The Politics of Sustainability

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The Politics of Sustainability

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1MaureenRoy
mar 2, 2019, 9:38 am

Students lead climate change school strikes in Germany:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-teen-activist-germany/german-st...

2MaureenRoy
mar 14, 2019, 1:33 pm

32wonderY
mar 14, 2019, 4:05 pm

West Virginia Republican state legislature makes a mockery of Clean Water standards

W.Va. House approves controversial water quality rules bill

Last year, the West Virginia DEP released a proposal to update about 60 water quality standards, based on recommendations the federal Environmental Protection Agency made in 2015.

The standards specify concentrations of pollutants known to have human health effects, including cancer-causing chemicals, allowed in rivers and streams. For the majority of the standards, less pollution would have been allowed in West Virginia waterways.

But in November, the West Virginia Manufacturers Association (read Dow, DuPont, etc.) asked the joint rule-making review committee not to implement the standards.

They argue that the EPA encourages states to incorporate state-specific science, and that because West Virginians are heavier, their bodies can handle more pollutants, and that because they drink less water, they are less exposed to the pollutants. They have commissioned a worker to gather that state-specific information.

The joint rule-making review committee agreed to the Manufacturers Association’s request. Another legislative committee put the stricter standards back in, but last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to give the Manufacturers Association until October 2019 to gather more state-specific information to present to the DEP, in hopes of altering the proposal and considering the bill during the 2021 legislative session.

5MaureenRoy
Redigerat: jun 3, 2019, 11:27 am

President Trump and the First Lady, Melania Trump, have just arrived at Clarence House in London for tea with Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. The global news media remind us that Prince Charles has worked for decades to educate the public about sustainability and the climate crisis. The following news article says it's likely that Prince Charles will use this social occasion to share information on those topics with Mr. Trump. The article also states that the UK Parliament just formally declared a climate emergency:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trump-s-tea-prince-charles-could-get-awkward-...

6margd
jun 4, 2019, 4:14 am

The only Trump legacy to slow climate change will be the recession he seems hellbent on ushering in, albeit after efforts to goose the economy. The 2008 recession reduced CO2 emissions: I remember far fewer vehicles on the road in our neck of the woods.

Recession is not a preferred strategy...

7MaureenRoy
jun 24, 2019, 4:07 pm

From Monday, June 24, 2019: Here is the link for live testimony at a US House of Representatives hearing on weather crises. US climatologist Michael Mann will testify tomorrow, Tuesday, June 25, 2019:

https://judithcurry.com/2019/06/23/hearing-on-climate-change-extreme-weather/

8MaureenRoy
jul 8, 2019, 5:18 pm

Initially in his publication, "Notes Toward A Supreme Fiction," and in several comprehensive US editions since then, mid-20th century US poet Wallace Stevens gave the best single statement ever on how to achieve a sustainable life. It's a quote that I have posted on the front of my refrigerator at home: "Not to have is the beginning of desire."

https://genius.com/Wallace-stevens-notes-toward-a-supreme-fiction-annotated

9John5918
jul 29, 2019, 3:34 pm

Can you afford to be green when you're not rich? I kept a diary to find out (Guardian)

Politicians and corporations have placed the burden of environmental responsibility on the consumer – but how easy is it to go green when you’re barely getting by?

10MaureenRoy
Redigerat: aug 8, 2019, 6:23 pm

Thursday, August 8, 2019: The UN just published some reports (IPCC and others) on the climate crisis. The big surprise is that US MSNBC cable TV anchor Andrea Mitchell emceed an analysis of those reports. On rival cable TV channel CNN, a report on those UN studies was given live by CNN climate correspondent Bill Weir. Bill Weir also has a Twitter feed. C-SPAN BookTV has a surprising number of video reports on climate-related books, such as Drawdown. On (free) broadcast US TV, the only in-depth reporting on the climate crisis is from Amy Goodman and her team on the one hour weekday morning TV show DemocracyNow! broadcast; today, however the PBS broadcast TV show NewsHour reported in depth on this week's UN climate reports. Other broadcast TV channels (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX) report only on single events of extreme weather; they are sticking to this minimal format because in the past, when they tried to report on climate trends, all of their e-mail inboxes were jammed with complaints from volunteers associated with right wing foundations, per Naomi Klein in the book This Changes Everything.

