Republicans in the U.S. Congress Remain Unconvinced that Earth’s Recent Warming is Human Caused
Despite big data to the contrary, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate, while conceding that climate change is real and not a “hoax”, as Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma formerly claimed, still refused to admit that humans are responsible for the current warming of the planet. A series of votes publicly tested Republicans’ stance on global warming just days after two federal agencies declared 2014 the hottest year on record and hours after President Barack Obama called global warming one of the greatest threats to future generations. The votes were held over a debate over a bill on the Keystone XL pipeline.
Carbon dioxide (CO2), the most abundant of the greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere, began rising in concentration, as measured in parts per million (ppm), in the atmosphere as fossil fuels began being burned for energy around the time of the Industrial Revolution (about 1800). CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere were 70% lower than present levels, which are presently close to 400 ppm. Today’s concentrations of CO2 and other increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are largely the result of emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from human activities. These activities include burning fossil fuels and changes in land use, such as agriculture and deforestation, according to Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.
As a result, greenhouse gases are accumulating in our atmosphere at unprecedented rates. According to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography,the concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are increasing at an accelerating rate from decade to decade. The latest atmospheric CO2 data is consistent with a continuation of this long-standing trend.
The upper safety limit for atmospheric CO2 is 350 parts per million (ppm). Atmospheric CO2 levels have stayed higher than 350 ppm since early 1988.
Many of today’s Republican have either denied the science of climate change or have distanced themselve from it, saying they don’t have the expertise to issue an opinion, according to the Associated Press’s Dina Cappiello in a January 22, 2015 article in the Wisconsin State Journal.
Obama’s 2015 State of the Union Speech Shows U.S. Lacks Adequate and Timely Climate Change Plan
President Barack Obama said in his 2015 State of the Union speech last Monday that his first duty as Commander-in-Chief is to defend the United States of America. Presumably, he meant defend our country against foreign aggressors attempting to inflict military harm to our citizens, properties, infrastructures and country as a whole.
President Obama also said in that “as Americans, we have a profound commitment to justice”.
He also stated that “for all that we’ve endured; for all the grit and hard work required to come back; for all the tasks that lie ahead, know this: The shadow of crisis has passed, and the State of the Union is strong.”
But the shadow of crisis Barack was speaking about was clearly an economic one, not the shadow of the global warming and accompanying environmental crisis. In fact, our current and future climate is at least as important, if not more so, then our economy. We nor any other countries would have much of an economy at all if Earth’s temperatures started to rapidly accelerate, in response to our continued loading of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. Our country needs to take much more forceful and immediate actions to limit our daily emissions. We are causing a great injustice to the rest of the world and to all succeeding generations if we don’t. But that is what will result if we don’t start reducing our emissions by taking unprecedented actions. We will need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as we can get them.
Barack Obama said this in his speech: “And no challenge — no challenge — poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.” For those needed convincing, he elaborated as follows:
“2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record. Now, one year doesn’t make a trend, but this does — 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century.”
“I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough information to act. Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what — I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and NOAA, and at our major universities. The best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we do not act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict, and hunger around the globe. The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security. We should act like it.”
He then talked about his accomplishments so far on the climate change front:
“That’s why, over the past six years, we’ve done more than ever before to combat climate change, from the way we produce energy, to the way we use it. That’s why we’ve set aside more public lands and waters than any administration in history. And that’s why I will not let this Congress endanger the health of our children by turning back the clock on our efforts. I am determined to make sure American leadership drives international action. In Beijing, we made an historic announcement — the United States will double the pace at which we cut carbon pollution, and China committed, for the first time, to limiting their emissions. And because the world’s two largest economies came together, other nations are now stepping up, and offering hope that, this year, the world will finally reach an agreement to protect the one planet we’ve got.”
But it is questionable whether such an agreement at this late stage of the game – the first Climate Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992 – 24 years ago can be enough to return to sustainability. Greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere over time; they don’t just dissipate and vanish.
Barack closed out his speech with:
“Looking to the future instead of the past. Making sure we match our power with diplomacy, and use force wisely. Building coalitions to meet new challenges and opportunities. Leading — always — with the example of our values. That’s what makes us exceptional. That’s what keeps us strong. And that’s why we must keep striving to hold ourselves to the highest of standards — our own.”
