2020-02-29: News Headlines

Eds. (2020-02-29). Climate change and the class divide. mronline.org No, we're not all in it together. Our rulers are responsible for the system that's creating an ecological catastrophe. As that crisis intensifies, it's exposing and intensifying the divide between us and them. |

Henry A. Giroux (2020-02-29). Cult-Like Ignorance is Death: Trump and the Coronavirus. zcomm.org Trump has played down the urgency of the pandemic, blamed the media for distorting its seriousness, and believes that brown people are more of a threat to national security than real threats such as a pandemic and climate change…

sputniknews (2020-02-29). Resilient Ancient Humans Survived 'Volcanic Winter' 74,000 Years Ago Claims New Study. sputniknews.com The Toba super-eruption roughly 74,000 years ago was one of the most colossal that ancient man experienced. The so-called Toba catastrophe theory claims the event resulted in extreme cooling and triggered a glacial period that left humans on the brink of extinction.

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

(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 …

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'

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 …

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

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). 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…

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

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

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…

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, …