2021-04-26: News Headlines

In These Times Editors (2021-04-26). AOC and Ed Markey Want a Civilian Climate Corps. zcomm.org Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey just introduced a new plan to employ millions of Americans in good-paying jobs that respond to climate change. Who's in?>

Juan Cole (2021-04-26). Methane Menace and Global Heating: Why President Biden is wrong and Fracking must be Banned. juancole.com Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) — When running for office, Joe Biden pledged that the federal government would not ban hydraulic fracturing or fracking. This environmentally disastrous method of extracting petroleum and natural gas from shale rock beneath the earth involves pumping water down there under enormous pressure to break up the rocks and release the …

Juan Cole (2021-04-26). Methane Menace and Global Heating. zcomm.org Why President Biden is wrong and Fracking must be Banned…

Binoy Kampmark (2021-04-26). Virtual Bunny Hugging: Boasting About Climate Change Goals. counterpunch.org He seemed frustrated. While Scott Morrison's international colleagues at the Leaders Summit on Climate were boastful in what their countries would do in decarbonising the global economy, Australia's feeble contribution was put on offer. Unable to meet his own vaccination targets, the Australian prime minister has decided to confine the word "target" in other areas

Eds. (2021-04-26). Is Biden's big climate pledge real? mronline.org Joe Biden chose Earth Day (April 22) to convoke world leaders to a virtual climate summit and pledged to cut U.S. carbon emissions in half by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. | April 26, 2021 | Newswire…

Anonymous103 (2021-04-26). Capitalism is an Environmental Failure, Latin American Leaders Warn. southfront.org Illustrative image | Written by Alejandra Garcia, originally published at "Mother Earth does not belong to us, we are part of her. Savage capitalism has turned life into a big market and has destroyed the essential balance that must exist between nature and human beings," Bolivia's President Luis Arce said in commemorati…

webdev (2021-04-26). GOP Criminalizes Dissent with Anti-Riot Laws Targeting Black Lives Matter & Anti-Pipeline Protests. democracynow.org We look at a slew of anti-protest laws pending in Republican-led states, and some that have already passed, such as in Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed a controversial measure known as the "anti-riot bill" that is widely viewed as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement and calls to "defund the police." Under the new law, a public gathering of three or more people can be classified as a "riot," and anyone who "willingly" participates in such a gathering can be charged with a third-degree felony. Many of the anti-protest bills pending in other states have the exact same language as the…

Staff (2021-04-26). GOP Criminalizes Dissent with Anti-Riot Laws Targeting Black Lives Matter & Anti-Pipeline Protests. democracynow.org We look at a slew of anti-protest laws pending in Republican-led states, and some that have already passed, such as in Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed a controversial measure known as the "anti-riot bill" that is widely viewed as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement and calls to "defund the police." Under the new law, a public gathering of three or more people can be classified as a "riot," and anyone who "willingly" participates in such a gathering can be charged with a third-degree felony. Many of the anti-protest bills pending in other states have the exact same language as the…

Gerson Smoger (2021-04-26). Growing Opposition to the Bayer Monsanto Roundup Settlement. globalresearch.ca Tens of thousands of people have sued Monsanto owner Bayer AG …

news.un (2021-04-26). 'Disasters know no borders' says Guterres, 35 years on from Chernobyl nuclear accident. news.un.org In his message for Chernobyl International Remembrance Day on Monday, the UN chief reminded that "disasters know no borders".

RobertAlvarez (2021-04-26). Transit Equity Report Finds Riders and Workers Continue to Need Better Access to Affordable & Reliable Public Transit to Meet Essential Needs and for Economy Recovery and Climate Action. ips-dc.org The Transit Equity Network released a new report, "Community Hearing on Transit Equity 2021: Findings and Recommendations."

