Monthly Archives: June 2020

2020-06-28: News Headlines

Eds. (2020-06-28). The Coronavirus pandemic, ecological catastrophe and global capitalism: an interlocking phenomenon. mronline.org The COVID-19 pandemic has unravelled the close structural links between the climate crisis and the global capitalist mode of production.

The Canary (2020-06-28). Greta Thunberg criticises leaders who want selfies with her to 'look good'. thecanary.co Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg has hit out at world leaders for taking pictures with her to "look good".The 17-year-old became a global star thanks to her climate activism. She gave a powerful speech at the United Nations (UN) climate change summit in September 2019, in which she told world leaders: You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words… how dare you!"It makes them seem like they care": As part of a series she's made for Swedish radio about her campaigning, Thunberg revealed that German chancellor Angela Merkel had queued up to have a "selfie" with her at the internatio…

Unitarian Univeralist Association (2020-06-28). Sunday 6/28: 'The Condor & The Eagle' New Film & Discussion on Climate & Indigenous Rights (online). indybay.org Online/virtual…

The Lancet (2020-06-27). [Editorial] Generation coronavirus? thelancet.com The catastrophic elements that have perpetuated the COVID-19 pandemic—global interconnectedness, climate change due to human activity, vast economic inequality, and deep veins of antiscience—have resulted in more than 9 million infections and almost 500‚Äà000 deaths worldwide. Although children might be less susceptible to infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and generally have better outcomes than adults, COVID-19 as a phenomenon weighs heavily on their health and wellbeing.

Carter Dillard (2020-06-27). From COVID-19 to climate change, human overpopulation is the big white elephant in the room. nationofchange.org Experts warn that continued world population growth will make things worse.

Ashley Curtin (2020-06-27). Bayer agrees to pay $10 billion to settle RoundUp cancer cases. nationofchange.org Bayer will have to pay between "$8.8 billion to $9.6 billion to resolve current Roundup lawsuits."

yenisafak (2020-06-27). Irish parliament elects Micheál Martin as prime minister. yenisafak.com Micheál Martin was elected as Ireland's new prime minister by parliament on Saturday to head a coalition tasked with tackling the economic repercussions of the coronavirus crisis and moving fast on climate action as demanded by its smallest member, the Greens.Martin's Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, Ireland's two dominant centre-right parties who have swapped power since emerging from opposing sides of Ireland's 1920s civil war, will rule together for the first time in the three-party government.Martin, who has held several senior ministries including health, trade, foreign affairs and education in previous administra…

Pepe Eggers (2020-06-27). End of a Career. Obituary The "Swabian housewife" indybay.org The "Swabian housewife" dominated politics. Now she is buried by her inventors, of all people. | The state is not a business or a housewife but can borrow and become indebted to help present and future generations. | Systemic change, not climate change! Fight ignorance, not immigrants!

Alan Macleod (2020-06-26). Activists Urge US Dept of Agriculutre to Deny Deadly New Monsanto GMO-Herbicide Combo. mintpressnews.com The US is considering approving the product even as Monsanto juggles multiple multi-million dollar lawsuits from cancer patients over its deadly Roundup herbicide.

Jessica Corbett, staff writer (2020-06-26). 'Outrageous and Chilling': Police Condemned for Charging Peaceful Environmentalists With 'Terrorizing' in Louisiana. commondreams.org At least 40 U.S. climate and environmental advocacy groups on Friday rallied behind two Louisiana Bucket Brigade activists who are facing felony "terrorizing" charges for leaving a box of plastic pellets collected from Texas waters near a Formosa Plastics facility on the doorstep of a fossil fuel lobbyist in December 2019. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/lbb.jpg

Stuart Munckton (2020-06-26). Hans Baer looks at how car dependence is driving us to extinction. greenleft.org.au Motor Vehicles, the Environment & the Human Condition: Driving to Extinction
| By Hans A Baer
| Lexington Books, 2019
| 258 pages | As the global climate emergency intensifies, this political ecological critique of the motor vehicle is timely and powerful. Melbourne…

Robert Hunziker (2020-06-26). Amazon Rainforest Hit by Killer Droughts. dissidentvoice.org Over the past 20 years, like clockwork, severe droughts have hit the Amazon every five years with regularity 2005, 2010, 2015. Of course, droughts have hit the Amazon rainforest throughout paleoclimate history, but this time it's different. The frequency and severity is off the charts. Recent data is starting to show 2020 as another dire …

Tina Gerhardt (2020-06-26). Will Big Oil Pay a Price for its Lies? progressive.org A new D.C. lawsuit targets the world's four largest oil companies for misleading consumers about climate change.

