we talk about things makes a difference to how we act on those things. When discussions of Israel-Palestine get hung up on words, it's easy to get frustrated. The labels we apply to the rain of death and the plight of hostages are so much less important than the death and the hostages themselves.

But how we name the thing will have an enormous impact on what happens next. Take the word "genocide," which Israel hawks insist must not be applied to the bombing campaign and siege in Gaza, nor to the attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. On this week's On The Media, Brooke Gladstone interviews Ernesto Verdeja, executive director of The Institute for the Study of Genocide:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/genocide-powerful-word-so-why-its-definition-so-controversial-on-the-media

Verdeja lays out the history of the word "genocide" and connects it to the Israeli government and military's posture on Palestine and Palestinians, and concludes that the only real dispute among genocide scholars is whether the current campaign it itself an act of genocide, or a prelude to an act of genocide.

I'm not a genocide scholar, but I am a Jew who has always believed in Palestinian solidarity, and Verdeja's views do not strike me as outrageous, or (more importantly) antisemitic. The conflation of opposition to Israel's system of apartheid with opposition to Jews is a cheap trick, one that's belied by Israel itself, where there is a vast, longstanding political opposition to Israeli occupation, settlements, and military policing. Are all those Israeli Jews secret antisemites?

Jews are not united in support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians. The hardliners who insist that any criticism of Israel is antisemitic are peddling an antisemitic lie: that all Jews everywhere are loyal to Israel, and that we all take our political positions from the Knesset. Israel hawks only strengthen that lie when they accuse me and my fellow Jews of being "self-hating Jews."

This leads to the absurd circumstance in which gentiles police Jews' views on Israel. It's weird enough when white-nationalist affiliated evangelicals who support Israel in order to further the end-times prophesied in Revelations slam Jews for being antisemitic. But in Germany, it's even weirder. There, regional, non-Jewish officials charged with policing antisemitism have censured Jewish groups for adopting policies on Israel that mainstream Israeli political parties have in their platforms:

https://jewishcurrents.org/the-strange-logic-of-germanys-antisemitism-bureaucrats

Antisemitism is real. As Jesse Brown describes in his recent Canadaland editorial, there is a real and documented rise in racially motivated terror against Jews in Canada, including school shootings and a firebombing. Likewise, it's true that some people who support the Palestinian cause are antisemites:

https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/is-jesse-a-zionist-editorial/

But to stand in horror at Israel's military action and its vast civilian death-toll is not itself antisemitic. This is obvious – so obvious that the need to say it is a tribute to Israel hardliners – Jewish and gentile – and their ability to peddle the racist lie that Israel is Jews and Jews are Israel, and that every Jew is in support of, and responsible for, Israeli war-crimes and crimes against humanity.

One need not choose between opposition to Hamas and its terror and opposition to Israel and its bombings. There is no need for a hierarchy of culpability. As Naomi Klein says, we can "side with the child over the gun":

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/11/why-are-some-of-the-left-celebrating-the-killings-of-israeli-jews

Moral consistency is not moral equivalency. If you're a Jew like me who wants to work for an end to the occupation and peace in the region, you could join Jewish Voice For Peace (like me):

https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org

Now, for a jarring tone shift. In these weekend linkdumps, I put a lot of thought into how to transition from one subject to the next, but honestly, there's no good transition from Israel-Palestine to anything else (yet – though someday, perhaps). So let's just say, "word games can be important, but they can also be trivial, and here are a few of the latter."

Start with a goodie, from the always brilliant medievalist Eleanor Janeaga, who tackles the weirdos who haunt social media in order to dump on people with PhDs who call themselves "doctor":

https://going-medieval.com/2023/11/29/doctor-does-actually-mean-someone-with-a-phd-sorry/

Janega points out that the "doctor" honorific was applied to scholars for centuries before it came to mean "medical doctor." But beyond that, Janega delivers a characteristically brilliant history of the (characteristically) weird and fascinating tale of medieval scholarship. Bottom line, we call physicians "doctor" because they wanted to be associated with the brilliance of scholars, and thought that being addressed as "doctor" would add to their prestige. So yeah, if you've got a PhD, you can call yourself doctor.