“My only agenda for the next two years is the same as the one I’ve had since the day I swore an oath on the steps of this Capitol — to do what I believe is best for America.”
“I want our actions to tell every child, in every neighborhood: your life matters, and we are as committed to improving your life chances as we are for our own kids.”
“I want future generations to know that we are a people who see our differences as a great gift, that we are a people who value the dignity and worth of every citizen — man and woman, young and old, black and white, Latino and Asian, immigrant and Native American, gay and straight, Americans with mental illness or physical disability.”
“I want them to grow up in a country that shows the world what we still know to be true: that we are still more than a collection of red states and blue states; that we are the United States of America.”
“My fellow Americans, we too are a strong, tight-knit family. We, too, have made it through some hard times. Fifteen years into this new century, we have picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and begun again the work of remaking America. We’ve laid a new foundation. A brighter future is ours to write. Let’s begin this new chapter — together — and let’s start the work right now.”
“Thank you. God bless you. (Applause.) God bless this country we love. Thank you.”
The shadow of earth’s global warming crisis has not passed; it will be with all of us for a very long time; but with grit, hard work, ingenuity, by everyone, it may be overcome. We must be determined enough to turn the clock back on the greenhouse effect. Unless all of us care a whole awful lot, and start changing our ways, global warming will continue to worsen. Earth could ultimately become unlivable, for any kind of life.
Human Activities Adding to the Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming
It is of the utmost importance to the continued sustainability of life on earth that humans reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they cause to be emitted to the atmosphere to the minimum amount possible, over their lifetime, because greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere have a cumulative effect, meaning they increase in force by successive additions, resulting in a stronger greenhouse effect when those greenhouse gases combine with past, present, and future emissions, and cause the earth’s surface to warm, its polar cap and Antarctica ice to melt, as do Greenland and mountainous glacial ice, causing ocean water levels to rise, and the world ecology to be disrupted.
Full text of President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union Speech
Confirmed: 2014 Was Earth’s Hottest Year on Record
Ever since the horrendous loss of life, property and the desolation caused by Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans and much of the Gulf of Mexico’s northern coastal lands and inland states in the U.S., and caused many deaths and injuries over the last few days of August 2005, people everywhere have become increasingly concerned about global warming causing more violent storms and causing other kinds of extreme weather (floods, droughts, heat waves), with the effects worsening and becoming more pronounced over time. For example, the gas carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a powerful GHG (and is invisible so we don’t see it) is emitted to the atmosphere in large quantities whenever large quantities of fossil fuels – such as coal, oil and natural gas – are combusted for heating or energy. CO2’s concentration level in the atmosphere has grown in magnitude from 280 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere during the 1800’s to 400 ppm in 2014, a 42% increase. Other GHGs have also accumulated along with rising CO2 concentrations, and their combined accumulated effect has caused the earth’s climate to change, now noticeably so, and mostly for the worse. Much of the change so far has been in the form of worsening extreme weather, such as stronger storms, heavier downpours and flooding, rising seas and warming surface waters. Other areas might be experiencing, hotter, longer and more deadly heat waves, and horrendous drought, such as the drought that has been taken place in the Southwestern U.S. over much of the last several years.
Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, Super Typhoon Haiyan, severe rainfall and numerous tornadoes – all likely fueled by a warmer than normal atmosphere and warmer ocean water (plus the higher sea level) – are examples of what we can expect seeing more of in the future, if a moratorium were put in place worldwide today. [Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and most destructive Atlantic tropical cyclone of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It is U.S.’s costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes to hit U.S. land. At least 1,833 people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods and total property damage from Hurricane Katrina was estimated at $108 billion.] Greenhouse gas would continue to rise regardless of actions, increasing the costs, damages, human and animal lives lost due to the more hostile earth of the future. But things could get 10 times worse, and occur sooner if no action is taken. And things will get unbelievably bad the less we take action now to reduce overall GHGs added to the atmosphere, ever month.