_____ (2021-04-26). Joe Biden's New Climate Pledge Isn't Fair Or Ambitious. popularresistance.org On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced that the United States will cut emissions by 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 as part of its commitment to the 2016 Paris Agreement on climate change. | Biden's announcement came during the administration's virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, which aimed to push climate action around the world. | A key goal of the summit was "to keep a limit to warming of 1.5 degree Celsius within reach." A 2018 special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that global greenhouse gas emissions need to drop by 50 percent by 2030 to keep warming…

_____ (2021-04-26). Earth Day Was Peace Day. popularresistance.org New Haven, CT – At the direction of local musician Freddy B, New Haveners marked Earth Day by singing, clapping and waving posters to the chorus of the anti-war classic "Give Peace A Chance." | Freddy B (aka Freddy Brown) was among more than 30 people who gathered by the Amistad memorial outside City Hall late Thursday afternoon for a combined Earth/Peace Day celebration organized by the City of New Haven Peace Commission and Teen Climate Activists with help from New Haven Climate Movement, CT Climate Crisis Mobilization, Greater New Haven Peace Council, and New Haven Friends. | The event united organizations tha…

commondreams (2021-04-26). Biden's Climate Summit Falls Short. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Julia Conley, staff writer (2021-04-26). Slashing Methane Emissions Must Play Larger Role in Fighting Climate Crisis, UN Says. commondreams.org "If we can make a big enough cut in methane in the next decade, we'll see public health benefits within the decade, and climate benefits within two decades." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/methane_1.jpg

imperial.ac.uk (2021-04-26). Scientists improve how global climate progress can be calculated. imperial.ac.uk Researchers have worked out how to improve the assessment of progress towards limiting global heating to 2 ∞C above preindustrial levels.

imperial.ac.uk (2021-04-26). Ship tracks show how aerosols affect clouds fast and slow. imperial.ac.uk Satellite images show how quickly clouds respond to aerosols emitted by ships, helping inform climate modelling.

Zach Conti (2021-04-26). Biden Vows Cut to US Emissions as Yellen Commits Full Power of Treasury to Address Climate. indybay.org Financial decisions play a critical role in solving climate change, advocated Treasury Secretary Yellen during a US-hosted climate summit.

IPS (2021-04-26). US-China Cold War Could Lead To A More Dangerous Nuclear Stand-Off — OpEd. eurasiareview.com By Joseph Gerson* | Despite the negotiation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), we are confronted by the increasing dangers of great power war, even nuclear war. | Instead of making necessary investments to ensure public health, reverse climate change and ensure the security of their peoples, trillions of dollars are being wasted to construct new nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, including new hypersonic delivery systems. | The U.S. and Russia are the lead drivers of this race to annihilation, with more than 90% of the world's nuclear weapons. The U.S. is in the process of upg…

Eurasia Review (2021-04-26). Implications Are Global In New Study Predicting Human Exodus In Bangladesh. eurasiareview.com Rising sea levels and more powerful cyclonic storms, phenomena driven by the warming of oceans due to climate change, puts at immediate or potential risk an estimated 680 million people living in low-lying coastal zones (a number projected to reach more than one billion by 2050). In nations like Bangladesh these populations are already moving to escape sea-level rise. | In a new study, "Modeling human migration under environmental change: a case study of the effect of sea level rise in Bangladesh," researchers led by Maurizio Porfiri, an engineer at the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) at the NYU T…

Eurasia Review (2021-04-26). Homes In Floodplains Overvalued By Nearly $44 Billion. eurasiareview.com Buyer beware: single-family homes in floodplains – almost 4 million U.S. homes – are overvalued by nearly $44 billion collectively or $11,526 per house on average, according to a new Stanford University-led study. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, suggests that unaware buyers and inadequate disclosure laws drive up financial risks that could destabilize the real estate market. The threat is likely to grow as climate change drives more frequent extreme weather. | "The overvaluation we find is really concerning, especially given the increases in climate risk that are comin…

Eurasia Review (2021-04-26). Icy Clouds Could Have Kept Early Mars Warm Enough For Rivers And Lakes. eurasiareview.com One of the great mysteries of modern space science is neatly summed up by the view from NASA's Perseverance, which just landed on Mars: Today it's a desert planet, and yet the rover is sitting right next to an ancient river delta. | The apparent contradiction has puzzled scientists for decades, especially because at the same time that Mars had flowing rivers, it was getting less than a third as much sunshine as we enjoy today on Earth. | But a new study led by University of Chicago planetary scientist Edwin Kite, an assistant professor of geophysical sciences and an expert on climates of other worlds, uses a c…

