Monthly Archives: November 2021

2021-11-16: News Headlines

Staff (2021-11-16). Historian Alfred McCoy Predicts the U.S. Empire is Collapsing as China's Power Grows. democracynow.org President Joe Biden's virtual summit Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping follows the two countries' announcement just days earlier they will work together to confront the climate emergency after Xi did not attend the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow. Tension has been mounting between the two superpowers, especially over Taiwan and Hong Kong, with some speculating that a new Cold War is developing. "The United States, in the immediate future, is faced with the possibility of fighting a war over Taiwan … that it would probably lose," says Alfred McCoy, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madiso…

Matt Sedlar (2021-11-16). Extreme Temperatures from Climate Change Will Harm Workers. cepr.net Policies aimed at addressing the harms of climate change on labor must consider the economic impacts, such as decreased labor productivity and monetary economic losses, and the harms to workers' health.

Ramzy Baroud (2021-11-16). The People vs. COP26: Time for Politicians, Billionaires to Listen. dissidentvoice.org Of all the speeches and political grandstanding at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26), the words of Mexican President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, were the most profound and least hypocritical. Lopez Obrador raged against the "technocrats and neoliberals" — world leaders who hold the future of humanity in their hands. This was …

Colin Todhunter (2021-11-16). Saving Capitalism or Saving the Planet? dissidentvoice.org The UK government's Behavioural Insights Team helped to push the public towards accepting the COVID narrative, restrictions and lockdowns. It is now working on 'nudging' people towards further possible restrictions or at least big changes in their behaviour in the name of 'climate emergency'. From frequent news stories and advertisements to soap opera storylines and …

Robert Hunziker (2021-11-16). The Woody Biomass Blunder. dissidentvoice.org One of the most controversial fixes for global warming is the use of woody biomass, cutting trees, burning trees to achieve "carbon neutral" status in the worldwide battle to conquer climate change/global warming. The term carbon neutral (which is not the same as zero carbon and not a scientific term) when used to distinguish a …

Canadian Tire Fire (2021-11-16). Canadian Tire Fire #19: Fairy Creek/Ada'itsx Updates, Hamilton Encampment Defense, Atikamekw Chiefs Declare Logging Moratorium, Resistance to TMX. itsgoingdown.org photo: Fairy Creek Blockade It has been a busy week, as Indigenous led resistance to Trans Mountain Expansion, logging in Fairy Creek, and the Coastal GasLink pipeline all heated up. Meanwhile, the urgency of the climate crisis has become even more visible as major flooding and mudslides occur across BC. THREAD: @Gidimten people of the…

Editor (2021-11-16). As we run out of time to save the planet, COP26 ends in 'utter betrayal'. mronline.org Following two weeks of negotiations, the UN climate summit COP26 concluded with the Glasgow Climate Pact.

Staff (2021-11-16). China's Xi outlines vision for relations with US in 1st virtual sit-down with Biden. rt.com Chinese President Xi Jinping urged for closer ties and improved cooperation with the United States during his first formal meeting with President Joe Biden, but said that any change in relations must be based on mutual respect. | The two leaders sat down for virtual talks on Monday to discuss a range of issues, with both Xi and Biden opening the meeting on a cordial note. Calling his US counterpart an "old friend," Xi argued that a "healthy and stable" relationship is needed to address global challenges like the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change, noting that he would like to steer US-China ties in a "positi…

Ian Angus (2021-11-16). Ecosocialist Bookshelf, November. greenleft.org.au Climate and Capitalism editor Ian Angus presents five new books for reds and greens.

Friends of the Earth (2021-11-16). COP26: Rich nations kick the can down the road. greenleft.org.au The climate science says we are running out of time to avoid climate catastrophe but, as Friends of the Earth says, this COP26 did not deliver what was needed.

WSWS (2021-11-16). Video: Capitalism, the climate-change catastrophe and the fight against Australia's anti-democratic electoral laws. wsws.org IYSSE members explain that the environmental crisis is a product of the capitalist system, and its subordination of all aspects of life to the profit interests of a tiny corporate elite.