Innovation in TV business reporting on climate issues is happening at Bloomberg cable TV. See also the Bloomberg smartphone news occasional climate articles. Also on the smartphone climate news beat is Vox, as well as the right-leaning online newspaper The Hill: https://thehill.com/search/query/climate

US free broadcast public TV also provides weekday 1/2 hour reports from international news agencies (mostly in the late afternoon), with varying degrees of climate news coverage. Ranked in order of most-to-least coverage those are: DW News (Deutsche Welle), BBC, France 24, and NHK (Japan).

On the new broadcast TV one hour weekday morning show Amanpour & Company, usually broadcast on US public TV following the DemocracyNow! TV show, today's show includes an interview with renowned climatologist Michael Mann on this week's UN climate crisis reports.

11MaureenRoy
Redigerat: sep 2, 2019, 1:15 pm

Monday, August 26, 2019: International climate activist Greta Thunberg arrives this week in NY city.

12MaureenRoy
sep 2, 2019, 1:37 pm

September 2, 2019: One of the key problems that doomed the Occupy movement in the USA 20 years ago was the elitist nature of that group. Will history now repeat itself with activists in the climate crisis movement? Leading US climatologist Michael Mann is leading an effort to welcome more diverse economic groups into climate crisis activism, such as labor unions (the nurses union in California has been very effective in getting out election voters), homeless activists, K-12 students and teachers in low-income school districts, etc.

Come to think of it, I don't even know how much economic diversity exists in the LT membership. Are we ourselves mostly an elite population? If so, LT can do membership outreach also. The famous US writer Upton Sinclair grew up in a poor urban community in a family with an alcoholic father ... the chaos of his early life spurred him to become a reformer, eventually writing The Jungle about the scandals in the Chicago meatpacking industry.

In my own family, my father was in the US Army, having survived World War II in an east German POW camp; they were eventually liberated by the Russian army. My father was born into a recently immigrated US family, and my mother was a 1st-generation immigrant. Our family moved so often, that when people ask me where I'm from, I just say "everywhere." My brother and I were the 1st generation in our family (on either side) to graduate from college ... and I was the 1st to earn a graduate degree. I worked my way thru college and grad school. I never had a job that required me to wear a uniform, but I did have to wear a uniform as a student in Catholic K-12 schools. Those are some of the less elitist parts of my own background.

13MaureenRoy
Redigerat: sep 12, 2019, 11:13 am

On Wednesday, September 11, 2019, a one-hour interview with the international climate activist Greta Thunberg was aired on the DemocracyNow US broadcast TV show:

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/11/greta_thunberg_swedish_activist_climate_c...

14MaureenRoy
sep 18, 2019, 10:40 am

Wednesday, September 18, 2019: Today in Washington, DC, international climate activist Greta Thunberg will testify before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the climate crisis. If you have access to the C-SPAN cable TV channels or their websites, that testimony can be viewed there.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/09/18/greta-thunberg-climate-c...

15MaureenRoy
Redigerat: sep 18, 2019, 11:59 am

Also today, a climate crisis protest outside the US Supreme Court, in Washington DC:

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/461929-us-youth-climate-activists-...

Here is Greta Thunberg's full Washington DC itinerary for today, stated in a tweet this morning: On my way to Capitol Hill. At 10h we’ll testify at The House Committee on Foreign Affairs. At 12h I will support Our Children's Trust at the Supreme Court. Then at 17h ET I will address Members of Congress in the Ways & Means Committee Hearing Room.