Eurasia Review (2021-04-26). Social Tensions Preceded Disruptions In Ancient Pueblo Societies. eurasiareview.com Climate problems alone were not enough to end periods of ancient Pueblo development in the southwestern United States. | Drought is often blamed for the periodic disruptions of these Pueblo societies, but in a study with potential implications for the modern world, archaeologists have found evidence that slowly accumulating social tension likely played a substantial role in three dramatic upheavals in Pueblo development. | The findings, detailed in an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that Pueblo farmers often persevered through droughts, but when social tensions were incre…

Justin Mikulka (2021-04-26). Struggling to make a profit, fracking investors are searching for the exit. nationofchange.org "Banks are losing money and investors are stuck in investments they can't get rid of."

ecns.cn (2021-04-26). China deliberates extra fees for food wasters. ecns.cn Chinese lawmakers are considering a new draft law that would allow restaurants to charge diners an extra fee if they waste excessive amounts of food.

_____ (2021-04-26). Leaving Afghanistan: Better Late Than Never. strategic-culture.org The waste of life and treasure might finally be coming to an end, but we've learned nothing from it. | By Peter VAN BUREN | President Biden Biden speaks more plainly about failure than any previous president.We cannot continue th…

David Swanson (2021-04-25). EcoAction, Bovine Feces, and 8 Things to Do. warisacrime.org By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, April 25, 2021 The Earth is dying. President Biden intends to ask various money lenders to put poor countries deeper into debt to help. OK. Better than nothing, right? He also intends to spend $1.2 billion on climate aid to poor countries. Hey, that's awesome, right? Imagine what kind …

The Conversation (2021-04-25). Is Global Heating Triggering a Mass Extinction Event in Oceans? Marine life is fleeing the equator to cooler waters. juancole.com By Anthony Richardson, Chhaya Chaudhary, David Schoeman and Mark John Costello | — The tropical water at the equator is renowned for having the richest diversity of marine life on Earth, with vibrant coral reefs and large aggregations of tunas, sea turtles, manta rays and whale sharks. The number of marine species naturally tapers off …

Staff (2021-04-25). Homelessness and Extreme Weather Are Converging Climate Crises. truthout.org This story originally appeared in

_____ (2021-04-25). Oxford University Has Pledged To Divest From Fossil Fuels. popularresistance.org There are signs Oxford University is slowly "getting it" when it comes to climate change. Last year, it committed to selling its multimillion-pound investments in oil and gas companies, after years of student campaigning, and more recently it launched an ambitious Sustainability Strategy. | But a 12-month-long investigation we've just published shows how much deeper the ties between the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the industry run. | We knew departments in our university took money from fossil fuel companies, but we were shocked by the sheer scale: since 2015, Oxford has received over &pou…

Kenny Stancil (2021-04-25). Climate Movement Applauds Coal Miners' Demand for Just Transition, Green Jobs. zcomm.org "As we confront a next wave of energy transition, we must take steps now to ensure that things do not get worse for coal miners, their families, and communities, but in fact get better."

ecns.cn (2021-04-24). China vows to achieve green goals. ecns.cn Despite severe time constraints, China will make extremely arduous efforts to go carbon neutral before 2060 amid expanding energy demand, a senior climate official said on Thursday.

Zach Conti (2021-04-25). Biden Vows Cut to US Emissions as Yellen Commits Full Power of Treasury to Address Climate. indybay.org Financial decisions play a critical role in solving climate change, advocated Treasury Secretary Yellen during a US-hosted climate summit.

Mongabay (2021-04-25). Leaders Make Bold Climate Pledges, But Is It 'All Just Smoke And Mirrors?' — Analysis. eurasiareview.com By Justin Catanoso* | World leaders took turns on Earth Day pledging increased ambition to battle climate change during President Joe Biden's virtual Leaders Summit on Climate. But environmentalists — weary of gaping policy loopholes, conservation lapses, and the utter failure of governments to meet Paris Climate Agreement carbon reduction targets — called loudly for the gap to close now between promises and real climate action. | Yes, eco-advocates are thrilled the U.S. is again engaged in climate leadership after four years in which the Trump Administration mocked and undermined climate efforts.