Amanda Mills (2020-06-26). Bayer to pay $10 billion in cancer lawsuits over Roundup. nationofchange.org "Even as we celebrate and congratulate those who made this day possible, millions of people are being exposed to glyphosate."

_____ (2020-06-25). Democratizing Energy To Counter The Climate Catastrophe. popularresistance.org Youth climate activists have been striking to demand immediate climate action from political powers. They conjoined the issues of climate and labor by calling for a global climate strike in September, 2019, in which a historic 7.6 million schoolkids, (grand)parents and workers from 185 countries participated. Over 70 trade unions around the world supported the strike and the number of climate groups that are demanding a just transition for fossil fuel workers are also steadily increasing. | The European landscape of climate activism is becoming densely populated. Numerous communities are defending nature together…

Staff (2020-06-25). Repair & Revive: Rev. William Barber on Fighting Racism, Poverty, Climate Change, War & Nationalism. democracynow.org The Poor People's Campaign offered a counterpoint to President Trump's sparsely attended Tulsa campaign rally with a mass digital gathering that unveiled a policy platform to spur "transformative action" on five key issues of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and the threat of religious nationalism. "We have to repair and revive," says Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign. "That has to be a part of if we're truly going to ever be the democracy we claim to be on paper."

John Bellamy Foster (2020-06-25). ROAR Roundtable: COVID-19 and the climate crisis. mronline.org If "everything affects and is affected by every other thing," we must respond to the dangers to human existence in the 21st century by changing the system, creating a different form of social metabolic reproduction. There is no other way.

WSWS (2020-06-25). New York Times column: Pandemic shows need to curtail "unnecessary" and "wasteful" doctor's visits. wsws.org Dr. Sandeep Jauhar makes the remarkable argument that patients who have stopped going to the doctor during the COVID-19 outbreak "seem to have done OK," and concludes that Americans have too much access to health care.

_____ (2020-06-25). USA: 'Qualified Immunity' Is How the Police State Stays in Power. truepublica.org.uk By Constitutional attorney John W Whitehead — Charlottesville, Virginia: The system is rigged, the government is corrupt, and "we the people" continue to waste our strength by fighting each other rather than standing against the tyrant in our midst. Because the system is rigged, because the government is corrupt, and because "we the people" remain polarized and divided, the police …

yenisafak (2020-06-25). Bayer to pay up to $10.9 bln to settle bulk of Roundup weedkiller cancer lawsuits. yenisafak.com The German drugs and pesticides maker has come to terms with about 75% of the 125,000 filed and unfiled claims overall, it said in a statement on Wednesday of the deal to end legal disputes it inherited with its $63 billion takeover of Monsanto in 2018.The settled cases over Roundup and other glyphosate-based weedkillers account for about 95% of those currently set for trial, it added."The Roundup settlement is the right action at the right time for Bayer to bring a long period of uncertainty to an end," Bayer Chief Executive Werner Baumann said. "Unfortunately, we have to pay an awful lot of money for a product…

Jessica Corbett, staff writer (2020-06-25). DC Sues Fossil Fuel Giants for Decades of Spending Millions to 'Mislead Consumers and Discredit Climate Science in Pursuit of Profits'. commondreams.org District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine on Thursday sued fossil fuel giants BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Royal Dutch Shell for "systematically and intentionally" misleading D.C. consumers about the role their products play in causing the climate crisis—following in the footsteps of other communities and states across the country, including Minnesota on Wednesday. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/gettyimages-9811581711.jpg

Zero Hedge (2020-06-24). Bayer Pays $10 Billion to Settle Thousands of Monsanto Glyphosate Lawsuits. globalresearch.ca After decades of widespread use as company scientists played down research showing a definitive link between the product and growing rates of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Monsanto parent company Bayer has agreed to pay up to $10 billion to settle claims that …

