Greta Thunberg tells World Leaders to End Fossil Fuel ‘madness’
Failure to end investment ‘would be a betrayal against life itself’, say climate activists
Damian Carrington, Environment editor | Fri 10 Jan 2020 | The Guardian
Greta Thunberg and fellow youth climate campaigners are demanding that global leaders immediately end the “madness” of huge ongoing investments in fossil fuel exploration and enormous subsidies for coal, oil and gas use.
The 21 young activists are also calling on the political and business leaders who will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos to ensure investment funds dump their holdings in fossil fuel companies.
“Anything less would be a betrayal against life itself,” said Thunberg and colleagues in an article in the Guardian. “Today’s business as usual is turning into a crime against humanity. We demand that you play your part in putting an end to this madness.”
The burning of fossil fuels is the biggest driver of the climate emergency. Scientists predict catastrophic impacts unless deep cuts in emissions are made rapidly, but global emissions are still rising.
“Young people are being let down by older generations and those in power,” the climate strikers said. “To some it may seem like we are asking for a lot. But this is just the very minimum effort needed to start the rapid sustainable transition.”
Much of the world’s existing coal, oil and gas reserves must be kept in the ground to avoid the worst impacts of global heating. But investment in fossil fuel exploration and extraction remains high.
Read more at The Guardian
Sunday, January 26, 2020
New York Must Fund Climate Justice This Year -- Get on the Bus!
As of January 1st, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act is the law in New York. Together, we passed the nation's strongest climate law — but our work is only just starting.
We're demanding that the legislature and governor fund climate action in this year's budget.
On January 27, we'll be in the state capitol to rally, lobby, and flex our power to demand funding for climate justice. Join us!
What: No Empty Promises: Fund Climate Justice NOW!
When: January 27th, 2020 10:30am
Where: Albany State Capitol
Buses provided from NYC, Buffalo, and Long Island
RSVP Here
This day of action comes after the Governor's State and the State and will be critical for centering Climate Justice in this year's budget. We need all of us to show up and demand Climate Justice! If you haven't lobbied before, don't worry. NY Renews will provide training, transportation, and lunch.
RSVP now to join us on January 27th! This is our first Albany day of action since the CCPA fight.
Let's show that we still won't stand for empty promises. We need Climate Justice NOW!
350.org is a global movement that fights for a just and equitable world by stopping the fossil fuel industry from continuing to destroy our climate.
We're demanding that the legislature and governor fund climate action in this year's budget.
On January 27, we'll be in the state capitol to rally, lobby, and flex our power to demand funding for climate justice. Join us!
What: No Empty Promises: Fund Climate Justice NOW!
When: January 27th, 2020 10:30am
Where: Albany State Capitol
Buses provided from NYC, Buffalo, and Long Island
RSVP Here
This day of action comes after the Governor's State and the State and will be critical for centering Climate Justice in this year's budget. We need all of us to show up and demand Climate Justice! If you haven't lobbied before, don't worry. NY Renews will provide training, transportation, and lunch.
RSVP now to join us on January 27th! This is our first Albany day of action since the CCPA fight.
Let's show that we still won't stand for empty promises. We need Climate Justice NOW!
350.org is a global movement that fights for a just and equitable world by stopping the fossil fuel industry from continuing to destroy our climate.
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Climate Activist Greta Thundberg: TIME Magazine's 'Person of the Year'
TIME’s Editor-in-chief on why Greta Thunberg is the Person of the YearBY EDWARD FELSENTHAL
It began with a story line familiar to every parent of every generation in every corner of the globe: an indignant teenager and a sudden burst of rebellion. It became one of the most unlikely and surely one of the swiftest ascents to global influence in history. Over the course of little more than a year, a 16-year-old from Stockholm went from a solitary protest on the cobblestones outside her country’s Parliament to leading a worldwide youth movement; from a schoolkid conjugating verbs in French class to meeting with the Secretary-General of the United Nations and receiving audiences with Presidents and the Pope; from a solo demonstrator with a hand-painted slogan (Skolstrejk för Klimatet) to inspiring millions of people across more than 150 countries to take to the streets on behalf of the planet we share.