It's not just doctors; the professions do love their wordplay. especially lawyers. This week on Lowering The Bar, I learned about "a completely ludicrous court fight that involved nine law firms that combined for 66 pages of briefing, declarations, and exhibits, all inflicted on a federal court":

https://www.loweringthebar.net/2023/11/federal-court-ends-double-spacing-fight.html

The dispute was over the definition of "double spaced." You see, the judge in the case told counsel they could each file briefs of up to 100 pages of double-spaced type. Yes, 100 pages! But apparently, some lawyer burn to write fat trilogies, not mere novellas. Defendants accused the plaintiffs in this case of spacing their lines a mere 24 points apart, which allowed them to sneak 27 lines of type onto each page, while defendants were confined to the traditional 23 lines.

But (the court found), the defendants were wrong. Plaintiffs had used Word's "double-spacing" feature, but had not ticked the "exact double spacing" box, and that's how they ended up with 27 lines per page. The court refused to rule on what constituted "double-spacing" under the Western District of Tennessee’s local rules, but it ruled that the plaintiffs briefs could fairly be described as "double-spaced." Whew.

That's your Saturday linkdump, jarring tone-shift and all. All that remains is to close out with a cat photo (any fule kno that Saturday is Caturday). Here's Peeve, whom I caught nesting most unhygienically in our fruit bowl last night. God, cats are gross:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/53370882459/

It's EFF's Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I've worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been - and remain - a major donor, because I've seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/02/melange/#defendants_motion_to_require_adherence_with_formatting_requirements_of_local_rule_7.1

Stinkpump Linkdump

[darkmaga-retard]

Saturday August 24, 2024

Karen Bracken

As I am sure you all know by now….RFK Jr. has given his support to Donald Trump. He offered his help to Harris and she refused to even talk with him. Trump and Kennedy agree on ending all wars and to help end the chronic diseases killing our children and adults. He could only be an asset to helping heal our country. I watched his entire press conference and he is a brave man and speaks truth. He also knows where the bodies are hidden. He is hoping that the Trump administration will love our children more than we hate each other. Here is a link to his press conference. VIDEO

TRUTH IN HUMOR - Don’t miss this short satire. VIDEO

Did the US Government Pay $370,000 Death Benefit for a Covid Vaccine? ARTICLE

How Kamala Harris's friendship with Beau Biden united her with Joe - hmmmm perhaps she had more than Beau’s back??? She stated in this article that she was bussed to school everyday. “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me,” Harris said. Kamala left the US when she was 7 years old and lived in Canada until she graduated from High School. Just another lie about her past. She is NOT A NBC and I will say this every time I share anything about her until Americans start demanding Harris/Walz be removed from the ticket. Another lie…….she surely didn’t take her “friendship” into account when she viciously attacked Joe Biden during the 2020 election period - Biden picked her because he was ordered to do so by her mentor and Biden’s puppet master Barack Obama - ARTICLE

Door To Freedom (Dr. Meryl Nass) and Children’s Health Defense host a 2-day live stream conference on: Attack on Food and Farmers and How to Fight Back - INFORMATION

Sun Drives Earth's Climate, Not CO2: 30-Page Study in Journal 'Geomatics' Refutes Mainstream Climate Change Narrative - When they came up with UN Agenda 21 (global communism) they knew no one would ever go along with this plan of global governance under communism. SO they invented a global boogie man. They has to come up with something that affects the entire world. First it was global warming and when they exposed that as the lie it was they changed it to climate change. Climate change IS just the new name for UN Agenda 21. So is Sustainable Development, Smart Cities, 2030 Agenda, Sustainable Development Goals, Great Reset all one in the same. A very good friend of mine was a NASA research scientist. He was invited to present to Congress every year (until Obama was elected...he was uninvited but sent his research to every member of Congress each year). He warned of global cooling and its impact on food. He said the sun goes into hibernation approx. every 235 years and it was moving into a period of hibernation. CO2 is the foundation for life. The more CO2 the better. Food grows with CO2 so it is clear to me why they targeted man made CO2 as their target. My friend, John L. Casey wrote a book called COLD SUN........he like many REAL scientists know the sun controls the climate except for the climate our government creates in order to scare people into compliance. I recommend getting John's book. He had a stroke some years back and no longer is doing research. He also used to track earthquake activity too. ARTICLE

