Thursday, September 19, 2019
Greta Thunberg Just Delivered Her Testimony to US Lawmakers: It Was a Landmark UN Climate Report
"I don't want you to listen to me," said the youth climate leader. "I want you to listen to the scientists."
Rather than delivering
prepared remarks, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg submitted
a landmark United Nations report on global warming as testimony at a U.S. House
hearing Wednesday and urged federal lawmakers to heed experts' warnings about
the necessity of ambitious, urgent efforts to address the planetary emergency.
"I am submitting this
report as my testimony because I don't want you to listen to me," said the
Fridays for Future founder. "I want you to listen to the scientists. And I
want you to unite behind the science. And then I want you to take real
action."
Thunberg appeared at
a joint hearing of
the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia,
Energy, and the Environment and the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
The Special
Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (pdf) that Thunberg submitted was
released last October by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC). Warning that "climate change represents an urgent and potentially
irreversible threat to human societies and the planet," the report called
for "rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented" reforms on a
global scale to avert climate catastrophe.
Thunberg's decision to submit
the report as her testimony was widely praised by other climate advocates.
"Yes!" tweeted the
Natural Resources Defense Council. "Greta Thunberg is telling us exactly what
the scientists have been saying for years—we have to rapidly reduce emissions
to protect all humanity together. Starting now. No more excuses."
Bill McKibben, co-founder of
the environmental advocacy group 350.org, praised Thunberg as "one great
politician" and "a master of the gesture."
Linking to Thunberg's short
remarks explaining the move, 350.org co-founder Jaime Henn tweeted,
"This is so badass."
The joint hearing Wednesday also
featured testimonies from
Jamie Margolin, co-founder of This Is Zero Hour and a plaintiff in Piper
v. State of Washington; Vic Barrett, fellow at the Alliance for Climate
Education and a plaintiff in Juliana v. United States; and Benji Backer,
president of the American Conservation Coalition.
The hearing preceded a global
week of action that will kick off with climate
strikes worldwide on Friday. The demonstrations will coincide with the
U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York City.
Thunberg traveled on
a zero-carbon sailboat across the Atlantic to New York last month to
participate in the strikes, summit, and other related events—including to deliver an
another address to members of Congress Wednesday at 5 pm ET.
University of California Will Divest From Fossil Fuels
Jordan Davidson
Sep. 18, 2019 10:23AM EST
The University of California system will dump all of its investments from fossil fuels, as the Associated Press reported. The university system controls over $84 billion between its pension fund and its endowment. However, the announcement about its investments is not aimed to please activists.
In a joint op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Jagdeep Singh Bachher and Richard Sherman, University of California's chief investment officer and the chairman of the UC Board of Regents' investment committee, declared that since they are charged with protecting the financial interests of one of the world's best public research universities, investing in fossil fuels posed too many financial risks.
"We believe hanging on to fossil fuel assets is a financial risk," Bachner and Sherman wrote in the Los Angeles Times. "That's why we will have made our $13.4-billion endowment "fossil free" as of the end of this month, and why our $70-billion pension will soon be that way as well."
They went on to refute the idea that their decision is born of political pressure or a desire to dive headlong into the green movement, but acknowledged that while their investing is not borne from a moral imperative, their thorough analysis has led them to the same place as activists.
"We have been looking years, decades and centuries ahead as we place our bets that clean energy will fuel the world's future," they wrote in the Los Angeles Times. "That means we believe there is money to be made. We have chosen to invest for a better planet, and reap the financial rewards for UC, rather than simply divest for a headline."
While this divestment alone will not cripple the fossil fuel industry, it sets a precedent that might if other universities follow suit. In 2016, Peabody Energy declared bankruptcy and cited divestment as one of the forces that hampered its operations, according to Rolling Stone.
Writing in the New Yorker, 350.org co-founder, Bill McKibben said the divestment campaign has not only been effective, but revealed a lot about the morally bankrupt character of the fossil-fuel industry. "The divestment campaign has brought home the starkest fact of the global-warming era: that the industry has in its reserves five times as much carbon as the scientific consensus thinks we can safely burn," he wrote.
"The pressure has helped cost the industry much of its social license; one religious institution after another has divested from oil and gas, and Pope Francis has summoned industry executives to the Vatican to tell them that they must leave carbon underground."
McKibben goes on in that essay to suggest divesting from the major banks that are funding the fossil fuel industry, mining operations, and Amazon deforestation.
The Bachher and Sherman article appeared yesterday; the same day that the University of California's president and all 10 chancellors signed a letter declaring a climate emergency, according to a University of California statement.
The University of California's leaders agreed to a three-point plant that includes an increase in climate research and environmental education and to achieve climate neutrality by 2025. The university has pursued the carbon neutrality by 2025 goal since 2013, when Janet Napolitano left her post as Secretary of Homeland Security to takeover as University of California president. Since she announced that initiative, the university moved away from fossil fuels and rapidly expanded its use of solar power and other renewable energy sources, according to the UC statement.
"We have a moral responsibility to take swift action on climate change," UC President Janet Napolitano said in the statement. "This declaration reaffirms UC's commitment to addressing one of the greatest existential threats of our time."
BEE ALERT
More than half a billion bees have died in Brazil over the last 4 months after the government approved an unprecedented number of bee-killing pesticides.
Bee species were already facing extinction, and the massive die-off in Brazil has been a gut-punch to their survival.
The massive global bee die-off is one of the most under-covered environmental catastrophes ever.
Before the Bolsonaro government took power in Brazil, more than 700 pesticides were classified as 'extremely toxic' and banned for use in Brazil.
Bee species were already facing extinction, and the massive die-off in Brazil has been a gut-punch to their survival.
The massive global bee die-off is one of the most under-covered environmental catastrophes ever.
Before the Bolsonaro government took power in Brazil, more than 700 pesticides were classified as 'extremely toxic' and banned for use in Brazil.
Now that number is just 43.
The country is allowing the use of dozens of bee-killing pesticides that have been banned in the European Union and North America.
It's not just in Brazil where bees are in danger.
The country is allowing the use of dozens of bee-killing pesticides that have been banned in the European Union and North America.
It's not just in Brazil where bees are in danger.
Many of the pesticides used in Brazil are neonicotinoids, chemicals that damage bees' nervous systems and harm reproduction.
Neonics contributed to the loss of 40% of U.S. honeybee colonies last winter.
But the Trump administration has ignored research and rolled back limits on neonicotinoids, putting the bees in even more danger.
Bees pollinate in every three foods we eat, and they are critical to our ecosystem.
Bees pollinate in every three foods we eat, and they are critical to our ecosystem.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)