Meaningful change rarely happens without the galvanizing force of influential individuals, and in 2019, the earth’s existential crisis found one in Greta Thunberg. Marshaling “Fridays for Future” protests throughout Europe; thundering, “How dare you!” at the world’s most powerful leaders in her viral U.N. speech; leading some 7 million climate strikers across the world in September and tens of thousands more in Madrid in early December, Thunberg has become the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet—and the avatar of a broader generational shift in our culture that is playing out everywhere from the campuses of Hong Kong to the halls of Congress in Washington.
As Isabella Prata, the mother of two climate strikers in São Paulo, puts it, “Greta is an image of all of this generation.”
Thunberg demands action, and though far too many key measures are still moving in the wrong direction, there are nascent signs that action is coming. Corporate commitments to sustainable growth and net-zero emissions are on the rise. More than 60 countries have pledged to have a net carbon footprint of zero by 2050. American primary voters, especially in states beset by wildfires and flooding, are suddenly giving presidential candidates an earful on climate change. In Austria’s September elections, the Green Party more than tripled its support at the expense of the Social Democrats, a development a leader of the Social Democrats attributed to Thunberg—just before he resigned. Even as China burns half the world’s coal, it too is changing. It’s now home to roughly 45% of the electric cars and 99% of the electric buses in the world.Thunberg stands on the shoulders—and at the side—of hundreds of thousands of others who’ve been blockading the streets and settling the science, many of them since before she was born. She is also the first to note that her privileged background makes her “one of the lucky ones,” as she puts it, in a crisis that disproportionately affects poor and indigenous communities. But this was the year the climate crisis went from behind the curtain to center stage, from ambient political noise to squarely on the world’s agenda, and no one did more to make that happen than Thunberg.
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Wind Energy & Public Health Forum - Join Us Tonight!
Wind Energy & Public Health Forum
WHEN: Thursday, November 21, 2019, 6:00-8:00 PM
WHERE: Center for Tomorrow, North Campus, University at Buffalo (UB)
As wind energy development accelerates in western New York, the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, New Yorkers for Clean Power, the New York League of Conservation Voters, and the Union of Concerned Scientists have come together to co-host a public forum on the relationship between wind energy and public health. Join us tonight for a fact-based discussion on the topic led by prominent experts.
The panel of experts speaking as part of the event will include:
- Dr. Jonathan Buonocore, program leader for the Harvard School of Public Health’s climate, energy, and health team whose research focuses on the health co-benefits of renewable energy development.
- Michael Hankard, President and Principal or Hankard Environmental Acoustical Consultants who specializes in measuring, analyzing, and reporting on environmental noise levels relating to wind turbines and other sources.
- Dr. Robert J. McCunney, a practicing physician in the Pulmonary Division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston whose clinical research focuses on illnesses associated with occupational and environmental hazards.
- Jason Kehl is a fourth-generation dairy farmer who, along with his wife Missy and three daughters, milk 120 Holstein cows at Kehl Farms in Strykersville, New York. Kehl Farms grows all their own forages on 450 acres of property that hosts not only the Kehl’s home, but also four wind turbines from the High Sheldon Wind Farm. Jason will offer a first-hand local perspective on what it is like to live and work near wind turbines.
- Professor Simon Chapman of the University of Sydney School of Public Health, one of the world’s leading experts on the issue of human health and wind farms and the author of Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Communicated Disease.
The forum will be moderated by Rita Graham, an independent meeting facilitator with 35 years of experience in environmental and agriculture-related issues.
The event is open to the general public and audience members will be encouraged to submit questions to the panelists. To learn more or reserve a free ticket online, visit wnywind-health.eventbrite.com.
Thursday, October 3, 2019
FORUM: NY State's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act
This Forum is
a solutions focused discussion where the audience will hear from
policymakers,
businesses, social justice advocates, environmentalists, academics,
thought leaders and others as they take a deeper dive into the new
legislation and what it means to achieving climate neutrality.
The event is on October 17th from 6-7:30pm at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in downtown Buffalo. Refreshments and a cash bar will be available
at 5:30pm.
Registration is mandatory. Please RSVP here:
More information can be found at:
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Alaskans See Impacts of Climate Crisis as Arctic Warms Two Times Faster than the Planet
Climate Crisis plays out in Alaska.