Moderator (2021-11-16). Lee Camp: AOC & Pelosi's Hilarious Climate Statements. scheerpost.com Lee Camp argues that AOC and Nancy Pelosi need to dive deeper, and disputes their claim that the United States is leading the world in climate action. | America and other countries have not abided by any of the promises they gave at previous global climate summits while the planet heats up as predicted. By 2030, most people will not be talking about what happened in 2021, because current "leaders" will not be in office when that time rolls around and there will have been many more summits since then. Even though Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claims that "America is back" and a leader of climate action, | Lee Cam…

Gideon Polya (2021-11-16). COP26: Australia world's worst for climate policy. greenleft.org.au COP26 identified the worst polluter culprits, ranking Australia worst in the world for climate policy. Gideon Polya looks at why.

Anonymous103 (2021-11-16). Republican Senators Want To Increase Sanctions Against Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. southfront.org Illustrative ImageBiden could be accused of cooperating with Russia if he refuses to approve the bill or face frictions with Europe if he supports it. | Written by Lucas Leiroz, research fellow in international law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. | After announcing an alleviation of sanctions, Washington's "carte blanche" to Nord Stream 2 may be close to being reversed. Recently, the Republicans amended next year's defense bill, extending coercive measures against the pipeline. If Biden appro…

Extinction Rebellion (2021-11-16). The End of The World As We Know It. zcomm.org After all the fanfare, COP26 has failed. Not one of the G20 nations, the richest and most culpable for this crisis, will cut emissions to keep global heating even close to 1.5C…

Staff (2021-11-15). Headlines for November 15, 2021. democracynow.org COP26 Final Agreement Waters Down Coal Pledges, Leaves World on Track for Climate Disaster, NYT: U.S. Covered Up 2019 Syria Airstrikes That Killed 70 Women and Children, Austria Enacts Lockdown for the Unvaccinated as Europe Becomes Pandemic's Epicenter Again, COVID Cases Rising in Over Half of U.S. States; OK Nat'l Guard Defies Pentagon's Vaccine Mandate, Sudanese Military Kills Eight People During Latest Anti-Coup Protests, Detains Al Jazeera Bureau Head, Eight Refugees Found Dead, Dozens Others Rescued on Boat Near Canary Islands, U.S. Journalist Danny Fenster Freed from Burmese Prison, Journalist and Minority…

Binoy Kampmark (2021-11-15). Gasbagging in Glasgow: COP26 and Phasing Down Coal. dissidentvoice.org Words can provide sharp traps, fettering language and caging definitions. They can also speak to freedom of action and permissiveness. At COP26, that permissiveness was all the more present in the haggling ahead of what would become the Glasgow Climate Pact. COP26, or the UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021, had a mission of "Uniting …

_____ (2021-11-15). Is Sabotage Needed To Save The Earth? popularresistance.org Imagine you are a climate-change campaigner. You've studied research findings and know that unless greenhouse gas emissions are greatly reduced very soon, future generations will likely suffer catastrophic impacts. You've protested for years, yet governments and companies continue to invest in fossil fuels, and emissions keep going up. You are especially annoyed at those who are rich and privileged and who seem not to care that with their SUVs and international flights they are causing more damage to the climate than thousands of ordinary people in Bangladesh or Burundi. You don't want to give in to desperation.

_____ (2021-11-15). Rally Calls For ISO To Fix The Grid In New England. popularresistance.org Dozens of people gathered in Holyoke, Massachusetts to protest the New England electric system operator, known as ISO-NE, for ignoring public concerns and hampering the transition from dirty fossil fuels to clean solar and wind power. One speaker, Nathan Phillips, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University, summed up the prevailing spirit, "It's time for ISO to declare independence from our fossil fueled energy system and operate differently, with the urgency our climate crisis demands." | Mirelle Bejjani of Community Action Works said, "We're having this rally because the electri…

Niall Christie (2021-11-15). Solutions to the climate emergency won't come from the colonizers, Indigenous groups say. peoplesworld.org Indigenous groups that have traveled to Glasgow for the crucial COP26 summit have said they will not look to their colonizers for answers to the climate emergency, hitting out at the world leaders' proposed solutions. Representatives from the Minga Indigena, a collective of indigenous peoples from the Americas, as well as others who have traveled …

Ramzy Baroud (2021-11-15). The People vs. COP26: Time for politicians and billionaires to listen. peoplesworld.org Of all the speeches and political grandstanding at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26), the words of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador were the most profound and least hypocritical. López Obrador raged against the "technocrats and neoliberals"—world leaders who hold the future of humanity in their hands. This was a …