Arab News (2021-04-25). Focus On Tech, Finance Key Factors For US Climate Summit — OpEd. eurasiareview.com By Cornelia Meyer* | The US is back, front and center in the global climate change conversation: US President Joe Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement at the outset of his administration. Within 90 days he called for a leaders' summit on climate change. Forty countries were invited and all showed up — even China and Russia, which are at odds with the Biden administration's foreign policy objectives. | Before the summit, countries fell over themselves, upping their climate goals: Leading by example, the US will reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50-52 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. Canad…

Eurasia Review (2021-04-25). Response Options Should Be At Center Of Climate Risk Assessment And Management. eurasiareview.com A team of researchers from the Africa Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) led a global team of 21 climate risk scholars to better understand and inform decision making around climate change risks in Africa and globally by examining how the drivers of risk interact. | Their work extends on existing risk frameworks with the hope that this research could help decision makers, managers and researchers understand the inherent complexity of climate change. | "Understanding the interactions among risks holds potential to change the way we respond to the risks. This is important because policy makers may worry a…

Eurasia Review (2021-04-25). A Lesson From Arctic Sea-Ice Prediction In 2020: Accurate Subseasonal-To-Seasonal Prediction Remains A Grand Challenge. eurasiareview.com As an indicator and "amplifier" of global climate change, the Arctic's health and stability is the cornerstone of the stability of our climate system. It has far-reaching impacts on ecosystems, coastal resilience, and human settlements in the middle and high latitudes. | The Arctic has experienced amplified warming and extensive sea-ice retreat in recent decades. On 15 September 2020, the Arctic sea-ice extent (SIE) reached its annual minimum, which, based on data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, was about 3.74 million km2 (1.44 million square miles). This value was about 40% less than the climate a…

Eurasia Review (2021-04-25). Climate Change Affects Deep-Sea Corals And Sponges Differently. eurasiareview.com Corals and sponges are important foundations in ocean ecosystems providing structure and habitats that shelter a high number of species like fish, crabs and other creatures, particularly in the seamounts and canyons of the deep sea. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have discovered that when it comes to climate change not all deep-sea corals and sponges are affected the same and some could be threatened if average ocean temperatures continue to increase in the deep sea of the Northwest Atlantic. | "These deep-sea corals and sponges are ecologically important because they are foundational species t…

World Nuclear News (2021-04-25). Politics Should Not Detract From Climate Policy, Says Blinken. eurasiareview.com US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on heads of state to put their political differences to one side and make a collective effort to tackle global warming. Blinken moderated the first session of the Leaders Summit on Climate, which included Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. | Opening the session, which was titled Raising Our Climate Ambition, Blinken underlined the USA's new pledge, announced moments earlier by President Joe Biden, to halve its CO2 emissions from 2005 levels by the end of this decade. This is up from its original goal of 26% by 2025. | Nations under the…

Eurasia Review (2021-04-25). Climate Has Shifted The Axis Of The Earth. eurasiareview.com Glacial melting due to global warming is likely the cause of a shift in the movement of the poles that occurred in the 1990s. | The locations of the North and South poles aren't static, unchanging spots on our planet. The axis Earth spins around–or more specifically the surface that invisible line emerges from–is always moving due to processes scientists don't completely understand. The way water is distributed on Earth's surface is one factor that drives the drift. | Melting glaciers redistributed enough water to cause the direction of polar wander to turn and accelerate eastward during the mid-1990s, accor…

Eurasia Review (2021-04-25). Spanish Researchers Quantify The Level Of Pollution In Marinas. eurasiareview.com An interdisciplinary group of Spanish scientists, bringing together biologists and chemists from the Universities of Seville, Huelva, the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia of the CSIC in Cadiz, have just published the results of their pioneering research studying the management of marinas. The group of scientists, led by the US professor José Manuel Guerra García, studied in detail the sediments in Andalusia's marinas and has proposed a new index, the MEPI (Marinas Environmental Pollution Index) to quantify the level of contamination in these ports. | There has b…

Cyrus Yaqubi (2021-04-25). Two Different Perspectives For Preservation And Survival Of Islamic Republic Of Iran — OpEd. eurasiareview.com Iran is in its worst economic situation in 42 years, and the threat of a widespread uprising that may lead to the regime's overthrow has become more serious than ever. When Khomeini was alive, no authority dared to dispute his orders and decisions, and everyone had to obey him. In today's Iran, Khamenei still has the final say on all internal and international matters. But unlike Khomeini, he has not been able to keep all political factions in Iran at bay. | Although Khamenei has not wasted a moment in suppressing its opponents, even those very close to him and his ideas, such as, one of Iran's former Prime Mi…

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