CDC Stands by Water Fluoridation After Report Linking Fluoride to Lower IQs in Kids Finally Published - Good old CDC strikes again. Gee remember when tooth decay was killing people? Dead people all over the place. No? Well neither do I because no one has ever died from tooth decay BUT lots of animals and trees were dying when chemical companies were spewing their toxic waste into the air so they came up with a brilliant idea…..we will put it in the water supply and convince people it was harmless and would stop tooth decay. Now if that were true there would be a lot less dentist today, right?? And what about countries outside of the US. Are there people dying in the streets of tooth decay? No. And they do not have any more incidence of tooth decay than we do here in the US. This deal was a deal to help out companies dispose of their toxic waste at our expense. Did you notice they now sell fluoride free bottles of water for baby formula?? Why? If it is so safe why are they selling fluoride free baby formula water? It is not safe. They lie to us all the time and we believe putting a toxin in our water is safe? There are about 13 countries just in Europe that do not put fluoride in their water and they do not have any higher incidence of cavities than we do here in the US. Good daily dental care is a much wiser prevention for cavities. Putting fluoride in our water was just another lie in order to save chemical plants a lot of money disposing of the toxic waste. ARTICLE

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By Damian Carrington

The Guardian

June 15, 2023

Rich countries are signing a “death sentence” for millions of poor people around the world by failing to phase out fossil fuels, the climate activist Greta Thunberg has told governments. She warned on Tuesday that with annual greenhouse gas emissions at an all-time high, only a “rapid and equitable” phaseout of fossil fuels would keep global temperatures within the scientifically advised limit of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. “The coming months and years – right now – will be crucial to what the future looks like. It is what we decide now that will define the rest of humanity’s future,” she told a press conference at UN talks in Bonn, where governments are meeting to discuss the climate crisis. “If we do not [phase out fossil fuels], it will be a death sentence for countless people. It is already a death sentence for countless people,” she said. Thunberg last Friday announced the end of her school strikes, which she has been undertaking on Fridays since 2018 in protest at political inaction on the climate crisis. The campaigner has left school but intends to carry on speaking out on climate issues, while also giving the spotlight to youth voices from the developing world. She said a lack of political will to halt fossil fuel exploration and use was threatening to raise global temperatures by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, which could lead the climate to pass “tipping points”, a cascade of impacts that could create runaway global heating. “We are still rushing towards the cliff. We could trigger feedback loops that are beyond human control, that would throw countless billions under the bus,” she said. The question of phasing out fossil fuels is expected to be a flashpoint at the Cop28 UN climate talks later this year. The summit will take place in Dubai, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, a major oil and gas producer. Many countries would like to see Cop28 produce a formal resolution to phase out fossil fuels, or at least to discuss such a phaseout as an official agenda item at the summit. But some countries, chiefly fossil fuel producers including Saudi Arabia, are staunchly opposed, and the UAE presidency has been cautious, saying there is not yet agreement on the agenda. Chairing the talks will be Sultan Al Jaber, a minister in the UAE government who is also chief of the country’s national oil company, Adnoc, which is planning a massive expansion of fossil fuel production capacity. Eric Njuguna, a climate justice organiser from Kenya, speaking with Thunberg, said Al Jaber’s dual role was a conflict of interest, and called on him to resign. “It is a stab in the back for poor countries to have a fossil fuel CEO on top of efforts to constrain the climate crisis,” he said. Al Jaber has told the Guardian he will bring a “business mindset” to the talks, and pointed to his role as co-founder of the Masdar renewable energy company in UAE. He visited the Bonn talks last Thursday, and told a public meeting: “The phase down of fossil fuels is inevitable.” But he stopped well short of promising to put a phaseout of fossil fuels on the Cop28 agenda. The talks in Bonn, which started last Monday and will end on Thursday, are to lay the groundwork for Cop28, the conference of the parties under the UN framework convention on climate change, which begins on 30 November. Progress at Bonn has been slow. Last week’s discussions were characterized by disputes over rich countries that are failing to provide financial assistance to developing countries, to help them cut their greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the impacts of the climate crisis. Alden Meyer, a senior associate at the thinktank E3G, said: “Much more work remains to be done to land an agreement at Cop28 for a just and equitable reduction of fossil fuel production and use in a time frame that’s consistent with the Paris [agreement] 1.5C goal.”

[t0rschlusspan1k]

29.12.2023 | Petitions for the environment and climate change.

Please read, share wherever you can, talk about them and if you can afford it, please, please, please donate - consider taking up a collection among your friends.

