2020-02-28: News Headlines

Zoya Teirstein (2020-02-28). After Bloomberg, climate was public enemy no. 2 at Nevada Democratic debate. peoplesworld.org If you're reading this, congratulations! You've made it to the ninth — yes, the NINTH — Democratic primary debate. With each new debate, a shrinking cohort of presidential contenders has had the opportunity to make their climate pitch before millions of Americans, moderators' questions permitting. The candidates have grown increasingly adept at weaving issues like rising …

The Canary (2020-02-28). Chris Packham criticises anti-bird netting on Cambridge University trees. thecanary.co Chris Packham has branded Cambridge University's move to cover a row of trees with nets to stop birds from nesting as "absolutely outrageous", with activists from Extinction Rebellion responding by tearing some of the netting down. | The conservationist's social media post was prompted by photographs of the trees, with their branches completely encased in He wrote: "Seriously? I thought we'd been through this last year! This is absolutely outrageous!" | Seriously ? I thought we'd been through this last year ! This i…

Tracy Keeling (2020-02-28). George Monbiot nails why trolls are hell bent on vilifying people like Greta Thunberg. thecanary.co Greta Thunberg Reading tweets from boomers complaining about — Dan

Mark Hertsgaard (2020-02-28). Donald Trump's Climate Policy: 'Get Your Mops and Buckets Ready'. thenation.com Donald Trump's Climate Policy: 'Get Your Mops and Buckets Ready'

(2020-02-28). Endangered Species in America: "Moose, Western Bumblebee, Venus Flytrap, … Plants and Animals in Desperate Need of Help" globalresearch.ca The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration today for failing to decide whether 241 plants and animals across the country — from the Midwest's golden-winged warbler to Venus flytraps in the Carolinas — should be protected under the …

Extinction Rebellion SF Bay (2020-02-28). Heading for Extinction and What to Do About It. indybay.org 2727 Milvia St, Berkeley, CA 94703…

Larry Romanoff (2020-02-28). State-Sponsored Commercial Espionage. The Global Theft of Ideas. globalresearch.ca After digesting its massive theft of ideas, things and people from Paperclip following the end of World War II, the US wasted no time in designing and implementing the world's largest network of commercial espionage that has ever existed, and …

William Hartung (2020-02-28). It's Time to Debate Pentagon Spending. counterpunch.org Despite hopes to the contrary, the Pentagon's new, $740 billion-plus budget will waste scarce tax dollars while making America less safe. With the presidential primaries accelerating, it's time for the candidates to address this urgent issue. This extraordinary spending has a direct impact on American taxpayers when it comes at the expense of diplomacy, education,

Jessica Corbett, staff writer (2020-02-28). 'World Leaders Are Behaving Like Children,' Greta Thunberg Tells Thousands of Bristol Strikers in Call for Climate Action. commondreams.org Fridays for Future founder Greta Thunberg spent her 80th consecutive week of striking for climate action leading tens of thousands of demonstrators in a march through Bristol, England and delivering a speech in which she called for continued protests to pressure people in power to ambitiously address the planetary emergency. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/gettyimages-12039532801.jpg

People's Voice (2020-02-27). "Net zero" isn't zero enough when it comes to climate change. peoplesworld.org This guest op-ed originally appeared as an editorial in People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Imagine a really radical government policy to reduce homelessness to zero. It involves building lots of housing—at least one unit for every homeless person. The catch, though, is that homeless people aren't allowed to move into the units. Instead, they …

RT (2020-02-27). World Cup-winner Del Piero prevented from receiving Russian visa over killer coronavirus fears – reports. rt.com A Russian visa is notriously difficult to obtain, so spare a thought for World Cup winner Alessandro Del Piero who was prevented from obtaining a visa in Italy, instead traveling from LA to Armenia due to coronavirus fears. | For those of you who have ever attempted traveling to Russia, you'll know that ahead of the extreme climate and imposing language barrier, there is one roadblock that stands above all as the most difficult to circumvent: the Russian visa process. | Jumping through the obligatory hoops to get your hands on a visa can be exasperating, so spare a thought for Italian World Cup winner Alesssan…