Scientifically speaking, the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere keep our planet warm by absorbing and emitting radiation from the Sun through the process called the “greenhouse effect”. Without them, planet earth would be in a permanent frozen state, devoid of life. While a certain amount of some GHGs such as CO2 are necessary for life to prosper on earth, over the past few hundred years, humans have been adding to volume of GHGs in the atmosphere by increasing amounts, resulting primarily as a byproduct of their burning immense of fossil fuels, by extensive deforestation, and by their creation of immense amounts of methane from waste products, many from human waste disposal practices and from animal production and waste disposal. A melting permafrost region, which amounts to a fifth of the earth’s surface, is likely also contributing GHGs from anaerobic digestion.
The shear number of humans: billions of people who contribute only minor amounts of GHGs to the earth’s greenhouse effect because of the undeveloped nature of their economies, their lack of motorized travel, electricity, meat production, and consumption of foreign goods that require fossil fuel burning for shipment; and the millions who currently continue to cause the emission of billions of tons of greenhouse gases to our atmosphere, as if our atmosphere were just one large sewer, requiring no user fees for those who make massive GHG deposits over their lifetime.
As a result, the earth’s atmosphere is subject to what economist Garret Hardin called “the tragedy of the commons”. The tragedy of the commons occurs in situations in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally and in their own self-interest (in this case, burning fossil fuels in cars, airplanes, boats, buying products requiring mining, drilling, motorized transport, clear cutting…) ultimately deplete a shared limited resource (in this case, our atmosphere) even though it has become clear that it is not in anyone’s long-term interest, particularly for all future earth inhabitants, for this to happen. Ecologists and environmentalists often use the phrase “there is no free lunch” when people ignore the reality of the tragedy of the commons, and often expect Government to place limits on the activities that will otherwise lead to tragic consequences.
The year 2014 ranks as Earth’s warmest since 1880, according to two separate analyses by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists released last Friday (Jan. 16). The 10 warmest years in the instrumental record, with the exception of 1998, have now occurred since 2000. This trend continues a long-term warming of the planet, according to an analysis of surface temperature measurements by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) in New York.
In an independent analysis of the raw data, NOAA scientists also found 2014 to be the warmest on record. “NASA is at the forefront of the scientific investigation of the dynamics of the Earth’s climate on a global scale,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The observed long-term warming trend and the ranking of 2014 as the warmest year on record reinforces the importance for NASA to study Earth as a complete system, and particularly to understand the role and impacts of human activity.”
Since 1880, Earth’s average surface temperature has warmed by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius), a trend that is largely driven by the increase in carbon dioxide and other human emissions into the planet’s atmosphere. The majority of that warming has occurred in the past three decades.
“This is the latest in a series of warm years, in a series of warm decades.
While the ranking of individual years can be affected by chaotic weather patterns, the long-term trends are attributable to drivers of climate change that right now are dominated by human emissions of greenhouse gases,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt.
While 2014 temperatures continue the planet’s long-term warming trend, scientists still expect to see year-to-year fluctuations in average global temperature caused by phenomena such as El Niño or La Niña. These phenomena warm or cool the tropical Pacific and are thought to have played a role in the flattening of the long-term warming trend over the past 15 years. However, 2014’s record warmth occurred during an El Niño-neutral year.
The GISS analysis incorporates surface temperature measurements from 6,300 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures, and temperature measurements from Antarctic research stations. This raw data is analyzed using an algorithm that takes into account the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and urban heating effects that could skew the calculation. The result is an estimate of the global average temperature difference from a baseline period of 1951 to 1980.
RELEASE 15-01 – NASA, NOAA Find 2014 Warmest Year in Modern Record
WORT-FM Radio Show “Planet Earth: It Needs Our Help Now More Than Ever”
This past Labor Day, WORT-FM (89.9 FM), Madison (www.wortfm.org), broadcasted my proposed solution for reducing global warming & climate change. The program would offer government-provided positive financial incentives ($) to encourages people and families in Wisconsin who chose to minimize their global footprint by driving less than the average Wisconsin individual or family (or not driving at all), by not flying at all, and by using less fossil fuel derived energy during the year. The “Conserve, NOW program is further described in about this blog.