Arctic warming twice as fast as rest of planet.
By Bill Weir, CNN Chief Climate Correspondent | September 09, 2019
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) - Alaska's summer of fire and no ice is smashing records.
With the Arctic warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, America's "Last Frontier" feels like the first in line to see, smell and feel the unsettling signs of a climate in crisis.
There are the smoky skies and dripping glaciers, dead salmon and hauled-out walrus but scientists also worry about the changes that are harder to see, from toxic algae blooms in the Bering Sea to insects from the Lower 48 bringing new diseases north.
The head shaking among longtime locals really began on the Fourth of July, when at 90 degrees, Anchorage was hotter than Key West.
A dome of hot, dry air over the southern part of the state refused to budge. When lightning struck the Kenai Peninsula, it was just the beginning of a wilderness inferno unlike any other in memory.
Like rainy clockwork, Alaska's fire season usually ends August 1 but the Swan Lake fire is still burning and only 37% contained. To the relief of exhausted fire crews and worried residents, September is bringing the first moisture in weeks but the most populous part of the state is still swallowing more smoke than ever.
"We've had more than twice as many smoky hours in 2019 than in any other season, and in fact, almost as many as all other years combined," says Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist at the University of Alaska.
Strolling in short sleeves atop the rapidly melting Spencer Glacier, Brettschneider lists one superlative after another, pulled from a century's worth of records that predate Alaskan statehood. "Eight of our top 13 warmest days on record are this year," he says. "We didn't just get a little bit past the old marks, we really blasted past them."
He points to the bare rock and dirt 150 feet above us where the glacier once stood. "This is half as thin as it was not very long ago." Every drip is headed to sea, which makes what is happening here directly relevant to New York, Miami, Dubai, Osaka, Hong Kong and countless beach towns in between. According to the European Space Agency, melting Alaskan ice has contributed more to sea level rise than Greenland, Antarctica or any other part of the world.
And then there are the fish, so vital to the economy. While Bristol Bay saw another epic salmon run this season, more and more streams are just too warm for the fish to spawn.
"We definitely have reports from around the state where we've found dead fish that have not made it to their spawning grounds," says Sue Mauger, science director for the nonprofit Cook Inletkeeper. "They still have the eggs inside and have not spawned. Those are just lost future generations."
She has been measuring streams for almost two decades and while the warming trend was obvious, she is stunned by the speed. "The temperatures we saw this summer were what we expected for 2069 -- we're 50 years ahead of where we thought we would be for stream temperatures."
Arctic warming twice as fast as rest of planet.
By Bill Weir, CNN Chief Climate Correspondent | September 09, 2019
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) - Alaska's summer of fire and no ice is smashing records.
With the Arctic warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, America's "Last Frontier" feels like the first in line to see, smell and feel the unsettling signs of a climate in crisis.
There are the smoky skies and dripping glaciers, dead salmon and hauled-out walrus but scientists also worry about the changes that are harder to see, from toxic algae blooms in the Bering Sea to insects from the Lower 48 bringing new diseases north.
The head shaking among longtime locals really began on the Fourth of July, when at 90 degrees, Anchorage was hotter than Key West.
A dome of hot, dry air over the southern part of the state refused to budge. When lightning struck the Kenai Peninsula, it was just the beginning of a wilderness inferno unlike any other in memory.
Like rainy clockwork, Alaska's fire season usually ends August 1 but the Swan Lake fire is still burning and only 37% contained. To the relief of exhausted fire crews and worried residents, September is bringing the first moisture in weeks but the most populous part of the state is still swallowing more smoke than ever.
"We've had more than twice as many smoky hours in 2019 than in any other season, and in fact, almost as many as all other years combined," says Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist at the University of Alaska.
Strolling in short sleeves atop the rapidly melting Spencer Glacier, Brettschneider lists one superlative after another, pulled from a century's worth of records that predate Alaskan statehood. "Eight of our top 13 warmest days on record are this year," he says. "We didn't just get a little bit past the old marks, we really blasted past them."
