2020-12-25: News Headlines

Barbara Peterson (2020-12-25). Climate activists mount utility strike to urge the shutdown of New England coal plant. nationofchange.org The Strike Down Coal campaign provides a COVID-safe form of disobedience, building on more than a year of direct actions to shut down Merrimack Station.

_____ (2020-12-25). COVID-19, The Climate Crisis, And Mutual Aid. popularresistance.org After COVID-19 struck in spring 2020, the absence of a concerted federal response prompted people across the country to begin self-organizing everything from food distribution to sewing squads to shelter. That work continues today, drawing on a long tradition. | "Mutual aid," a concept coined by the Russian naturalist and anarchist Peter Kropotkin in his 1902 Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, refers to the principles of cooperation, and of people joining together to help each other. It ran counter to the then-hegemonic Darwinian theories emphasizing competition and survival of the fittest. Kropotkin did not deny…

Jessica Corbett (2020-12-25). Coalition sues Trump administration over 'outrageous assault' on Tongass National Forest protections. nationofchange.org "Trump's reckless plan to clearcut old-growth trees in the Tongass will irreversibly damage our climate, kill wildlife, and devastate Southeast Alaska communities."

Amanda Mills (2020-12-25). EU bans plastic waste exports to poorer countries. nationofchange.org "This is an important milestone in fighting plastic pollution, transitioning shifting to a circular economy, and achieving the aims of the European Green Deal."

commondreams (2020-12-24). 'The Courts Are a Sham': New Hampshire Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Rights of Nature, Healthy Climate Arguments. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Anand Naidoo (2020-12-24). The Heat: Climate Change Challenges for 2021. america.cgtn.com In 2020, the world reeled from the worst public health crisis in a century and extreme weather events brought on by climate change. So, what challenges lie ahead in 2021?>

Staff (2020-12-24). Arsenic Contamination in US Public Water Is More Likely in Latinx Communities. truthout.org A new survey shows arsenic levels in public water are disproportionately high in certain U.S. communities, despite national regulatory standards designed to protect people from the harmful chemical. | Researchers studied approximately 13 million records from 2006 to 2011 covering 139,000 public water systems in 46 states, Washington D.C., and Native American tribes. The records cover water service for 290 million people, representing 95 percent of all public water systems and 92 percent of t…

Online News Editor (2020-12-24). El Salvador works to save endangered sea turtles that hatch along its coast. laprensalatina.com By Sara Acosta San Salvador, Dec 23 (efe-epa).- On the coasts of El Salvador at least four species of sea turtles, two of them in critical danger of extinction, lay their eggs and are protected by the residents of the areas together with environmental NGOs. In central ?La Libertad, specifically on San Diego beach, the …

A Guest Author (2020-12-23). Since Paris Agreement — the five hottest years ever. workers.org By Mayana Ashley-Carner On Dec. 12, 2015, politicians and world leaders signed the Paris Agreement, an international pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to decrease the effects of climate change. But as climate activist Greta Thunberg reported in a recent video, data shows that the past five years have . . . |

Scott Williams (2020-12-23). The Youth Are the Vanguard. workers.org A talk given at a "Young Communists Speak: Why Join a Revolutionary Party?" webinar sponsored by Workers World Party on Dec. 10. We are gathered here today to talk about the crisis facing young workers and the intense radicalization of younger generations here in the heart of the empire. It . . . |

Matthew Rozsa (2020-12-23). Did the pandemic stave off climate change? Here's what the science says. salon.com Humans drove less, flew less, and commuted less in 2020. But greenhouse gas accounting is notoriously tricky…

Shawgi Tell (2020-12-23). Charter Schools Spend Millions On Advertising and Marketing. dissidentvoice.org Unlike public schools, private businesses like charter schools spend millions of public dollars a year on advertising and marketing. Putting aside widespread fraud and corruption in the segregated charter school sector, this is an enormous waste and abuse of public funds, especially at a time when public schools are being starved of much-needed public funds …

Justin Mikulka (2020-12-23). How the fracking revolution is killing the US oil and gas industry. nationofchange.org "Does investing in oil and gas companies still make sense?"

teleSUR (2020-12-23). Honduras: Activists Demand the Release of Water Protectors. telesurenglish.net Honduran activists vow to continue fighting for the release of eight water protectors who have been imprisoned for over a year, following a recent court decsion in which their freedom was denied. | RELATED: | The eight environmentalists were illegally jailed while defending the Carlos Escaleras National Park and the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers as a mining project led by Honduran company Inversiones Los Pinare…

Julia Conley, staff writer (2020-12-23). Climate Groups Call on Biden to Nominate Andy Levin as Labor Secretary. commondreams.org Highlighting the need to unite the labor movement behind the push for far-reaching climate action including a just transition to a renewable energy economy, several environmental groups are calling on President-elect Joe Biden to nominate Rep. Andy Levin as his secretary of labor. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/gettyimages-1198921164_1.jpg

Brett Wilkins, staff writer (2020-12-23). Climate Cost of Organic Meat Is Just as High as That of Conventionally Grown Animals: Study. commondreams.org "The prices are lying," said one of the study's researchers. "Climate costs are rising and we are all paying these costs." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/pigs_0_0.jpg

imperial.ac.uk (2020-12-23). 7 optimistic environmental stories from this year. imperial.ac.uk This year, we saw large strides in combating one of the greatest issues of our time — climate change.

The Xerces Society (2020-12-23). Much-Needed Federal Protection for America's Beloved Monarch Butterfly Warranted, but Precluded. indybay.org U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agrees that monarchs are threatened with extinction, but does not yet provide the protection that monarchs need to recover.

Gary M. Kramer (2020-12-23). With "Midnight Sky," George Clooney directs a visually arresting post-apocalyptic yawnfest. salon.com Based on the book "Good Morning, Midnight," the Netflix film offers an intriguing premise but wastes its cast…

David Kotz (2020-12-23). Green Social Democracy Offers the Most Viable Path Toward a Sustainable Future. zcomm.org If a period of green social democracy emerges in the next five or 10 years, we could see significant progress against global climate change and improvement in the lives of working people, young people and people of color…

Manuel García, Jr. (2020-12-22). Sustainability is Morality. counterpunch.org For me, the sustainability crisis — of which global warming climate change is a very prominent symptom — is a moral issue. The locus of immorality driving that crisis is the nature of our civilization. Undoing that immorality would require destroying all our politics and economics, and abandoning all our ideologies and religions — which

Tom Taylor (2020-12-22). The US's "Best" University Fuels the Climate Crisis. Princeton Must Divest. zcomm.org As young people, we will have to live with the effects of inaction from institutions like Princeton for the rest of our lives. And so, we organize…