The Labor Day Access Hour show “Planet Earth: It Needs Our Help Now More Than Ever” starts with a brief introduction announcing the program followed by several songs containing lyrics applicable to the subject and further information on the program and sources of funding for carrying out. The thought is that much of the funding would eventually be paid back by reducing governmental spending on major environmentally disrupting infrastructure capacity expansions (highway developments, power plants and transmission line construction, airport runway construction and new airports), state and federally funded personnel such as highway and airport and transmission line planners and air traffic controllers. There would also be less cost and harm due to fewer motor vehicle crashes and airplane crashes due to heavier traffic.
Because it provides more income for individuals and families, it would also reduce the need for reliance on poverty assistance programs that provide food and subsidized housing, it would reduce homelessness, and by reducing these impediments, this would eliminate factors detrimental to education of young children.
Click here to listen to the show. It lasts a total of one hour.
Of course there are many other ways individuals, communities, nongovernmental organizations, business interests and others can reduce their annual global footprint in addition to driving and flying less
and using less energy derived from fossil fuels. Some of these include buying fewer consumer products most of which require fuel burning and mining or drilling in their development or use; buying locally produced products whenever possible (less energy used in transport); buying already used products and supporting organizations which only use recycled products; eating less or no meat products; supporting planned parenthood and humane societies that provide rescue animals for pets rather than buying from breeders; supporting organizations that promote reforestation not deforestation, and removal of paved surfaces and replacing them with green space, where ever feasible. Cities and businesses that attract large numbers of daily commuters should provide daily mass transit services to those locations, and the state should subsidize those municipalities who provide those services to outside-the-city locations – rather than put more even money into cement (greenhouse gas emitted in its production and application)for providing highway capacity expansion (which promotes even more driving).
The state, universities, public radio stations and other organization should stop coordinating long distance air travel trips to tourist spots around the world and events such as professional sports, actor/actress movie and music awards shows should be terminated. Major amounts of money, worldwide but especially by the U.S., should stop being funneled into fossil fuel using vehicles including most military airplanes. The U.S. should limit and eventually eliminate sending troops to foreign soils and establishing military bases and headquarters overseas.
– The Lorax
Enbridge Pipeline Expansion Larger than Keystone
A Wisconsin Dane County zoning committee is holding up plans for a major expansion of an Enbridge Energy oil pipeline that would carry more crude oil from Canada’s tar sands through Wisconsin than the nationally debated Keystone XL pipeline would further west.
Enbridge wants to send half its flow from the tar sands through Wisconsin to the Illinois border, and the committee has raised concerns about the potential for a spill of the heavy petroleum product, which is mixed with a toxic solvent to make it flow through pipes. The company wants to increase the flow in the pipeline to 1.2 million barrels a day, more than the 860,000 barrels a day proposed for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Enbridge say its practices have improved since 2010, when it fouled 35 miles of Michigan’s Kalamazoo River by spilling nearly 20,000 barrels of tar sands crude in the largest-ever release from a U.S. pipeline.
Read more at Wisconsin State Journal.
Kangaroos, Wallabies, Possums and Many Other Australian Species In Peril
Devastating bushfires have swept across parts of South Australia and Victoria in recent weeks and have left many native animals burnt, orphaned and homeless. After an appeal last week the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) were inundated with mittens for koalas who had their paws scorched in the fires, but now it’s the little joeys who need help. Many joeys, some very young, have been left injured and without their mothers and so wildlife carers need pouches they can keep the native animals warm and safe in.
“It’s not just koalas that have been affected by these fires,” Josey Sharrad from IFAW told Daily Mail Australia. She said kangaroos, wallabies, possums and many other species had also been severely affected by the out-of-control infernos and so Project Pouch was launched. “Vets and wildlife carers use very simple cotton pouches to keep these animals warms,” Ms Sharrad said.
“The good thing about the pouches is that wildlife carers use these pouches all year around.”
Those caring for the injured or orphaned native animals can go through up to six pouches a day she added, and so it is important for there to be a stockpile of them. Many of the joeys also had their feet and paws scorched in the blaze and so they’ve been wrapped up in bandages to help their injuries heal.
The pattern for people wishing to sew pouches is available on the IFAW website, and there are five different sizes the organisation is appealing for.
IFAW has asked the members of the Australian public send the pouches to their Sydney office.