He points to the bare rock and dirt 150 feet above us where the glacier once stood. "This is half as thin as it was not very long ago." Every drip is headed to sea, which makes what is happening here directly relevant to New York, Miami, Dubai, Osaka, Hong Kong and countless beach towns in between. According to the European Space Agency, melting Alaskan ice has contributed more to sea level rise than Greenland, Antarctica or any other part of the world.
And then there are the fish, so vital to the economy. While Bristol Bay saw another epic salmon run this season, more and more streams are just too warm for the fish to spawn.
"We definitely have reports from around the state where we've found dead fish that have not made it to their spawning grounds," says Sue Mauger, science director for the nonprofit Cook Inletkeeper. "They still have the eggs inside and have not spawned. Those are just lost future generations."
She has been measuring streams for almost two decades and while the warming trend was obvious, she is stunned by the speed. "The temperatures we saw this summer were what we expected for 2069 -- we're 50 years ahead of where we thought we would be for stream temperatures."
Climate Change threatens Food and Water Supplies, while Farming and Land Practices fuel the change, says new U.N. Report
Changing climate imperils global food and water supplies, new U.N. study finds
Agriculture and other land use accounts for 23 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
by Brady Dennis | Aug 8 2019 | Washington Post
The world cannot avoid the worst impacts of climate change without making serious changes to the ways humans grow food, raise livestock and manage forests, according to a landmark study Thursday from an international group of scientists.
The sprawling report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) examines how land use around the world contributes to the warming of Earth’s atmosphere. But the report also details how climate change is already threatening food and water supplies for humans: turning arable land to desert; degrading soil; and increasing the threat of droughts, floods and other extreme weather that can wreak havoc on crops.
It makes clear that although fossil fuel-burning power plants and automobile tailpipes are the largest drivers of climate change, activities such as agriculture and forestry account for an estimated 23 percent of total human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
“We already knew that humanity’s over-exploitation of the Earth’s lands is a key driver of climate change, and that we need to take urgent, ambitious action to address these issues,” Jennifer Tabola, director for global climate strategy at the Nature Conservancy, said in a statement. “We have a choice: do we balance the needs of human development and nature, or do we sleepwalk into a future of failing farmlands, eroding soil, collapsing ecosystems and dwindling food resources?”
Four years ago in Paris, world leaders agreed to take aggressive action to keep global warming to “well below” 2 degree Celsius, compared with pre-industrial levels. Their aspiration was to limit warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (the world has already warmed 1 degree).
But Thursday’s report, which includes the work of 107 experts from 52 countries, underscores that meeting those goals will require fundamental changes not only to the transportation and energy sectors, but also by cutting emissions from agriculture and deforestation — all while feeding growing populations.dd
Last fall, IPCC scientists found that nations will need to take “unprecedented” actions to cut their carbon emissions over the next decade to avoid devastating effects from rising seas, more intense storms and other impacts of climate change.
[The world has just over a decade to get climate change under control, U.N. scientists say]
They also detailed how such a radical transformation would require large swaths of land currently used to produce food to instead be converted to growing trees that store carbon and crops designated for energy use.
“Such large transitions pose profound challenges for sustainable management of the various demands on land for human settlements, food, livestock feed, fibre, bioenergy, carbon storage, biodiversity and other ecosystem services,” the authors wrote at the time.
A significant amount of agricultural emissions comes from livestock — primarily from the belches of cattle. Additionally, while all soils emit some nitrous oxide, soil on farms often emits higher levels because of nitrogen that is added in the form of manure, fertilizers or other material. Meanwhile, deforestation in places such as the Amazon and Indonesia has harmed the ability of forests to retain carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Agriculture and other land use accounts for 23 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
by Brady Dennis | Aug 8 2019 | Washington Post
The world cannot avoid the worst impacts of climate change without making serious changes to the ways humans grow food, raise livestock and manage forests, according to a landmark study Thursday from an international group of scientists.
The sprawling report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) examines how land use around the world contributes to the warming of Earth’s atmosphere. But the report also details how climate change is already threatening food and water supplies for humans: turning arable land to desert; degrading soil; and increasing the threat of droughts, floods and other extreme weather that can wreak havoc on crops.