George Monbiot (2021-11-15). After the failure of Cop26, there's only one last hope for our survival. zcomm.org It's too late for incremental change. By mobilising just 25% of people, we can flip social attitudes towards the climate…

Zoe Alexandra (2021-11-15). At COP26, the only person arrested and charged was a Communist. peoplesdispatch.org Amid the deepening climate crisis, it has become increasingly clear that capitalism is not only the root of the problem, but it also offers no viable solutions. Police cracked down on those that bore the clarion call "socialism or extinction"

Staff (2021-11-15). Indigenous Amazonian Leader: We Must End Fossil Fuel Extraction to Protect the "Lungs of the Earth" democracynow.org Among the unprecedented moments for Indigenous participation in the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow were the protests to protect the Amazon rainforest, the largest remaining rainforest on the planet, that activists argue is on the brink of ecological collapse. "We cannot win the battle against climate unless we protect the world's remaining rainforests," Atossa Soltani, founder of Amazon Watch, tells Democracy Now! We also speak with Uyunkar Domingo Peas Nampichkai, Indigenous Achuar Nation leader from the Ecuadorian Amazon, who is demanding an end to logging, mining and oil drilling. "We don't want more extractio…

_____ (2021-11-15). Researchers Urge World Leaders At COP26 To Act On Science. popularresistance.org Glasgow, Scotland – As COP26 delegates went into overtime Friday night, shaping the language of their final climate communiques into something all 197 countries could agree on, scientists from around the world issued their latest, and perhaps starkest warning. | "We, climate scientists, stress that immediate, strong, rapid, sustained and large-scale actions are necessary to hold global warming to well below 2 ∞C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 ∞C," they wrote in a Nov. 11 letter to the conference. | More than 200 scientists from every continent signed the letter to remind delegates at the confer…

Barry Sheppard (2021-11-15). COP26: The climate cost of war. greenleft.org.au Military carbon emissions have largely been exempted from international climate treaties, dating back to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, reports Barry Sheppard.

Editor (2021-11-15). Climate conspiracy theorists say it is suspicious that every single research paper says the EXACT same thing. mronline.org A group of climate change conspiracy theorists has uncovered a set of strange patterns and repeated terminology in research papers which they say is highly suspicious.

Staff (2021-11-15). Glasgow Pact Slammed for Betraying the Global Poor Who Suffer Most from the Climate Emergency. democracynow.org The U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, ended Saturday with over 190 nations agreeing to the Glasgow Climate Pact, which calls on governments to return next year in Egypt with stronger plans to curb their emissions and urges wealthy nations to provide more funds to vulnerable countries in the Global South. It also pushes countries to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and reduce the use of coal, but activists say the final language of the agreement is too weak to meaningfully reduce emissions and limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which scientists say is needed in order to avoid the most catastrophic…

Amy Goodman (2021-11-15). Glasgow Pact Denounced for Betraying the Global Poor Hurt Most by Climate Crisis. truthout.org The U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, ended Saturday with over 190 nations agreeing to the Glasgow Climate Pact, which calls on governments to return next year in Egypt with stronger plans to curb their emissions and urges wealthy nations to provide more funds to vulnerable countries in the Global South. It also pushes countries to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and reduce the use of coal, but activists say the final language of the agreement is too weak to meaningfully reduce emiss…

UnistotenCamp (2021-11-15). Pipeline Workers Served Mandatory Evacuation Notice from Gidimt'en Land. dissidentvoice.org This morning [14 November], we upheld our laws and issued a mandatory evacuation order for all pipeline workers trespassing on our territory. We are enforcing the eviction order from January 2020, where Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs representing all clans of our nation stood together and removed Coastal GasLink from our lands. We will never abandon our …