Anyone outside of Australia who still wishes to support these little joeys can donate on the organisation’s website, or support one of the local initiatives IFAW is conducting closer to home.
PSC’s Technical Hearings on Badger Coulee High Voltage Transmission Line
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin is holding technical hearings this week in Madison as they assess the need and impact of the American Transmission Company (ATC) LLC and Northern States Power Company ‘s joint application to construct and operate a high voltage 345 kV electricity transmission line called Badger-Coulee line from the La Crosse area in Lacrosse County to the greater Madison area in Dane County, Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) will determine whether and where American Transmission Company (ATC) and Xcel Energy may build the line, which could encroach on as many as 556 residences, as well as forest and public lands. The transmission line is expected to cost up to $580 million.
Opponents of the project say the project is not needed and and that it would allow utilities to profit by trading energy while discouraging more cost-effective alternatives such as energy efficiency and solar power.
The PSC held five public hearings in December with the majority of those speaking voicing opposition to the project.
At the technical hearings this week, commissioners are hearing from the applicants, the PSC’s professional staff, and 25 registered intervenors.
The 3-member commission, with 2 of the 3 of the commissioners having been appointed by Governor Walker, is expected to issue a final decision in April, 2015.
Source: LacrosseTribune.com
Black Lives Matter in Madison and Wisconsin, If they Don’t Now, THEY WILL
A new generation of human rights activists mounted a passion-filled, peaceful march in South Madison Friday, tapping the energy around race issues sweeping the country to funnel it to local issues.
“Young black men are being murdered. It is a national problem,” organizer Brandi Grayson told the crowd that gathered at the Metro bus hub at South Park Street and West Badger Road. “It is time to educate ourselves, it is time to educate our neighbors, it is time to educate our employers. It is time, my people.”
“Black Lives Matter,” was the banner slogan and rallying cry of the action led by the Young Gifted and Black Coalition, as up to 150 demonstrators marched in traffic lanes a half-mile up South Park Street to North Ave., then back to the South District Police Station on Hughes Place for short speeches, poems and chants.
The crowd’s final march took them down Park Street up to, but not onto, the ramp to the west-bound Beltline as they held a silent vigil for four-and-a-half minutes to honor Michael Brown, whose body lay for four-and-a-half hours on a street in Ferguson, Missouri, after he was fatally shot by a white police officer in August.
The local activist group emerged following a grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson in Brown’s killing, in response to which they organized a rally and march around the Capitol Square last week. Like other race rights actions cropping up in the latest round of public outrage over the killing of black men by white police officers, the Madison coalition turned the failure of another grand jury this week to return an indictment in the killing of Eric Garner in New York City into an opportunity to demonstrate the depth of concern over civil rights.
Demonstrations over the lack of an indictment in the Garner case continued Friday in cities across the country.
The Young Gifted and Black Coalition of Madison is clearly organizing for the long haul.
The coalition points often to the disparities in education, incarceration and other aspects of life, documented in the Race to Equity report, as proof that even absent fatal police violence against blacks, racial inequities are rife in Dane County. The group is demanding an end to plans to build a new Dane County jail, immediate release of people incarcerated for crimes of poverty and investment in community initiatives.
Leaders called on demonstrators to join a planned protest Tuesday at a Dane County Board committee hearing on a proposal to spend $8 million for a study on the need for a new jail that could cost $150 million, and to participate in a community building and planning session next Friday evening at the South Madison Public Library.
“The civil rights movement brought change, but it didn’t happen because people were sitting down,” Grayson told the crowd. “Change happened because people were committed to change and were willing to sacrifice themselves and their time.”
The crowd demonstrating Friday was mixed racially and ethnically, but overwhelmingly young. Grayson said that older civil rights advocates and those whose work is enmeshed with majority establishment organizations are stepping back to let a younger generation take the lead on protests. “They can’t say the things we can say. We can take the action in the street; hopefully they will help make the policy.”
Will Williams, a long-time activist with Vietnam Vets for Peace and other local movements, watched the march take shape from the sidelines. “Old folks need to turn the baton over,” Williams said.”We have young people with the fire who understand what going on with racism overall and with cops who are murdering black people and not being held accountable.”