Staff (2020-02-27). How the Climate Crisis Is Making the Spread of Infectious Diseases Like Coronavirus More Common. democracynow.org Sonia Shah is an investigative science journalist and author of "Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond." Her new book is titled "The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move" and will be published in June. She says the climate crisis is making outbreaks of infectious diseases more common, with the destruction of natural animal habitats and the changes in migration bringing humans and animals into ever-closer contact and making new pathogens more likely. Her latest article, published in The Nation, is titled "Think Exotic Animals Are to Blame for the Coronavirus? Th…

RT (2020-02-27). 'Defund racist border wall!' Warren's 'solution' to coronavirus crisis causes mass eye-rolling on Twitter. rt.com Senator Elizabeth Warren announced a bill that would use funding for President Donald Trump's "racist border wall" to combat the coronavirus outbreak — a plan that is earning plenty of eye rolls on social media. | Warren is not letting the coronavirus crisis go to waste. The Massachusetts senator tweeted on Thursday a bill that would move funding from construction of the southern border wall in the US to the Department of Health and Human Services and US Aid to fight the disease. | The senator warned that the virus poses a "serious health, diplomatic and economic threat." Her bill would remove "all fundi…

Staff (2020-02-27). Climate Crisis Is Increasing the Spread of Infectious Diseases Like Coronavirus. truthout.org Sonia Shah is an investigative science journalist and author of Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond. Her new book is titled The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move and will be published in June. She says the climate crisis is making outbreaks of infectious diseases more common, with the destruction of natural animal habitats and the changes in migration bringing humans and animals into ever-closer contact and making new pathogens more li…

Staff (2020-02-27). Oregon Republicans Shut Down State Senate and Flee to Block Climate Bill. truthout.org Republican state senators in Oregon fled the state capitol on Monday in a stunt intended to derail the passage of a climate change bill supported by a majority of lawmakers for the second time in eight months. | Oregon requires two-thirds of the state Senate's members to be present for a quorum, without which the chamber cannot vote on bills. Eleven of the 12 Republican senators fled the state capitol in Salem on Monday to deny the Democratic supermajority a quorum to prevent a vote on a bill to…

Extinction Rebellion (2020-02-27). Heathrow Victory — We did it. zcomm.org This afternoon, the Court ruled against the expansion of Heathrow airport, effectively grinding the plans to build a third runway to a halt…

sputniknews (2020-02-27). Scientists Say Almost All Coral Reefs Will Die in 20 Years Due to Pollution and Climate Change. sputniknews.com Although they occupy less than one percent of underwater surfaces, coral reefs are an invaluable part of marine ecosystems. They are even called the rainforests of the sea as they provide home and food to millions of species.

Susan Price (2020-02-27). Blacktown Council declares climate emergency. greenleft.org.au Activists from Cool Down Western Sydney organised petitions and c…

pip.hinman (2020-02-27). The climate crisis can't wait: 2050 is too late. greenleft.org.au

Julia Conley, staff writer (2020-02-27). UN Human Rights Chief Slams Trump for Attacks on Environment, Refugees, and Children. commondreams.org Michelle Bachelet, the top human rights official for the United Nations, condemned the Trump administration for the rights violations caused by President Donald Trump's anti-immigration and anti-climate science policies, including the U.S. in an accounting of major human rights threats around the world. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/49583619342_35701c26c8_o1.jpg

Jessica Corbett, staff writer (2020-02-27). 'Groundbreaking Result for Climate Justice': UK Appeal Court Rules Plans for Third Runway at Heathrow Airport Illegal. commondreams.org Climate campaingers celebrated an "amazing and historic win" Thursday after a United Kingdom court ruled against plans to build a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport because the government's approval of the expansion "had not taken into account its own firm policy commitments on climate change under the Paris agreement." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/gettyimages-12036457271_0.jpg