Actions.eko.com: Nestlé and P&G: Stop setting Indonesia’s rainforests on fire

Indonesia’s forests are burning – a thick toxic haze suffocates half of the country, keeping children out of school and forcing people and animals to relocate. But it didn’t happen by accident and we know who the arsonists are. Together, we will hold them accountable. Nestlé and Procter & Gamble are doing business with rogue palm oil and paper producers who recklessly burn precious rainforests to the ground to expand their monocultures, steal Indigenous lands, and drive orangutans, rhinos, and elephants closer to the brink of extinction. (keep reading)

Rainforest Action Network - RAN: This one is for donating, they need 100,00$ by December 31!

We urgently need your help to fight for the world's last rainforests in 2024 by making any size donation today. Those who believe they can change the world are the ones that do. Donate now.

Help us challenge mega-corporations like Liberty Mutual, Bank of America, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé and Mondelēz. Their thirst for endless profits contributes to the widespread destruction of irreplaceable rainforests like the Leuser Ecosystem of North Sumatra and the Amazon rainforest and fuels the expansion of dangerous fossil fuel projects that choke the life out of the planet. For a small organization, RAN's significant impact is only possible because of dedicated supporters like YOU. Your generous donation today makes a world of difference.

Rainforest Rescue: DRC: Do not sacrifice Congo's rainforests to the oil industry!

The DRC government in Kinshasa is nearing a point of no return: President Tshisekedi wants to sacrifice vast areas of Congo rainforest and peatland for oil. This would be an unmitigated disaster for the climate, biodiversity and local people. Together with our African partner organizations, we can put a stop to these plans. The rainforests of the Congo Basin are home to millions of people and countless animal and plant species, including chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas. They are a treasure trove of biodiversity and crucial to the fight against climate change. Despite this, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) began auctioning 27 oil and 3 gas blocks in late July. The blocks cover some of the last remaining intact forests on Earth. Three of the blocks overlap the Cuvette Centrale peatlands, which are estimated to store 30 billion tons of carbon, the equivalent to one years’ worth of global emissions. The peatlands are so vast and remote that little is known about the biodiversity at stake there. Nine oil blocks overlap protected areas. More than half of the Congo Basin's peatlands and 60 percent of its rainforest are in the DRC, the country plays a key role in the fight against the climate crisis. The science is clear: the governments of the world must cut carbon emissions in half within the next eight years. In his speech at the UN's COP26 conference in Glasgow, President Tshisekedi promoted the vital role of the Congo Basin forests in regulating the global climate and his intention to enhance DRC’s energy mix by "combining several types of energy: biomass, hydro, solar." The cost of not doing so, he said, would be a climate crisis. The world cannot afford any further expansion of oil and gas. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an immediate end to new investment in fossil fuel supply projects is the first step to keep global warming below 1.5°C and achieve global net zero emissions by 2050. In an alliance of environmentalists from Africa and around the world, we want to keep the oil in the ground and the fossil fuel industry out of the Congo Basin. Please sign our joint petition!

DR Congo: Stop the destruction by miners and loggers in Tshopo!

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to the second largest area of rainforest on Earth. Defending it is crucial to the fight against climate change and the extinction crisis. Yet miners are polluting rivers and loggers clearing forests in Tshopo province. In the small town of Basoko, local people are fighting back. The people of the small town of Basoko fear for their health and livelihoods: the Aruwimi River, a tributary of the Congo, has been polluted ever since the Chinese mining company Xiang Jiang Mining began dredging for gold there. Some species of fish have disappeared completely. Skin diseases are on the rise. "We say NO to mining in Aruwimi, which is destroying our ecosystem in an anarchic way," states a memorandum to the county government read during a demonstration. On March 11, 2022, residents of the region protested on land and with boats against the trashing of their environment. Mining is not the only threat to nature in Tshopo province: companies such as FODECO, Congo Futur and SOFORMA are reportedly logging at a breakneck pace near Basoko. "They are systematically plundering the forests without any benefit to local people," says Jean-François Mombia Atuku, chairman of the environmental protection organization RIAO-RDC. "Anyone who demands accountability is silenced," he said, adding that workers are "kept like slaves" in the forest. "Human rights are not relevant for these companies." The grievances regarding mining have been heard in the capital Kinshasa: In January 2022, Environment Minister Eve Bazaiba called on Xiang Jiang Mining to cease operations by February 25, 2022. However, nothing has changed since then – the company is still operating, apparently unimpressed. "What we need now is international pressure," says Jean-François Mombia Atuku. It must be brought to bear on President Tshisekedi, who positioned his country as a heavyweight in the fight against the climate crisis during the COP26 climate conference. It’s time to apply that international pressure – please sign our petition.