A handful of other older advocates were present on the edges of the demonstration, as well such leaders on race equity matters as Floyd Rose, president of 100 Black Men of Madison, and Mayor Paul Soglin.
The demonstrators chanted as they marched: “No Justice, No Peace! No Racist Police!” When they paused at North Avenue, the gathering took on something of the feel of a revival meeting where participants were called on to raise their fists and pledge to take up the fight for human rights.
“It starts with you, it starts with you, it starts with you, it starts with you, it starts with you, it starts with you, it starts with you, it starts with you, it starts with us,” Grayson shouted, pointing to individuals in the rapt and silent crowd.
“We are here to show what solidarity looks like. You are absolutely beautiful, don’t let anyone tell you anything different,” she said. “We are conditioned to fear black men; we are conditioned to think every black person is innately violent.”
Madison Police Chief Mike Koval watched from across Park Street, noted that marching in the traffic right-of-way was an act of civil disobedience, and spoke to the protesters rights to do so. “This is the First Amendment in action. This is how it’s supposed to work,” Koval said. “And the police in a free society should be here to facilitate it. This is democracy in action.”
Outside of the police station, protesters chanted slogans punctuated by trombone blasts and heard speeches and poems, one of which named many of those killed by police and lamented: “There is not enough skin to tattoo the names…We are black lives and we matter.”
The group fell into formation for the final march down Park Street just as darkness fell. “I came out to support everyone,” said one 20-something protester. “Human rights matter.”
Global Warming Caused Climate Change will have a Disproportionate Negative Impact on Women
The following is taken from the Democracy Now! website, broadcast from Madison at 89.9 FM and over the Internet at: WORTFM.ORG Community Radio HD:
Today is “Gender Day” at the U.N. Climate Change Conference, a day that acknowledges the disproportionate impact of climate change on women, who make up 70 percent of the world’s poor. We hear from a panel of indigenous women from around the world who met off-site Monday to share their solutions to climate change. The event, hosted by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, featured indigenous women leaders on the front lines of defending the Earth from exploitation by fossil fuel companies. Speakers included Patricia Gualinga, a Kichwa leader from Sarayaku, Ecuador, and her niece, Nina Gualinga. In 2012, the Sarayaku community won a case at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against the Ecuadorean government after a foreign oil company was permitted to encroach on their land.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, today is Gender Day here at the U.N. climate summit, a day that acknowledges the disproportionate impact of climate change on women, who make up 70 percent of the world’s poor. Monday’s event was hosted by WECAN, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network. The speakers were introduced by WECAN executive director Osprey Orielle Lake, as well as Amazon Watch USA program director Leila Salazar-Lopez.
LEILA SALAZAR-LOPEZ: Alicia Cahuiya Iteca, she’s the vice president of the Huaorani nationality from Ecuador.
ALICIA CAHUIYA ITECA: [translated] The Huaorani people lived in a better way in the past. Our water, our environment was clean. Now, with the oil companies that are working in our areas, they have ruined everything. They have polluted the rivers. The children’s skins are affected. They have different skin diseases. We cannot fish like we used to in the past in the rivers. We ate healthy fish, and now the fish is polluted. We just have a little bit of territory left for the future generations to not suffer the way we have. We have to continue fighting for those territories. That is the only thing we have left. If we didn’t fight—if we don’t fight for our territory like our ancestors did, then we wouldn’t be here speaking at this meeting.
LEILA SALAZAR-LOPEZ: Tantoo Cardinal, Native Canadian, from the tar sands region of Canada.
TANTOO CARDINAL: The government knew what was under the land in 1860. They knew that oil was there in 1860. So they took their time, and it was a long, long process. A part of that process—and this is not just for the tar sands, but for all resources, for taking us off the land—is that the children were taken away. And it was the law. If you didn’t give your children up, then you could go to jail, and your kids would be taken anyways. Some people hid their children. So, our ways, our traditions were kept underground, in secret. So, for generations, our language was outlawed. Our songs were outlawed. Our way of relationship with creator, with creative force, was outlawed. Our names were taken away.