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2021-11-15: News Headlines

Staff (2021-11-15). Headlines for November 15, 2021. democracynow.org COP26 Final Agreement Waters Down Coal Pledges, Leaves World on Track for Climate Disaster, NYT: U.S. Covered Up 2019 Syria Airstrikes That Killed 70 Women and Children, Austria Enacts Lockdown for the Unvaccinated as Europe Becomes Pandemic's Epicenter Again, COVID Cases Rising in Over Half of U.S. States; OK Nat'l Guard Defies Pentagon's Vaccine Mandate, Sudanese Military Kills Eight People During Latest Anti-Coup Protests, Detains Al Jazeera Bureau Head, Eight Refugees Found Dead, Dozens Others Rescued on Boat Near Canary Islands, U.S. Journalist Danny Fenster Freed from Burmese Prison, Journalist and Minority…

Binoy Kampmark (2021-11-15). Gasbagging in Glasgow: COP26 and Phasing Down Coal. dissidentvoice.org Words can provide sharp traps, fettering language and caging definitions. They can also speak to freedom of action and permissiveness. At COP26, that permissiveness was all the more present in the haggling ahead of what would become the Glasgow Climate Pact. COP26, or the UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021, had a mission of "Uniting …

_____ (2021-11-15). Is Sabotage Needed To Save The Earth? popularresistance.org Imagine you are a climate-change campaigner. You've studied research findings and know that unless greenhouse gas emissions are greatly reduced very soon, future generations will likely suffer catastrophic impacts. You've protested for years, yet governments and companies continue to invest in fossil fuels, and emissions keep going up. You are especially annoyed at those who are rich and privileged and who seem not to care that with their SUVs and international flights they are causing more damage to the climate than thousands of ordinary people in Bangladesh or Burundi. You don't want to give in to desperation.

_____ (2021-11-15). Researchers Urge World Leaders At COP26 To Act On Science. popularresistance.org Glasgow, Scotland – As COP26 delegates went into overtime Friday night, shaping the language of their final climate communiques into something all 197 countries could agree on, scientists from around the world issued their latest, and perhaps starkest warning. | "We, climate scientists, stress that immediate, strong, rapid, sustained and large-scale actions are necessary to hold global warming to well below 2 ∞C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 ∞C," they wrote in a Nov. 11 letter to the conference. | More than 200 scientists from every continent signed the letter to remind delegates at the confer…

George Monbiot (2021-11-15). After the failure of Cop26, there's only one last hope for our survival. zcomm.org It's too late for incremental change. By mobilising just 25% of people, we can flip social attitudes towards the climate…

Barry Sheppard (2021-11-15). COP26: The climate cost of war. greenleft.org.au Military carbon emissions have largely been exempted from international climate treaties, dating back to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, reports Barry Sheppard.

Staff (2021-11-15). Glasgow Pact Slammed for Betraying the Global Poor Who Suffer Most from the Climate Emergency. democracynow.org The U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, ended Saturday with over 190 nations agreeing to the Glasgow Climate Pact, which calls on governments to return next year in Egypt with stronger plans to curb their emissions and urges wealthy nations to provide more funds to vulnerable countries in the Global South. It also pushes countries to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and reduce the use of coal, but activists say the final language of the agreement is too weak to meaningfully reduce emissions and limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which scientists say is needed in order to avoid the most catastrophic…

Staff (2021-11-15). Indigenous Amazonian Leader: We Must End Fossil Fuel Extraction to Protect the "Lungs of the Earth" democracynow.org Among the unprecedented moments for Indigenous participation in the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow were the protests to protect the Amazon rainforest, the largest remaining rainforest on the planet, that activists argue is on the brink of ecological collapse. "We cannot win the battle against climate unless we protect the world's remaining rainforests," Atossa Soltani, founder and president of Amazon Watch, tells Democracy Now! We also speak with Uyunkar Domingo Peas Nampichkai, Indigenous Achuar Nation leader from the Ecuadorian Amazon, who is demanding an end to logging, mining and oil drilling. "We don't want…

Tina Landis (2021-11-14). Capitalist leaders at COP26: "Full steam ahead to climate catastrophe!" liberationnews.org The people have the knowledge and skills to reverse climate change and these changes are already happening on a small scale around the globe, but the economic system of capitalism acts as a barrier to the wide scale shift that is needed.