Andrea Germanos, staff writer (2020-06-24). In Minnesota, Ellison Announces Climate Lawsuit Against Exxon, Koch, and API. commondreams.org "There are no more worthy targets of a climate fraud lawsuit than Exxon, Koch Industries, and API: the unholy trinity of climate denial." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/minnesota-sues-koch-exxon-api.jpg

Media Lens (2020-06-24). "Six Months To Avert Climate Crisis": Climate Breakdown And The Corporate Media. dissidentvoice.org In his classic science fiction novel, Foundation, Isaac Asimov posited a future in which 'psychohistorians' could predict outcomes based on past history and the large-scale behaviour of human populations by combining psychology and the mathematics of probability. Using 'psychohistory', the protagonist Hari Seldon discovers that the 12,000-year-old Galactic Empire will collapse in 500 years. He …

commondreams (2020-06-24). Minnesota A.G. Ellison Sues Exxon, Koch Industries for Lying About Climate Change. commondreams.org ______________________________…

WSWS (2020-06-24). Siberian Arctic records temperature above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. wsws.org Thawing permafrost in the Arctic is one of several "tipping points" that can trigger even greater climate-related catastrophes.

Steve Topple (2020-06-24). Here are the private companies with £million contracts for the failed NHSX tracing app. thecanary.co A storm has erupted over the failed government track and trace app for coronavirus (Covid-19). Because it's emerged that it wasted millions of pounds on the unsuccessful tech. So, people are wondering where this money has gone. But we already know part of that answer. | Corona chaos: | The Guardian

sputniknews (2020-06-24). First COVID-19 Case Registered at Chernobyl Nuclear Plant. sputniknews.com In mid-March, Ukraine introduced a nationwide quarantine for a month and subsequently extended it several times. The Ukrainian government decided to relax coronavirus-related restrictions starting 11 May.

2020-06-27: News Headlines

The Lancet (2020-06-27). [Editorial] Generation coronavirus? thelancet.com The catastrophic elements that have perpetuated the COVID-19 pandemic—global interconnectedness, climate change due to human activity, vast economic inequality, and deep veins of antiscience—have resulted in more than 9 million infections and almost 500‚Äà000 deaths worldwide. Although children might be less susceptible to infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and generally have better outcomes than adults, COVID-19 as a phenomenon weighs heavily on their health and wellbeing.

yenisafak (2020-06-27). Irish parliament elects Micheál Martin as prime minister. yenisafak.com Micheál Martin was elected as Ireland's new prime minister by parliament on Saturday to head a coalition tasked with tackling the economic repercussions of the coronavirus crisis and moving fast on climate action as demanded by its smallest member, the Greens.Martin's Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, Ireland's two dominant centre-right parties who have swapped power since emerging from opposing sides of Ireland's 1920s civil war, will rule together for the first time in the three-party government.Martin, who has held several senior ministries including health, trade, foreign affairs and education in previous administra…

Pepe Eggers (2020-06-27). End of a Career. Obituary The "Swabian housewife" indybay.org The "Swabian housewife" dominated politics. Now she is buried by her inventors, of all people. | The state is not a business or a housewife but can borrow and become indebted to help present and future generations. | Systemic change, not climate change! Fight ignorance, not immigrants!

Unitarian Univeralist Association (2020-06-27). Sunday 6/28: 'The Condor & The Eagle' New Film & Discussion on Climate & Indigenous Rights (online). indybay.org Online/virtual…

Alan Macleod (2020-06-26). Activists Urge US Dept of Agriculutre to Deny Deadly New Monsanto GMO-Herbicide Combo. mintpressnews.com The US is considering approving the product even as Monsanto juggles multiple multi-million dollar lawsuits from cancer patients over its deadly Roundup herbicide.