It makes clear that although fossil fuel-burning power plants and automobile tailpipes are the largest drivers of climate change, activities such as agriculture and forestry account for an estimated 23 percent of total human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
“We already knew that humanity’s over-exploitation of the Earth’s lands is a key driver of climate change, and that we need to take urgent, ambitious action to address these issues,” Jennifer Tabola, director for global climate strategy at the Nature Conservancy, said in a statement. “We have a choice: do we balance the needs of human development and nature, or do we sleepwalk into a future of failing farmlands, eroding soil, collapsing ecosystems and dwindling food resources?”
Four years ago in Paris, world leaders agreed to take aggressive action to keep global warming to “well below” 2 degree Celsius, compared with pre-industrial levels. Their aspiration was to limit warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (the world has already warmed 1 degree).
But Thursday’s report, which includes the work of 107 experts from 52 countries, underscores that meeting those goals will require fundamental changes not only to the transportation and energy sectors, but also by cutting emissions from agriculture and deforestation — all while feeding growing populations.dd
Last fall, IPCC scientists found that nations will need to take “unprecedented” actions to cut their carbon emissions over the next decade to avoid devastating effects from rising seas, more intense storms and other impacts of climate change.
[The world has just over a decade to get climate change under control, U.N. scientists say]
They also detailed how such a radical transformation would require large swaths of land currently used to produce food to instead be converted to growing trees that store carbon and crops designated for energy use.
“Such large transitions pose profound challenges for sustainable management of the various demands on land for human settlements, food, livestock feed, fibre, bioenergy, carbon storage, biodiversity and other ecosystem services,” the authors wrote at the time.
A significant amount of agricultural emissions comes from livestock — primarily from the belches of cattle. Additionally, while all soils emit some nitrous oxide, soil on farms often emits higher levels because of nitrogen that is added in the form of manure, fertilizers or other material. Meanwhile, deforestation in places such as the Amazon and Indonesia has harmed the ability of forests to retain carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Give Wind Energy a Chance — Call your Erie County Legislator
The Erie County Legislature is considering a resolution sponsored by Legislators Dixon and Mills and supported by Chris Collins to preemptively oppose wind development "along the shores of Lake Erie".
The Sierra Club, PUSH Buffalo, the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and the Building Trades Unions will be testifying against this resolution and in favor of investment in renewable energy and green jobs coupled with a rigorous review of any offshore wind projects to make sure our drinking water and the lake ecology are protected.
We need to ramp up wind and solar exponentially if we are to meet our climate goals and every area with good wind and solar resources needs to be evaluated scientifically and thoroughly. Passage of the Dixon-Mills resolution for the County housing New York's 2nd largest city would essentially sink our State's chances of reaching the adopted goal of 100% carbon free electricity by 2040.
CALL Your Legislator before the Thursday, Sept.19 Hearing and urge them to vote against the Dixon-Mills anti-wind resolution.
Legislator List and Contact Info: click here
District Map: click here
If possible, please join us at the Legislative Hearing:
Thursday, September 19th 1:00-2:30 PM
Erie County Hall, 92 Franklin St. (4th Floor Legislative chamber), Buffalo [Map]
The Sierra Club, PUSH Buffalo, the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and the Building Trades Unions will be testifying against this resolution and in favor of investment in renewable energy and green jobs coupled with a rigorous review of any offshore wind projects to make sure our drinking water and the lake ecology are protected.
We need to ramp up wind and solar exponentially if we are to meet our climate goals and every area with good wind and solar resources needs to be evaluated scientifically and thoroughly. Passage of the Dixon-Mills resolution for the County housing New York's 2nd largest city would essentially sink our State's chances of reaching the adopted goal of 100% carbon free electricity by 2040.
Stand Up for Renewable Energy and Green Jobs!
CALL Your Legislator before the Thursday, Sept.19 Hearing and urge them to vote against the Dixon-Mills anti-wind resolution.
Legislator List and Contact Info: click here
District Map: click here
If possible, please join us at the Legislative Hearing:
Thursday, September 19th 1:00-2:30 PM
Erie County Hall, 92 Franklin St. (4th Floor Legislative chamber), Buffalo [Map]
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| 'People friendly' wind turbines near Woodlawn Beach State Park on Lake Erie |
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