Nadda Osman (2021-11-14). Earthquakes, floods, wildfires and a scorpion plague: The Middle East's weekend of climate chaos. middleeasteye.net Earthquakes, floods, wildfires and a scorpion plague: The Middle East's weekend of climate chaos | Region hit by extreme conditions, as scorpions wash up in people's homes and cars are covered in ash
| Sun, 11/14/2021 – 15: 03 | Wildfires rage across Lebanon's Beit Meri, a village close to the country's capital, on 15 November 2021 (Screengrab/Twitter) | People in several Middle Eastern countries wer…

_____ (2021-11-14). 2.4 Degrees Is A Disaster — But COP Won't Stop It. popularresistance.org Regardless of the outcome of COP26, one inevitability is that the rich and powerful celebrate whatever the conference produces as vital progress. Only a disaster on the level of COP15 in Copenhagen might put a stop to the self-congratulatory triumphalism. Already, though, most observing the negotiations with a critical eye are highlighting how inadequate their product will be. Ed Miliband has said we're 'miles from where we need to be' and Greta Thunberg declared COP26 to be a 'failure'. | These condemnations are backed up by analysis from Climate Action Tracker (CAT), assessing governments' short-term commitment…

_____ (2021-11-14). After COP26, US President Under Fire For 'Failing To Act On Fossil Fuels'. popularresistance.org "We're in a five-alarm fire, but Biden refuses to use a firehose," Su said in a statement. "President Biden can use his unique set of executive powers to stop fossil fuel project approvals and declare a climate emergency, but he isn't. Failing to act on fossil fuels is beyond climate denial, it's climate atrocity."

_____ (2021-11-14). Biden's Farm Methane Plan Could Worsen Consolidation And Pollution. popularresistance.org Reducing methane emissions took center stage at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow ending Friday. More than 100 countries pledged to reduce their methane emissions by 30% over the next decade. Methane is a significantly more potent yet shorter-lived greenhouse gas, making it a target to prevent near-term warming as societies hurtle towards the 1.5 degrees of warming deemed disastrous for life on Earth. | In tandem with this global commitment, the Biden administration released its plan to bring down U.S. methane emissions. While this plan would set new limits on methane emissions coming off oi…

Indigenous Action (2021-11-14). Against the "Colonizer's Burden": Climate Justice Means Anti-Colonial and Anti-Capitalist Struggle. itsgoingdown.org New editorial from Indigenous Action on the need to confront root ideologies and structures of colonialism and capitalism. Global warming is a direct consequence of war against Mother Earth. Unless the root ideologies and structures that precipitate this crisis are confronted and done away with, we condemn ourselves and future generations to non-existence. 
"Big Green"…

Dean Baker (2021-11-14). Imagine if Stopping Climate Change Was More Important than Making Climate Change Billionaires. cepr.net We are still getting through a worldwide pandemic that has taken tens of millions of lives. While we did develop effective vaccines, they were not produced and distributed quickly enough to prevent enormous loss of life. This is a tragedy that should force us to ask how we could have done better. On the other …

Ashley Curtin (2021-11-14). The gap between climate rhetoric and reality: The Fossil Fuelled 5. nationofchange.org Among those five wealthy countries analyzed, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Norway and Australia, all plan to approve and subsidize new fossil fuel projects despite their claims of leading in the climate fight, the report concluded.

_____ (2021-11-14). After COP26, Biden Under Fire For 'Failing To Act On Fossil Fuels'. popularresistance.org As climate campaigners worldwide on Saturday slammed the United Nations summit in Scotland and its resulting Glasgow Climate Pact as betrayals of the Global South by rich countries that have polluted the planet, U.S. President Joe Biden faced growing pressure to improve both his national and global policies. | The fresh demands built on previous comments and calls throughout COP26—such as a Friday statement Food & Water Watch, whose policy director Mitch Jones said that "this White House should fulfill its campaign promise to stop oil and gas drilling on public lands, put an end to oil and gas exports,…

George Monbiot (2021-11-14). Make extreme wealth extinct: it's the only way to avoid climate breakdown. zcomm.org Why do we tolerate the massive environmental impacts of the very rich?>

Dusan Pajovic (2021-11-14). How to fix climate activism. zcomm.org Interview on tactics, messaging, and how to bring the working class into climate activism — who have so far been excluded…

Asad Rehman (2021-11-14). Civil Society Holds People's Plenary & Leaves Climate Summit. zcomm.org As the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow concludes, activists staged a walkout Friday in response to late decisions made by negotiators to severely weaken commitments in the final agreement…

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