Stuart Munckton (2020-06-26). Hans Baer looks at how car dependence is driving us to extinction. greenleft.org.au Motor Vehicles, the Environment & the Human Condition: Driving to Extinction
| By Hans A Baer
| Lexington Books, 2019
| 258 pages | As the global climate emergency intensifies, this political ecological critique of the motor vehicle is timely and powerful. Melbourne…

Robert Hunziker (2020-06-26). Amazon Rainforest Hit by Killer Droughts. dissidentvoice.org Over the past 20 years, like clockwork, severe droughts have hit the Amazon every five years with regularity 2005, 2010, 2015. Of course, droughts have hit the Amazon rainforest throughout paleoclimate history, but this time it's different. The frequency and severity is off the charts. Recent data is starting to show 2020 as another dire …

Tina Gerhardt (2020-06-26). Will Big Oil Pay a Price for its Lies? progressive.org A new D.C. lawsuit targets the world's four largest oil companies for misleading consumers about climate change.

Amanda Mills (2020-06-26). Bayer to pay $10 billion in cancer lawsuits over Roundup. nationofchange.org "Even as we celebrate and congratulate those who made this day possible, millions of people are being exposed to glyphosate."

_____ (2020-06-25). Democratizing Energy To Counter The Climate Catastrophe. popularresistance.org Youth climate activists have been striking to demand immediate climate action from political powers. They conjoined the issues of climate and labor by calling for a global climate strike in September, 2019, in which a historic 7.6 million schoolkids, (grand)parents and workers from 185 countries participated. Over 70 trade unions around the world supported the strike and the number of climate groups that are demanding a just transition for fossil fuel workers are also steadily increasing. | The European landscape of climate activism is becoming densely populated. Numerous communities are defending nature together…

Staff (2020-06-25). Repair & Revive: Rev. William Barber on Fighting Racism, Poverty, Climate Change, War & Nationalism. democracynow.org The Poor People's Campaign offered a counterpoint to President Trump's sparsely attended Tulsa campaign rally with a mass digital gathering that unveiled a policy platform to spur "transformative action" on five key issues of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and the threat of religious nationalism. "We have to repair and revive," says Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign. "That has to be a part of if we're truly going to ever be the democracy we claim to be on paper."

John Bellamy Foster (2020-06-25). ROAR Roundtable: COVID-19 and the climate crisis. mronline.org If "everything affects and is affected by every other thing," we must respond to the dangers to human existence in the 21st century by changing the system, creating a different form of social metabolic reproduction. There is no other way.

_____ (2020-06-25). USA: 'Qualified Immunity' Is How the Police State Stays in Power. truepublica.org.uk By Constitutional attorney John W Whitehead — Charlottesville, Virginia: The system is rigged, the government is corrupt, and "we the people" continue to waste our strength by fighting each other rather than standing against the tyrant in our midst. Because the system is rigged, because the government is corrupt, and because "we the people" remain polarized and divided, the police …

WSWS (2020-06-25). New York Times column: Pandemic shows need to curtail "unnecessary" and "wasteful" doctor's visits. wsws.org Dr. Sandeep Jauhar makes the remarkable argument that patients who have stopped going to the doctor during the COVID-19 outbreak "seem to have done OK," and concludes that Americans have too much access to health care.

yenisafak (2020-06-25). Bayer to pay up to $10.9 bln to settle bulk of Roundup weedkiller cancer lawsuits. yenisafak.com The German drugs and pesticides maker has come to terms with about 75% of the 125,000 filed and unfiled claims overall, it said in a statement on Wednesday of the deal to end legal disputes it inherited with its $63 billion takeover of Monsanto in 2018.The settled cases over Roundup and other glyphosate-based weedkillers account for about 95% of those currently set for trial, it added."The Roundup settlement is the right action at the right time for Bayer to bring a long period of uncertainty to an end," Bayer Chief Executive Werner Baumann said. "Unfortunately, we have to pay an awful lot of money for a product…

Jessica Corbett, staff writer (2020-06-25). DC Sues Fossil Fuel Giants for Decades of Spending Millions to 'Mislead Consumers and Discredit Climate Science in Pursuit of Profits'. commondreams.org District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine on Thursday sued fossil fuel giants BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Royal Dutch Shell for "systematically and intentionally" misleading D.C. consumers about the role their products play in causing the climate crisis—following in the footsteps of other communities and states across the country, including Minnesota on Wednesday. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/gettyimages-9811581711.jpg

Eds. (2020-06-24). 'Act with necessary force': Greta Thunberg says BLM protests & 'corona crisis' give blueprint for climate change fight. mronline.org The Black Lives Matter protests across the world show the 'necessary force' people need to use when fighting global warming, teen activist turned climate change icon Greta Thunberg believes.