16MaureenRoy
sep 20, 2019, 6:11 pm

Climate Strike Day 1, Friday September 20, 2019: The Twitterverse is exploding with photos and climate strike stories. It went into hyperdrive when Greta Thunberg posted climate strike pictures from Antarctica ... as in a real climate strike on all 7 continents. Midmorning today, I drove a family member into West Los Angeles to the chiropractor's office, an urgent care visit. On the highways and freeways, it was "Friday light" to the 10th power. If car-loving Angelenos can honor a climate strike, then the minimization of car travel can happen *any* where. In the upper crust beach city of Pacific Palisades, the climate strike watchwords are, "Be On The Right Side Of History."

17John5918
okt 14, 2019, 11:47 am

Harming planet could be a sin, says Vatican (The Times)

Delegates at the Pope’s synod on the creeping destruction of the Amazon have called for crimes against the environment to be ranked alongside traditional sins and have raised the idea of “ecological conversion” to a greener brand of Catholicism...

18John5918
okt 17, 2019, 6:41 am

Shifting from “human-centric to ecological-centric mission”: African Priest’s Reflection (ACI Africa)

At a time when the message on the care of creation seems predominant in Pope Francis' recent addresses, including his latest visit to Africa, an African missionary priest is proposing a shift from missions focused on human beings to missions that are inclusive of creation.

“We should not limit oneself to missionary activity that is solely human-centric, but also and above all to open oneself to ecological-centric missionary activity,” Fr. Donald Zagore, SMA proposed in a reflection sent to ACI Africa.

“The Good News of Salvation appears to be exclusively reserved for man,” he said and continued, “Today, a change of paradigm in the understanding of the theology of mission would be necessary for a fundamental renewal of the missionary activity.”

In light of this realization, the Society of African Missions cleric is of the opinion that while salvation for man is necessary, going forward “the reality of salvation in Jesus Christ will be grasped in a broader dynamic that encompasses all creation.”

“Salvation is for man and also for all creation. It is not only man who must be saved, but the whole creation longs for salvation,” Fr. Zagore said and continued, “As St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, it is all creation that groans, in hope, waiting for salvation”...


While the churchy language may be unpalatable to some, this post and the previous one illustrate an important dynamic, namely a gradual shift in the stance of a church which counts as its adherents close to one sixth of the global population. It is also significant that it is written by someone from the Gobal South.

The non-inclusive language ("man") is unfortunate.

19MaureenRoy
okt 18, 2019, 4:19 pm

From the website named The Conversation in October 2019, here are much-needed new statistics on the US Green Economy:

https://theconversation.com/us-green-economy-growth-dwarfs-donald-trumps-highest...

20MaureenRoy
dec 4, 2019, 3:49 pm

The main page of the COP25 United Nations climate conference in Madrid, Spain:

https://unfccc.int/cop25

21John5918
dec 8, 2019, 1:20 am

Why a 'Green New Deal' must be decolonial (Al Jazeera)

Discussions of a Green New Deal (GND) have been all the rage these days, as hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets around the world to demand action on climate change.

First proposed in 2008 to initiate a comprehensive action plan to combat climate change in the UK, the Green New Deal (GND) has come to global attention, gaining particular traction in North America...

But for the GND to work and, indeed, transform the economy and our lives, it must be decolonial. This means, its application must go hand in hand with a concerted effort to rethink relationships to land, labour, and our collective imaginaries from the structural and historic injustices of Western-style development.

The understanding that development policies and ideas rooted in European and North American notions of "progress" are destructive and exploitative by their nature must be at the heart of the GND. In seeking to build a new economy and another way of relating to the environment around us, we must heed the advice of indigenous people, in their historical and ongoing demands for cultural autonomy and self-determination, on the need to restore a diversity of relationships with our environment...

22MaureenRoy
dec 28, 2019, 1:55 pm

An independent expert discusses bad news and good news about atmospheric carbon trends:

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/climate-change-worst-case-scenario-now-lo...

23MaureenRoy
jan 3, 2020, 7:56 pm

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