SÔNIA GUAJAJARA: [translated] So, this is a traditional song from my people, and it’s basically saying, “I’m happy, we’re happy to be together.” And my name is Sônia Guajajara, and my people are from the state of Maranhão, which is in the Amazon in Brazil. And I’m here to bring the voice of indigenous women, in particular of Brazil, those who couldn’t be here with us, and all of them who would say the same thing, so that we could unite our voices, because the reality is that in many of the organizations, there is not a space for women and indigenous women to participate. And so, many times they feel suffocated for the words that they cannot say.
OSPREY ORIELLE LAKE: Casey Camp-Horinek, she’s from the Ponca Nation in Turtle Island, or the United States of America.
CASEY CAMP-HORINEK: We’re living in a very destructive area, where I am. We have ConocoPhillips. We have fracking. We have earthquakes as a result of that fracking. We have fish kills. We have cancer rates that are astronomical at this time. We have literal killings. They may not be coming after us with their bayonets and their rifles, but they’re coming at us with nuclear waste, they’re coming at us with fracking, they’re coming at us with pipelines that are carrying that filth from the tar sands, where they’re killing my relatives up there. And they’re bringing it to you.
OSPREY ORIELLE LAKE: Nina Gualinga, and she is a Kichwa youth leader from the Sarayaku people.
NINA GUALINGA: I grew up in a beautiful place in the rainforest of Ecuador, in Sarayaku. I don’t have words to describe my childhood, but it was beautiful. I cannot ask for anything else. When I was about seven years old, maybe eight, this representative of an oil company called CGC came to Sarayaku. It was Argentinian oil company. And I did not speak Spanish, but I saw that my elders, my mother and all the people in Sarayaku were worried, and there was tension. I did not know what was going on. And I asked my mother, “What is going on?” because everyone had gathered in this place we call Plaza to talk about what was happening. And all the children were playing outside, but I sat down beside my mother, and I asked her to translate for me. That was the first time I feared for—that my land and the life that I knew was going to be destroyed.
OSPREY ORIELLE LAKE: Patricia Gualinga, she is an indigenous Kichwa leader from the Sarayaku people in Ecuador.
PATRICIA GUALINGA: [translated] The destruction of nature is the destruction of our own energy and of our own existence here on Earth. And the destruction of our spaces is the destruction of indigenous populations. And even though you might not believe this, this is your destruction, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: Patricia Gualinga is Kichwa leader from Sarayaku, Ecuador. You’ve just heard some of the voices at this remarkable event called “Women Leading Solutions on the Frontlines of Climate Change,” hosted by WECAN, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. It is Gender Day here at the United Nations climate summit.
“Some people who talk about the environment talk about it as though it involved only a question of clean air and clean water. The environment involves the whole broad spectrum of man’s relationship to all other living creatures, including other human beings. It involves the environment in its broadest and deepest sense. It involves the environment of the ghetto which is the worst environment, where the worst pollution, the worst noise, the worst housing, the worst situation in this country — that has to be a critical part of our concern and consideration in talking and cleaning up the environment.” Gaylord Nelson, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin and Founder of Earth Day, April 22, 1970, and celebrated every year in the U.S. that same day.
Governments from Around the World Meeting in Lima, Peru to Lay Foundation for Addressing Climate Change, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Sends U.S. EPA Letter Opposing Climate Change Regulations
Building on the groundswell of worldwide climate action, and in preparation for concluding its Framework Convention of Climate Change in Paris in 2015, the United Nations and its participating governments from around the world have begun meeting 1 December, 2014 in Lima, Peru, and scheduled to close on 12 December, 2014, to lay the foundation for an effective new, universal climate change agreement in Paris in 2015 while also raising immediate ambition to act on climate change in advance of the agreement coming into effect in 2020.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has this year warned against rising sea levels, storms and droughts as a result of unchecked greenhouse gas emissions, and highlighted the many opportunities of taking climate action.
Last week, the UN Environment Programme underscored the need for global emissions to peak within the decade and then to rapidly decline so that the world can reach climate neutrality – also termed zero net emissions – in the second half of the century.
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Climate Convention said:
“Never before have the risks of climate change been so obvious and the impacts so visible. Never before have we seen such a desire at all levels of society to take climate action. Never before has society had all the smart policy and technology resources to curb greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience. All of this means we can be confident we will have a productive meeting in Lima, which will lead to an effective outcome in Paris next year.”