Media Lens (2020-06-24). "Six Months To Avert Climate Crisis": Climate Breakdown And The Corporate Media. dissidentvoice.org In his classic science fiction novel, Foundation, Isaac Asimov posited a future in which 'psychohistorians' could predict outcomes based on past history and the large-scale behaviour of human populations by combining psychology and the mathematics of probability. Using 'psychohistory', the protagonist Hari Seldon discovers that the 12,000-year-old Galactic Empire will collapse in 500 years. He …

Zero Hedge (2020-06-24). Bayer Pays $10 Billion to Settle Thousands of Monsanto Glyphosate Lawsuits. globalresearch.ca After decades of widespread use as company scientists played down research showing a definitive link between the product and growing rates of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Monsanto parent company Bayer has agreed to pay up to $10 billion to settle claims that …

Andrea Germanos, staff writer (2020-06-24). In Minnesota, Ellison Announces Climate Lawsuit Against Exxon, Koch, and API. commondreams.org "There are no more worthy targets of a climate fraud lawsuit than Exxon, Koch Industries, and API: the unholy trinity of climate denial." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/minnesota-sues-koch-exxon-api.jpg

Andrea Germanos, staff writer (2020-06-24). 'Vindication': Bayer Reaches $10 Billion Settlement Over Roundup Cancer Lawsuits. commondreams.org The deal includes $1.25 billion to cover potential future settlements. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/monsanto_bayer-settlement.jpg

commondreams (2020-06-24). MN350, 350.org Applaud Minnesota Lawsuit Holding Big Oil Accountable for History of Lying About Climate Damage. commondreams.org ______________________________…

WSWS (2020-06-24). Siberian Arctic records temperature above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. wsws.org Thawing permafrost in the Arctic is one of several "tipping points" that can trigger even greater climate-related catastrophes.

commondreams (2020-06-24). Minnesota A.G. Ellison Sues Exxon, Koch Industries for Lying About Climate Change. commondreams.org ______________________________…

commondreams (2020-06-24). Bayer-Monsanto Agrees to $10B Settlement With Victims Poisoned by Roundup Weedkiller. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Steve Topple (2020-06-24). Here are the private companies with £million contracts for the failed NHSX tracing app. thecanary.co A storm has erupted over the failed government track and trace app for coronavirus (Covid-19). Because it's emerged that it wasted millions of pounds on the unsuccessful tech. So, people are wondering where this money has gone. But we already know part of that answer. | Corona chaos: | The Guardian

yenisafak (2020-06-24). Norway plans big expansion of Arctic oil exploration. yenisafak.com Norway is planning a major expansion of oil exploration in the Arctic, despite commitments to tackling global warming and opposition from environmental groups.Minister of petroleum and energy Tina Bru said on Wednesday the expansion was needed to protect jobs and generate wealth.The government will auction up to 136 new oil exploration blocks in a major licensing round, with 125 of those in the Arctic Barents Sea, a relatively unspoiled corner of the planet."We need new discoveries to uphold employment and value creation," Bru said in a statement.Norway is western Europe's biggest oil producer and has built the w…

sputniknews (2020-06-24). First COVID-19 Case Registered at Chernobyl Nuclear Plant. sputniknews.com In mid-March, Ukraine introduced a nationwide quarantine for a month and subsequently extended it several times. The Ukrainian government decided to relax coronavirus-related restrictions starting 11 May.

The Canary (2020-06-24). German cabinet agrees to ban sale of single-use plastic items. thecanary.co Germany is banning the sale of single-use plastic straws, cotton buds and food containers, bringing it in line with a European Union directive intended to reduce the amount of plastic waste that pollutes the environment. | The cabinet agreed on Wednesday to end the sale of plastics including single-use cutlery, plates, stirring sticks and balloon holders, as well as polystyrene cups and boxes by 3 July 2021. | Environment minister Svenja Schulze said the move was part of an effort to move away from "throw-away culture". | Up to 20% of rubbish collected in parks and other public places consists of single-use plast…