W. T. Whitney Jr. (2020-02-26). Like capitalism's previous calamities, climate change hits the poorest worst. peoplesworld.org Uruguayan ecologist Silvia Ribeiro, reporting on the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos (where one item on the agenda was "better capitalism"), notes that the "transnationals, the main causes of climate change, finally are recognizing the gravity of the situation … What they are doing is settling into a new wave of business opportunities, new …

teleSUR (2020-02-26). Climate Activist Thunberg Among Favorites To Win Nobel Prize. telesurenglish.net Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg is among the favorites to win the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, following nominations by politicians. | RELATED: | Norway's Nobel Institute, which does not confirm or deny the names of any particular individuals or organizations nominated, said on Wednesday it had received nominations for 317 candidates this year, up from 301 in 2019. Of these 210 were individuals and 107 were orga…

commondreams (2020-02-26). Environment America, Dozens More Groups Sign Climate Strong Islands Declaration. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Manuel García, Jr. (2020-02-26). Climate Change and Voting 2020. counterpunch.org Today, humanity faces a situation unique in the 200,000 year existence of our species Homo sapiens sapiens, and unique in the 2 million year existence of our genus, Homo: the unprecedented steady linear advance of global warming since 1970, which is making our planet irreversibly less habitable as time progresses, and which is driven entirely

Andrea Germanos, staff writer (2020-02-26). 'Horrifying': AOC, Green Groups Criticize Debate Moderators for Asking Zero Climate Questions. commondreams.org It's "honestly shocking that CBS, in the final Democratic debate before Super Tuesday, didn't ask a single question about the defining issue of our lives," said the Sunrise Movement. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/10th-debate-climate-aoc.jpg

news.un (2020-02-25). More funding needed to combat locust swarms 'unprecedented in modern times'. news.un.org Along with climate shocks, conflict and acute food insecurity, the East Africa region now faces a hunger threat from desert locusts, top UN relief officials warned on Tuesday, saying action now, will avert a major food crisis later.

pip.hinman (2020-02-24). The problem with taking politics out of climate change. greenleft.org.au You can understand why, given the paralysis grippi…

news.un (2020-02-23). UN deputy chief see first-hand toll of climate change on Zimbabwe's natural habitat. news.un.org Alongside the human population, Africa's animals are suffering greatly from the effects of climate change, which United Nations Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed saw first-hand on Sunday in Zimbabwe.

CounterSpin (2020-02-21). Paul Paz y Miño, Saqib Bhatti & Beverly Bell on Environmental Justice & Cross-National Solidarity. fair.org There will only be an increasing number of frontline struggles between extractive, climate-disrupting industry and those willing to stand up to it. Corporate media's inadequate attention, and unwillingness to truly call out the moneyed interests causing present and future harms, make them more often part of the problem than the solution.

pip.hinman (2020-02-21). Climate emergency demands system change. greenleft.org.au

Brian Tokar (2020-02-02). What Will it Take to Prevent Climate Collapse? zcomm.org Perhaps we can even begin to realize the dream of a liberated and truly interdependent global community of communities. The future of life on earth may depend on our ability to do just that…

Lawrence Wittner (2020-01-26). Could the Climate Crisis Be "The Good News of Damnation"? zcomm.org On August 12, 1945, six days after the U.S. government obliterated the city of Hiroshima with a single atomic bomb, Robert Hutchins, the president of the University of Chicago, delivered a remarkable public address. Speaking on his weekly radio program, the Chicago Roundtable, Hutchins observed that Leon Bloy, a French philosopher, had referred to "the

Jon Rainwater (2019-11-07). Take Action — Some actual, SANE legislation. peaceaction.org Trump has plans to spend nearly $2 TRILLION over the next 30 years on unneeded and unnecessary nuclear weapons and delivery systems. This makes no sense. This is insane. That's nearly $100 million wasted every day for thirty years on weapons we are supposed to be getting rid of. To put that amount in perspective, …