Meanwhile, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker submitted comments this week in opposition of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan, which proposes increased regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emission from Wisconsin’s power plants in Wisconsin. Walker’s letter claims that the proposed regulations would have a detrimental effect on Wisconsin’s manufacturing-based economy, as well as household ratepayers.
Walker says the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Public Service Commission of Wisconsin have spent months reviewing the rule and seeking input from those who would be affected since its proposal in June of this year.
Governor Walker has asked the EPA to reconsider the rule based on the impact the rule will have on the cost and reliability of electricity, not only to Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector and the 455,000 people it employs, but on every ratepayer in the state and the nation.
In Lima, governments meeting under the “Ad Hoc Work Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action” (ADP) need to define the scope and the type of contributions they will provide to the Paris agreement, along with clarity on how finance, technology and capacity building will be handled.
Countries will put forward what they plan to contribute to the 2015 agreement in the form of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) by the first quarter of 2015, well in advance of the Paris conference in December of next year.
The Lima conference needs to provide final clarity on what the INDCs need to contain, including for developing countries who are likely to have a range of options from, for example, sector-wide emission curbs to energy intensity goals.
Ms. Figueres welcomed the leadership of the EU, the US and China, who have publically announced their post-2020 climate targets and visions.
“It is hugely encouraging that well ahead of next year’s first quarter deadline, countries have already been outlining what they intend to contribute to the Paris agreement. This is also a clear sign that countries are determined to find common ground and maximize the potential of international cooperation,” she said.
“Countries are working hard to increase emission reductions before 2020, when the Paris agreement is set to enter into effect. Pathways on how to accomplish this will also be a key issue before nations in Lima,” she added.
Governments need to work towards streamlining elements of a draft agreement for Paris 2015 and explore common ground on unresolved issues in order to achieve a balanced, well-structured, coherent draft for the next round of work on the text in February next year.
In addition to progress made to date towards a Paris agreement, the political will of countries to provide climate finance is increasingly coming to the fore.
At a recent pledging conference held in Berlin, Germany, countries made pledges towards the initial capitalization of the Green Climate Fund totaling nearly $ 9.3 billion USD. Subsequent pledges took this figure to $ 9.6 billion, so that the $ 10 billion milestone is within reach.
“This shows that countries are determined to build trust and to provide the finance that developing countries need to move forward towards decarbonizing their economies and building resilience”, Ms. Figueres said.
In the course of the 2014, governments have been exploring how to raise immediate climate ambition in areas with the greatest potential to curb emissions, ranging from renewable energy to cities.
As part of the “Lima Action Agenda”, countries will decide how to maintain and accelerate cooperation on climate change by all actors, including those flowing from the Climate Summit in September, where many climate action pledges were made.
“We have seen an amazing groundswell of momentum building this year. One of the main deliverables of the Lima conference will be ways to build on this momentum and further mobilize action across all levels of society. Society-wide action in concert with government contributions to the Paris agreement are crucial to meet the agreed goal of limiting global temperature rise to less than two degrees Celsius, and to safeguard this and future generations,” Ms. Figueres said.
As climate change impacts worsen and impact the poor and most vulnerable, governments urgently need to scale up adaptation to climate change. The conference needs to agree on how National Adaptation Plans of developing countries will be funded and turned into reality on the ground. Countries will also work to agree a work program for the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, and elect the members of its Executive Committee.
Governments will work to scale up and coordinate the delivery of climate finance and of the various existing funds. A focus will be on identifying ways to accelerate finance for adaptation to climate change. Governments will also recognize the initial capitalization of the GCF, which is expected to reach USD $ 10 billion by the close of the Lima conference.
Countries meeting in Lima will further work to provide support to avoid deforestation. Several developing countries are expected to submit information which would make it possible for them to obtain funding for forest protection.
Governments meeting in Lima are expected to clarify the role of carbon markets in the 2015 global agreement and set a work program for next year to design and develop operations for implementing new market mechanisms.
As part of the efforts by countries to accelerate pre-2020 climate action, the secretariat is organizing a fair 5, 8 and 9 December in Lima to showcase how action is being scaled up and how many countries and non-state actors are taking action and setting an example.
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